Customising an acoustic guitar

We've all done it, or know someone who has done it.
At the very least we've all played a guitar that's been customized.
Most common customization on an electric guitar is the pick ups or the bridge.
Then there's the finish, the scratchplate, the nut, machine heads, you can go on and on with an electric, to the point where you have the old " this is my great granfathers original axe, my granfather replaced the handle and my father replaced the head" style of thing.
But what about acoustic guitars?
There's not really a lot you can do with an acoustic. There's no pick ups to replace, the bridge is bolted and glued onto the body, if you mess with the finish you can mess with the tone.

I've been sort of customizing my acoustic over the years without realising, and indeed without intending to.

I have a Crafter FSG 250E.

Nice little guitar and suitable for the purpose. I've had it 11 years now and have been happy with it all this time.
Not long after I got it I made the first change. Purely for aesthetic reasons I replaced the machine heads. The stock Crafter machine heads were fine, kept tune and were relativley stable, but they were chrome, I wanted gold. So I bought a set of gold grovers and fitted them, like I say it was purely aesthetic reasons.

 

I never intended to make any other changes, but circumstances sometimes take over. I mainly used the guitar for home use and home recording. Then I started going to various open mic nights with the guys I was in a band with.

This particular model came fitted with a passive pick up. This was fine in itself, but meant if I wanted to amplify the guitar it would have to through an amp. At most of the open mics I went to, although amps were provided and I could take my own if neccesary, I thought it would be better if I could just plug into the PA directly, meaning all I had to take with me would be the guitar. So a few years ago I looked for an active pick up. I trawled guitar forums to find the best one......turns out it was about £300!!, so I read up as much as I could to find a more reasonable priced one, I'm not tight, just skint, but I wasn't going to buy the cheapest one I could find, just the most expensive I could afford.

As most people are aware it's not the price that matters at the end of the day, it's all about the actual quality. Now I'm not saying a £300 Fishman won't be good, but by the same token a £10 chinese piezo might not be crap.

The eventual pick up I bought cost about £30, I got it on eBay. It's RRP was £60, but I was patient enough to trawl ebay until I found what I wanted at the price I wanted. That's the beauty of eBay, if there's something you want, as long as you're patient, you don't have to pay full price for it.

So after a while I managed to get it. Cos it was active, and had a battery compartment as well as more than just volume and tone, it was a bit bigger than the original. So I had to enlarge the hole where the control unit fitted. Not a major job and didn't cause and damage to the guitar or affect the overall tone.

The operation was a roaring success.

( there should be a photo here, but I've tried and tried but can't get any of the photos to load, sorry )

So anyway that was that.

 

Then one day I was bored and trawling through eBay...............

I was actually looking for a soundhole cover when I came across an "O" port.

What was this strange device? I googled it, read the company blurb ( obviously they said is was the greatest thing since sliced bread, so I read through a few guitar forums. To be honest they didn't help one little bit. There was a definate 50/ 50 split between it being amzing to being a waste of money. So all that was left for me to do was buy one and decide for myself. After all it wasn't expensive.

A couple of days later it was delivered. I wanted to know what sort of real difference it made, so I recorded a short piece on the guitar, then fitted the "O" port and recorded the same piece.

When I played the two pieces back.....I couldn't tell a blind bit of difference!

I've sort of convinced myself that the mid range tones are a bit better, but to be honest I'm not entirely convinced. In fairness it doesn't detract anything either, so it's a lesson learned.

 

 

The story doesn't end there either.

 

Away back in the 80's there was a device made by a company called Asprii, it was a mechanical device for producing acoustic reverb. I was intrigued, but at £80 a go it was beyond my reach ( my weekly wage at the time was £90, the Asprii's were so hard to find as well).

I always had Asprii on my saved search list on good old eBay and sure enough it popped up one day. Brand new, loads of them, around £50 each ( compared with £80 25 years ago!!)

But I still didn't pay full price, got a used one for £16!

Sure enough it's as easy to fit as the manufacturers say, only takes seconds.

And with this you can hear the difference immediatley. Has an excellent full reverb tone. Wish I had got one away back in the eighties. I would recommend them, the only downside is the reverb isn't noticable in a gigging situation, so it's really for using at home, or if you have a microphone in front of your guitar, but still a nice item to have.

