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They’re 16 yr old Schallers, so I will be looking at the Gotohs, gold body (gold seems to go well with koa) and right now I’m thinking ebony buttons, but need to think about it a bit. Ivoroid might work nice, too – are yours the 1:21, or a little coarser?
It’s got a warm, and sweet, although gentle, voice. It’s a very personally satisfying sound, but I imagine it would not be much of a contender in a group setting – which the H isn’t either. It came with a pretty fresh set of Martin Lifespan lights, so I’m not ready to change them yet, but I’d really like to try my fav SCGC lights on it – it may even be a good candidate for the mediums –
Whats also interesting is that it has a LR Baggs Anthem (pretty sure) which sounds rather different from another guitar I thought has an Anthem too – guess I need to look into it at some point. Maybe these have batteries? Anyway, whats interesting is the amplified tone of this guitar is really nice, although I need to figure out if I can get the string to string balance adjusted a tiny bit. May be the reason to try other strings. But the strong midrange warmth and clarity of this guitar may be a really good fit playing amped with my friends – with a Tele on lead, and a really strong clean bass, this might fill in and be a really tasty rhythm instrument, if I decide I’m willing to gig with it – but I still have lots to learn about this amplification and pickup stuff –
Well, I wish everyone were a lot closer – I’d be very happy to let people try out my maple FTCs, one in sitka, and one in cedar. Both old ones, although I don’t think theres much changed with the new ones. I will say that the cut or “edge” one gets with a maple guitar can get a bit excessive with a cedar top – Extremely responsive to fingerstyle, but almost a distorted overdrive with a pick and some strumming. A flavor that would not appeal to many as an “only” guitar, but a very interesting voice if one can justify having a few guitars – no problems with that here – and I need to point out that SCGC had not had a lot of experience with cedar when they built this one. So at this point, they have much more experience with it, and could probably thickness and brace it to allow more of an aggressive strumming style. But I still wouldn’t recommend it.
The sitka top is a very nice combo – its got more balance, but still with the unique edge and voice of the FTC, and still very much a maple guitar. I very briefly tried a mahogany FTC, and I wish I could say I really remember it well, but it was very different from the maple, yet still had the presence of the FTC. I would be concerned with koa on a carved shape like that – at least highly figured koa – I just don’t know how it would be structurally, but I’m sure Richard has the expertise to do it if desired.
For myself, I am hoping for one in rosewood, with probably a Euro top – and I can only guess what it might be like. Hopes are high, but I just don’t know what its going to gain (or lose?) with rosewood instead of maple –
Well – I would like to be on the list at some point, but right at the moment, I’m still playing with a freshly rebuilt amp and my strat, and trying to figure out all these various knobs and settings – I’m feeling pretty overwhelmed. But the idea is great, and I’d like to be in on it!
I would add this – SCGC has not become the company it is by doing things the way other are doing them, or by adapting every change that comes down the road. They do not offer soundports, or bevels – they don’t bolt on necks, and while they’ve played with torrefied material, they still work almost exclusively with traditional seasoned materials. So just because other builders add a shape, or a finish, or almost anything else, that is not what would motivate Richard to change what they do at SCGC –
And specifically, a change in the finish would not result in much, if any, lowering of cost. Adding more finish options could potentially add cost, with the nature of their shop.
I can certainly understand the desire to get a SC a little cheaper – but I’ve found the bast way to do that is to keep your eyes open and be ready to jump when someone gets a bad case of GAS and lets one go – in fact, if there is a model or some specs on one you’d like to find, you might post it and we could all keep our eyes open for you!
I’ve been trying to find my old “elastic”capo, which was the only one I knew for many years – I don’t think they even offer them anymore – but if its buzzing, you just have to stretch it one more hole –
Is this with both the lights and mediums? I find that the lights are all I really need on most guitars, and the “eq” on the strings does seem much more flat – and I’ll admit that sometimes I miss the “edge”that I hear with a fresh set of EJ16s, but then I remember how quickly thats lost, while my SC strings just sound good for a long time. In fact, that may be my biggest complaint with the SC strings – they lose their tone so slowly, that sometimes I have to look at the date I wrote on the pack label to realize that they really should be changed –
did I mention I don’t really enjoy changing strings?
