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Picked mine up at the 2012 Xmas party. Still a keeper.
That was a good party, and that guitar is special.
Play the remuda and remember Alex ad friendship and good music.
It’s the best way to remember him. And you’re making more memories for the future 🙂
/mh
The oldest redwood-topped instruments I know about are from the 80s, and they still sound excellent (made by Frank Fuller, several redwood/walnut things, which are really nice).
Redwood as a material is a little more brittle than spruce (I don’t know why). It’s got a very bright ring when tapped.
I would guess that properly dry redwood is going to sound good right out of the gate and maybe get brighter as it ages (and dries). In an FTC, this would probably translate to more incisive chop chords (go Freddie Greene!) and maybe more cut on the leads when coupled with the reflective granadillo on the back.
I suspect it’ll sound something like Steve Khan’s redwood-topped rosewood David Russell Young guitar on Donald Fagen’s True Companion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4ULgo1MTl8 – bright and punchy but not dry.
Alternate and probably better listen: Steve Khan playing the same guitar on Evidence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02BgGKgtjZ8&list=OLAK5uy_kwPLwg0TFcJXi2pbrxlRopJUno2C5q8QM, which is basically 50 mins of the same guitar with only Rob Mounsey’s keyboard behind him, playing mostly Monk tunes. This is pretty much a high-wire act in which both the payer and the guitar are laid bare without a lot of ornamentation.
I’m presuming the back and sides are dalbergia granadillo – there are a lot of woods called ‘granadillo,’ unfortunately, including the excellent red macacauba, platymisicum pinnatum, which I learned about from Brazilian builder Roberto Gomes. Either way, it’s probably a very reflective material and will increase brightness….
Enjoy it.
Those are the inlays I remember from the 1980s ads. Unbelievable stuff…..
The Eastman that I had for a bit was an AR803CE. Mine had a single-pickup (neck position) inset into the top (I don’t care for the tone of floating pickups on many archtops….). It was a great instrument but someone came along, fell in love with it, and kept putting money on the table until I agreed to part with it. In retrospect, I probably shouldn’t have parted with it, but I used like 20% of the proceeds to pick up another less expensive archtop, and the rest is in the fund to buy whatever it is I decide I really want when I grow up 🙂
Tad – if you get a chance to check one of those out, I’d do it; that guitar was right up your alley, with a sizable neck, big rich tone, and minimal fussing with controls to dial in a good sound. They’re expensive now but not ridiculously so.
December 11, 2020 at 6:34 pm in reply to: Last Call…..Let’s put a smile on at the end of the year #5057Working on it, thanks for the gentle reminder!
Speaking of that Mauel… 😀
And send me the scale length and a neck-shape template on graph paper; I still have a maple/mahogany octave mando body and a long scarfed neck that was waiting for input when you moved a bit east of California. It’s seasoned well…..
- This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by Matt Hayden.
Hmm. My OM was built in ‘91, so a four person shop, I think.
I’ve got the Pierret classical, hand built….and a couple of the parlors that I’ve made.
I want a Wingert CM a LOT (I passed on one years ago and have regretted it since). A Robert Anderson 00-14-fret would also work, though they’re quite rare.
Read it, it’s a good book!!
November 29, 2020 at 3:40 am in reply to: Question on Tapered Braced Style Guitars, Deep Body F Anyone? #5002How deep is your OM grand? Is it stand depth or Martin J depth (dread depth)? I wonder if that’s a factor….
Oh FWIW, SCGC archtops are the ne plus ultra of modern archtop design. I played one at the Xmas party some years ago and just couldn’t stop smiling….so good. I also played an older one with a smaller body – 15”? – and it had huge punch. Just brilliant.
- This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by Matt Hayden.
May I be next in line after Chris?
November 29, 2020 at 12:36 am in reply to: Question on Tapered Braced Style Guitars, Deep Body F Anyone? #4993The F body is already quite deep – it’s basically dread depth. To go too much deeper might enlarge the cavity to the point where it’d get a bit woofy and out of breath.
If you want bass, try a BBB – the SCGC Bob Brozman Baritone with (IIRC) a 28” scale. I think they’re tuned down to B, and they…rumble. They sound clear when strummed, fingerpick beautifully, and the basses will peel the paint off a wall or set off earthquake sensors within a reasonable space. If I had the $$, it’s one of the instruments I’d have; running ii-V-Is on it in the lower register is like a piano, and I’m not being entirely hyperbolic when I say that. I played some Leadbelly tunes on one and was surprised how much James P Johnson (stride piano) there was in the sound.
If you’re looking for that in an F, maybe a baritone F or FS with an extended scale length?
- This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by Matt Hayden.
We’re holding together. Beth’s back at the library, which is fortunately closed to the public, but still more people in a space than anyone’s comfortable with. My company, focused as it is on speech-driven development, is going gangbusters, and I’m working too many hours. Trying to keep a guitar in the home office and play during downtime; it’s not at all easy to find.
We’ll get by but it’ll be good to be past the winter spike in the virus, which is already underway in CA.
I’m down for attending on any of those dates.
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