 

 

 

So you can customise an acoustic guitar, even if you don't mean to.

 

 

A Guitar for drummers?

I've come across a lot of weird and wonderfull guitars in my time. Some have a specific purpose, some are just barking mad.

Then there's the Jasperbridge Percussion Guitar.

Mad as a box of frogs. The strings are on the front, and the back.

At first glance it looks like it's back to front/ upside down just plain mental.

Don't know what it's like to play, obviously requires a whole new technique, and the fact that it has to stay on a stand would require a different discipline for those of us who like to move about.But you get to beat it with a drum stick ( helpfully supplied with the guitar ). Buddy Guy and Joe Bonnamassa have used a similar technique, but this is the first guitar specifically built for this technique. It's an interesting variation, and the build reminds me of those Escher drawings of infinate stairs. Definatley eye catching.

Any innovation in guitars is a good thing, new techniques/ playing styles, help make a guitarist adaptable and it's good that there are guitar builders out there who are challenging the normal perception of how a guitar should be played, but also how a guitar should be built.

If it is as good as the manufacturers would like it to be the next logical step would be to build bass and maybe even acoustic variations. I can see a bass version being very popular.

Would like to try one, if only for the novelty value, so if the manufacturers want to send me one ......

Check out the full spec on the official website

http://myjbridge.com/home.cfm

Almost A Cure

The Variax 500. 25 guitars in one, and with the aid of a workbench programme, endless variations are available. So basically the only guitar you'd ever need.

You'd think so wouldn't you?

On the one hand, yes, on the other hand........it's another guitar for my collection.

The Variax 500 was introduced in 2002 by Line 6.

The bridge of a Variax electric guitar has an individual piezoelectric pickup for each string. Each of these 6 signals is converted individually to a digital signal in the guitar's electronics. This allows for separate processing of the signals from each string. This allows two technologies that would otherwise be impossible: the modeling of effects caused by one string on the others, and virtually altering the pitch of each individual string, allowing guitarists to switch between different tunings using a pedal or a switch on the guitar.

The result of this is that you can change from one modelled guitar to another. The technology works well, and the actual tone achieved, well the purist might quibble but they're still bloody good.
The models you can access are :
* 1960 Fender Telecaster Custom
* 1968 Fender Telecaster
* 1968 Fender Telecaster Thinline
* 1959 Fender Stratocaster
* 1958 Gibson Les Paul Standard
* 1952 Gibson Les Paul "Goldtop"
* 1961 Gibson Les Paul Custom (3 PU)
* 1956 Gibson Les Paul Junior
* 1976 Gibson Firebird V
* 1955 Gibson Les Paul Special
* 1959 Gretsch 6120
* 1956 Gretsch Silver Jet
* 1968 Rickenbacker 360
* 1966 Rickenbacker 360-12
* 1961 Gibson ES-335
* 1967 Epiphone Casino
* 1957 Gibson ES-175
* 1953 Gibson Super 400
* 1959 Martin D-28
* 1970 Martin D 12-28
* 1967 Martin O-18
* 1966 Guild F212
* 1995 Gibson J-200
* 1935 Dobro Alumilite
* Danelectro 3021
* Coral/Dano Electric Sitar
* Gibson Mastertone Banjo
* 1928 National Style 2 "Tricone"
I can't comment on the vintage tones, but I can say that the range available is amazing and probably makes this the most versatile guitar available.

In a live gigging situation this is the only guitar I need, I can switch from acoustic to electric, smooth jazz to dirty rock.

I only recently bought this guitar, I've been intrigued for years but was worried it might be a gimmick. It was only after seeing a mate playing one, and talking to him about it, I decided to buy one. I've never regretted it, I really wish I'd bought it years ago.

The other inovation with the Variax, is that you can connect it to a computer, and using the workbench software you can adjust and tailor the guitar to your own needs. You can programme body shape, pick ups, volume and tone control etc. The possibillites are ( probably ) endless.

A feature that I really like is you can programme in alternate tunings, again this adds to the stage versatility of the guitar. I've even programmed in a Gretsch barritone guitar and a mandolin!

