How Guitar Construction Will Change In The Coming Years

[wazkelly]

Very interesting. With all the plug straight into computer stuff happening it only figures that the input device would also evolve.

Bit old school myself and still prefer a real guitar plugged into a real amp and making lots of loud noise.

[dingobass]

The old Tonewood debate

Personally, from many years of this stuff I have come to the conclusion that the nicest sounding instruments are made from quarter sawn timber with a nice tap tone.
Add a well made neck and good quality hardware and electrics and you end up with a very tasty guitar.

Now I know that many will say timber etc has nothing to do with the tone but I disagree.
Slap a high end pup into a body made of, let's say for arguments sake, MDF you will get a muddy tone.
Same pup in decent timber and the whole dynamic changes.
My conclusion is that all parts must act together, ie: the material used changes the way the strings vibrate so why use rubbish and expect a great sound?

Of course there are man made materials that posses a nice tonal quality, classic example is the ubiquitous Steinberger.

[tonyw]

But DB my Danelectro is made of MDF, and it has a low end pickups, lets have a listen,

Heres the Dano on one of my tracks "Hotel"

https://soundcloud.com/tdwatkins/hotel

But then again i refuse to enter this old chestnut of a debate, people believe and hear what they think is right, and what they think they are hearing is how they are going to see it, me after more years than i want to think about around isntruments, i gradually changed my opinions. I am a pickups and wiring man if it fails there all is lost, no signal and you have an expensive piece of timber to hold. Then again a $50 guitar sounds better in the hands of a master than a 5k guitar sound in the hands of a novice.

Just play the bloody things

[dingobass]

Without being rude, most Dano's that I have come across have, shall we say, a "unique" sound...
And yes, it is the players ability and skill but at the end of the day if you are going to build, why not use the very best materials and give your axe a head start?

The very best Luthiers I know would never use MDF or poo oil on their builds. Why? Because both products are crap for Guitar building and have no place in this industry.

[kimball492]

Db you heard of tone cardboard lol
http://youtu.be/7Oo2H-W7d6A

[dingobass]

Yeah, a great idea for folk with serious back injury

[tonyw]

Without being rude, most Dano's that I have come across have, shall we say, a "unique" sound...
And yes, it is the players ability and skill but at the end of the day if you are going to build, why not use the very best materials and give your axe a head start?

The very best Luthiers I know would never use MDF or poo oil on their builds. Why? Because both products are crap for Guitar building and have no place in this industry.

Lets say we agree to disagree and who are the best Luthiers? i know hundreds of great Luthiers, my best mate is 3rd generation, my brother has worked exclusively for the Chinese Symphony on their instruments and has trained dozens of Luthiers, and now makes hand crafted special order violins, funny he agrees with me as far as electronic instruments and wood go, agree or disagree its an individual thing.

When you put an electric guitar body against your body mass you have just nullified any minute tonal characteristics it may have had because the so called wood vibrations bcome muted by the mass, lets add a 15mter cable some effects, then wack it through an amp and the timber shines through, not.

As for Tru Oil its nothing more than a polymerized linseed oil with other natural oils and plenty of guitar makers world wide use it, oh wait guitar timbers need to breath yeh righto. Only thing i wouldnt use it on is Cocobolo or Rosewood, these timbers are too oily. I hgave used it with great succes on an Swamp Ash Body and a neck, i love its feel on a neck

I agree that a guitar should have the best components, pickups, wiring, pots, bridge, tuners, jacks etc. Leo Fender picked the best timber for his guitars based on price, cheapest was best, same with his alnico and also because alnico was scarce, Leo was a tight wad. Great necks are a must for intonation and staying straight and in tune but the best neck i have here is on a 1963 Watkins Rapier, these were a cheap build guitar in their day and its probably the sweetest sounding guitar i own

I pick my personal wood on look and weight, i really dont give a flog what it is, necks i do care about and thats another story, but tassie hardwood makes a great cigarbox neck

Thats enough going around in circles on that debate from me

[Andy40]

But DB my Danelectro is made of MDF, and it has a low end pickups, lets have a listen,

Heres the Dano on one of my tracks "Hotel"

https://soundcloud.com/tdwatkins/hotel


Just play the bloody things

I enjoyed listening to that Tony, thanks

[tonyw]

I enjoyed listening to that Tony, thanks

cheers Andy glad you liked it

[dingobass]

As for crap oil, I am currently investigating the ingredients.
Petro chemicals, naphtha, possibly toluene so there are three known carcinogens before we even start.
If you just read the SDS you could be misled, you also need to fossic around to find out what the coded ingredients are and that's when the hair on the back of my neck started to stand up. This investigation is on going.

So, when you add all of these chemicals to a product, how the f#ck can you say it's natural?
The only natural thing I have seen in this crap is the Linseed oil.

Therefore, if folk want to use this shite and not take protective measures the same as you would with spray painting, go right ahead.
I will not be attending your funeral.