I met Michael McCarthy at the Montréal Guitar Show this past July. One of the things that sets his guitars apart are his tone bars- the equivalent of bracing but the entire top is carved from one piece. As a result, the grain extends through the ‘brace’ right to the top.
Most definitely not a $2000. price point, however…
And over here, Fake Tales of San Francisco is looking for an effects pedal. Sounds to me like he want a looping pedal like a jam man, but I know there are others who know what they’re talking about (and that ain’t me!)
Can someone enlighten me on the difference between a carved and non-carved top when we’re discussing a hollow-body guitar? “Carved” sounds like the entire guitar body was made from a single block of carefully hollowed-out wood, or perhaps the face of the body was painstakingly carved from a inch-or-so thick plank into a arched shape before being glued to the rest of the body. Or something. I’d thought perhaps the top of a hollowbody arch-top was a flat, thin wood (with f-holes and such in it) that was steamed or glued onto the bracing or a form or… ? before being attached to the rest of the guitar. Thanks.
CookingWithGas:
Roland Jazz Chorus 120: Roland - Global a powerful amp designed to play clean; super reliable. A guitar amp but used by keyboardists and other instruments because it sounds good clean and has a built in chorus…popular enough that it is readily find-able on eBay for a decent price used.
Brass vs. steel pieces on a Tele bridge: actually, that matters a lot to me; sorry for being one of those :rolleyes: guys. Steel makes the tone more bitey; brass is softer and so cuts a tad of highs and leaves a warmer tone. This is exaggerated with distortion. I hear a difference and picked accordingly…one of those things.
Solid vs. Laminated top (and taking **squeegee’s **and **Le Ministre’s **posts into account) - squeegee, you got it: most archtop guitars get their by taking a few-layer laminated top - typically maple I think - and pressing them with heat, steam and pressure into the familiar archtop contour. Some guitars - mostly on the higher end given the labor involved - they take a piece of wood that is as thick as the arch will be high and carve the arch into the wood. The thinking is that the one-piece carved top will resonate differently; makes sense to me. **Le Ministre’s **link takes that to an extreme where the bracing bars on the underside of the top - there to provide added strength for the pull of the strings AND to help shape the sound - are carved integrally from the same piece of wood. That is a LOT of effort to squeeze out a bit more resonance; but for the folks that can hear it, like the folks who care what the bridge saddles are on their Tele - it can really matter 
And if you take the time to create a top like that, it makes sense that you would typically not cut a hold into the top to mount a pickup but would rather mount it to the pickguard and have it float above the top like your model. The fact that in Le Ministre’s link the guy carves a top, and goes on about how he does NOT bind the F-Holes on the top so that the binding doesn’t limit flexibility - but THEN he cuts a hole into it to mount a pickup - so the top is being asked to function as a support mount, not vibrate as a sound generator - well, that’s doesn’t compute, but the guy’s stuff looks gorgeous so what do I know?
Oh, and as far a soloing - yeah, I only hear my clams, too; heck, I’m clam-tacular!
And, by the way, it would take, oh, about 5 minutes to discuss your 335’s pickups and whether they should be swapped out. You’d have to get it done by someone - swapping p’ups in a 335 is a royal pain because you have to go in through the F-holes for some stuff, use a string to thread the wiring through, etc…best left to a tech.
Call me ‘chowder’. If there is a Hell, I’m convinced it involves listening back to your flawed takes over and over…
squeegee - most carved tops are matchbooked, which is the woodworking equivalent of butterflying… Start with a wedge shape that is (for argument’s sake) 24 inches long by 9 inches wide by one inch thick on the right side and 1/4 inch thick on the left side. The grain is parallel to the 24 inch long side. Slice its thickness in half using a band saw with a serious precision jig, glue the thickest edges together and wait till it sets. Wastes less good tonewood that way. (I just don’t think you’d get an 18 inch wide piece of sound board where the grain ran true - there’d be a knot or a warp in that size of plank, sure as snot is slick.)
Why put yourself through that if you’re going to use a pickup anyway? Well, that’s a good question. Herb Ellis felt that the tone was in his hands, the pickup and the amp anyway, so he went with a laminate top. ‘Laminate’ is what serious craftsmen call plywood. Herb Ellis seemed to do okay with it…
(I wonder if anyone has ever tried a ‘dugout’ design for back and sides… )
Other folks feel that the wood responds to the strings and the strings’ response is different as a result, which the pickup then, uhh, picks up. These guitars are more prone to feedback, but they function well both as acoustic and electric instruments - their players are willing to trade off the hassle of being extra careful with the amplification and placement of the sound equipment for beauty of the natural tone and how responsive the instrument feels in their hands. Their pickups aren’t magical - the ‘microphonality’ of them is still somewhere between non-existent and negligible but the interrelationship between the strings and the wood is important to those players. There’s also a significant jump in the price because you’re totally out of the ballpark for factory made instruments.
