# Guitar geek thread: Yay! My guitar sucks! (and why this is good news) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 14, 2009, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitar-geek-thread-yay-my-guitar-sucks-and-why-this-is-good-news/506376 "2009-08-14T02:55:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BigShooter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f07891/32.png) [@BigShooter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigShooter)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitar-geek-thread-yay-my-guitar-sucks-and-why-this-is-good-news/506376/21 "2009-08-14T17:09:10Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > I remember at least one of the guitar-building threads. > > A few weeks ago, my landlord was having a linden tree removed from our yard. (Long story.) I’ve got a friend who’s a woodworker and I told him about it. He asked me to have them save any large, straight-grained pieces I could get. The tree crew did it, but looked at me like I was nuts. We wound up with three pieces, each about 16" diameter and 2’ long. He said air-dried basswood is hard to come by. He wants to learn turning and make bowls out of them. > > But according to Wikipedia, basswood is popular for guitars. Should I have gotten in touch with you guitar builders; was I sitting on a treasure and didn’t know it? I never heard of basswood being hard to find. It’s not like Hawaiian flamed Koa or something. I can go down to my lumber supplier here in town and he’s got cords of it… ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitar-geek-thread-yay-my-guitar-sucks-and-why-this-is-good-news/506376/22 "2009-08-14T17:29:10Z")
> [@BigShooter](#): > > I never heard of basswood being hard to find. It’s not like Hawaiian flamed Koa or something. I can go down to my lumber supplier here in town and he’s got cords of it… According to my friend, all the basswood at lumberyards is kiln-dried. (Maybe that’s just around here.) He needed it air-dried. I don’t know if that makes a difference for guitars or not. ---
**Author:** ![Fiddle\_Peghead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddle_peghead/32/3506_2.png) [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitar-geek-thread-yay-my-guitar-sucks-and-why-this-is-good-news/506376/23 "2009-08-14T19:19:11Z")
I haven’t played in a few years. Kind of forgot about it, actually. What with Les Paul’s death, I’m reminded of how much I loved playing my LP in years past. It’s a 1978, all-original LP Custom, and I’m gonna drag it out tonight. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitar-geek-thread-yay-my-guitar-sucks-and-why-this-is-good-news/506376/24 "2009-08-14T19:30:41Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > According to my friend, all the basswood at lumberyards is kiln-dried. (Maybe that’s just around here.) He needed it air-dried. > > I don’t know if that makes a difference for guitars or not. I know NOTHING about preparing woods for use in building things, but to my knowledge, getting wood properly dried for use in a guitar is a big deal. I believe that old growth, air-dried tonewoods are harder to come by and more expensive. Whether that type of wood by definition = superior tone is one of the great online guitar geek debates. But I am open to believing that good, long, stable air drying can increase the likelihood that a certain piece of wood will translate to a good-sounding guitar (all other tone-influencing factors handled well, too, of course). Basswood gets a lot of play as a guitar wood. Parker Flys and a few other guitars made it popular, and ex-Fender Custom Shop Master Builder, now highly-respected Guitar Builder on his own John Suhr states that a basswood body with a maple cap (kinda like a Les Paul Standard’s construction but with basswood, not mahogany underneath the maple) is one of his favorite bodies to build around… ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitar-geek-thread-yay-my-guitar-sucks-and-why-this-is-good-news/506376/25 "2009-08-14T19:35:10Z")
> [@BigShooter](#): > > Just the Blues Master shape - don’t think I’ll ever get close to the JG tone. Besides, you’ll notice it’s a bolt on neck… > > Never done a neck-thru. That would require building my own necks which I haven’t tried yet. But who knows what the future brings when it comes to guitar building…😃 Hmmm - okay; we’ll compare notes once I have lived with my hopefully-soon-to-be-finished Tele Special for a while…there’s a guy on the Gear Page who made his own FB in, like, sea-foam green with 3 P-90’s - it made me realize it was do-able in some form or fashion at least… I noticed the separate neck but didn’t register if it had a dove-tail joint or was a bolt-on. Yeah, that will be different tonally - bolt-on joints = brighter tone to my ears vs. a set-neck, which emphasizes mids and warmth… **Small Clanger** - your project sounds like it was ambitious as hell; I’d love to see the pictures… and your list looks interesting. If I had time today, I would ask a bunch of questions, but I have to go get ready for vacation…yay! ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitar-geek-thread-yay-my-guitar-sucks-and-why-this-is-good-news/506376/26 "2009-08-15T03:35:13Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > Hmmm - okay; we’ll compare notes once I have lived with my hopefully-soon-to-be-finished Tele Special for a while… Wait, what? That beefsteak-colored Tele is going to actually get completed? Soon!?? Awesome. Did I miss an update thread? ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitar-geek-thread-yay-my-guitar-sucks-and-why-this-is-good-news/506376/27 "2009-08-15T15:52:16Z")