Well, I wouldn’t argue with any of you, but I swear that my guitars sound better after being played a while, even just 5 minutes. I can’t say its the guitar waking up – might be the strings waking up, might just be me settling down into the drivers seat, or it could just be the delayed re-awareness of what an old friend brings to the party – but sometimes, I’ll pick a guitar of mine up and it just doesn’t float my boat on first strum, but after a few minutes, its like reconnecting with an old friend – one of the reasons I have a hard time letting anything go –
I also believe most guitars need to be played a bit to open up, but the long term changes I can’t say alot about – all my guitars were bought used, and I can’t really say how much playing time they got. But the short term opening up, like if its been cased for a couple months, I do really believe that most need 10+ minutes of playing to start getting their voices back in shape –
Quickie follow-up – having learned about the on-off switches, I turned both parts off and plugged them into a usb charger overnight. After unplugging, I played the guitar for a little while, then turned both part off and put the guitar aside. I’ve been turning them on and playing it every day for a little bit since, and the 2 parts have always synced immediately, and some 10 plus days later, its still going strong every time I turn it on. I’m still needing to do a range test (need someone to help, since I can only hear the guitar and not the amp once I get a couple rooms away, but I’m sure signals getting thru) and I also need to do an endurance test to see how many hours I can get on a charge, but haven’t had the time for that yet.
But right now, if you dont have a pickup in your guitar, and you like the idea of doing it wireless, this is not a bad option to consider –
3 Fs! Thats great – doesn’t make me feel so crazy having 5 – or is it 6? Well, ones a 12 string, so it doesn’t count –
😉
Our lead guitar player, and only member of the group who is fully retired, signed us up with an online service called “Gigmasters” – I don’t have all the details, but Alan wanted to get a gig or two under our belt that would get us a rating on the site, so he’s been actively looking for them. This was our first, a backyard birthday party for a nice woman in Richmond, CA who seemed to enjoy us – gave us a nice tip, at least, and hopefully a good rating.
I figure if we’re getting payed, we gotta put on the show, so we brought our jackets, and by the time we quit playing around 8, we needed them! Went well – I have to say, the more I play in front of others, the less self-conscious I’m getting. I still get flustered too easily if we dont follow our music and just wander into the tall grass, but a tiny bit less so, and recover more quickly –
Thats perhaps my favorite pluggin’ in guitar – a 90s vintage F with koa b&s, sitka top, and a k&k inside. Wonderful shallow C 1-13/16 nut neck. If I get Richard to do me a custom, I may saw that neck off and tell him to use it – just love it.
True – they keep some of the seriously objectional stuff out, but they also let other stuff of highly questionable truthfulness get posted, and do a good job of stifling reasonable interchange –
on a thread about the possible effects of tariffs on musical instrument prices, I posted –
<i>There is too much to this equation to make a reasonable evaluation – personally, I’m less concerned with tariffs than I am with the increasingly wary-of-the-US positions that are coming down the pipe from governments and businesses that used to look at us as solid friends and partners previously. That could have major impact on our good and services throughout the world -</i>
Now – I actually got a couple of well-saids, and even a PM, but the posts (and any that referenced it) were quickly deleted. Meanwhile, posts like –
<i>Because while the import tax war may hurt us initially, it will hurt them more- and if it is prolonged it will shift those imported goods away from them semi-permanently.</i>
<i>It is important for us to look at the impact of actions on multiple time frames. Let’s face it, nothing we do will be great in this moment. We’re in a hole. We have national debt, higher manufacturing costs, are not geared up for the kind of production we once had. But turning an economy is like trying to turn an oversized ship. It isn’t going to turn on a dime. But change over time has to happen. And some of it will be painful as we adapt. While we were happy getting cheap stuff made by cheap labor we had to know the party wasn’t going to last forever. We’ve seen others eating our lunch for a couple decades now. There is no such thing as a “consumer economy” at least in the long term. It’s like a corn farmer eating his seed corn- and you know how that ends. We cannot keep going down the same road. Anyone have other suggestions?</i>
Thats is left up, along with numerous repeats of it – which I can only perceive as a pro-you-know-who ideology –
I like it here more – we just need to get more SC players to know we’re back!
