AprioriMark
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Cagey said:
I'm going to largely agree, but reiterate that I still give Warmoth necks a couple weeks under tension before I do any fretwork; especially exotic woods. Even their maple (Pro) necks are sturdier than anything else I've come across, so I'll still give them time to see how the tension settles before I chew on frets. Personal choice, and not a commentary on how other people do anything, but it works well for me and always get glowing reviews. Slow and steady wins the race and all that.
-Mark
Corey P.
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That's basically exactly my routine with new instruments - if it's a W I'll do the parts of the assembly I'm comfortable with (basically anything that doesn't involve solder, lol), a rudimentary setup (I'm getting better all the time, I'd have to admit?), and as you said, if it reacts in any way to being under string tension, learn its quirks, then take it for a final setup once everything seems to have stabilized. Thankfully of late there haven't been many to learn, which is great, but I've definitely had crappy instruments in the past that make me appreciate the current ones, and give me plenty of "if I knew then what I know now..." moments.
Strat Avenger
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Cagey said:
Many people are unaware that guitars are supposed to have some neck relief, a little more for acoustics than electrics. A guitar's neck is not supposed to be perfectly "flat".
A good, well set-up electric guitar neck should not need a lot of relief, just a tiny bit.
I've played only one guitar with a completely flat neck set-up that played absolutely perfectly and awesome with no fret buzz or anything. It was a Jackson (Dinky, I think). It didn't belong to me, and the owner later sold it (I have no idea why). It was definitely an anomaly in my personal experience.
Strat Avenger
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Cagey said:
Vai's tone was awesome during the DLR years. It was pretty good during the Whitesnake years too. After that, he kind'a lost me. I do think his tone on the Live version of "Building The Church" is really fat & soulful. 'Awesome song too.
FYI: Vai has recently switched from his hot, ceramic "Evolution" pickups to a lower-output, more "woody"-sounding pickup called the "Gravity Storm", the bridge pickup of which has AlNiCo-5
magnets. Maybe his tone will be better now.
Ummm. This would be assuming that you knew what neck was just right for you, because you had already had a neck that was too big, and another neck that was too small. And you know what it was like to work with a guitar that had too much high end, and another that simply couldn't get enough bite. I noticed really early on that the very best guitarists tended to play concerts with the very fewest amount of different guitars, just what was needed to accommodate open tunings. The classic image of the Big Rock Star with a separate guitar for each song - it didn't sound better than a musician who was really attuned to and trusted a single instrument. And it takes a long time to figure out what works best for you, because you do have to try the big necks and little necks and flat necks and humbuckers and P90's and Tele bridge PU's and "noiseless" single coils and noisy single coils and all, that's how you figure it out.
I do think you can learn a lot from careful reading of what some excellent-sounding guitarists use, just keeping in mind that they doubtlessly have some idiosyncrasies and preferences that won't transfer to everyone. I don't need to know what Ted Nugent prefers because he sounds annoying to me, he doesn't seem aware of tonal variance at all. And I don't care what Joe Perry plays because from the start he has been all about recreating previous sounds, a trait that is really common among the generic-sounding bands like Coldplay, Nickelback and all. But when somebody who has a mastery of a range of great tones has something to say in an interview - even if they sound insane, like some of Eric Johnson's better moments (the type of screw holding the speakers to the cabinet?!?), it at least demonstrates that being really, really obsessive does make for some great tones.
And there's a pretty silly saying that "the tone is in the fingers" but what it meant for me, and what it took me a lo-ong time to figure out, was that if I wanted a tone as rich and rounded as I could get, as close to early Santana and the last year of Duane Allman - I couldn't even get close using the "right" equipment. For certain reasons, I need to start with a signal that is much brighter at certain points through the the rig than they did, in order to get any note definition at all. If I play a good mahogany/maple-capped guitar with normal humbuckings into a good simple no-master-volume tune amp into hi-fi, "PA"-type speakers - as they did - I get mush. I did eventually figure out why, but I had to try a lot of stuff to reach that point.
The money quote from Tom Morello's equipment piece was:
I have heard way too many guitarists who were interesting, gifted, even great in their early years when they were fighting their limitations, and then as they developed their technique and bought up such good equipment that they could play the early material in their sleep - they sounded like they were playing in their sleep. Can you say... Carlos Santana, Mark Knopfler, Jerry Garcia, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, hell it's almost all of them, isn't it? The best thing you can do for your legacy is, die young before you get old and sucky. Townsend - you blew it.....
Corey P.
