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I watched that podcast a few hours after it was posted. It astonishes me that I can pose a question, only to have The Man devote most of a podcast answering it. I learned so much, as I always do from him. Thank you everyone for making this happen. Thank you Richard for such remarkable support. Safe travels to Europe…
Thanks for that reply, indexless. I listened to the podcast and actually wound up with more rather than fewer questions. In a nutshell, RH seems to be saying that plastic is bad, wood is good, abalone is good. Strangely a well respected US manufacturer of our acquaintance reportedly uses plastic in pro level instruments. So back to my ponderings- wood and abalone purflings are good. So… 1) is abalone better or more or less equal to a better wood, and 2) are some woods better than others? If abalone is significantly better, that might be a good choice. If abalone and all woods offered by SCGC are basically equal, then esthetics rule the day. If they are equal to the standard issue ivoroid, I just saved myself a little money… or actually redircted some to other options.
Never too late to resurrect a good topic… I think about this a lot. I hope to be gifting myself with another guitar this year, so the intense consideration has begun. I believe Richard to be correct (as always) that the abalone purfling impacts and can improve the sound. Witness the videos online- the Martin 000-42 always sounds far better than the 000-28. It is well established that Martin grades wood cosmetically, so why would a 42 sound clearer, more dynamic, more interesting than a 28 if the difference is that the wood looks better? The purfling. In a youtube video from TNAG/Carter, an otherwise standard SCGC OM on this video has jaw-dropping sound: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULj1VFAg2pY.
So the questions are these:
1) If abalone is great and plastic is horrible, are other things like wood that Richard brings up almost or equal to the abalone level or does he mention them to be used in combination with abalone?
2) If abalone is all that, and if one has $2000-2500 to spend on options on an otherwise stock OM build, is abalone a better use of that money than wood selection… top or back/sides?
Just looking for some insights to ponder…
I have to say how dumbfounded I am that I posed a question on the forum, and a few days later Richard Hoover himself spends the majority of a podcast answering. Mr Hoover, I can’t thank you enough.
There was some much really useful information, and frankly I hadn’t taken into account the provenance or the family history (as we call at me office “tribal knowledge”). This was just fantastic.
There was one bit of folklore that I still need clarity on- in Michael Watts’ video on moon spruce he claimed that in addition to the scheduling of harvesting as RH stated, he said that the tree is then left on the hillside, pointing downhill, branches still attached for some amount of time (I think 6 weeks minimum) before being brought in to be processed. Any truth to that?
Thanks again to Mr Hoover as well as TL and RN… this was terrific.
Thanks for all the input, everybody. Yes tadol, it is very cool and it is short scale. I didn’t mean to imply that I wanted to use heavier strings, it was just a story to frame why I am so nervous about messing around with tunings. I have been playing for 50 years, and this H-12 is my favorite guitar ever. After touring the factory 2 years ago, I went up to Sylvan Music and played probably 30 high end guitars… and I just kept coming back to this H. I went back the next day and the man behind the counter said “you’re here to play that 12 fret again, aren’t you”. Oddly, my wife didn’t get the memo about being the voice 0f reason, and wound up buying it for me for a birthday present I lie awake thinking about playing this guitar. I daydream at work about going home and playing it. I think I’ll give the OM Grand a test drive and see where it lands me.
Thanks again. Be kind, stay safe, and play from the heart.
