#61
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Do not fear a birch top guitar.
I love to remind folks that both Mahogany and Koa are Hardwoods... And yet people seem to have no issues with Mahogany or Koa topped guitars.... Birch guitars can sound fantastic just like Spruce topped guitars can sound terrible.... I am working my way through an old 1940's all birch Stella 1141 (GC size).... It sounds great. It is also plenty loud. Does it sound like spruce? No - but it still sounds good... You will be amazed at how good it sounds and plays when Steve gets done with it.... It won't be a kid toy anymore..... |
#62
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If the one I have didn't have a hard V neck I would have made it playable by now.
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Fred |
#63
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Hey Fred, Steve can probably re-profile that neck to a slimmer style.
Oh I'm not afraid of the Birch top at all, John. In fact, when I strung it up, just before sending it to Steve, I heard how great the tone would be and this alone caused me to have the guitar sent to him in the first place.
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Dump The Bucket On It! Last edited by Looburst; 11-29-2017 at 06:07 PM. |
#64
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Very true, George. We will talk over these options. I did explain that tonal balance is at the top of my wish list on this and for it not to be just some updated toy guitar. He knows that.
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Dump The Bucket On It! |
#65
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Quote:
I love those Figure 8 body style Harmonys. The thing about birch is that it was used not because of anything to do with sound but because it was the cheapest hardwood available. But the real reason birch guitars tend to be ignored was the build. They were more often as not cheaply built with at best pretty clunky ladder bracing - certainly a far cry from the ladder bracing you found in guitars built by the "Italian Guild" in NYC.
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"You start off playing guitars to get girls & end up talking with middle-aged men about your fingernails" - Ed Gerhard |
#66
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Just talked with Steve in detail about the tone I was after and he shared with me a sound bite of a 1930s Oscar Schimdt, all Birch parlor that he had converted and you wouldn't believe the tonal balance he got out of it. He said that all completely Birch guitars from these two decades (1930s to 40s) are essentially the same, once you convert them to X bracing. It really brings out the hidden balance that exists underneath.
Wish I could play for it for you from my gmail email account, but I don't know how to do that.
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Dump The Bucket On It! Last edited by Looburst; 11-29-2017 at 05:59 PM. |
#67
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Quote:
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Fred |
#68
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True, I see your point. The look is part of the fun with these.
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Dump The Bucket On It! |
#69
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Mind you if I strip the guitar I could do a cool sunburst.
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Fred |
#70
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Very true, like John's Harlin Bros. in that video.
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Dump The Bucket On It! |
#71
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almost looks like you could just lower the saddle a bit and it would be playable -
Id try that first before you spend any money on it -thou its worth it if you do -would just be cooler to do it on the cheap . I own several older guitars- about the only thing i ever did other than a slight action change -was put nylon ball end strings on them - makes them more of a folk guitar.
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--------------------------------- Wood things with Strings ! |
#72
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Dump The Bucket On It! |
#73
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Very cool.
To my eyes - that looks very "forward shifted" - but it might also be the picture... |
#74
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Need...
... more.
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Fred |
#75
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LOL, I do too Fred! Hey John, it is maybe a more progressive bracing but one that Steve uses with great success on these older Style 0 parlor guitars.
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Dump The Bucket On It! |