Any questions for the maestro?

[tadol]

We’re planning on putting another podcast together with Richard, since we haven’t had the opportunity to talk with him in a while.  We’re working on a few questions we know we want to ask, but I thought I’d throw it out to see if anyone on the forum has any generic kind of questions for Richard – about the shop, about the guitars, about the wood, or any care/maintenance / setup stuff.  Feel free to post them here, or PM us, and we’ll try to get them answered during our call!

And while I’m at it – we’re reaching out to a few other people (don’t wanna give too much away!) who we’d love to talk to, but are there people any of you think would be fun to listen to? Directions you would like to see us take with this podcast format? Let us know what you think, and what you think we can do better – your thoughts are important!

[Hank]

I would love to have Richard settle the “Opening up” question once and for all.

As most of you know I’m working with SCGC on a final custom build for my 75th “Trip Around The Sun”.

It will be a 000 from A.B/and Moon spruce.

At 75 I am not going to be able to say …..”I can’t wait to hear this in 10 years when it opens up”.

I get the whole relaxation theory and find it perfectly reasonable. But, I’m talking about the woods that SCGC uses on their instruments.

If the wood used is old /properly stored and   of a tonal quality that is good enough for SCGC to use in the first place does further ageing really make enough difference to hear 10 years from the original build date.

I mean does 3,000 year old bog oak sound better at 3,010 years old ????

[tadol]

Well – we can fit something like that in, but it’s really 2 things –

There’s the aging and “curing” of the wood, which is less of a thing because Richard prefers to use well aged woods to begin with, and then there’s the “breaking in” of the assembly, which is kinda like the natural tensions created in the building adjusting to the natural tensions created by stringing it up and tightening up those strings.

But we’ll try to get Richard weigh in on all that with his expertise when we talk!

[Old 97]

Compare the Janis Ian and PJ. I see they are both listed together in Date Your Guitar. I played an all Mahogany PJ that was spectacular.

[Hank]

As I expect to place a deposit this coming week with Eddie’s Guitars for my 75th Trip Around The Sun SCGC 000, I had a question…….Who at SCGC says YEP this is exactly the guitar that the client wants and it is sonically perfect and cosmetically meets our SCGC standards.

I know that all who are involved with the build talk with each other and have input into the final finished product…..but is there ONE (Richard ?) who says  “I know this is what we want to send to the player” ?

I remember when I had sent the final payment to  the dealer that I bought the 34 Zorro from (a month before I played the guitar at the 40th) and had sleepless nights thinking “What if it’s a dud”. I have since learned that “Dud” is not a word that can be used with SCGC .

But, I’m still curious if there is one person who gives the blessing to ship their guitars .

[Anonymous]

It seems to me that when a guitars string gauge is changed the guitar takes a little time to ‘settle in’ with the change.  I understand this can just be projection on my part. It does seem that it takes new strings a little time to relax also.  I would be interested on Richards thoughts on the subject.

[indexless]

Welcome Mr Jelly, Thanks for chipping in. Check the early podcasts podcasts on strings, all the science is there 🙂

[Author]

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