The Cult of McIlroy membership thread - Page 12

galpat · #**166** 05-30-2015, 05:03 PM

I have just purchased my first McIlroy guitar, a 2009 A20. I've only had it 5 days and I am smitten. Please add me to The Cult of McIlroy membership. Will post some picks I received from original owner when I figure out how to do it.

Pat

galpat · #**167** 05-30-2015, 08:33 PM

http://s1372.photobucket.com/user/ga...?sort=3&page=1

galpat · #**168** 06-13-2015, 11:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by galpat

I have just purchased my first McIlroy guitar, a 2009 A20. I've only had it 5 days and I am smitten. Please add me to The Cult of McIlroy membership. Will post some picks I received from original owner when I figure out how to do it.

Pat

I have just purchased a new A65 from Langley Music in Slough. Lovely guitar. I think I will be selling some from my collection soon as I just love these McIlroy guitars.

dani.nac · #**169** 08-10-2015, 06:43 AM

I'm the happy owner of a beautiful McIlRoy A30C from Australia.
This is a special one: this guitar is a truly NOS.

I've got it it from a guy that bought the guitar new 5 years ago, and this guitar, apart the first few days probably, never left the case.. for 5 years !!! Luckily here we have a constant 50-60% humidity. So the guitar is really NEW. No cracks. Still smell like new. When you open the case you can feel the Wood Aroma, seems to be in a forest.
There were still the original strings (now I changed them), and again, no sign of corrosion of rust on them. Good sign that humidity was under control.
Its spruce top still needs to break in, since it's new

(did i tell you already that is new ?!?!

)
It's amazing how a guitar like this has been able to stay for 5 years untouched in its Hiscox case.
I'm the happiest guitarist on the planet now.

I'll try to attached some pictures, so you can see the beauty. Its serial is in the 600sh range....i can't remember the exact serial number now..
The most beautiful acoustic instrument i've ever tried. And it still need to break in. I can't imagehow it will sound after few months...

Sorry for the quality of pics, I'll try to get some better and replace them.

Btw, Any chance there's still a spot available into the CoM club for me and my lovely beauty ?!?

Sorry again for the bad quality pics. But at least you can appreciate this great piece of rosewood at the back

Kenbike · #**170** 08-14-2015, 03:20 AM

Great guitar!

westman · #**171** 08-14-2015, 04:25 AM

played my first McIlroy a couple of months ago at a jam, very nice resonant guitar but it was a 'standard production model not a 'custom'..
I see this thread has been on the go here since 02-21-2011, longest running live thread ?.

dani.nac · #**172** 08-16-2015, 10:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kenbike

Great guitar!

Yeah, it is a great guitar !!!
And is getting every day better, tonally speaking.

Oh, and for some reason I forgot the lovely Silky Spruce Top

I couldn't ask more from an acoustic guitar.

kiwidogs · #**173** 01-18-2017, 12:34 AM

I do am enamoured by McIlroys. Proud owner of an A15C, A25C, A35, and an A56

RodB · #**174** 01-18-2017, 02:41 AM

See you like Cedar as well, how do the A35 and A15c compare to the A25c? (I have an A25 and A30 and have never had the chance to play a McIroy with another combination using Cedar)

nobo · #**175** 01-21-2017, 06:09 AM

Photo time! Think I've posted at least the shop tour ones elsewhere on AGF before, but here seemed a good place to share them too!

McIlroy shop tour

When I was in Northern Ireland in early December 2011, I paid a visit to a Dee, who kindly showed me around his factory in Antrim . I was lucky in that he'd just finished a batch of guitars and was about to ship them, so he had a fair few around to sample and generally oggle over.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...1&l=94cca8bbd7

My A25c custom

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...1&l=3132e4e64e

Finished on 2/2/2010. Custom extra-wide nut width (46.7mm), custom string extra-wide spacing at the bridge (60mm), Gotoh 510 21:1 machine heads with ebony buttons and an ebony backplate on the headstock.

Solid western red cedar top with American black walnut back and sides from Kew Gardens. Sycamore, maple and rosewood purfling. Ebony bridge. Ebony and maple bound fingerboard and headstock. piece neck: Brazilian mahogany, maple, Kew walnut, maple, mahogany.

K&K Pure Western Mini triple soundboard transducer and L R Baggs M1a (sprayed with black Vinyl Dye) soundhole magnetic (since replaced with a Seymour Dunan MagMic) pickups wired in stereo.

It's lurvely ...

'Fraid the pics aren't great - taken indoors in a hurry with terrible lighting. Perhaps one day I'll take some proper shots! The colours have also come out a bit odd - and maybe the colours have changed a bit since 2010 - it now looks much more integrated (if that makes sense?), as show ...

Here's a few shots of my A25c custom from when I was recording with it in December last year, when I finally laid down a tune I wrote a decade or more ago: Dragonfly. CGDGAD tuning using some (deliberately) fairly tired and mellow Elixir 12-56 phosphor bronze strings. No audio ready to share just yet, so here's some wavelengths captured in a different format...

And lastly, my McIlroy A25c

2003, from memory. Claro walnut on this one, with extra body binding layers. This is the one that was shown on the old McIlroy website (where this pic is from).

stevecuss · #**176** 01-21-2017, 10:15 AM

Wow, that's gorgeous. I'm intrigued by your pickup system. What outboard processing do you use for your stereo rig?

Also, I love the idea of the Baggs magnetic because if I recall, it also has a mic in it, so I suppose you had 3 sources for a while there?

Sorry to turn the thread to electronics, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on the mag/SBT solution and what gear plays nice with it.

nobo · #**177** 01-23-2017, 03:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevecuss

Wow, that's gorgeous. I'm intrigued by your pickup system. What outboard processing do you use for your stereo rig?

