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do you carry an acoustic Guitar?

24K views 122 replies 44 participants last post by  Rhett1321 
#1 ·
if so, what do you do to maintain the proper Humidity levels to ensure that it does not swell/shrink and have major issues?
 
#89 ·
I'd like to distinguish between accurately made guitars with great necks, and rich sounding tone from solid woods, that improve as they age. I'll take an imperfect neck with great tone over the great neck with poor tone. I love rich sound!

Plus, it's hard to believe that a wooden box with wires strung on it can cause feeling and pleasure.

They are all magic.

Different guitars are like different sailboats, "It's ALL Good!"
 
#91 ·
Bob P, thanks for the tip on Heart's tribute to Led Zepplin. I have not come across that before. It was amazing to see the three remaining members listening to their legendary accomplishments. Very, very moving for someone who was always waiting anxiously for the next Led Zepplin album to come out. I saw them twice...once with Jethro Tull as the backup band.
 
#92 ·
Never saw Zep. My band played a weekend "festival" with them but I didn't see them. What I remember was their road manager sitting in the ticket booth collecting the cash because he was worried they weren't going to get paid. I wasn't a fan until much later. Some of their albums have been reissued on vinyl. I have one. It's Ok.
 
#98 · (Edited)
Sky:
Batman, Adam West, aka Bruce Anderson, is my mother in law's cousin, from Walla Walla Wa. So, you could say we are related. I'm not making this up.

I'm just another old grey haired guy.

I've never counted my frets. I just pick up the axe and play. I'm so non techy that I have to look inside my Martins to remind myself what models they are. I know I have a big one and small one. I'm really a bass player, but I don't get much enjoyment sitting around the shack playing the bass by myself. I keep the Gibson JS200 in the living room and the rest of my collection in the office. I have a couple of Strats and a beautiful custom, semi hollow PRS, signed on the back of the head stock to me from Paul himself. It was a gift. But I seldom plug in. The Strats are both Eric Clapton models and my son Max has decided that one of them is his. And, that's exactly why I bought two. I enjoy playing lead but these days I'd probably use the JS200. It has piezzos in it and I just like the way it feels. I don't use no stinkin' pedals. I mostly like to play C&W and I'm a real Gram Parsons fan.

Here is a pic of me shredding (at least I thought I was shredding) on my '62 reissue Jazz Bass I bought 30 years ago. It's a sweetie pie. My honey. I look at a lot of new basses but I don't want to offend my Jazz Bass it by setting it aside. I have a nice Warwick fretless too.
 

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#101 ·
Sky:
Batman, Adam West, aka Bruce Anderson, is my mother in law's cousin, from Walla Walla Wa. So, you could say we are related. I'm not making this up.
So you DO look like Batman, you must if you are related!

Makes me feel better since the image is fixed in my brain.

Besides, without the mask, I don't know what he looks like anyway.

Sky:
I have a nice Warwick fretless too.
Hard to count the frets on that!

I'm not into fret counting, just was into the way the sound came through my guitar one day.

Hate to admit it, but I didn't know that the first one (12 fretter) I purchased had 12 frets, and I hadn't realized that necks came in different widths. I just lined up the best guitars in the shop, played them in a sound proof room, and took home the one I liked best. I was amazed that I lined them up in the order I liked them, and the prices turned out to be in the same order, proving to me that the builders know what they are doing. Later I realized I had an extra wide neck 12 fret. Much later I got one with a cutaway. My wife now plays the Martin I had with a narrow neck.

People sometimes ask me what model guitar I have, I also have to look in and read the label. Glad I'm not the only one, I can't keep all those numbers and letters straight.
 
#99 ·
I saw both Jethro Tull and Zep a couple times, (I think) and maybe Tull was the warm-up band once. After a Zepplin concert where I was way too close I couldn't hear for a day. The strangest pairing I ever saw was Black Sabbath warming up the crowd for Grand Funk Railroad.
Now that was MUSIC !!!!!
 
#103 ·
Sky:
Very funny. I ended up with a Larivee the same way. I just sat in the "expensive guitar room" and played them all. I finally came down to the Larivee. It was the most expensive. Bought it anyway and gave it to my son for Christmas. I just sent it back to Larivee for a repair. The bridge had split from side to side, straight through the middle of the pin holes. They replaced the bridge for very little money. I forget, maybe $50. I thought it was good service. My local luthier wanted $200 for the job. But if you inlcude the cost of shipping the guitar to Larivee and back I ended up paying $200 anyway.

My Dad always told me I was "thick as a brick" so there was not way I'd become a Tull fan.
 
#105 ·
Smurph:
Right. As much as I love that SJ200 the case is so big that to bring it on the PERRYWINKLE (if I still had it and I don't) would have been stupid. But I did 90% of my cruising by myself and the guitar got the quarter berth.

I've played several Hummingbirds. Never found one I liked. Never analyzed it but I never warmed up to that guitar. I'd say my JS200 neck is medium width. My Clapton Strats are silly skinny. But fun to play lead on. Impossible to chord on if you want to stay in tune.
 