I’m realizing that I never posted much about what I saw at the Montréal Guitar Show. That is remiss and selfish of me, not to share my GAS. I shall endeavour to remedy that a little at a time.
Let me start with Dagmar Guitars. The first feature you notice on these is the rounded sides. These were inspired by bicycle fenders, and are the product of hours of calculation and labour. The aesthetic design is very art deco, and these are just beautiful instruments.
There’s more to it that that, though - here’s a clip of Steve Nullmeyer playing one of the purely acoustic instruments.
Here’s a clip of Chris Burgess interviewing Pete Swanson, the luthier behind Dagmar Guitars, at the 2009 Montréal Guitar Show.
And here’s a clip of Phil X, trying one out at Guitar World in Oakville…
Sorry, nothing personal!
BTW you might like this site, go straight to the forums:
I’ve played guitar since I was about 16. I went through the whole electric phase, Stratocasters, Telecasters, mega-watt amps and so on.
For me though, nothing beats a good steel string guitar. I don’t care for new ones. My favorite guitar is a battered old Gibson L-00 from the 30’s. It’s a small bodied guitar, with a big sound, excellent for curling up on the couch with, and just as good at a jam. Dreadnaughts are cool, but too big for my tastes. I still own a few, but rarely want to play them.
Learn the alternating bass thing because you immediately sound like you know what you are doing. Play a cowboy G chord and use that thumb to set your rhythm–6th sting, 4th string, back and forth, back and forth.
Listen to Mississippi John Hurt, then find some tablature; pick one song you like the sound of, and work your way through it, devoting your playing time to that song, phrase by phrase. I used to make a copy of the tab, fold it up and slide it under the strings of the neck, so that the next time I picked up the guitar, there it would be, reminding me to practice that damn song instead of just fiddling around.
You’ll never be John Hurt, but you can play his stuff, and it’s a great introduction to fingerpicking guitar.
OK guitar helpful geeks, could one of you please explain how to read/play this tab:
E-----------
B-----------
G—6–8--
D—6–8--
A—4–6—
E-----------
Are they power chord shapes? Are the unfretted strings open?
Yes, those are power chord shapes. The unfretted strings are ‘open’ (e.g. not fingered), but are almost certainly not played. (The first would give you a c# minor 7 with an ‘e’ in the bass, the second would give you something along the lines of a d#b9b13 with no third. Try it, if you like, but it’s going to sound rather nasty…)
Sorry, tried to edit and made it worse - that should have read “If you played all the strings, open ones and closed (fingered) ones, the first would give you…”
I really think whatever song that is should have just a C# power chord going to a D# power chord. (or Db to Eb…)
Thank you. It is a tab to an Animals song “It’s My Life”. The tab for the intro is written with each single note for several bars and then all of a sudden the above tab appears (plus a few more bars using the same shapes) . Not sure how it is meant to be played. You are right. If I play them as a chord they sound terrible.
Gibson’s ES 356 has the back and sides and central solid piece all carved from a single piece of mahogany…couldn’t find a pic, but it’s the dugout you describe…
I will check out the Montreal links - thanks.
**mailman **- thanks for joining the conversation - I hear you; I have the next-generation Gibson from the 1940’s - called the LG-2. Small- bodied and made of mahogany, just a warm rich tone - beautiful.
Okay, I’m not a usual participant in this thread, but I gotta tell someone – just bought my Xmas/bday present for myself: 10th row, center tix to see Jeff Beck in my favorite small venue in March. Last time I saw him live was c. 1980.
Wow, I had no idea that someone worked the wood like this for a hollow guitar, seriously digging out the top on both sides of a solid (well, matchbooked) plank. Luthiers are craaazy!
Why does a “non-carved” top need to be laminate? Would all the forming and steaming and stretching crack a solid piece along the grain?
I bet someone has. I wonder how it turned out, and how many logs were needed when a mistake was made and the chainsaw luthier had to start over and keep digging. But we’ve established that luthiers are unhinged, so I’ve no doubt someone persevered and did this.
Thanks to both you and and WordMan for the carved-hollowbody facts.
Oooh. Jeff Beck is awesome. Have fun!
Huh, I missed this post when I wrote my previous one. Interesting! I wonder if someone was dedicated enough to make a hollowbody archtop (the back and sides) out of a solid piece of wood. You know, like 3 inches deeper? It is impressive that someone did it at all with a semi-hollow.
That was interesting; I never thought about resawing a wedged piece of wood to get an arched top. BTW, it’s called bookmatched.
Yeah, he’s playing the Beacon in NYC and I was SO tempted…
So that’s why woodworkers look at me strangely when I say that - I think I’ve been saying it wrong for at least 35 years.
When I read it, I just kinda assumed it was a compound-word Spoonerism…