JJ, Ian and others told me I should keep the amp out of the guitar for now, they were correct, much easier. This guitar is ringing like a bell!
Man having 110 dB coming from the guitar body with great tone, is beyond belief, love it!
Check out the links posted earlier.
That said, I really need to package this with a smaller Class D amp, and have everything inside the guitar. It can be done, and would be so much "less chord mess".
Studio second session is 3-22, and I am out of town next weekend, so this weekend was the final test.
Did all go well? Of course not! I had a guitar nut problem, high E string was hitting the frets, WTF!
Found the problem and fixed the nut, whew, man does that make me crazy.
Anyway, the guitar is completely rocking with power and beautiful tone now.
After studio, finally will be a full YouTube video, stay tuned! Attached is Sitka Spruce soundboard that I am carving by hand, just like you know who, with the beautiful old violins.
Hey, CNC is great, but me thinks building by hand is also a wonderful technique!
Man having 110 dB coming from the guitar body with great tone, is beyond belief, love it!
Check out the links posted earlier.
That said, I really need to package this with a smaller Class D amp, and have everything inside the guitar. It can be done, and would be so much "less chord mess".
Studio second session is 3-22, and I am out of town next weekend, so this weekend was the final test.
Did all go well? Of course not! I had a guitar nut problem, high E string was hitting the frets, WTF!
Found the problem and fixed the nut, whew, man does that make me crazy.
Anyway, the guitar is completely rocking with power and beautiful tone now.
After studio, finally will be a full YouTube video, stay tuned! Attached is Sitka Spruce soundboard that I am carving by hand, just like you know who, with the beautiful old violins.
Hey, CNC is great, but me thinks building by hand is also a wonderful technique!
Hey Joe - Thought your video was excellent - you're a natural speaker at it; do you do, like, presentations for your employer? If I hadnt known different (as someone just watching for the first time wouldnt know) I'd also guess it was you playing.
One recommendation. When I watch YT videos, some take so long to get to the point. I understand they want a 1/2 hour engagement, round 'n round talking in circles, random screen images - just to keep you engaged as long as possible for some "YouTube" reason.
I felt in your short video an urgent "Let's see how it works". Kinda expecting you to pick up the model in the background, trace with your finger along the horn path - then quickly pan to a shot of the the horn openings at the tail, perhaps with a mic in the shot as well, to give an indication that the "sound comes out here". Could show even a little rocking motion as if the guitar was being played - even if it's all for show (wasnt mic'd that way actually) with the recorded track playing in the background.
That way in a minute someone's going to grasp what this instrument really is, whereas I couldnt see anything different about it than the top with the unique bolt pattern along the edge.
One recommendation. When I watch YT videos, some take so long to get to the point. I understand they want a 1/2 hour engagement, round 'n round talking in circles, random screen images - just to keep you engaged as long as possible for some "YouTube" reason.
I felt in your short video an urgent "Let's see how it works". Kinda expecting you to pick up the model in the background, trace with your finger along the horn path - then quickly pan to a shot of the the horn openings at the tail, perhaps with a mic in the shot as well, to give an indication that the "sound comes out here". Could show even a little rocking motion as if the guitar was being played - even if it's all for show (wasnt mic'd that way actually) with the recorded track playing in the background.
That way in a minute someone's going to grasp what this instrument really is, whereas I couldnt see anything different about it than the top with the unique bolt pattern along the edge.
Thank you JJ, good to hear from you brother! I do not do presentations or sales, never have. I am an engineer with a big mouth. I appreciate your comments, and I posted before (but it likely gets lost in the shuffle) this is only the first take, much more to come (hence not on YouTube yet, or a public website). YES I will explain the guitar, and also how horns work, and much more. I will also show this guitar power vs. a regular acoustic guitar at the same recording level, so much to add, but trying to keep it under five minutes. Next studio session is 3-22, hopefully will finish up. I agree looong videos on YouTube are kind of ridiculous in my opinion, get to the point! Oh yeah and I want to hear as much footage of Casey playing as possible, not only is he a great guitar player, he is a great guy, and is really into this.
Somebody did ask if that was me playing, and from the front, you can't see Casey's ponytail. I was like, oh wow he does kind of look like me. I know that now, but at the time did not think of it!
Stay tuned and let me know what you think, after I get the full YouTube video link posted, I really appreciate your opinion brother!
Somebody did ask if that was me playing, and from the front, you can't see Casey's ponytail. I was like, oh wow he does kind of look like me. I know that now, but at the time did not think of it!
Stay tuned and let me know what you think, after I get the full YouTube video link posted, I really appreciate your opinion brother!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jsZxtvZBSgQsVGby0OUzz30-0yAlGUou/view?usp=sharing
If you missed it before...
If you missed it before...
