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Indeed. That’s yummy.
I spent an hour playing my 1980s Japanese made Squier Tele the other night. It has a 1 11/16″ nut, which I find a bit big, being a mandolin player. The radius on the fingerboard is also a good match for my SCGC dread. So it feels very acoustic-y in my left hand.
I couldn’t tell you what the saddle distances are. Standard Fender I imagine (if there is such a thing).
After feel, you’re looking for sound. As an acoustic player I am actually enjoying –after all these years– the stacked humbucker I put in the neck pocket back in the early 1990s. Really fat sound. Takes well to a little bit of break-up in the preamp and some tremolo.
Enjoy the search!
Daniel
Hi Zorro,
You’d think there would be an echo, but it’s not detectable. The stone is variegated and porous, and each block is less than a millimetre off set from its neighbours, but off set nonetheless. These factors probably kill any standing waves.
🙂
Daniel
Right. Well… practised with a full PA on my own last night in the room in the photo below with the mandolin below (but not the amp). Ran the mando through my Orchid Preamp and straight into he PA. The pickup is a hand wound Kent Armstrong. So it’s got plenty of juice. Sounded great. Kind of a Chet Atkins thing.
I’m practising/rehearsing for my first gig here in Laon. Have done a festival in Revelles, near Amiens, and a couple of pub gigs in Guise. But nothing nearer to home yet, and nothing significant since I’ve moved here. So this’ll be a début of sorts.
I’m trying get back into playing shape if you see what I mean. (It has been a while with the move and everything.) And I’m incorporating the new instrument into the set. It’s going to replace the 8 string mandos on a lot of material.
So last night was the first time in a long time I spent 3 hours thinking of nothing else but exactly what I am doing musically. Spent the first hour sorting out the rig and playing a bit of Telecaster. (For some reason I’m falling in love with tremolo. Have no idea why.) The second hour was me on the 5 string playing through things, reaching for chords, trying out inversions, etc. Third hour I started putting it all together. And that’s when I started feeling like a musician again. <phew!> I was afraid I had lost it.
Back in on Sunday night. Might FB live some of it to let friends in CA see what’s going on. 🙂
Daniel
😀
IIRC, the body is jarrah, the neck is mahogany, the fretboard is ebony, and the top is Sitka. I don’t recall the wood on the headstock, might be ebony. Is any of that covered under CITES
While you’re at it. Send those two little tube amps too!
Daniel
House hunting here in the north of France. I’ll push for more storage space. Maybe I can help you “keep” some of those guitars. 😉
Daniel
Ah tuners… something I tend to get finicky about!
James Taylor really has a signature sound, and a lot of that is his tuning.
And yes, some tuners are ‘generous’ in their readings.
A lot of mandolin players I know trust Snarks. I love my Intellitouch PT10. I have a little clip on Polytune by TC Electronics, but I prefer the PT10 because I can read the PT1o in bright sunlight and the Polytune’s LEDs just can’t manage that.
I also have a Boss TU-12h that’s (holy cow) 30 years old now. I use it when I get the pedal board out. Zorro, you might benefit from using one of these. It has an analog read out: a needle that swings left & right and shows cents. This makes JT’s instruction possible to execute.
I wish I still had the little case the TU-12h came in. That made it really convenient to use. But that case has been broken and gone for 20 years now. 🙂
I’ve participated in a kickstarter for Soundbrenner’s Core device (I have a Pulse and love it). It’s a smartwatch with a haptic metronome, a decibel meter, and a tuner in it. The unit comes off your wrist (watch band stays in place) and attaches to the instrument via a magnet. You can stick the unit either to the tuning machines or to a small self adhesive metal plate that comes with the Core. It reads notes the same way as any other clip on tuner.
They’re shipping in March. I’ll post a review. 🙂
Daniel
That is too kind. 🙂
I’m playing electric mandolin, not much guitar at all. Though I keep threatening to get my Tele fixed up.
I’m afraid it would likely languish as much here as there.
Might give you a shout soon about the amps you’re kindly storing for me.
D
Yeah. Those are made by Steve Gilchrist’s son I believe. Worth an investment, but the style doesn’t turn me on.
http://www.gilchristguitars.com/victorian-electric-mandolin/
I’m a bit more enamoured of Jonathan Mann’s work
http://www.manndolins.com/em–4-5-8.html
Then there’s JL Smith for the more traditional body style
🙂
Daniel
!
Retro-cool
!
There was a band called Zebra out of Canada I think had a near-hit on MTV in the 80s. Guitarist used a GR-707. I have been mildly interested in them ever since.
Daniel
Orchid Electronics preamp is usually plenty for my Mix F5 mandolin.
For the JBovier EMC5, I run though an Origin Effects Slide Rig. It’s another preamp designed to boost and compress. Sometimes I use a Boss Overdrive and a Boss EQ pedal.
I’m looking for a good reverb pedal at the moment. 🙂
Daniel
Chris Pepper engineer extraordinaire