Lock Up Your Guitars

[0nelove]

Bummer if that's true.

[CrazyFingers]

I guess I won't be gigging out with some of my Brazilians..

[davids]

Update: Gibson knew it was importing illegal wood.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2012...?_r=1&emc=eta1

Word from some of the Memphis employees is that the wood was sent over from Nashville before the raid. They were told to get rid of it (read: make guitars and get them out the door quick) and shut up about it. this is disappointing. I almost took a job as a finisher in that factory.

And this is where all the folks who made the anti-gov't comments retract them.

[Saab2000]

Speaking of guitars.... I've been listening to some quality players lately but on low level sound systems like my iPod and regular earphones. Guys like Jack White and Lindsey Buckingham and Mike Oldfield are really good players and they sound good too. They also appear to be using custom guitars that sound great. Would they sound as good on 'average' expensive guitars? Or is the difference between a really good, store guitar and a high level hand made guitar really noticeable to a great unwashed casual fan like myself. How much difference does the instrument make to the quality of the sound? Or is it basically something only they can hear?

Speak to us musicians of the V-Salon.

Enquiring minds must know.

[JoB]

Jack White would, for sure - he is pretty well known for playing cheap dept store guitars at times. You should check out the documentary "It might get loud" on how White, Jimmy Page, and The Edge approach the guitar. I loved it.

Speaking of guitars.... I've been listening to some quality players lately but on low level sound systems like my iPod and regular earphones. Guys like Jack White and Lindsey Buckingham and Mike Oldfield are really good players and they sound good too. They also appear to be using custom guitars that sound great. Would they sound as good on 'average' expensive guitars? Or is the difference between a really good, store guitar and a high level hand made guitar really noticeable to a great unwashed casual fan like myself. How much difference does the instrument make to the quality of the sound? Or is it basically something only they can hear?

Speak to us musicians of the V-Salon.

Enquiring minds must know.

[chasea]

Speaking of guitars.... I've been listening to some quality players lately but on low level sound systems like my iPod and regular earphones. Guys like Jack White and Lindsey Buckingham and Mike Oldfield are really good players and they sound good too. They also appear to be using custom guitars that sound great. Would they sound as good on 'average' expensive guitars? Or is the difference between a really good, store guitar and a high level hand made guitar really noticeable to a great unwashed casual fan like myself. How much difference does the instrument make to the quality of the sound? Or is it basically something only they can hear?

Speak to us musicians of the V-Salon.

Enquiring minds must know.

Like cyclists, musicians can be fetishists about their gear. But the general consensus is that the technology available today is light-years ahead of where it was just a few decades ago, that the entry or mid-level stuff is better than the top of the line gear available back then.

We do tend to have a fondness for old stuff, analog tape and whatnot. The grit is in there somewhere Since you brought up Jack White, I'll tell you that the red airline guitar he used (well, at least one of them) from relative obscurity through around "Elephant" was sold to him by a buddy of mine named Jack Yarber aka Jack Oblivian. I can guarantee you that the guitar in soundsd differently in each of their hands. It was an Airline guitar that would have originally been sold at Sears. The sound is in the sound hands.

This is a tangent from the OP, but since I'm a drummer, I'll make my point from a drummers perspective. You can put a guy like Steve Gadd on a beat up, piece of shit kit and he's going to sound like Steve Gadd. You can put me on Gadd's kit, and I won't sound anything like Steve Gadd. Again, it's in the players' touch.

I read a story of a jazz drummer who became obsessed with the sound of a certain players ride cymbal. To jazz drummers, the ride sound is their fingerprint; their calling card. This guy did his research, found the name of the drummer on the recording, and sought him out at one of his gigs. while things like room sound and microphone selection play a big part in sound, he found that the cymbal sound at the gig was the same as on the recording. He talked to he drummer and made arrangements to play the cymbal after the show. When the time came, he found that the cymbal, which he'd heard as the ideal cymbal sound on record and in the hands of that player, was basically an unplayable dog in his own hands.

[EricKeller]

just glad I didn't stock up on brazilian rosewood back when it was still available. I have some mahogany aging that probably is going to be an issue to move around the world. The truth is that you really can't keep people from illegally harvesting wood if you don't restrict the uses. There are issues with people like me that have 30 year old stockpiles purchased before these laws came into being. But the big manufacturers really don't have any excuses. I don't believe these woods really are much better than the substitutes. A Brazilian rosewood guitar is really amazing to look at, no doubt.

[mumbleypeg]

Speaking of guitars.... I've been listening to some quality players lately but on low level sound systems like my iPod and regular earphones. Guys like Jack White and Lindsey Buckingham and Mike Oldfield are really good players and they sound good too. They also appear to be using custom guitars that sound great. Would they sound as good on 'average' expensive guitars? Or is the difference between a really good, store guitar and a high level hand made guitar really noticeable to a great unwashed casual fan like myself. How much difference does the instrument make to the quality of the sound? Or is it basically something only they can hear?

Speak to us musicians of the V-Salon.

Enquiring minds must know.

There is a pretty big difference between acoustic instruments and electric. The obvious is electricity and the chain that generates sound...cables, amp, speakers all make significant contributions to tone. Wood makes significant tone contributions in both electric and acoustic instruments.

Historically, at least for American guitars since WWIi, the top of the wood pile has been Brazillian Rosewood and Mahogany for backs. The differences in density produce different projection and tone.

Slow growing tight grained Spruce has been king for tops. People will ague Over north American or European until they are blue.

Gibson and Martin are the old school guitar choices. Guild and then Taylor are the relative new comers. Each have distinct construction techniques and sound profiles.

Construction and material choices definitely effect tone as does age. As wood ages it dries and becomes more resonant. As magnets age they become weaker. Materials always matter but fingers make the biggest difference.

[Bob Ross]

Somewhat germane, both to a thread about guitars and the V-Salon aesthetic in general:
I've been reading a book by Tim Brookes titled Guitar: An American Life
It simultaneously (or, rather, in parallel) documents the history of the guitar in American music from the arrival of conquistadors up to the present, and the hand-fabrication of a custom acoustic guitar by Vermont luthier Rick Davis. It's like Friday Night Lights meets a PBS history lesson. Highly recommended.