MOTM

For all the geetar players

**WARNING**

Approaching middle-aged white male, forgoes Harley, opts for
G&L Legacy Strat in sunburst w/pearl pickguard, rosewood fretboard.

We be rockin'.

Actually, I get to expense it for "R&D module development" as "tone
generator". Hee Hee.

One serious Q: is there that much "feel" from a maple vs rosewood? Is it
looks or
is there a tonal difference.

Paul S.
looking for leather pants, silk shirt, lava lamp

> From: "Paul Schreiber" <synth1@...>
> 
> **WARNING**
> 
> Approaching middle-aged white male, forgoes Harley, opts for
> G&L Legacy Strat in sunburst w/pearl pickguard, rosewood fretboard.
> 
> We be rockin'.
> 
> Actually, I get to expense it for "R&D module development" as "tone
> generator". Hee Hee.

Yeah... but can you play the damn thing.  I have two geetars and I think
its time to start Harley shopping.

Larry

>Actually, I get to expense it for "R&D module development" as "tone
>generator". Hee Hee.
aren't legitimate expenses a wonderful thing..?
my girlfriend (an accountant) goes absolutely ape with me when i do my tax
but she's wrong - underpants ARE a legitimate musical expense :-)

cheerspaulb
don't forget to claim those leathers as stagewear...
***disclaimer to do with the difference between UK & US tax laws blah blah
***

Paul Schreiber wrote:
>
> One serious Q: is there that much "feel" from a maple vs rosewood? Is it
> looks or
> is there a tonal difference.
>
They've always felt different to me. My first strat had a maple 
fingerboard, and since I got use to it I've always preferred maple. 
If I was going to try to quantify it:

1) Strats w/ rosewood fingerboards "seem" to have more radius than 
maple. Never actually measured it, and I've only owned one strat w/ 
rosewood. It was an early seventies strat, same age as my main strat
w/ maple fingerboard. At the other extreme, some of the "big-hair" 
guitars I've played with in shops have what feels like a completely 
flat fingerboard. These I can't stand to play. 

2) Maple "seems" brighter, poppier, more pronounced attack.

3) Maple is finished w/ poly-what-ever-their-using-these-days. Rosewood
is inherently oily and doesn't take or need a finish. This probably
has consequences in terms of hand sweat. I knew a guitarist that built
his own guitars that had made the entire neck out of rosewood. It felt
really nice as your hand slide smoothly over the back of the neck. He
had the front scalloped, so fretboard material wasn't really an issue.

Two pieces of advice for best tone: 
- Start out w/ a gauge of string that is comfortable, and work your 
  way up to a heavier gauge. High E gauge of 008 on a strat is a crime 
  against nature. 010 is good 011 is better. I can't use 012's
  because my finger starts separating from my fingernails. SRV use
  to use superglue to fix this same problem.
- If you want low action, buy a Les Paul. Strats sound better w/ slightly
  higher action.

These are completely subjective opinions and if a scientist w/ a blindfold
shows up at my door I'll deny ever saying them...

Thomas

JWBarlow@... wrote:
> Strats have a longer scale (string length), and because of the string "Ts" 
> have higher
> tension on the strings, so it's always a bit of a fight to bend the strings.
> An old blues trick was/is to tune the guitar a half step lower (E flat) which
> makes the strings much easier to play. This originally started so guitar
> players (maybe guys like T. Bone Walker) could play more easily in horn keys
> (e.g., B flat, E flat). I'm quite sure Hendrix tuned like this, and I believe
> SRV did too -- so that's the part of using 12s that you don't hear about too
> much.
> 
I started doing it when I first started playing, mainly because every
Hendrix song I tried to copy was a half step flat. It stuck, and I
still do it today.

One thing I do when ever I have a guitar that need refretting is replace
the frets with the jumbo fret wire. With huge frets you can really get under
the string. I won't recommend it for thinner string gauges. You end up w/ 
something close to a scallop, and with thinner gauges chording can pull 
things out of tune. But w/ 011 the strings never actually touch the fretboard.

Has anyone run their guitar through the 410 yet? 
Thomas

In a message dated 10/29/99 8:39:04 PM, synth1@... writes:

>Approaching middle-aged white male, forgoes Harley, opts for
>G&L Legacy Strat in sunburst w/pearl pickguard, rosewood fretboard.

>Actually, I get to expense it for "R&D module development" as "tone
>generator". Hee Hee.


I got you now, Paul. You better put out some great MOTM guitar modules or 
I'll blow you in to the tax man. 

>One serious Q: is there that much "feel" from a maple vs rosewood? Is it
>looks or
>is there a tonal difference.


The "story" is that maples have better sustain and tone, but are slightly 
more difficult to play. I believe the variation between guitars is so much 
greater than that to be noticeable. In 74 I bought a new off white maple neck 
strat (because those Hendrix at Woodstock posters looked SOOOOOO COOOOOOOOL 
-- I already had a 74 sunburst rosewood non-tremelo one; I wonder how many 
really white kids bought strats because they thought they'd look like 
Hendrix). Neither had good sustain -- strats aren't known for their sustain, 
and the vibrato springs don't help that. In 83 someone decided they needed 
that guitar more than me, and stole it. I really like strats (and I often use 
whammy bars) so I decided to get a really good one and bought a refinished 63 
with a rosewood neck -- I still have it, it kicks ass! It has a different 
neck radius and fingerboard radius than the 70s ones. In terms of sustain, 
tone and playability, it blows the 74 maple neck away. Too many reasons to 
list. I'm thinking of building a tele (from a kit -- I only recently started 
really liking teles), and if I do it'll be a maple neck, but that's cause all 
my other guitars are rosewood.

