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Well, we have a new 16’ yurt on a new 25×25 deck that could be a good place to hang in NoCal. It’s already a jam space for the locals, so there’s precedent.
What do you want out of a nut or saddle? As long as the material is adequately dense and the saddle/nut are well-fitted and well-constructed, they’re going to work.
I have used MOP nuts once or twice to see how they wore, and wear they do. Each took a while to make (LOTS of filing) but they’ve held up for a long time. But as Tad says, bone works in the vast bulk of cases. Ivory was used because it was prettier, I think – I mean, it IS beautiful – but it’s softer than bone a lot of the time and steel strings will cause it to wear hard.
I’ll echo Richard’s comments: Tad’s FTC is amazing. I could play it all day and not get tired of it.
I use good-quality bone for saddles – the Colosi material is nice but I’ve weighed it for a given dimension vs generic good quality blanks and there isn’t appreciable variance in either weight or hardness/density/workability. I’ve used Colosi bone, other bone, fossil ivory, Tusq, Corian, ebony, mother of pearl, etc and good bone just plain works. Plus I can make it at home – a well-cleaned beef shinbone saws up to a LOT of material…..though MOP makes a great nut because it doesn’t wear very fast (it is super hard).
As long as bridge pin material is concerned, I haven’t ever noticed any difference.As long as they’re adequately stiff and well-seated, they seem to work fine. Even heavy pins like brass don’t seem to affect much – maybe they damp volume a little bc of the 4-5x increase in mass – but it’s hard to notice.
IME there’s more variance from changes in hand position or nail condition than nut/saddle/pin changes. I’ve spent twenty-plus years figuring out how to get the best out of the OM (and other instruments) with my hands and an occasional pick. That familiarity means I know what a given instrument will do and what it won’t, and how to address it to get the sounds that I like.
I don’t think a cutaway detracts from the sound in any warm and it definitely does add versatility for people who play above the body joint, which is kind of the point. If a player will use it, get one; if not, don’t bother.
Signed, has a cutaway acoustic which seems to work fine.The nominal purpose of scalloping is to remove wood in a way that loosens the top in a way increases amplitude mostly in the bass range, or so I’ve read in articles by people who know more than I do. My experience (and I acknowledge that anecdote != data) accords with that. I tend to find scalloped-braced instruments a bit outsized in the bass, and that’s playing finger type with a bare thumb (no pick). Thumpy bass is useful for some players, but in general, I’m not one of them.
By contrast, the straight-braced instruments (mostly Martins) from the late 40s through the 70s tend to sound better for strumming with a pick. My working hypothesis involves the additional stiffness imparted to the top by larger, mostly uncarved bracing helping to even out the peaks and valleys of sound and requiring more energy per dB to drive the top, possibly resulting in some effects which mimic electronic compression. The bass is relatively tight and the dynamic range is reduced, or at least they feel that way to present deponent.
Tapered has a bit more bass than straight-braced instruments and less than scalloped, IME. It seems a good bit more even in terms of volume throughout the compass of the instrument, with nice trebles and a solid but not thumpy bass. It seems that the purpose of the tapered shape has to do with loosening the top in a way that is qualitatively different from scalloped; it should change the way the Chladni (vibration/glitter) patterns present bc the location of the vibrating nodes and antinodes on the top change quite a lot. I suspect that it elides some of the strong nodes seen in scalloped x bracing and makes the frequency response of each vibrational mode a little wider.
I’ve played instruments that refute this in one way or another, but it’s a rule of thumb that has at least a germ of truth, alt least for what I play (fingerstyle, complex chords, etc). Fortunately, Richard has access to and ongoing interest in the science of guitar acoustics, and consequently can talk much more knowledgeably and with greater confidence about specific frequency response curves imparted by different bracing patterns.
For me? Small, shallow body, tapered bracing, long scale, big neck, wide string spacing; in general tghose attributes, in my experience, will get me most of the way to what i want. As always, usual disclaimers apply: YMMV, anecdote != data, IANAL, et cetera.
Tapered is often very even throughout the spectrum and (IMHO) sounds better for harmonically complex chords. Scalloped often enhances bass and can be very warm. But those are guidelines.
Yep. Whatcha all said.
Keep playing and be thankful for all we have.
Off to play music, drink wine, and gift an instrument (probably not quite in that order…)
merry happies to all and to all a good night!
/mh, Looking forward to some rum nog….
Since I already had some picks, I saw the topic and did a donation to the food bank at the library. Thanks for the reminder, guys – we are fortunate, let’s not forget those who aren’t.
Plus, great picks. 😀
Hey, I know those picks! Next round, can I add to the $$ pool and order some heavies?
Zorro: sounds like you have a coffee-broken mug. We limped Beth’s favorite mug along for years with help from a potter friend who slip-fitted and low-fired it, but it eventually gave up the ghost and is now an heirloom that our heirs will get to throw out ;D