So with all this at your fingertips there's no need to ever buy another guitar...................yeah right!!

I love this guitar to death, but asking me to stop buying guitars is like asking me to stop breathing.

The guitar itself is a joy to play, nice weight, good action and stable tuning. It does everything it promises to do and I can't recommend it highly enough to the gigging musician, but it won't stop me buying the real versions of the guitars it copies, much to my wife's chagrin :-)

Tenor Guitars

The first time I ever saw a tenor guitar was in an Elvis Presley film many many years ago. I can't even remember the film, but I was intrigued about this four string guitar he was playing.
I've had a couple of tenor guitars over the years, I like playing them, they have a lighter sound than a normal six string, for obvious reasons, and they lend themselves to slide playing quite well, and I love playing slide guitar.
I can't work out why they aren't more commonly seen than what they are.
But it wasn't always like this.
Back in the day it seemed that Gibson would make every conceivable variation of their guitars, and so produced a raft of tenor variations of their guitars. I would imagine these were made in limited numbers, if not one off custom models. Either way they'd make a fantastic addition to any collection.

Obviously Gibson weren't the only makers to build these instruments, but I think theirs have a bit of style and panache.

But then we get to Gretsch......

And not to be outdone Rickenbacker had a go, but added a couple of strings to make it a banjo/ guitar

There's dozens of variations of tenor guitars all over the world, and if you're looking for something a wee bit different to the norm, then try one out, whatever your style I don't think you'll be dissapointed .........unless you play death metal I suppose.........


Finally, here's link to a video, it's quite whimsical and made me smile, which was probably the point

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFuwJRKz7Vg

Object Of My Desire...........part 1

The Hagstrom Super Swede.


What's that you say? A Les Paul copy?.............nah!............

Ok it it's very similar to a Les Paul, but it's the subtle differences that set it apart.

The Hagstrom Super Swede has been considered one of Hagstrom’s flagship models, since it was first introduced to the world back in the late 1970’s.

Each Super Swede is crafted using a mahogany body, maple top, and set mahogany neck.

The Super Swede’s 25.5” scale length, provides a brighter tone and longer sustain which makes a wonderful instrument for players looking for more flexibility. The Super Swede naturally features Hagstrom’s own renowned H-Expander Truss rod providing an ultimately stable neck that will not warp or twist, and also being topped with Hagstrom’s own Resinator Fret board material for increased sustain and even tone throughout the entire fret board.

I first came across the Super Swede in the late 70's/ early 80's. I saw Kevin Peek playing one when he was in classical/ prog rock band Sky. I was totally blown away by the tone he achieved. It was such a sweet tone, and, being young and impressionable, I thought that the tone came straight from the guitar, not taking into account the player.

Anyway I loved the look of the guitar as well, yes it did look like a Les Paul, but maybe it's slightly overweight cousin.

I've had the opportunity to play a couple over the years, but for some reason never got round to buying one. They are good guitars to play, feel very comfortable and just slightly heavier than  a LP. The slim neck makes a huge difference, it feels smooth and fast, and the tone is fantastic.

So a Super Swede or Super Swede Select is on my wish list......................which get's longer and longer, no matter how many guitars I buy.

There were a lot of these available in the 70's/ 80's then they seemed to dissapear for a while, in the last couple of years they have been relaunched, and seem to be enjoying a bit of a renaiscance.

Personally I think they're a good alternative to the big American brands, and would say they are as good as a Yamaha SG.

If Hagstrom want to send me one....feel free :-)

Check Out WWW.HAGSTROMGUITARS.COM

The Guitar That Hated Me!

So it doesn't look that bad.
This guitar hated me.
I mentioned it in an earlier post, it's an Epiphone Les Paul. The photo's really don't do it justice, it was a beautiful looking guitar, the grain was a beautiful tiger stripe and I loved the look.
But playing it was like wrestling an alligator.

