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A nice little beauty. I had an H13 for a year or two that I never got on with. Great guitar, but I just didn’t connect. I’ve been thinking about an H since I sold it. You’re teasing. Enjoy your new guitar. It looks great.
– Paul –
That makes sense. Thanks for the insight. Your comment reminds me of driving along the back roads of New England with my wife. On one occasion we passed a garage sale and my wife thought she’d be funny and yelled out – “STOP, I saw something shiny!”
– Paul –
Hi Daniel. I’m new to the SCGC Forum. It’s nice to have an old hand revisit the Forum. I’ve owned 3 SCGC instruments and currently own 2; an OM and a Custom Ordered OMG that I just received. Welcome back!
– Paul –
Hi Zorro, yes it’s happened on every set of different SCGC strings I’ve used on the new OMG. And every time I’ve used EXPs it’s been completely resolved. I can’t say what it would sound like in a good recording because I don’t have good recording equipment. My guess is that it would sound like it does for a listener— probably not very noticeable at all. It would probably go unnoticed in a recording unless you were focused on that specific string tone and isolating the sound in comparison to others.
As Alan Carruth suggested, I tuned down the #3 string a step and fretted up to a A — and got exactly the same tone on that string. So I am led to believe it is the string. The other characteristic is that I can virtually eliminate the unwanted tone if I squeeze the pick very tightly, leave a tiny strike surface exposed on the pick end, and hit the string at a steep angle(opposed to perpendicular) to the string.
In the end it’s nothing more than a curiosity because it only happens using SCGC strings on 1 note on 2 guitars. And there is an easy & perfect solution – use another brand of string on those guitars. Since this is the most important thing to me, that’s what I’ll do as I scratch my head. This was also recognized as a good choice by Alan in the last sentence of his post.
– Paul –
Ok, I cranked up my experimental mode and did some serious string changing and swapping on several of my guitars today. I asked my friend if he was up for some time in as player and listener to lend a second opinion. He has an advanced degree in Music and has been playing & teaching guitar for over 50 years and has the fussiest pair of ears I know. Bottlom line is that the SCGC Strings produce an unappreciated tone when I play an A note on string #3(G string) on 2 of my guitars. Most importantly on my new Custom OMG. Swapping the SCGC Strings for D’Addario EXP or EJ versions eliminates the troublesome tone. And as a last effort I tried a set of Elixir Strings that sounded nice too. The OMG is absolutely sensational, so I’m being particularly fussy in this case. My friend played & I listened. I played & he listened. We both heard the same tone. You hear it clearly as the player and not so much as listener. In fact if you weren’t focused on it, it would likely pass without notice as listener. In the end we both agree the EXPs are right for the OMG, because I’m hearing what I hear while I play.
Then I happen to see a thread pop up on AGF about a dead G. I found Alan Carruth’s contribution very interesting. I will quote the entire post below.
”<i>If it’s a ‘wolf’ note then it will show up at a specific pitch, and move up or down the neck as you change the tuning on the string. If there’s a problem with the open string that’s not related to the pitch (the open string is ‘dead’ even if you tune it up or down), but not any fretted notes, then you might look at the nut to see if the string sits right there. If every note on the string is bad, there could be a problem with the saddle. Or, in that case, it might also be a bad string. Try changing strings to see if another one does the same thing. I once killed a G string dead by trimming off the excess length before attaching it to the tuner: it was a round core string, rather than the usual hex core, and the winding just came loose. Another way to kill a G string is to use a really sharp metal pick to get that ‘bright’ sound. A former student of mine had that problem on the guitar he’d made after switching to metal picks: he was actually cutting through the winding on the G in a few strums: that thin wire can’t take much punishment.</i>
<i>Finally, there is a problem that shows up on Classical D strings with maddening regularity that might be related. When you pluck a string you activate a longitudinal compression wave at a high frequency, usually between the 7th and 8th partials of the string (on the G that would be between about 1370 and 1570 Hz). This pitch is not tied to the tuned pitch of the string, but is governed by the material and construction of it, and the length, so it ‘tracks’ the played pitch as you go up. If the longitudinal wave pitch is too close to the pitch of a partial it will couple, and cause that partial to come in at two different pitches at the same time. I know: it sound weird, but it does. This produces a buzz at the difference frequency that sounds for all the world like a fret buzz on every fret. The match in frequencies has to be really exact to cause a problem, and there’s enough variation in strings so that it doesn’t happen with every Classical D string, <b>but it happens often enough to be an issue. You may be seeing something like that with the G string. If so changing to another kind of string that is built differently might solve it.”</b></i>
– Paul –
Thanks for the feedback Zorro and Matt. I play bare fingers/flatpick about 50/50. I use Blue Chip TAD 40 & 50 pretty much exclusively, sometimes I’ll move onto TAD 60s — but rarely. To clarify the sound I’m objecting to, it’s specifically the G string while I’m fretting A. The “thinness” I mentioned on #1 & #2 strings is really not anything I’m finding to be objectionable or in fact necessarily different from what I normally hear. It’s just that I find the deeper #4, #5 & #6 SCGC strings far superior to any other strings I’ve played. So in comparison to my impression of those strings, they sound less impressive. I will put on another set of SCGC strings next string change and try again. Next time I’ll sit in the “listener’s” seat to compare.
– Paul –
BB I’m guessing you are looking for a response from SCGC, but I’ll give you my opinion. I own guitars made by Bourgeois, Collings and H&D and I’ve tried the “lower” models these brands offer – & gave my Waterloo to my grandson. I felt they were all lacking something the “better” models had and I wasn’t interested in having them in my collection. I’m reminded of the often stated saying, that there are 3 things that seem to be in balance: quality, price and service. It seems that lowering price might affect quality or service. I do understand and appreciate your question. It’s a good one. But I guess it depends on whether SCGC wants to serve that market segment.
– Paul –
My comments reflect my experience with Lights. I’ve only used Medium SCGC strings once, so I can’t say I have enough experience with the mediums to make the same claim. However, I have lights on all my guitars and I’m not inclined to use mediums. I do find that EXPs last as long as SCGC strings in my experience. I’m serious that my hearing could be responsible. After many years of having power tools screaming in my ears, there probably has been some damage. My wife thinks I don’t hear her when she talks and I think she might talk in “G” 🙂 I wanted to see what others thought of the strings. I still have 5 or 6 sets of SCGC strings on hand, so I’m sure the experiment will continue.
– Paul –
My experience is that all my guitars have matured differently, with no rhyme I can recognize. I can say that every guitar I’ve owned has benefited by the “aging” process. Some opened up significantly in a relatively short 6 month period of time. Others have taken a few years, while improving gradually along the way. Surprisingly, a SCGC EIR/German OM I currently own is one that has been slow to open over its first 2 years. However, it has gone from being a very nice guitar to pretty incredible — with no signs of leveling out. I’ll be anxious to see how my new Custom SCGC Coco/Italian OMG matures. It came to me with an unusually mature sound and it’s hard to imagine what it will grow to become.
One thing I’ve noticed is that some of my guitars have a short-term opening that occurs every time I play them, especially if I haven’t played them for a while, like a week or more. These guitars seem to warm up & provide a more complex tonal profile after playing them for 10 minutes or so.
– Paul –