#106 ·
Built a Tele recently, having become convinced that Brad Paisley must be the world's best guitar player and wanting to learn some of his licks:). Made the body from boards cut from an Ash tree I cut down a few years ago, the neck from some really tight grained, quarter-sawn red cedar. Put Custom Shop electronics in it. Those thin, stretchy electric guitar strings definitely make keeping chords in tune virtually impossible but there are things the Fenders do that no other guitar can match. That "chicken pickin" sound seem to be synonymous with Fender. Bought a Taylor T5 a few years back, expecting maybe a good cross between acoustic and electric but it does neither really well although it is a really nice guitar to play. I'm sure it would not survive long on the boat.
 
#107 ·
Smurph:
I decided I wanted a Tele a few yaers back. Called my nlocal music store and talked to the owner, my pal. He said they had a James Burton model just in. I said I want it and hold it for me. My pal said, "You'd better come look at it first." I did. It was black with a purple pick guard, triple pickups and all the metal parts were primer, flat black. It was not a pretty guitar. I told my pal I'd have to think about it. Thought about it for two weeks. Called my pal and said, "I'll take it, after seeing Burton back up Roy Orbison in the black and white special, he played a duel pickup model. My buddy said, "It's sold." Not sure I'll ever have a Tele now.
 
#108 ·
Bob,
It's amazing how much different the Tele is from the Strat. The density of the thick Ash body on a Tele creates a distinct sound. I wired the one I built with a four position switch which allows the pickups to be hooked in series as a fourth sound option, although it increases hum, which is always an issue with these. I lined all the cavities with lead sheathing to cut hum down to a minimum.
 
#109 ·
Batman Perry, It's been years but I remember when trying out guitars a Larivee (made in Canada IIRC) and a Santa Cruz were among the finalists. The owner put me in the special room and brought in all his finest guitars for me to try. I was surprised to be treated so well. Maybe he smelled woodsmoke and knew I wouldn't go back to the hills without a new guitar -special and rare trip to the city.

I finally settled on a vintage series Martin, model ???? or something like that. ;) Had the wide neck, 12 frets, and the strange classical guitar headstock, with the closed tuning pegs and the winding knobs on the rear. A learning experience for me. A keeper.

Smurph, very cool that you built a guitar from a tree that you cut yourself!! :cool: I admire stuff like that. Not surprised that a sailor would use lead to ballast his guitar.
 
#110 · (Edited)
I have a buddy who has that Martin. Nice small guitar. Sometimes you just pick one up that immediately speaks to you. That's the way it was when I found my Jazz Bass. Two plunks and I took it home.

I was very lucky. For years a guy I played with regularily owned a chain of music stores in the PNW, American Music. This gained me the buddy discount and that was often about 50% off retail. This made saying "NO!" difficult at times. But I look around the room and see too many guitars that don't get played. They need new strings. I'll sit down one Saturday and change them all. I need an in house guityar tech.

I think my reluctance to buy a Tele is the fear that I won't be able to get that signature Tele sound out of it myself. I'm no James Burton. But I have another playing buddy who has a nice one. He never plays it. Maybe I'll swap him my PRS for a while and see if I like it. He does like my PRS.

I think I'll take a pic of my PRS. You guys should see it. I traded Paul some design work for a guitar. He asked me, "Would you be intertested in trading some design work for a guitar?" I thought about it for .5 seconds and said "Yes!" Smart move on my part.
 

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#111 · (Edited)
Whoa Batman, very nice looking guitar, beautiful wood. Are the f-holes painted on or do they have some electronic function?

I love gorgeous wood, but it's not on mine. I sometimes call the vintage series Martin I have "Jane" as in "Plain Jane". Not a bit of decoration, beautiful sound only. The spruce top has vertical grain lines about 100/th of an inch apart near the bridge, opening rapidly as it approaches the sides to a wide spacing of around 1/8th inch. I've wondered if this contributes to the nice sound, being stiffer where far from the side support, and looser where reinforced by the sides of the box, so it can still move/resonate across the whole top.

No label in there, I just looked. Stamped into the neck block is the model, "Vintage Series OOO-28VS".

Not that my guitars have a hard life :rolleyes: , but I notice the brass plated snaps on the case are slightly corroded, and the chrome? tuning knobs are very dull. The guitar itself is still in beautiful shape, the humidity affecting the metal poorly but the wood likes it.

It's more important to me to use my good things while I'm alive. For awhile I shot competitive smallbore riflery. I'd always been the best shot I knew till I joined a club where I was the worst, and the best (from NH) seemed to be from another planet. They kindly coached me. I purchased an Anschutz Olympic style rifle, very heavy and adjustable, for several thousand dollars. I have a Unertl 2 inch scope with actual black widow spider silk crosshairs in it. At first I was afraid to mar the beautiful surface on the extra fine wood. Then one day during a match I noticed my trigger finger touched the fine wood stock as I released the position adjustable trigger.