One of the very few guitars I never got on with, and I do mean few. This honestly was hard work. I bought it in 2000, it was made in 1998. I bought it purely on looks, I was in a shop my mate worked in and as I was leaving I saw it on a stand and bought it there and then, it was only £90!
Didn't try it out or anything, total impulse buy.
From day one it just never felt right. Even the way it hung on the strap didn't feel right. When I played it, it felt like it was constantly wriggling out of my grip.
I'm not superstitious or any of that crap, but looking back, this guitar didn't want me to play it. I couldn't get a decent tone out of it, everything sounded clunky. But because of the look, I persevered with it.
Now I'm not putting down Epiphones, this was an excellent guitar. Well made, excellent set up, I just couldn't get to grips with this one, I've played various other Epiphones since, and even own another Epiphone Les Paul, the only problem was this particular guitar.
I looked after it, I polished it regularly, put lemon oil on the fretboard everytime I changed strings. But it was destined not to be.
Eventually, in 2009 I sold it. For 9 years I persevered with it, but realised I wasn't gonna get anything out of it. So it went on Ebay. I'm just glad there were no kids to worry about :-)
I made a decent profit out of it, and used the money to buy my Gretsch.
Not long after I sold it I got an email from the buyer, he loved it, it was his perfect guitar. Which just shows the vagaries of guitar buying.

For the eagle eyed among you, it IS left handed. I'm naturally left handed, but can play guitar either right handed or left handed, I've played both ways at gigs, just to show off. Cos I'm like that.

Electraglide In Black........

I remember seeing this in a guitar magazine review in the mid eighties. I was intrigued by the design of the neck. It was quite unique. The fretboard was made of alluminum, and instead of frets, the fretboard was made in a stepped design, some describe it as a sawtooth effect. The guitar also boasted state of the art materials and electronics.
.....................so what went wrong....................
Well despite all the technology and innovation, the reviews reckoned it was just a rubbish guitar. Bland and unexciting, the controls were fiddly to opperate and the need for an external power source limited it's use..................all fur coat and no knickers.
The company folded a couple of years later, popular opinion has it they only made 1000 guitars.
Personally I've never seen one up close. The only guitarist I've ever seen playing it was Mick Jones of Big Audio Dynamite.
I'd still like to try one.

Here's the wikipedia entry for it

The Bond Electraglide was a carbon fiber electric guitar manufactured by Bond Guitars between 1984 and 1985. It resembled a matte-black, 3-pickup Gibson Melody Maker (although with the 1962 onwards double cut-away), with a unique stepped aluminum fingerboard (anodized black) instead of traditional frets. Pickup switching, volume and tone controls were completely digital, powered by a large internal motherboard.
The player selected pickups via five pushbuttons; volume, treble and bass were incremented numerically via digital rocker switches, confirmed by a three-colour LED readout.
The guitar required an external power supply pack and given the state of engineering at the time, was relatively bulky; it never really caught on in the marketplace and only about 1400 units were ever manufactured. ^[1]
British guitarist Mick Jones is known to have used a Bond Electraglide with his band Big Audio Dynamite in the mid 1980s. The Edge used his extensively on The Joshua Tree, including the solo on "One Tree Hill", as well as on "Exit," and "Mothers of the Disappeared".^[2] Will Sergeant, John Turnbull, and Dave Stewart were also Electraglide users.
Bond Guitars was set up by Andrew Bond (d. 1999) in Muir of Ord, Scotland, in 1984. The company ceased trading in 1986.

My Pride and Joy

This is my Gretsch Electromatic Pro Jet. My pride and joy.
You know when you pick up a guitar and it just fits so perfectly? This does that. When I played it in the shop, I just knew this was my guitar. I 've had it 3 years, I've gigged it to death and I've never had a problem with it.
It keeps in tune no matter how I abuse it. The action is fantastic, and it has an amazing tone no matter wether I play it clean or dirty.
Not the most expensive guitar ever made, or even in the Gretsch range, but playing a guitar isn't about price, or even brand names, it's about the guitat itself, the vibe, the mojo.
I sold an Epiphone Les Paul to buy this. I had the Les Paul for years, but I could never bond with it. No idea why. The guitar looked fantastic, beautiful tiger stripe, cherry sunburst. But it just never felt right, I persevered for a long time, I really wanted the guitar to work, but it just never felt right. This isn't to say I don't like Epiphones, just that particular one.
But with the Gretsch, it felt right as soon as I picked it up. This is a guitar I'll never part with.

