***The Official Guitar Thread***

builder22 said:
you probably know this... the chord shapes on ukulele standard tuning are the same as the shapes on the guitars D G B e strings
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I kind of know it intellectually, but my fingers and brain are confused by the low string being a high string. I always was a slow learner! But you can go a long way in stringed life with an F, G & C. :-)

One 48 said:
www.youtube.com

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The Ukes perform Ennio Morricone's classic, from the DVD 'Anarchy in the Ukulele'. Another upload of exactly this clip received over 2 million views, but was...
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
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I even have one of their albums. But one's enough. :) We had an amateur ukulele band at the dementia group a few weeks or go. About ten of them and more is definitely more with the uke. Less is definitely... much, much less. I'd rather carry my Yamaha guitarlele around as a travel/convenience instrument... such a superior sound, especially as mine's tuned to only +3 semitones, not 5. But uke's are everywhere now and it'd be nice to be fluent enough to encourage a child, annoy a parent, or bash out a tune generally! :cry:
 
ik9000 said:
but doesn't the string gauge compensate? You just use heavier strings - it's still using bass strings.

edit: these are the gauges: G-0.045", D-0.065", A-0.08", E-0.1" which is fairly akin to a standard bass. Weird.
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Whatever you do, it's going to sound flappy.

Bass instruments are bigger for a reason.

Stick with a standard size bass.
 
Trying GarageBand's amp modelling.. it sucks monkey balls.
First there's a delay.. 1-2 second it feels like and then it seems dull and lifeless. Granted I'm feeding it a DIY USB ADC sound but still slow and.. well slow.

Also found a substitute for my old favoured Gibson Heavy teardrops so let me see if I can get on with them.
 
I bought Amplitube 5 Max on sale few months ago, under 100 I think but it almost hurts my ears :p I'm back to using my almost 20 year old POD XT

I tried others too with much the same feeling

to be fair tho...for recording Amplitube is probably better, but for practicing/general playing it's quite a grating sound, if that makes sense
 
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So the Mrs has suggested a residential crafting holiday (we do this as we're both not really beach only people) - so the discussion came down to perhaps attending a Crimson Guitar guitar building course (you build your own guitar over the week) :D

So I have a '87 MIJ Strat.. so what guitar should I build. I want to be special (and I could build my own later perhaps) as part of the course. Now I could build a telecaster, a number of ibenez, Gibson SG, PRS, etc.

I'm tempted with a PRS 24 build - that has the base of something like mahogany and then a maple or other decorative wood carved on top, probably with a Mahogany neck with a maple fret board. That would give me an opportunity to make a rock bridge pickup setup and a mellow neck pickup with full-sized double coils. I'm not too fussed with trems to be honest - I quite like to chug away with some lead on the odd occasion. To be honest this is more a rhythm rock/metal setup than a blues/jazz setup. As part o the build I may be tempted to carve the rear slightly for easier siting.
The beauty with the PRS is that you get todo some decorative woodwork using the front section of wood (such as flame maple etc).

If I was doing a telecaster, I'd be tempted to get some old bourbon barrel wood with the branding etc, cut down the plank for body and bond that to the front.. but I'm not sure that would go outside of the build workshop parameters :D

The Ibanez Gem is another option - that's a classic Steve Vai as a chug machine but you're expecting really intricate inlays and all that.. so a basic build due to the limited workshop time in the course will not appear quite as attractive..
 
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NickK said:
So the Mrs has suggested a residential crafting holiday (we do this as we're both not really beach only people) - so the discussion came down to perhaps attending a Crimson Guitar guitar building course (you build your own guitar over the week) :D

So I have a '87 MIJ Strat.. so what guitar should I build. I want to be special (and I could build my own later perhaps) as part of the course. Now I could build a telecaster, a number of ibenez, Gibson SG, PRS, etc.

I'm tempted with a PRS 24 build - that has the base of something like mahogany and then a maple or other decorative wood carved on top, probably with a Mahogany neck with a maple fret board. That would give me an opportunity to make a rock bridge pickup setup and a mellow neck pickup with full-sized double coils. I'm not too fussed with trems to be honest - I quite like to chug away with some lead on the odd occasion. To be honest this is more a rhythm rock/metal setup than a blues/jazz setup. As part o the build I may be tempted to carve the rear slightly for easier siting.
The beauty with the PRS is that you get todo some decorative woodwork using the front section of wood (such as flame maple etc).

If I was doing a telecaster, I'd be tempted to get some old bourbon barrel wood with the branding etc, cut down the plank for body and bond that to the front.. but I'm not sure that would go outside of the build workshop parameters :D

The Ibanez Gem is another option - that's a classic Steve Vai as a chug machine but you're expecting really intricate inlays and all that.. so a basic build due to the limited workshop time in the course will not appear quite as attractive..
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You should build a replica gibson, as close in likeness as possible. Then tweet them to show your work. They love that at Gibson HQ.
 
A Custom 24 or a Gibson has a violin carve, which is time intensive in carving and buffing.

A LPJ or a S2 shape would be much easier. Should you decide to go down this route.
 
Raymond Lin said:
A Custom 24 or a Gibson has a violin carve, which is time intensive in carving and buffing.

A LPJ or a S2 shape would be much easier. Should you decide to go down this route.
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This is 6 days, on one guitar in a fully kitted out workshop and expert tuition.. so that carving could go quite fast if a contour copying device is available.
Thankfully the carve is not a hollow body as far as I know. That really would take a large amount of time carving both sides into the dome shape like a violin! I think they offer the hollow bodies only if you’re attending 2w+ courses.
 
ik9000 said:
You should build a replica gibson, as close in likeness as possible. Then tweet them to show your work. They love that at Gibson HQ.
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There was recent talk that Gibson have Built their neck/headstocks with the grain end on, making it easy for a knock to break the headstock.
 
NickK said:
This is 6 days, on one guitar in a fully kitted out workshop and expert tuition.. so that carving could go quite fast if a contour copying device is available.
Thankfully the carve is not a hollow body as far as I know. That really would take a large amount of time carving both sides into the dome shape like a violin! I think they offer the hollow bodies only if you’re attending 2w+ courses.
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Does that include painting and drying too? Or merely building, sanding and the electronics?
 
Raymond Lin said:
Does that include painting and drying too? Or merely building, sanding and the electronics?
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I think it covers stain/lacquering but how many layers etc may mean an initial layer there, then take if home for successive layers/polish.. will need to get more info but I will add that to the query.
 
NickK said:
That is the interesting point.. not in the start.. but for a long time. Given the luthier at CG said that I hope they are still in business when I want todo the course :D
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No, it's always been that way. They've not changed anything, it's just getting more press. Unless they steam bend the wood (and this would bring other problems as it would want to bow rather than kink) there isn't really a way to do the Gibson shape out of 1 piece of wood without this flaw. Either it needs to be 2 pieces, or strengthening somehow, by added steelwork or changing the wood profile etc.

This article gives a good overview:
hazeguitars.com

Why do Gibson headstocks break? — Haze Guitars

There's a big chunk of my income that comes from repairing broken necks and headstocks. And, by far the biggest chunk of that comes from repairing the broken necks and headstocks of Gibson guitars. So what is it that makes Gibsons more prone to lose their heads?
hazeguitars.com hazeguitars.com
 
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