I refit my Piezo today, it is a tricky little bitch. When you get a pretty much perfect 90 degree down force on it, really changes the tone. I am getting a "percussive sound" that I did not have before, and it is great! Kind of a "drum sound" added to the guitar, especially with my oversized soundboard. Not the dreaded "quaky".
I still don't want the sound of a piezo by itself, always need the mag as well, but with this new sound, I am able to light up the piezo to higher gain, love it!
I admit I did not give the piezo full respect, things change as you test. Now I can put this baby up to 9 easy, keep the mag a little lower, master up to 9 also, ******* power! Great tone, so much fun!
I still don't want the sound of a piezo by itself, always need the mag as well, but with this new sound, I am able to light up the piezo to higher gain, love it!
I admit I did not give the piezo full respect, things change as you test. Now I can put this baby up to 9 easy, keep the mag a little lower, master up to 9 also, ******* power! Great tone, so much fun!
One guy had this tonight - pretty nice sound from his acoustic! I think its the SG-1 from KNA. Another way to skin the piezo cat.
That piezo looks pretty handy JJ, plus they have one with a volume control also:
The USPTO will not escape job cuts, even though they are terribly behind, a real bummer for those involved:
https://ipwatchdogunleashed.buzzsprout.com/
The USPTO will not escape job cuts, even though they are terribly behind, a real bummer for those involved:
https://ipwatchdogunleashed.buzzsprout.com/
JJ- I have black screws and washers on my new Sitka Spruce soundboard, which will be stained (many options). I hope it looks better. What do you think? Still fugly? An improvement? Any comments on the stain options shown?
The Sitka Spruce soundboard tap test (installed on the body) is LOUD. I mean really loud compared to other tap tests on standard soundboards, and louder than the first Baltic Birch soundboard. Plus the tap tone is obviously deeper, not as bright.
The braces are not glued on, all cut from solid by hand, no CNC, man that took some time, but great fun in the shop! Plus it is still the light yet strong design. We shall see how it compares to the first Baltic Birch soundboard. Stay tuned!
The Sitka Spruce soundboard tap test (installed on the body) is LOUD. I mean really loud compared to other tap tests on standard soundboards, and louder than the first Baltic Birch soundboard. Plus the tap tone is obviously deeper, not as bright.
The braces are not glued on, all cut from solid by hand, no CNC, man that took some time, but great fun in the shop! Plus it is still the light yet strong design. We shall see how it compares to the first Baltic Birch soundboard. Stay tuned!
Heartsfield link above, a great band as Art and myself have mentioned before. Any more stories you would like to add Art, would be greatly appreciated.
I can find some old Heartsfield videos on YouTube, but the sound does not do them justice. This recording is legit, sounds great, and one of my favorite Heartsfield songs. There are many, check them out on iTunes, Amazon...so much great music to discover. I don't care if the music is old or new, great music is always with us!
My Mother listened to Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Mozart...I enjoy Elton John, The Allman Brothers, John Prine, Duke Ellington...My daughters like Lana Del Rey and Taylor Swift...and many young gents enjoy Hip Hop...what will their children like? Where is music going? Will AI be a hurt or a help? Man there many musicians that can have their actual work decimated by AI. Is this acceptable? Comments welcome!
The open mic was sparsely attended, only musicians playing for musicians, with several usuals missing. We stood around wondering what people could possibly be doing as an alternative? There arent any other competing open mics on Friday in the area. "Dont know what you've got till it gone" comes to mind. I got to play 7 songs, instead of the usual 3.
Entertainment has become cheap and infinitely abundant. Easier to just "press a button" than bother to get in the car, go somewhere. Even if in that excursion and during the evening's course, you get to express a little bit of soul personally. That doesnt seem to quite have the same value as it once did, with thousands of entertainment "channels" available these days to numb away the hours.
Ai wont help, as it becomes capable of adding huge swaths of content to an already burgeoning pile of, basically, sh*t. Yeah, I do find a shred of interest in your topic, but I have no need to have 30 minutes of my life sucked away watching you explain what an amplifier / guitar / speaker / phase-shifter "is" before you finally arrive at the point your content title aroused as an interest. I realize the trick and am not happy taking the whole bath.