These recordings are sounding pretty good IMHO! What's the really low sound getting picked up? Almost like a rumble, which - cant be - coincident when he plays in first position? Its that real, or just my overly bassey headphones reproducing the truck driving past outside?
I assume it's the Roland amp driving the horns? Did Casey or Round Table setup the tone and levels to their liking?
Still wish I could see the horn mouths in the video, as it "looks like another ordinary guitar" and am unsure a previously uneducated viewer would easily connect the labyrinth display model with what's being played.
Here I go again - put incandescent light bulbs in the horn mouths, connect them to another amp and the guitar signal, such that they glow in proportion to how loud he's playing. That would get eyes on the sound coming out those openings. ;')
I assume it's the Roland amp driving the horns? Did Casey or Round Table setup the tone and levels to their liking?
Still wish I could see the horn mouths in the video, as it "looks like another ordinary guitar" and am unsure a previously uneducated viewer would easily connect the labyrinth display model with what's being played.
Here I go again - put incandescent light bulbs in the horn mouths, connect them to another amp and the guitar signal, such that they glow in proportion to how loud he's playing. That would get eyes on the sound coming out those openings. ;')
I am very happy with the sound JJ, and yes the bass is strong for sure, but I don't hear a rumble, not sure what that might be. When Casey bangs on the low E string, which of course is the lowest frequency, it really jumps out at you, many people have commented on how rich and warm the lows are now, so yes the amp/horns are rocking (and the light yet strong extra large soundboard).
Plus I love when he jumps up to about the 12th fret with chords, they just sparkle, many many acoustic guitars would be tinny as all get out up there.
My FR data shows the lows being the weakest on a standard acoustic guitar, and my guitar boosts lows the most. Then the highs are the second weakest on a standard acoustic guitar, and my guitar boosts those the second most. Then of course mids are the strongest on a standard acoustic guitar, and mine boosts those the least, as it should be, to flatten out the curve and get strong output all along the frequency range, just as I had hoped. The data matches the sound so well, I am pretty damn happy with that! Check out FR on slide #3 attached again, seems pretty accurate to me.
Man I need to do demos after YouTube is complete, you really need to hear this guitar live, plus playing it is something else. Casey tells me he is really looking forward to the studio time today, so happy he is into this guitar so much, a good sign. One of my favorite things about playing this guitar is you barely touch the strings and you get a big beautiful sound. I cam remember doing party gigs (no mics) with a piano, other guitars, singing...you tend to beat the hell out of your guitar just to be heard, pretty ridiculous.
I purposely recorded everything with all tone controls on both channels at zero, the horns stand on their own. I set all levels, and had the volume on approx. 7-1/2, so I have room to up the power if needed. That said I will let Casey and the studio engineers change any setting required today.
One of the goals today is to get mucho footage, so you will see the horn mouths, the guts, my explaining. Plus I requested mic type info and distances for Art, then of course compare to a standard acoustic guitar.
Ian at Chicago School of Guitar Making has been my mentor as a Luthier, he is a great guy and can build just about anything, plus he is an artist. He encouraged me on this project, but was very frank with me as needed. He told me my soundboard would be dead, because it was not Sitka Spruce or similar (it is Baltic Birch). After hearing the recordings from the studio and my iPhone, he changed his tune and said man you are going to blow minds with this guitar!
JJ I still like your idea about the lights, would really like to do that some time in the future. My hope is the YouTube video is well received, than I can do some follow up work going more in detail about horns. Maybe I can do a "Horn Lesson" for the general public (with review from others first), as you know I just recently learned about horns in depth, in the last few years. I can tell you one thing for sure, THEY WORK! I for the life of me can't understand why there are horn haters out there, what is to hate? They have been used in some way for many hundreds of years for a reason.
What I remember most about the first studio session is when they played back the recording for me in the control room, man I almost hit the floor, could not believe how good it sounded, hoping for a repeat performance today, stay tuned!
Plus I love when he jumps up to about the 12th fret with chords, they just sparkle, many many acoustic guitars would be tinny as all get out up there.
My FR data shows the lows being the weakest on a standard acoustic guitar, and my guitar boosts lows the most. Then the highs are the second weakest on a standard acoustic guitar, and my guitar boosts those the second most. Then of course mids are the strongest on a standard acoustic guitar, and mine boosts those the least, as it should be, to flatten out the curve and get strong output all along the frequency range, just as I had hoped. The data matches the sound so well, I am pretty damn happy with that! Check out FR on slide #3 attached again, seems pretty accurate to me.
Man I need to do demos after YouTube is complete, you really need to hear this guitar live, plus playing it is something else. Casey tells me he is really looking forward to the studio time today, so happy he is into this guitar so much, a good sign. One of my favorite things about playing this guitar is you barely touch the strings and you get a big beautiful sound. I cam remember doing party gigs (no mics) with a piano, other guitars, singing...you tend to beat the hell out of your guitar just to be heard, pretty ridiculous.
