Quote:
Originally Posted by savvas
The sound is intriguing. It’s very loud, quite balanced and strong while also being very articulate with no sense of boominess, ‘flabbiness' or confused resonances. I guess maybe a combination of the body depth and the walnut b&s? The mid-range in particular - the D and G strings have very effective voices which I’m pleased with - I’ve often found the G string on small guitars to be somewhat ‘flat’ and difficult to activate with fingers alone!...
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I'd like to try to add a few more comments to the above. First this is a new guitar (and all of Ed's guitars will be relatively 'young' I suppose) I'm consciously adjusting my expectations accordingly. While my NL-00 has a very responsive, resonant and clear voice, it also still feels like I'm going to see a fair bit of opening-up and maturation - which I'm really looking forward to. I'm hoping that individual notes - especially in the mids and trebles - will acquire a somewhat fuller quality with time.
At present - while the fundamental tones are beautiful, crystalline and resonant - the additional partials that seem to add up to a really
full string tone (as opposed to body resonance etc) feel like they are likely to develop further. Lots of inherent potential that will I guess need lots of playing to develop.
One thing that I am understanding better as my use of the instrument proceeds is the tremendous responsiveness that Ed has achieved - I presume related in part to the Lutz top. The sound is certainly very 'up front' with a high degree of sensitivity to finger tones and overall articulation.
My NL-00 is shaping up as a very satisfying guitar to play and explore composition with. It's an extremely well set-up instrument and is certainly encouraging me to advance and improve my technique. I also have a Larrivee 00-03 (sitka/mahogany) which I am comparing the new guitar with. It has a sweet and woody sound but is heavier than the NL-00 and and feels slightly more restrained. Still a great guitar of course but I certainly feel the NL-00 is a big step forward for me.
Getting my hands on this NL-00 has fired my interest in other possibilities. The NL is an articulate and balanced instrument with sparkling trebles and 'bright' tonal qualities overall. I've asked Ed how he'd achieve a similar mids and treble voices with stronger, deeper and richer finger-style bass notes. He has suggested that his OM or SJ would be the way to go, maybe with EIR b/s. I'm also quite interested in his Advanced Jumbo/Sloped Shoulder designs (not sure what the differences are) - but only because I've played a couple of old and new Gibsons with quite attractive finger-style qualities.
One thing I
would like to experiment with on the NL-00 is a slightly heavier gauge set of strings. On the advice of others here I've tried the D'Addario EJ-24 'med-light' set on a 00 guitar which strengthened trebles and reduced some of the 'boxiness' that small guitars seem prone to. Ed seems to generally recommend light gauge only for his guitars but my NL-00
does have tapered rather than scalloped braces which I'm hoping would add a bit of the additional strength required for heavier strings...
I'd be very interested in comments from owners of OM and SJ Halcyons...
Sam.