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Well there's also the conundrum of getting exactly what you wanted and realizing that it wasn't what you wanted at all - I remember being pretty young and my friend wanted to go check out some Teles, and there was this butterscotch one that - no pun intended - played like butter: great neck, great tone, and because he didn't love the finish he decided to order a clear gloss/natural one, and once he got it, it just lacked something. Same specs, bridge, electronics, wood, pickups, just a clear gloss finish instead of a solid color.
Obviously the moral of the story is that butterscotch = +5 to Tone.
Obviously the moral of the story is that butterscotch = +5 to Tone.
Cagey
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That's been true for a long time. When you went to buy a Strat, you sat down and played everything on the wall until you found one that spoke to you. I had one years ago that was that way. just something magical about it. Which also goes to show you can't count on wood species to do what you want - all Fender Strats are either Alder or Swamp Ash, but few of them sound the same. They're as individual as people.
S
swarfrat
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I suspect a lot of it is simply that they're not so hungry any more. An awful lot of 'art' is a frantic attempt to eat and keep the lights on. Once freed from the desperation born of simply making a living, and they're free to pursue the muse, we say they 'sold out'. Ironic ain't it?
I suspect, that like engineering, art too is just an expression of tensions. If money is no object, quite often the result is either a blue sky exorbitant Howard Hughes frivolity (in the case of engineering), or in the case of art - is simply self gratification, predictable, and boring.
I suspect, that like engineering, art too is just an expression of tensions. If money is no object, quite often the result is either a blue sky exorbitant Howard Hughes frivolity (in the case of engineering), or in the case of art - is simply self gratification, predictable, and boring.
Strat Avenger
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Yes, unless those specs are different from the guitars you are accustomed to playing. But even then, it shouldn't take long. You wanted those specs or you wouldn't have ordered them.chriswest said:
reluctant-builder
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Street Avenger said:
Or ... you didn't know what you were doing. :dontknow:
Super Turbo Deluxe Custom
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I once retrofitted headers to my truck. The directions had torque specs to follow on install, then again after a few hours of use, then again after a month of use. I thought it unnecessary because the factory manifold had none of that. It was assembled once and done. For whatever reason, a factory built guitar you buy hanging on a wall and one you build out of parts are like that. The one off the wall usually just needs a setup for preferences, but the one you build needs constant re-tweaking, especially in the beginning.
Super Turbo Deluxe Custom
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Vito Bratta once said in one of those gear interviews, much to the salesman's chagrin, he doesn't even plug in new guitars he buys. He can fix, and will most likely change anything electrical, but the amp isn't necessary to feel how the neck plays, to check for dead spots or most other defects.
S
swarfrat
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Didn't know what you were doing, or had run out of means of finding out before taking the plunge and shelling out...
It's kept me from ordering a scalloped neck, the 2-tek, and any number of other things that require substantial outlays with no going back. I buy a funky set of pickups, chances are someone else will like em as long as they fit traditional humbucker or single coil routes. Less so for P90 / mini-humbucker/filtertron form factors. If I shell out $475 for a botique swimming pool route uber big single 14 turn 25Henry single coil with magnets made from the original rails of the transcontinental railroad, and think it sounds horrible - the chances of me selling it go down tremendously.
Neck dimensions are sort of in this category as well. You can't really work around it, all you can do is sell it, take your lumps and try again. I was mistaken about my fatback, but happily so.
It's kept me from ordering a scalloped neck, the 2-tek, and any number of other things that require substantial outlays with no going back. I buy a funky set of pickups, chances are someone else will like em as long as they fit traditional humbucker or single coil routes. Less so for P90 / mini-humbucker/filtertron form factors. If I shell out $475 for a botique swimming pool route uber big single 14 turn 25Henry single coil with magnets made from the original rails of the transcontinental railroad, and think it sounds horrible - the chances of me selling it go down tremendously.
Neck dimensions are sort of in this category as well. You can't really work around it, all you can do is sell it, take your lumps and try again. I was mistaken about my fatback, but happily so.
reluctant-builder
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swarfrat said:
I've been meaning to ask about this. Though, since I'm left-handed, none of my guitars have any resale value, so it's kind of moot ... but does the "Universal" / "Swimming Pool" rout really make a guitar less desirable to prospective buyers?
Is it because there's less body wood and therefore "less tone"? I put it in quotes to express my doubt.
To me, it seems preferable to have that route because it allows you to have any number of pickguard assemblies that you can pop in, pretty easily, to have an all- (or at least many-) purpose convertible.
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