I purposely recorded everything with all tone controls on both channels at zero, the horns stand on their own. I set all levels, and had the volume on approx. 7-1/2, so I have room to up the power if needed. That said I will let Casey and the studio engineers change any setting required today.
One of the goals today is to get mucho footage, so you will see the horn mouths, the guts, my explaining. Plus I requested mic type info and distances for Art, then of course compare to a standard acoustic guitar.
Ian at Chicago School of Guitar Making has been my mentor as a Luthier, he is a great guy and can build just about anything, plus he is an artist. He encouraged me on this project, but was very frank with me as needed. He told me my soundboard would be dead, because it was not Sitka Spruce or similar (it is Baltic Birch). After hearing the recordings from the studio and my iPhone, he changed his tune and said man you are going to blow minds with this guitar!
JJ I still like your idea about the lights, would really like to do that some time in the future. My hope is the YouTube video is well received, than I can do some follow up work going more in detail about horns. Maybe I can do a "Horn Lesson" for the general public (with review from others first), as you know I just recently learned about horns in depth, in the last few years. I can tell you one thing for sure, THEY WORK! I for the life of me can't understand why there are horn haters out there, what is to hate? They have been used in some way for many hundreds of years for a reason.
What I remember most about the first studio session is when they played back the recording for me in the control room, man I almost hit the floor, could not believe how good it sounded, hoping for a repeat performance today, stay tuned!
Take it to NAMM in 2025; https://www.namm.org/thenammshow/exhibit/2025
If ever there was a place where someone could see, hear and become interested in your IP... The 5 X 10 booth looks about right; room enough for you and a chair, a poster and a couple instances of your instrument. How fun would that be?
If you get some direct pickup signal recordings, you could conceivably play those back through the horns using the Roland amp to attract attention; I'm sure the NAMM show isnt exactly quiet everywhere you go. Then if some marketer who happens to play is interested, simply switch to the guitar as input; "see, it sounds even better with the top projecting too".
Maybe someone like John McLaughlin stops by, plays a few notes, says "pretty good" and moves on. Later tells his buddy Paul Reed Smith "You gotta hear what this guy's got over there".
Good luck today.
Thanks for the NAMM info JJ, I have been thinking about that for some time (after YouTube). Prices are not bad really. I like your ideas about NAMM, and especially a JM moment, that is some great dreaming!
The studio was great! I did my "explain the guitar horns" piece, was trying to keep it at 1-2 minutes. When I finished the guys said that was great BUT you went on for 6-1/2 minutes! My mouth was in full blast mode. I don't really want to cut a bunch of that out, so we decided it might be best to do 3 or 4 separate videos that are linked in some way, thinking about how best to do this.
The videographer had me roll out my 36" wide by 12 foot long (not kidding) 2D guitar drawing in real time and has good footage of that slowly going down the sheet. Plus he brought some approx. 2 foot long red and blue lights to move across the guitar and guitar bodies showing horns and drivers, looks pretty cool.
I also joined the fun with a quick chord progression from the twelfth fret down to the first fret, but had all volume/gain on 9, then did my trick were I push the soundboard up and down, right over the drivers/behind the bridge and the horns/drivers whine like a baby. Part sustain, part controlled feedback, and if you do it right, it will whine (loud) in the correct key once you find the right position, then you end the song on a really aggressive strong E chord strum and let it ring forever, very electric guitar like.
Casey was in the control room smiling and giving me a big thumbs up, said I have never heard an acoustic guitar do anything like that, really cool! So it looks like just a little of my playing will make the YouTube video.
Then when Casey was playing we did the horns off and horns on comparison. The engineer shut it down and said he had the level set for horns off, and when you go horns on while you keep playing, the power goes through the roof, pretty stunning, but actually just a little to abrupt. So we made the transition gradual and that did the trick, pretty happy about that.
Casey told me he really loves the power and the tone of the guitar, plus he said the intonation is dead nuts on, and you can hear it when he plays up and down the fretboard.
Also I showed the guys the CNC video and they were like holy ****, how does that thing not just explode when you are cutting it? I don't think they ever saw anything like it. Plus the studio owner was there all day, really great guy. He is an amateur guitar player (pretty sure not a pro, but not positive). He runs the business end, and used to work for Ford and Lear, so he was really into the CNC and build process, peppered me with questions about how this is made.
I told my wife I really feel at home at this studio now. She like why, because you have been there twice? Smart-aleck.
Now for the bad news. Casey started playing blues in E on about his second song (he came in later in the day). My second fret on the 4 and 5 string started buzzing, did not ever hear this before. I tried to bang it down, then broke a string, take five boys I can fix this.
The neck straightness looks great, but the fret buzz would not go away. I think maybe it is cracked or some other problem that I will check out tonight.