Don’t think I did a specific thread as much as drop mentions along in other threads. I picked it up yesterday - light as a feather and gorgeously beefsteaky. Un-set-up it still felt wonderful. Loading the h/w and electronics and dropping it off to my tech - hopefully ready when I’m back. I’ll log a full report. S ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2009, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitar-geek-thread-yay-my-guitar-sucks-and-why-this-is-good-news/506376/28 "2009-08-18T04:24:51Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > I’ll log a full report. Yes, please do! I’ve been following your guitar saga with interest, and I’m anxious to know how it turned out. The tone of course, but also the aesthetics, esp. the whole color scheme you envisioned (raw meat color body like D. Truck’s SG, black headstock, all that stuff) in a Tele package. Sound samples of the guitar if possible (please please please!). Congrats on being close to the finish line on this project!! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Seventh\_Deadly\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6bbea6/32.png) [@The\_Seventh\_Deadly\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Seventh_Deadly_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2009, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitar-geek-thread-yay-my-guitar-sucks-and-why-this-is-good-news/506376/29 "2009-08-18T04:52:45Z")
> [@Small\_Clanger](#): > > I’ll compose a full guitar-geek essay later, but a quick answer to the OP. Open chord tuning problems could just mean that the nut slots aren’t deep enough and the tension of fretting low on the neck pulls the notes sharp. What’s the action like at the first fret? Nice and low, actually-- but now that I look at them, the frets seem a little tall. I use heavy gauge strings, so when I fret a note there, the string doesn’t touch the fingerboard unless I press unrealistically hard. It’s like the world’s flattest lap steel. 🙂 I’m wondering if this cheap guitar was designed for lighter strings, and is expecting more sharping from “fretting stretch” than it gets from my relatively light touch? Or is it unlikely that the folks at J3 were thinking that hard? Or could it be that the nut and the frets are BOTH too tall? ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2009, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitar-geek-thread-yay-my-guitar-sucks-and-why-this-is-good-news/506376/30 "2009-08-18T09:23:04Z")
[QUOTE=The Seventh Deadly Finn] Or could it be that the nut and the frets are BOTH too tall? [/QUOTE] No, as long as they’re at the right relative heights. To find out if it’s just that the nut is misplaced, put a capo on at the first fret and try some open chords there. I have a cheap and nasty guitar with just this problem\* but it plays in tune with a capo on. - I don’t remember how I ended up with such a crap guitar, I’m now thinking I really ought to fix the tuning issue (if all it takes is tweaking the nut position) because I went to the trouble of converting it to a 12 string and now I don’t play it because it’s out of tune. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2009, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitar-geek-thread-yay-my-guitar-sucks-and-why-this-is-good-news/506376/31 "2009-08-18T15:45:21Z")
> [@Small\_Clanger](#): > > …I went to the trouble of converting it to a 12 string You can convert a guitar from a 6 to 12 string? I’d think most guitars wouldn’t have enough space on the headstock for 12 tuners.😕 ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2009, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitar-geek-thread-yay-my-guitar-sucks-and-why-this-is-good-news/506376/32 "2009-08-18T16:06:31Z")
It’s a POS jap copy not anything precious. I cut the old headstock off leaving a sort of pointy stump, made a new head in two halfs with carefully matched shapes, bit of glue, drill some holes, done. At the other end - it has a Les Paul style tailpiece, I cut slots for the extra strings, it looks pretty bad but works. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guitar-geek-thread-yay-my-guitar-sucks-and-why-this-is-good-news/506376.md?page=1)