Also, I love the idea of the Baggs magnetic because if I recall, it also has a mic in it, so I suppose you had 3 sources for a while there?

Sorry to turn the thread to electronics, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on the mag/SBT solution and what gear plays nice with it.

Thanks Steve.

The Baggs M1a is a single source magnetic, but it does pick up top resonance/percussion to a degree. The SD MagMic is a magnetic pickup with a built in microphone, which are blended in the pickup to a mono output. I've wired the magnetic pickup with a mini jack socket and plug so that I can easily remove it (to swap out the pickup, for flying, etc.). Then there's a mono output from the K&K pure mini SBT. I've wired these to a single stereo endpin. So three sources without the extra end pin or extra lead. Downside is you can't separately eq the mic and magnetic, but that's never been a problem, even adding a lot of bass from the magnetic (I suspect there's a high pass filter on the mic). You can always turn down the mic and add a bit of sparkle eq on the SBT to compensate.

Very flexible system as you get bass/cut through the mix/solidity/feedback resistance from the mag; air, resonance, percussion from the mic; and a nice, natural tone from the K&K SBT (albeit less cutting/less feedback resistance/mushier in a band situation by itself). These can be balanced to taste according to style/venue, etc - so it's worked for my for anything from really small and intimate gigs to festivals.

The stereo lead from the guitar goes to a Dtar Solstice, which has separate 3 band eq per channel. I also had a separate 4 band fully parametric rack EQ (which could be split into two separate 2 band eqs, which could be patched in to each channel for any problem frequencies. TBH, I didn't use that out live (well, once or twice) as it was really heavy!

I've recently got a Pendulum SPS1, which does much the same thing as the Dtar but for more £££! Sounds a bit better and has 3 band fully parametric EQ for each channel, plus you can pan each channel etc.

Plenty of other preamps these days that would do the job. At the higher end, the Felix looks great and the new Orange Acoustic Pre is intriguing too.

From the preamp, it goes to a Lexicon MPX550, where I add a touch of compression and unhealthy quantities of reverb

Sounds great! At the risk of blowing my own trumpet, I've had lots of compliments on the sound - including from other tone-nerds searching for the holy grail. Misspent previous life as a recording engineer probably helps! Ah... miss those days!

If interested, there's some shots of the recording setup on my fb page. Album in progress, with at least one tune on the McIlroy A25c custom. Kostal MDC and OM and my Lowden Baritone for the rest.

All the best,

Dan

Auld Reekie · #**178** 01-23-2017, 03:12 PM

Add me to the CoM. I bought my Mcilroy A30 in Perfect Pitch in Dublin in May 2001; Serial no 30!
Keep it in CGCGCD

Mark L · #**179** 01-23-2017, 03:31 PM

A36 here, a wonderful instrument!

Posting because I'm quite interested in a McIlroy 12 string, and would like to see pics and/or hear stories about yours. Thx.

stevecuss · #**180** 01-23-2017, 05:55 PM

Brilliant! Thanks for sharing the info. I really like the notion of an SBT and Mag pickup - I can see why it would get a great sound and still be very feedback resistant.

I'm familiar with the Pendulum - nice piece of kit for sure. I've been blown away lately by all the different acoustic preamps that claim to be transparent that are anything but. Its quite jigsaw puzzle - finding the right gear to play nice together to make an acoustic sound acoustic once its plugged in. This was very informative, thanks much

Steve

Quote:

Originally Posted by nobo

Thanks Steve.

The Baggs M1a is a single source magnetic, but it does pick up top resonance/percussion to a degree. The SD MagMic is a magnetic pickup with a built in microphone, which are blended in the pickup to a mono output. I've wired the magnetic pickup with a mini jack socket and plug so that I can easily remove it (to swap out the pickup, for flying, etc.). Then there's a mono output from the K&K pure mini SBT. I've wired these to a single stereo endpin. So three sources without the extra end pin or extra lead. Downside is you can't separately eq the mic and magnetic, but that's never been a problem, even adding a lot of bass from the magnetic (I suspect there's a high pass filter on the mic). You can always turn down the mic and add a bit of sparkle eq on the SBT to compensate.

Very flexible system as you get bass/cut through the mix/solidity/feedback resistance from the mag; air, resonance, percussion from the mic; and a nice, natural tone from the K&K SBT (albeit less cutting/less feedback resistance/mushier in a band situation by itself). These can be balanced to taste according to style/venue, etc - so it's worked for my for anything from really small and intimate gigs to festivals.

The stereo lead from the guitar goes to a Dtar Solstice, which has separate 3 band eq per channel. I also had a separate 4 band fully parametric rack EQ (which could be split into two separate 2 band eqs, which could be patched in to each channel for any problem frequencies. TBH, I didn't use that out live (well, once or twice) as it was really heavy!

I've recently got a Pendulum SPS1, which does much the same thing as the Dtar but for more £££! Sounds a bit better and has 3 band fully parametric EQ for each channel, plus you can pan each channel etc.

Plenty of other preamps these days that would do the job. At the higher end, the Felix looks great and the new Orange Acoustic Pre is intriguing too.

From the preamp, it goes to a Lexicon MPX550, where I add a touch of compression and unhealthy quantities of reverb

Sounds great! At the risk of blowing my own trumpet, I've had lots of compliments on the sound - including from other tone-nerds searching for the holy grail. Misspent previous life as a recording engineer probably helps! Ah... miss those days!

If interested, there's some shots of the recording setup on my fb page. Album in progress, with at least one tune on the McIlroy A25c custom. Kostal MDC and OM and my Lowden Baritone for the rest.

All the best,

Dan