Casey flat out told me that he can't get that fret buzz out of his head, even when he is playing away from it. You could tell he was not comfortable, all I could do was apologize, he was pretty cool about it of course. So we got more footage, but it is not as good as the first session.
In fact that first session was so magical, I don't know if it can ever be topped, thankfully I have much footage from that day, what a relief. I am going to do a complete neck setup and fix the problem, and go back for a third time, just to see how it goes, then go to YouTube, or maybe go to YouTube without a third session, we shall see.
The studio engineer said he would send me mic type and distances, will post that when received, and I attached some pictures. I believe they are 3 meters away, but will confirm. I have often seen photos and videos of guitars with the mic about one foot away, so clearly that is not needed with this guitar, it really filled that big Studio A with sound.
The videographer has all the files and is editing now, so stay tuned for video!
The studio was great! I did my "explain the guitar horns" piece, was trying to keep it at 1-2 minutes. When I finished the guys said that was great BUT you went on for 6-1/2 minutes! My mouth was in full blast mode. I don't really want to cut a bunch of that out, so we decided it might be best to do 3 or 4 separate videos that are linked in some way, thinking about how best to do this.
The videographer had me roll out my 36" wide by 12 foot long (not kidding) 2D guitar drawing in real time and has good footage of that slowly going down the sheet. Plus he brought some approx. 2 foot long red and blue lights to move across the guitar and guitar bodies showing horns and drivers, looks pretty cool.
I also joined the fun with a quick chord progression from the twelfth fret down to the first fret, but had all volume/gain on 9, then did my trick were I push the soundboard up and down, right over the drivers/behind the bridge and the horns/drivers whine like a baby. Part sustain, part controlled feedback, and if you do it right, it will whine (loud) in the correct key once you find the right position, then you end the song on a really aggressive strong E chord strum and let it ring forever, very electric guitar like.
Casey was in the control room smiling and giving me a big thumbs up, said I have never heard an acoustic guitar do anything like that, really cool! So it looks like just a little of my playing will make the YouTube video.
Then when Casey was playing we did the horns off and horns on comparison. The engineer shut it down and said he had the level set for horns off, and when you go horns on while you keep playing, the power goes through the roof, pretty stunning, but actually just a little to abrupt. So we made the transition gradual and that did the trick, pretty happy about that.
Casey told me he really loves the power and the tone of the guitar, plus he said the intonation is dead nuts on, and you can hear it when he plays up and down the fretboard.
Also I showed the guys the CNC video and they were like holy ****, how does that thing not just explode when you are cutting it? I don't think they ever saw anything like it. Plus the studio owner was there all day, really great guy. He is an amateur guitar player (pretty sure not a pro, but not positive). He runs the business end, and used to work for Ford and Lear, so he was really into the CNC and build process, peppered me with questions about how this is made.
I told my wife I really feel at home at this studio now. She like why, because you have been there twice? Smart-aleck.
Now for the bad news. Casey started playing blues in E on about his second song (he came in later in the day). My second fret on the 4 and 5 string started buzzing, did not ever hear this before. I tried to bang it down, then broke a string, take five boys I can fix this.
The neck straightness looks great, but the fret buzz would not go away. I think maybe it is cracked or some other problem that I will check out tonight.
Casey flat out told me that he can't get that fret buzz out of his head, even when he is playing away from it. You could tell he was not comfortable, all I could do was apologize, he was pretty cool about it of course. So we got more footage, but it is not as good as the first session.
In fact that first session was so magical, I don't know if it can ever be topped, thankfully I have much footage from that day, what a relief. I am going to do a complete neck setup and fix the problem, and go back for a third time, just to see how it goes, then go to YouTube, or maybe go to YouTube without a third session, we shall see.
The studio engineer said he would send me mic type and distances, will post that when received, and I attached some pictures. I believe they are 3 meters away, but will confirm. I have often seen photos and videos of guitars with the mic about one foot away, so clearly that is not needed with this guitar, it really filled that big Studio A with sound.
The videographer has all the files and is editing now, so stay tuned for video!
Been bringing my Seagull acoustic without a pickup deliberately to the open mic, so they have to mic it instead of plugging it into the universal guitar amp the fellow running it otherwise uses. He's moving the mic into place maybe 6" in front of the soundhole it starts to feed back. So I'm playing, singing with everything "held in a vise" to maintain the mic distances during performance. He says it's a skill and I've come a long way on the vocal mic.
I can see where it would be a real advantage, good tone and loud enough volume to have any stage mics further back out of the way. Or be able to fill the room with just the guitar's own self-reinforced sound, it not needing to be mic'd at all, in a small venue like that.
Sounds like another mostly good experience for you and your instrument at the studio. Looking forward to see the videos!!
I picture it hanging in front of those black drapes at your NAMM booth next year!
