And now for somethong completely different.

[folderol]

Just been pointed to this by a friend

http://youtube.com/watch?v=l3k2cAQfRDE

Enjoy

[offthewall]

 
That reminds me of when I was a daft *** (long, long ago). I found a guitar neck in a rubbish dump so I made the rest of the instrument from an old bed headboard. All the body parts were straight cut and nailed/glued together. It was trapezium shape with a flat bottom so I could just stand it up next to me! I carried that around everywhere with me for years and it actually played well!
 
James

[Laguna Rising]

It's a new substitute for the cigar-box thing 

[Max el Belga]

It is also called Afri-Can guitar.
I join a photo of a (slide)guitar I´ve made with an old classical guitar neck.  The one on the right, of course.

Cheers,

Max... .. .

[elwoodblues1969]

Will,

I really enjoyed that video,as it's a great novelty item-which actually sounds impressive for what it is!
Nothing quite like having a custom instrument with a one of a kind sound to play with!
Great stuff-thanks for sharing.

Thom

[Marc JX8P]

A question for our guitarists here: how much of a sound is produced by the neck/body of an electric guitar? I'm just talking about the pickup signal that is produced of course. I'm asking this because I remember on KvR a guitarist asking for an impulse response for the solid wooden body of an electric guitar and I couldn't really imagine that playing a part - especially since solid wood doesn't resonate a lot (if at all). Of course I'm not a guitarist at all but it would seem to me that the pickups, amps and the rest of the signal chain are way more important.

[Max el Belga]

Marc, when you try a solid body guitar, it´s most important to try it unplugged : it will tell you how it sounds (ex. sustain, etc. ).
The movement of the strings activate the current production, but there´s an interaction between strings and wood.
Lots of studies have been done on the subject...
A scientific designed guitar was a disaster...
My experience tells me the sound of a solid body is mainly affected by the material between the top nut and the bridge.
If you look at my funny guitar on the picture, you´ll see the body ends nearly just behind the bridge and it has more sustain than a Gibson Les Paul...
Some friends of mine are professional luthiers and they can talk hours, days, weeks, months and years about wood...  And I just love to listen to them !

Cheers,

Marc... .. .

[Wyatt]

A question for our guitarists here: how much of a sound is produced by the neck/body of an electric guitar? I'm just talking about the pickup signal that is produced of course. I'm asking this because I remember on KvR a guitarist asking for an impulse response for the solid wooden body of an electric guitar and I couldn't really imagine that playing a part - especially since solid wood doesn't resonate a lot (if at all). Of course I'm not a guitarist at all but it would seem to me that the pickups, amps and the rest of the signal chain are way more important.

Good question, Marc.

I had a Gibson ES 335, a semi hollow body guitar, and also played an LS 135 for a while that had more of a hollow body. The difference in sound was huge. The 335 was a lot more versatile..and the sound struck a personal note for me.

My Custom Shop Stratocaster, with a solid body has an entirely different sound. I went looking for it with a certain sound in mind. The neck on this one is maple..one piece includes fretboard, and I liked the sound of the Maple fretboard much better than the rosewood, and in the past, I had also favored ebony over rosewood as well.

Back in the days when I lived down the street from Seymour Duncan, and he was making his pickups by hand in his garage workshop, I would have told you that the pickups are everything.

..and actually, the pickups will make more of a heavy-handed difference in the sound than anything else.

Max has a good point though..every one of my really fine electrics played like an angel unplugged. That's the secret of how to factor the pickups out of the equation.    ..you do have to make sure the intonation is set up correctly for this to be useful to you.

Choosing a guitar can be a very esoteric process..so if you are actually interested in going out to buy one, let me know and we can have a more in depth conversation about how you can get precisely what you want.



Wyatt

[Wyatt]

Oh, and Max,

I liked that 'Max el Bugle' picture on your artist page..

..and your avatar photo definitely wins my:

    "HAT of the YEAR" award for 2008.   

Congratulations.

Wyatt

[Oren]

...Back in the days when I lived down the street from Seymour Duncan, and he was making his pickups by hand in his garage workshop, I would have told you that the pickups are everything.
...and actually, the pickups will make more of a heavy-handed difference in the sound than anything else.
Max has a good point though..every one of my really fine electrics played like an angel unplugged...

Seymour Duncan designed and built the pickups on my G&L George Fullerton, specially for this model. Leo Fender designed the pickups on my G&L S-500 Deluxe(the blue one). In the search for the "right guitar" I've learned that even the best pickups cannot make crappy guitar sound good. Both these individual instruments sound stellar unplugged.
Plus, I like to test a guitar by plugging it into a solid state hi-fi home-entertainment amp, to hear what the electric output sounds like without the aid of effects or vacuum tubes. If it manages to sound lively and toneful through the hi-fi amp, it's going to be a real winner.

The quality of construction, selection of materials(wood), quality of hardware, and thoughtfulness of design will all contribute to the instrument's sound - then a good pickup will faithfully reproduce this excellence for "processing" through a guitar amp or effects unit. Ultimately, I favour a maple neck, ebony fretboard, and swamp ash (solid) body.

That "Castrol" oil can has a resonance all its own that gives the Afri-Can instrument its very recognizable tone... plus, the player's no slouch....

[folderol]

I had a guitarist friend (sadly gone now) for whom chosing a guitar was almost a religious experience. He'd spend hours making a selection.

I remember he did a lot of 'mechanical' checks like running the palm of his hand up and down the frets feeling for bumps/sharp edges, checking the way the machine heads behaved etc. One thing that alarmed people was his habit of slacking off one of the middle strings completely (I couldn't tell you which one) to see what difference it made to the tuning of the others.

Then he'd think about playing it! He also found it very important to hear it unamped.

He used to amaze people with his delicacy - this could have something to do with the fact he was a 6'3" steel fabricator/welder with wrists like tree-trunks

[Wyatt]

Seymour Duncan designed and built the pickups on my G&L George Fullerton, specially for this model. Leo Fender designed the pickups on my G&L S-500 Deluxe(the blue one). In the search for the "right guitar" I've learned that even the best pickups cannot make crappy guitar sound good. Both these individual instruments sound stellar unplugged.

@Oren-->>Interesting, bro. I have never considered changing my pickups..because my guitar plays so nicely. I love the sound, but would have no clue about changing to a custom pickup..there are so many these days.

More than just the sound, this one has the nicest neck I ever played. It is the first time in my life that I had an instrument that actually inspired me.

The quality of construction, selection of materials(wood), quality of hardware, and thoughtfulness of design will all contribute to the instrument's sound - then a good pickup will faithfully reproduce this excellence for "processing" through a guitar amp or effects unit. Ultimately, I favour a maple neck, ebony fretboard, and swamp ash (solid) body.

Price and materials alone is not the whole ball of wax..as you ar well aware I'm sure. Even expensive instruments vary a lot from one to another. My 335 sold used for $4000, and it wasn't even on the same playability planet with my Strat.  Go figure...(continued-->)

I had a guitarist friend (sadly gone now) for whom chosing a guitar was almost a religious experience. He'd spend hours making a selection.

@Will-->>I hear that..when it came time, after weeks of deliberation, to get my last guitar, it took me an hour to narrow the field from 18 to 3..then another five hours to declare a winner.  ..hehe..the winner was me..I still love this thing. 

Wyatt