Growing Your Guitar.

eddiez152 · #2 March 12th, 2007

I guess we can now agree that an investment in a quality instrument has more to offer than just a money issue. Which has been expressed many times of this site.
We must make investments within our budget's or desire's and not have to defend our choices.
Some have said that the sound of an instrument is subjective to the ear of each person, this may be true to a some degree.
Trained players knows the differance. Thats why James Taylor plays a Olson for 20K
Ed Gerhard - a Breedlove and Kirk a - Palm etc.
No body should put down anyone's personal choices. Guitars are like people, they all have their own unique presentation.

Lets exclude the hard of hearing
eddiez

allthumbs · #3 March 12th, 2007

I posted this to show players why that extra bit of cash for a solid top is worth it. The price jump from a laminate to a solid top is not that great.

eddiez152 · #4 March 12th, 2007

allthumbs,
Yes I know, it was an excellant post for sure and quite the truth. Guitar voice and construction does take experience and is a fact. One can feel the top resonate at different points of the top. Production guitars usually have a generic construction within proven and tested guide lines. Until to get into the high end stuff. But as I once stated in a earlier post. "WE ALL LOVE OUR GUITARS" and each person must make their own decision.
YouToo - you can bet on it. that was good huh!
allthumbs - your right, it does not take much to go the extra step.
No bad rapping, please !!!
eddiez

namiguShin · #5 March 13th, 2007

Does anybody know who is this guy and where was he talking this? Is this a lecture or something...? Allthumbs?

Edit: Oh, I just clicked on the video and got the answer...

Chris C · #6 March 16th, 2007

Terrific! Now I have the perfect reason why my playing doesn't always sound so great. My guitar remembers all that time I spent as a really bad beginner and thinks that is the way it's supposed to sound....

I'm actually playing superbly now, but the guitar is holding us back.... That must be it....

Although the guy's speech did sound a bit like guitar maker's voodoo, I have a friend who I'm sure would agree. He used to play in a classical duo with a fellow musician (both Conservatorium trained) and they both had the same model guitars. They'd been hand built by a very well repected Australian luthier. Both players were very sensitive to the tone and sound of their guitars. But the fun started when they tried swapping instruments. Despite the fact that they were the same make and model, neither guy could apparently get the quality of sounds from each other's guitars that the owner could. It certainly seems to fit with what the guy in the video was suggesting.

Interesting....

Cheers,

Chris

juslikeplayin · #7 March 16th, 2007

Very interesting AT.Thank you for posting this.

budalger · #8 March 16th, 2007

Wow. MAkes you think!

X4StringDrive · #9 March 16th, 2007

Yes, very thought provokeing, I'm by no means an expert in anything other than eating, but I somehow find that placing your guitar next to some speakers is magically going to improve the over-all sound a little hard to swallow. Yes I believe a solid top sounds better, but my line of thinking leans towards that of borrowing someone elses car for the first time, sure it handles different than what your accustomed to, but givin time it becomes comfortable to you. Same with giutars.. if you like it and stay with it, it is going to feel and play much better than something new to you.

Just my thoughts, but what do I know

eddiez152 · #10 March 16th, 2007

Chris,
Based on what you just wrote, I think I'll Let my guitars listen to Leo Kottke, Ed Gerhard, and few others so they can remember how they should really sound. Ring tones of wood is a fact not voodoo. Its all in the vibrations. Check this out if you'd like. Many of us here have heard the term "Guitar sounds better with age." or "broke in"
http://www.warmoth.com/guitar/option..._bodywoods.cfm
eddiez

eddiez152 · #11 March 16th, 2007

Ok folks here's some added reading material
http://www.acousticguitar.com/gear/a...ibration.shtml

X4StringDrive · #12 March 16th, 2007

Thanks for that eddiez, kinda opens my mind to the idea some, but would be nice to see some follow up since that was from a decade ago. Please don't take that wrong, it does make me wonder more on the subject. I'm not closed minded on this, just an interesting concept thats all.

Chris C · #13 March 17th, 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by eddiez152

Ok folks here's some added reading material
http://www.acousticguitar.com/gear/a...ibration.shtml

Thanks Eddiez, you saved me the bother of searching again.

I remember reading about this some years back and - as I have have worked with wood quite a lot over the years - I thought it was an interesting idea.

At the time, the results seemed to suggest that something was happening, but it didn't seem to be controllable enough to be all that useful in practice. Naturally enough, the people who felt that they could hear or feel an improvement were reported. Some felt that there either wasn't a lot of change, or that the change was simply change and not necessarily an improvement.

The task seemed to be to develop the 'art' in such a way that you could control what was being done, not just make some sort of alleged change. So far as I know this hasn't really got all that far yet. That article is ten years old and, as far as I know, the idea hasn't been widely adopted yet. It would be easy enough for all makers to stick their guitars in a tone generator as part of the manufacturing process, but I don't think that's generally done. This is possibly because the difference is not large enough or controllable enough to be worthwhile. And perhaps the players who can hear a difference might like to do their own 'breaking in' anyway.

There's nothing new in this sort of exploration. Musicians and scientists have for centuries been trying to work out the details of why violins made by certain people such as Stradivarius seem to age better than others. Wine makers also know that some wines age better than others, and they put a fair bit of effort into working out ways of speeding the process up.

Of course, the other side of the coin is that if you accept that the properties of wood can be changed by age and use (which is clearly correct in its way) then you also have to accept that the change is not automatically going to be an improvement. Nor is it necessarily going to keep getting better and not start going backwards again as the wood loses its ability to be flexible. Some instruments just get 'old'.

Folklore says that people get wiser with age (in fact many stay just as stupid as they always were, and some get even stupider...) and it's somewhat the same with anything made of wood. You hope to get a gem that ages into a treasure, but reality says you may also just end up with an old guitar, no matter how you play it. I'm still hopeful though, and I think the research is worthwhile and interesting.

Cheers,

Chris

TwistedLefty · #14 March 27th, 2007

me<--- setting up my guitars on stands next to my speakers and cranking Tommy E. !!!

Mattguitar64 · #15 May 11th, 2007

Whoa, very interesting video

I wonder if the same goes for electric guitar.