The only modification I've made, if you can call it a modification, is a Vibramate spoiler on the bigsby. I love bigsby's, on the right guitar it looks as cool a f***. But restringing a bigsby, especially mid gig, is a royal pain. The spoiler changed all that, takes seconds to change a string and I'd highly recomend them to bigsby users.

The above photo shows a wee bit of damage the guitar sustained at a gig. I'm still not sure what happened, no one saw it happen. The guitar was knocked of it's stand at a gig, just before we were due to start. A chunk was taken off the finish on the neck, at the third fret. I was so distraught! The guitar has a couple of dings here and there, but at the time I thought this was the worst thing ever. The first couple of songs we played were a bit rubbish cos I was so upset about this. I've got over it though, the way I look at it now is that I'll always be able to find the third fret without looking :-).

So anyway, the point is, you'll know when you find your perfect guitar, and the make and price are immateriel, but then.........it is a Gretsch

Guitar Project

I wanted to try building a guitar from parts bought on ebay, not exactly custom built, but as close as I could get. The photo above shows the ( almost ) finished version.
The body was an excellent hardwood body, I think the original guitar was made by Vantage or Vintage. Had a beautiful maple top in cherry sunburst. The neck was from an unknown brand. I fitted a wilkinson roller bridge and tailpiece as well as wilkinson tuners, all in gold.
The pick ups were GFS Dream 180's, described as a cross between a filtertron and a PAF. The electrics consisted of a single volume, single tone and an Artec 5 step distortion switch.

If you look closely at the photos above, you can see how high I had to set the bridge ( and bridge pick up ) to compensate for the angle of the neck. The angle was one thing I didn't check before I finished the guitar, consequently it remained very steep, not unplayable but felt weird when playing.
Anyway, I was pleased so far with how the guitar looked and wanted to make it a bit more personal. I came across a seller on ebay who custom made guitar headstock logo's. I didn't want to pretend this guitar was something it wasn't, so I had a personalised logo made.

Using as close a font as possible he put my band name as the logo in a Gibsonish style, and my name in a sort of Les Paul style font. This was a waterslide full face decal. I was very pleased with the result. I can't remember how many coats of laquer I put over it, but I would think at least ten.

The finished guitar was used for about a dozen gigs, as well as rehearsals. Although it had a great sound, very full and rounded with excellent sustain, I never really used the Artec 5 Step switch that often. Also it always felt to me to be a bit fragile, the steep neck angle had a lot to do with this.

The guitar looked good, a lot of people commented on it, even non guitarists liked it, but I never really bonded with it, mainly because of the neck angle, but also the small body.

So it was retired while I had a rethink.

I have decided to change the body, and am currently trying to source a Les Paul body that looks as good as the one I used. Obviously the wood would have to be as good quality to ensure I get as good a tone out of it.

One day the Spitfire guitar will return!!

Not exactly sure of how much I spent on it, but a ball park figure would be £150. Not too bad, wife didn't mind and it kept me quiet for a week or two :-)

My Mystery Guitar

I bought this guitar about 5 years ago. I've no idea what it is. It's obviously modelled in the style of PRS guitars.It has a gibson logo on the headstock, but it's not a Gibson. It's most certainly made in China, but it's a decent quality guitar. The wood on the top is quite thick and as far as I can tell it isn't ply, I've scraped a bit of paint off the bottom near the jack socket to see if I could see layers of wood, but it looks like it's fairly solid. The neck is quite hefty, but having said that, it's good to play. Powerfull pick ups. You can see screwholes where a bigsby type tremelo was fitted, but, as I use this for slide, I took the trem off and replaced the bridge with a Wilkinson roller bridge and tailpiece.

As you can see, it has a few battle scars, there's some buckle rash on the back too, this gives it a bit of mojo I think. All the marks have appeared since I've owned it, when I originally bought it, there wasn't a mark on it, but it's been gigged to death since then.

The pick ups have a good throaty sound, which is why I decided to use it for slide playing, I usually have it tuned to open E, and occasionally to open G.

Oh, and the cost? ..........£35!........bargain!

And here it is with the bigsby attached.