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I hear you. With computer work and lots of playing and twenty more years on me and the guitar, my hands don’t hold up. Had to work hard to get through a four hour show at a party today; my hands were worn out from the last couple of days of playing.
Still using SCGC lights. I may go lighter at some point, too, and the CLs might work.
Years ago, Mandolin Bros in Staten Island had an OM 12-string. It was sublime….just amazing. Lots of note separation and great clarity, less raw jangle than most, very manageable. It reminded me of Ralph Towner’s 12-string jumbo – it was similar to the sound in the link below.
It was more balanced and more controllable than a dread 12 in my opinion, but that’s IMHO, YMMV.
Hey, you can buy a used Rolls for under $20k if you spend time on Auto Trader.
If I add up what mine are worth, I’d have two sets of numbers – resale value and replacement value. There’s a delta between the two that is not inconsequential. Insure for the latter, prepare for the former.
The advice to adopt a classical or classical-like position is useful. Not only does it damp the top and back less, it also improves both hands’ position relative to the instrument (IMHO, anyhow).
If you need to hold it in a classical-like position, the instrument can be rested on your right thigh, or you can use a Neck-up support which does so a little more securely.
The only dalbergia still on the list is Brazilian, dalbergia nigra.
Madrose is dalbergia baronii and it’s ok to trade in again. Madrose is still pretty endangered, though. It’s the same for African Blackwood, dalbergia melanoxylon, which is getting hard to find in wide pieces. Both are great materials but at their current rate of consumption, they’ll be on CITES 1 with Brazilian in the not-too-distant future.
Maybe it’s due to the balance between strings – I find them very even in perceived volume. But I don’t think they’re quieter.
Mics are nice, but in the real world, pickups have to do.
I love playing with a mic in a listening room, but in a noisy place, almost anything works better than a mic.
My SCGCs have passive SBT pickups, and that and a good preamp – in this case, a Rane AP13 – sound great if there’s time to dial things in. If the playing situation doesn’t present the opportunity to plug in the preamp and fiddle with it for a few minutes before getting started, then it’s time to default to the instruments with barn-door pickup systems that are essentially plug and play.
They’re extraordinary. I have a friend who swapped out the stock pickup for a Bartolini B-6, which is a very acoustic-sounding humbucker, and it now does everything from strumming to hard rock. Amazing instrument.
Umm, yeah, you need to take care of Dee; she’s pretty wonderful.
Just think – your guitars will live in air-conditioned comfort, too!
/mh
Adirondack is nice stuff but really, I’d choose the top depending on how it’ll be played. If you’ll be playing hard with a pick, use ad. I like plain old sitka for fingerpicking.