Such a double edge sword. On one hand, I couldnt do anywhere near as easily as I can these days what I do at the open mic if not for on line content. Something like find Sinatra's "Something Stupid", get the chords and music to practice to and play it at a semi-recognizable level in a couple days. Perhaps that is just another part of "push button" convenience in entertainment of the current era. One big difference, passive absorbtion of content versus putting a little bit of soul into your own physical expression of it.
That's what I find so stunning in the lack of attendance, in what could possibly beat this as something to do on a Friday night, particularly among those who actually play an instrument or write poetry, or sing? Engineer a few prompts, press a button and watch or listen? If that's the trend, I cant imagine what children's children would be listening to. Stunning AI generated soundscapes with fake soul derived from a big pile of probability matchings.
Perhaps one day they'll train it based on actual physiological response of people "hooked up" to their sound sources, asking for rights to that information in a similar way as "would you agree to a brief survey afterward" before a piece plays. Yes / No with "make my selection permanent" option, with the necessary physiological response measurement capability built right into the earbuds, telemetry back to the phone and corporation owning the process.
Gather, gather, gather - assess, learn and generate in an endless loop in such a system. Who knows what would come out the end of such a beast - maybe something old folks like us couldnt even tolerate a minute of, but tomorrow's youth would "think it's great"!
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Well, JJ has chimed in! AI, pretty interesting eh? Pretty scary on some levels also. I can see intellectuals losing their jobs as never before: musicians, writers, artists, engineers, lawyers, maybe even doctors? Check out some of the Boston Scientific robots online, it is everywhere, especially in China and the U.S.
Now losing jobs is not news to blue collar workers, has been happening for decades. Will the white collar have the same fate? What will be created that young people can embrace and thrive? Will data centers be built fast enough to handle the power needs? All unknows right now, in my opinion, but we will have a pretty good idea soon., WOW!
https://polytechnic.purdue.edu/news...rship-enhances-students-experiential-learning
The above link tells the story of Gibson Guitars and their desire to partner with Universities. They started with Purdue last year, which is about 30 minutes north of my house. Mark French is the Purdue Professor taking the lead. I sent him some info a few years ago, and he was kind enough to respond and send encouragement, I never forgot that!
I sent him info again last week, this time I had a website, video, AGM Ad, more patents...I thought let's try. Low and behold he responded quickly and wants to hear a live demo! Finally a real response! He likes what I am doing, and thinks if all goes well, his students (including grad students) would benefit from learning about my guitar design and build, I will take it!
Of course he is busy writing another book 🤣 so he invited me for late this summer (then hopefully Fall semester). That works for me, gives me time and more motivation to finish my second guitar, and then demo a guitar that sounds great, and also looks good...first impressions!
He has connections with the President of Gibson, and others, so my hope is MAYBE they might want my guitar to develop together? That's right, buy my IP and kick me right out of it, and develop it to a higher level, then sell it all as a great partnership between Gibson and Purdue University!
From what I see, Purdue is the first Engineering University in the U.S that actually has a class for students that want to build their own guitar (a class requirement), learn about actual hands on manufacturing, and how it relates with Mechanical Engineering, Physics, Acoustic Engineering, Machine Shop practices and Luthiery. Pretty great!
https://katzenberger-engineering.com/
The above link tells the story of Gibson Guitars and their desire to partner with Universities. They started with Purdue last year, which is about 30 minutes north of my house. Mark French is the Purdue Professor taking the lead. I sent him some info a few years ago, and he was kind enough to respond and send encouragement, I never forgot that!
I sent him info again last week, this time I had a website, video, AGM Ad, more patents...I thought let's try. Low and behold he responded quickly and wants to hear a live demo! Finally a real response! He likes what I am doing, and thinks if all goes well, his students (including grad students) would benefit from learning about my guitar design and build, I will take it!
Of course he is busy writing another book 🤣 so he invited me for late this summer (then hopefully Fall semester). That works for me, gives me time and more motivation to finish my second guitar, and then demo a guitar that sounds great, and also looks good...first impressions!
He has connections with the President of Gibson, and others, so my hope is MAYBE they might want my guitar to develop together? That's right, buy my IP and kick me right out of it, and develop it to a higher level, then sell it all as a great partnership between Gibson and Purdue University!
From what I see, Purdue is the first Engineering University in the U.S that actually has a class for students that want to build their own guitar (a class requirement), learn about actual hands on manufacturing, and how it relates with Mechanical Engineering, Physics, Acoustic Engineering, Machine Shop practices and Luthiery. Pretty great!
https://katzenberger-engineering.com/