It used to be a common recommendation in the round core days, to always bend the string at 90 degrees before cutting to length to avoid unravelling. I found that round core strings like Newtones don't like cutting at all, whether you bend the end or not. This makes it a nightmare for my stringing m...
Yep, but all of that sciencey stuff aside I think that it's because rosewood is supposed to have magical powers. This is what the original explanation on the McPherson site seemed to be hinting at (it might even have been Brazilian Rosewood that they were using). Although, to be fair, didn't the Lar...
I don't think it's carbon in the bracing, but some darker wood like rosewood laminated in the centre. The website has altered in the last year or so (although they still have audio not synced to video in their movie clips, which makes you wonder what's been done to the sound outside the recording), ...
It's definitely his standard practice. On the 'Workshop' page of his website there are pictures of a 12 string under construction, and towards the bottom of the page there is a clear picture of the bridge with bolt holes in place. As a viewer of numerous luthier websites and forums I've never seen a...
Peter Try http://www.stringsbymail.com I don't like the feel of coated strings, and prefer the standard D'Addario Phosphor Bronze. I buy these online in packs of 10 for $US45 or so (0.13 to 0.56). With postage and the recent collapse in exchange rate it's still only about $AU60 or so delivered. I no...
In that case, I'd recommend a quick trip to Jaycar and look at their range of converter plugs: I've had to do that when swapping different generations of headphones between hifi amplifiers and PC boxes.
Love his playing. If you've never heard him playing straight blues it's well worth searching out the nineties recording 'Muddy Waters Blues - A Trbute To Muddy Waters' by Paul Rodgers (ex Free, Bad Company etc) for a track he plays on, 'Standing around crying'. Well up to the best by folk like Peter...
Stephen, amazing looking guitar, and especially the top.
I've never seen bear claw figure like that: did the top feel 'normal' in stiffness when you were setting it up? It looks so different from conventional sitka.
+1 for that: I had a weird little distortion which I thought must be some sort of wolf note, which came and went depending on how I held the guitar, but always seemed to involve a couple of fretted notes on the G string. The end pin jack, where the pickup plug goes, was loose. Tightening it without ...
Yep, I've seen that DVD, too. Does anyone know what sorts of distances are involved in the different compensations necessary? Al Petteway often plays in DADGAD at the fifth fret. I know a couple of his tunes with a five fret capo specified, but no amount of retuning gets things to sound quite right....
There are two issues with dropped tunings. First is the actual feel of the strings for the player when the guitar is tuned down a long way from standard. If your friend plays in 'Orkney' or other C variations that involve taking the bass E string down to C then thick strings and a long scale length ...
Nick While you are here, and sorry to derail the thread but... I've got a Webber Q, and we've got a pizza stone lying around that we've never used (we've got a technique using the oven in the kitchen, with dough my wife mixes from scratch, but it takes about 20 minutes to cook). Is there a quicker w...
Bob That's a beautiful looking little guitar. I was playing a couple of tunes today in normal tuning, but with a capo on the third fret of my 12 fret 650 mm guitar. There's a nice chime with the right sort of piece: cowboy C and G can sound quite exotic. Is that the Terz scale length (third fret of ...
Dennis I frequently buy books second hand from Abe Booksellers who are all over the world. Shipping from the States used to be dirt cheap (typically $2-3) for paperbacks and small hard backs. An expensive, bigger format hard back might cost $10 for shipping. The UK was always much slower and much mo...
A very efficient looking device. Just a question from someone who left electric guitar playing before the shredding era really took off: how do you tune a 7 string guitar? Is there a standard 'normal' way, or is it a bit like open tunings in acoustic fingerstyle, with lots of possibilities? It's int...
Martin, I used a lot of West Resin a few years ago (I built a 9 metre boat out of cedar strip and glass), and it works well for lamination when you use the standard (white) glue thickener. I think it is the one they call a colloidol powder. It has the advantage that it fills gaps. The straight resin...
I've got the Fishman system you mention installed in a Jack Spira 0000 (he put it in for me when he built the guitar). Run through a small Roland acoustic amp it has a very natural sound which, importantly, sounds to me very much like the guitar unamplified. I've got the microphone fairly low in the...