At that point I made a life decision to do what's best. I pulled out my sheath knife and carved off the offending piece of the stock, thereby destroying the resale value. I also went on the become (in time) state champion about 6 times over. One year after quitting I went back to my last state championship to allow the new champ to beat the old. I won again and never went back.

My point???????????

Do what's best for your short life, never mind resale value. Take your good guitars with you. Don't worry about wearing things out, use them. If you use up/wear out your rifle/sailboat/guitar that's good, you used it enough and it's time to get a new one.
 
#112 ·
Sky:
Those are real F holes. This is a hollow body guitar. PRS calls it the "semi-hollow" as they make a thicker body hollow body guitar too. I didn't care for the look of the thicjker body so I went with this model. Paul took me on a tour through the factory then asked "What do you want?". It has peizzos in it also. I do notice that while PRS's are very common with the touring pros I seldom if ever see anyone playing this model.

I don't baby my guitars. I just play them and dust them from time to time. I like to keep them out because they are fun to look at. To me they are little works of art and kind of markers down the road of my life. I still have the Guild D-50 I bought in 1966. If that guitar could talk I'd have to go into hiding. I'll never sell my guitars. I'll give them to my son Max. He plays and I'm sure he'd love to inherit my collection.
 
#114 ·
Sky:
I don't baby my guitars. I just play them and dust them from time to time. I like to keep them out because they are fun to look at. To me they are little works of art and kind of markers down the road of my life. I still have the Guild D-50 I bought in 1966. If that guitar could talk I'd have to go into hiding. I'll never sell my guitars. I'll give them to my son Max. He plays and I'm sure he'd love to inherit my collection.
Bat, I hoped the f-holes were real, but didn't phrase it that way just in case.

Totally agree on the works of art beauty thing. I love the way guitars are based on the curves of the female torso. Nothing more attractive.

You have some great guitar connections, I always pay full boat price. I'm just lucky I guess, that way I don't have to own too many. :)

Not babying your guitar reminds me of something. Two years ago I saw Tommy Emmanuel locally - close up, rural area. To me he is one of the top acoustic players in the world. He makes no attempt to have a flashy image, looks like a very regular and humble person, just he way God made him.

But you should see his guitar, it was the most beat up guitar I've ever seen, almost no finish left on the entire face. There is someone who chooses to truly use his guitar, and all the beauty comes out on his playing. He has lot's of humor as well.
 
#119 · (Edited)
Bat: Hey, I got up at 4:30 AM yesterday also to cut firewood. I have a lot of green wood but no seasoned, so I'm getting dead trees enough to burn while waiting for the green to dry. Lots tougher to find and get out.

I was dragging skinny (10 inch) dead white birch 40 ft. long with chain up a narrow one foot slot through the thick woods, trees about 130 ft. in. It reminded me of playing a fish on a line, with the tractor bucket as the pole. The tractor was on the edge of the field. The logs were turning and flopping around the trees as I "reeled" them in by backing up. I enjoyed it. The felling part was harder, the woods being very thick.

As I cut up the birch I thought of smurph, making a guitar from trees he cut, and tried to visualize guitar parts in that rosy tan beautiful heartwood. Guess I'm not like Michelangelo, I couldn't see anything in there but firewood, which I'm burning right now. We have a lot of cold coming right away.

No pressure on the story, only if you feel like it. Tommy is teaching some younger men to play guitar his way, they came around this summer and played.

Beautiful purple pink sky right now, sailors take warning!

edit: I cut in the afternoon, to get ready I had to hand split and stack a lot of green wood here to get ready to receive the dead wood in the front of the pile, to burn first.
 
#120 ·
Sky:
No doubt I'll tell the story wrong. But I will stay true to the spirit of the story.

Tommy had been writing to Chet from Australia for some time. Chet had not been paying much attention. One day Chet was doing some work in his Nashville office. Jerry Reed, a good friend of Chet's and a great guitar player, was in the office pickin away while Chet worked. The secretary called Chet and said there was young man downstairs who wanted to speak to him. Chet reluctantly got up and went down to the lobby and met Tommy. They spoke briefly, Chet couldnt help notice the guitar case Tommy had. "Well son, show me what you can do." Tommy played for Chet. " Ok son, come upstairs with me. I have someone you should meet." Tommy accompanied Chet to his office, met Jerry and the two sat and played for two hours while Chet quietly went back to his work.

Imagine being a fly on that wall.
 
#121 ·
Bob,

Thanks for the story. I know Tommy said he listened to Chet Atkins records when growing up.

Pretty brave to head over from Australia to Chet's office and ask to see him. I knew they'd hooked up somehow, but that's a surprising way to do it.

How about a little pressure on the guy when trying to relax and play his axe? Good thing he wasn't afraid to take his guitar anywhere he went!

It bears repeating, when I saw him the summer before last, his guitar was the most beat up guitar I've ever seen in my life. He uses it, and it shows in his playing. He puts the "play" in playing, he seems to get every possible sound out of that beat up guitar, doing things I'd never seen done.
 
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