>looking for leather pants, silk shirt, lava lamp

I think Emerson used to wear the leather pants too, so you've got all your 
bases covered.

In a message dated 10/30/99 9:10:23 AM, thudson@... writes:

>3) Maple is finished w/ poly-what-ever-their-using-these-days. Rosewood
>is inherently oily and doesn't take or need a finish. This probably
>has consequences in terms of hand sweat.


I think that the older Fenders pre 70 (or pre CBS to be sure), had a very 
different finish on their maple necks, which allowed those necks to get that 
beautiful dirty look as seen on Eric Clapton's (Layla) guitar on the cover of 
that Delany and Bonnie album -- that's the guitar that just went for 
$500,000, but I'll let my strat go for half that price!

>Two pieces of advice for best tone: 
>- Start out w/ a gauge of string that is comfortable, and work your 
>  way up to a heavier gauge. High E gauge of 008 on a strat is a crime
>  against nature. 010 is good 011 is better. I can't use 012's
>  because my finger starts separating from my fingernails. SRV use
>  to use superglue to fix this same problem.
>- If you want low action, buy a Les Paul. Strats sound better w/ slightly
>  higher action.

I used to use 11s, but I've used 9s for a long time (20 years about -- Thomas 
grimaces) and have no real complaints about tone or volume, etc. Strats have 
a longer scale (string length), and because of the string "Ts" have higher 
tension on the strings, so it's always a bit of a fight to bend the strings. 
An old blues trick was/is to tune the guitar a half step lower (E flat) which 
makes the strings much easier to play. This originally started so guitar 
players (maybe guys like T. Bone Walker) could play more easily in horn keys 
(e.g., B flat, E flat). I'm quite sure Hendrix tuned like this, and I believe 
SRV did too -- so that's the part of using 12s that you don't hear about too 
much.

And there is a very strange thing that happens if the front (bass) PU gets 
too close to the strings, it will pull the lower strings out of tune. There 
is a simple procedure for adjusting this PU, so contact me offlist if you're 
interested.

>These are completely subjective opinions and if a scientist w/ a blindfold
>shows up at my door I'll deny ever saying them...

Yeah, but if she's got handcuffs, send her my way -- in the interest of 
science of course!
JB

>From: thudson@...

>Has anyone run their guitar through the 410 yet?


i stuck some cheap and nasty bass through it - very nice, very mutron / i
was working too quickly to mess around too much (like editing out and
replacing all the bum notes being a bit of a priority), but when i get back
to it, i'll be plumbing the env out on my Korg MS-03 into the sweep
control - and go bootsy for for a while...
which reminds me - having decided to give the Dopefer midi / sync convertor
a fair trial, how come i can still get far better sync just by running my
main loop thru the MS-03..? Has anyone else had problems like this ?
cheers
paul

In a message dated 10/30/99 12:24:34 PM, thudson@... writes:

>I started doing it when I first started playing, mainly because every
>Hendrix song I tried to copy was a half step flat. It stuck, and I
>still do it today.

Yeah, I used to do this as well, but I quickly became as anal about tuning as 
I am about everything else (and it sure is hell trying to play with guys who 
aren't used to tuning down). I used to think that it was my turntable 
complaining "no! Not Little Wing AGAIN!!!"


>One thing I do when ever I have a guitar that need refretting is replace
>the frets with the jumbo fret wire. With huge frets you can really get
>under
>the string. I won't recommend it for thinner string gauges. You end up
>w/ 
>something close to a scallop, and with thinner gauges chording can pull
>things out of tune. 

I use the semi jumbo wire and just don't touch the strings to the finger 
board, or barely touch them.

>But w/ 011 the strings never actually touch the fretboard.
>Has anyone run their guitar through the 410 yet? 

I've enjoyed the pseudo stereo panning effects more than I thought I would, 
and I like using both the LFOs and my envelope follower as CV sources. I 
actually posted a review when I first got mine. Here's an excerpt:

Well, I've had my 410 going for almost a day now after some minor stupidity 
getting it working. I'm really impressed by the sound. I've so far used it 
mostly to do phaseresque stuff, and it is great for that! I've enjoyed using 
guitar through it, though I think the 420 LPF is better for envelope follower 
effects, the 410 is great with the LFOs sweeping across the harmonic 
spectrum. I've currently got a nice drone patch using two harmonically tuned 
VCOs (one doing linear FM on the other) with both outs going to the 120 
SUB-OCTAVE MULTIPLEXER (CROSS PRODUCT mode) which is going to 420 with a slow 
RATE sweeping widely across the spectrum. Very rich harmonic timbres!

DAMN! I need more VCOs!
John B.
PS, Hey Paul, did you ever get that gurtar, to make it easy to move your feet?
I'm gonna add some MOTM so that the dancers just won't hide.


And now we know that he did! So "John and Larry gotta message they say -- all 
the Dopefers go home -- patch to the music!"

>From: thudson@...
>Has anyone run their guitar through the 410 yet?

I ran a rhythm guitar track through the 410 in dual reverse/stereo mode
while mixing a tune this week. At low depth settings, it adds a really nice
subtle motion without the obvious periodicity of
chorusing/flanging/phasing.

________________________________________________________
Dave Trenkel : improv@...  : www.peak.org/~improv/

"...there will come a day when you won't have to use
gasoline. You'd simply take a cassette and put it in
your car, let it run. You'd have to have the proper
type of music. Like you take two sticks, put 'em
together, make fire. You take some notes and rub 'em
together - dum, dum, dum, dum - fire, cosmic fire."
                                            -Sun Ra
________________________________________________________