#1
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New build keeps getting better
It seems like every time I pick up my new (first) build it sounds better. Is this typical? It sounded pretty darn nice from day one but now that it's been strung up and played for a couple of weeks it has really opened up.
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#2
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Yup - just some wood learning how to be a guitar -
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More than a few Santa Cruz’s, a few Sexauers, a Patterson, a Larrivee, a Cumpiano, and a Klepper!! |
#3
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Great way to put it. It just keeps getting more mellow (maybe warmer), clearer and a bit louder. Whatever you call it I like it.
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#4
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I had a friend who made small steel strung guitars. Every one he finished, he would give to me and ask me to play it for two weeks (before he told the client it was ready).
He said I opened up guitars better than anyone he know. Of course he could have just been using a pretty poor and heavy handed guitarist! However, even my untrained ears could hear and feel the difference over two weeks.
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Silly Moustache, Just an old Limey acoustic guitarist, Dobrolist, mandolier and singer. I'm here to try to help and advise and I offer one to one lessons/meetings/mentoring via Zoom! |
#5
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I got a newly-built Pono which sounded good when I received it and has steadily improved. Since then I've built 4 guitars, three with different b/s woods, all with different soundboard woods. All of the guitars that I built sounded meh when first strung up (very disappointing) and all have opened up dramatically in one to three weeks of heavy playing. They ended up sounding great -- so much so that I now have a couple of commissions! I have no idea what's really going on and whether playing the newly-built guitars speeded up the improvement, but the improvement is most certainly real.
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#6
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Being my first build I was just happy the bridge didn't pop off when I tuned it to pitch.
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#7
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If your first build sounds good to begin with I take that as a win. I like the sound of my first but that's kind of like me talking as a parent and overlooking the warts. I don't think I've had any striking revelation about its tone like you've had with yours but if this is a quantifiable thing then I'd say you've had a success. The real yardstick though would be how your second build turned out!
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(2006) Larrivee OM-03R, (2009) Martin D-16GT, (1998) Fender Am Std Ash Stratocaster, (2013) McKnight McUke, (1989) Kramer Striker ST600, a couple of DIY builds (2013, 2023) |
#8
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I don't know if this is scientific or not, but I find when I first string a guitar, whether it is played much or not, it seems to take up to 6 weeks or so to "tension load" and start sounding good. From there, play it, play it, play it... and it will keep improving in tone for a few years until it is maximized.
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---- Ned Milburn NSDCC Master Artisan Dartmouth, Nova Scotia |
#9
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You won't find too many builders that don't believe a guitar opens up in the first couple of weeks. How long that continues is anybody's guess.
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Rodger Knox, PE 1917 Martin 0-28 1956 Gibson J-50 et al |
#10
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26 years later, my first build is alive and kickin', which surprises and amuses me no end. I thought it sounded awful the day I strung it up. Two weeks later I was smiling like I hit the lottery :
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