new acoustic

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ed
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#1 new acoustic

Post by ed »

My trusty old acoustic is now in the winter of it's existence...it has much fret buzz and the bridge saddle is gradually leaving the top. I have started to look at new guitars.

the list so far is:

Takamine Tan45 or Tan46
Takamine P3nc (new version of the above)
Talyor 200 series
Taylor 400 series
martin DRS1 or DRS2
martin 00015 or 00016
Guild F130
Guild D140
Seagull S6

It's getting difficult to try out the various choices because the dealers keep so little stock these days and it's not the kind of thing you buy online....A trip down to Charing Cross road is not so easy these days. Life used to be so easy....now you have to drive all the way round the country....or get down to Charing cross road I suppose...

I've tried the Martins and the Taylors so far, and the Taylors win that heat by a country mile. Off to York tomorrow to check out the Guilds....... I'm familiar with the Tan45 but havn't played one for some time so I need to find somebody who still has one in stock.

I mention it as one of you axemanglers may have other suggestions..

PS: I mention it here because it's such a pointless subject on guitar forums where arguments start about each posters favourite...back to the school playground

pps: don't anyone mention collings!
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kennyk
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#2

Post by kennyk »

Fret buzz and bridge lifting can both, in theory be sorted.
If the top is ply then it's possibly not worth doing, but if it's a good quality spruce top then it's worthwhile. What kind of acoustic is it?
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#3

Post by ed »

Hi Kenny

It's a very old brunswick which I assume is ply top. Since I've stopped gigging I'm playing the acoustic more and more so I thought it's time to buy a proper one...

I have a chum, John Le Voi ( http://www.johnlevoiguitars.co.uk/ ) who lives
where I used to live who has fettled my basses over the years. He redressed it a few years back and suggested any further work would be pointless.....
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#4

Post by kennyk »

Yeah, the brunswick will probably be a ply top, so not worth spending any money on.

I know John' stuff, big on Gypsy Jazz guitars. Had one of his octave mandolins came through my shop when I had it.

Have you considered a hand-made one off rather than a factory made instrument (martin, taylor guild etc?) I don't know what John's charging these days. Of course the difficulty is not being able to try it before you commit... Do you have an idea of what you're looking for in terms of sound?
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#5

Post by ed »

Hand made is deffo out of my range, John starts at about £2000+ and my tops is about £1000. Plus hand made is more risky resale if the worst happens and I need to move it on.

The yardstick for my sound is the Tan45....I fell in love with the sound when it came out in 2003ish and don't think I've heard it's like since. In a nutshell, the sound I'm looking for is big but not blown...I'm sure you understand. The Martin's I've tried have all had a weak voice and been very constrained(tight), although I confess I've never tried the D series. The D series is also out of my range.

It's all very confusing in the end, but the little bit of sense I have made out of it is that the takky nex shape and the auditorium and the jumbos all seem to make the sound I'm looking for. The dreads and the 000s seem to be a bit shy for me.

I recently tried a Taylor 415 jumbo and that's as close to my memory of a takky nex that I can think of. All the guilds that I've played(so far) have a nice voice but they don't play like the Taylors.

The other prejudice I seem to have acquired is that the thin bodies don't have the voice either.....

onwards
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#6

Post by kennyk »

yeah, there's something about the taylors, I've got a few of them but I'll probably need to start shifting some of my instruments. the One in One Out rule has applied and SWMBO does not think that binning a Kazoo qualifies as 'One Out' every time I build another one... :wink: I've been considering listing my 2000 LTD 'Legends of the Fall' 314-K on ebay simply because it's not been out of the case in well over a year, maybe two, and it can go towards funding the guitar building shed in the garden...
I've got a couple that I'd not part with (915-M and W65) and my other one, an 810 is a bit bashed in places. The thing I've found with owning taylors is that I've got a bit fatigued by them; it's hard to explain, but that big satisfying sound ceases to satisfy after a while.
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#7

Post by JamesD »

Acoustics are so personal! These are the families favourite personal acoustics

My eldest has a 400 series Taylor
My youngest has a Breedlove Can't remember the model
My Nephew has a Guild D140
My brother in law has a Martin 00015
I have a Tacoma Thunderchief

We have many more that we play too but these are the ones we spent real money on and would hand on to others to keep.

They all have there own character and all play very differently. And we all like them all and swap around when playing together...

So we conclude that you should keep trying them whenever you can until you find the one that says Buy Me!!!

And it doesn't matter what it is if it plays right and sounds right!

Probably doesn't help you but its what we have learned.

And we all want to try the PRS Acoustics that Jeff has at World Guitars! (Ex Machinehead, Hitchen as you probably remember?)

James
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#8

Post by kennyk »

well, I'm pretty pleased with the sound of my Maple OOO 12 fret. But it's like hifi in a way, there's so many different flavours, how can you choose just one...
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#9

Post by ed »

Hitchin, James, Hitchin......

snigger :)

Thanks for the heads up..........I think we are in agreement here, although I havn't heard any of the PRS acoustics......they are now on my list...

It is a must to play as many as you can get your hands on.....although it seems like the road into the future, I just can't see how anybody can buy a serious guitar over the internet without having played it......it just doesn't make sense to me, they are all so different, even one same model to another.......

ah well

edit: machinehead...wow I'd forgotten.....must've been mid 70s, I had an eko and the intonation went awry, and machinehead whittled away at the bone bridge until it came back inline again.....wow...memories...and I remember his wife, used to sing with the band they had....it's not her voice that I remember though....

diet: I'm pretty sure the machinehead chap's name was Keith in those days.....cor, I can't even remember what I did yesterday, well impressive!
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#10

Post by david C »

not that it really matters but girl who does my luthier work gets a steady stream of new Martins through her hands to remedy problems which surprised me given their reputation and cost, she also hasn't a lot of time for Gibson acoustics which are full of problems,

you would think these top range manufacturers would be capable of supplying well set up instruments,
David

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#11

Post by JamesD »

You would but you would be disappointed or maybe not... acoustics seem more personal about setup than electrics...

All of ours except for the Taylor have been into our local Luthier (Jim Fleeting in Ripon) for some work or other just to tweak them to our personal liking, we tweak actions or changed nuts or saddles or added scratch plates - actually three were intonation tweaks via new bone saddles so I guess we could lay that one at the feet of the factory...

J
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#12

Post by steve s »

The guy who has the shop in hessle is importing new guitars which Are getting good reviews, he's selling them at trade prices fom september.... Not heard them yet, i bought a turner a few years ago with a bit of work its a good sound to me... Not that i'd really know?
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#13

Post by ed »

david C wrote:
you would think these top range manufacturers would be capable of supplying well set up instruments,
a link from James' luthier site..interesting reading:

http://jimfleetingguitars.com/electric- ... comment-30

The few Gibson acoustics that I have played over the years have left me rather cold.....like 300Bs, I havn't found one yet that I would like to take home.......Even if I could afford one they wouldn't be on my list.
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#14

Post by JamesD »

I've seen the 1930s Gibson L0 that Jim is restoring and it will be a beauty when its finished but very different construction from a modern Gibson. Jim has strong views on guitars and guitar factories but has the knowledge to back up his views and the gift to explain it.

He loves talking about how guitars are made - particularly acoustics and has some terrific models that he has designed and made showing the way bracing the soundboard affects the harmonics that the board supports... wonderful stuff!

J
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#15

Post by ed »

just added Faith to my list....

I spent a happy hour this afternoon with a jupiter model....it's right up there with the taylor......

getting more interesting by the day, thanks Steve that Hessle chap(Howard) is a straight up guy.
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