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Your Choice and Why


Idunno

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We need a little TGP action in this place so I'll engage in that role play in this thread -

 

If you own a particular guitar and can honestly say you think you're set, satisfied and completely out-gassed, what is it about the guitar that brought you there?

 

And, can we leave out the brand, model and whether it has a pinned or a string-through bridge, etc, etc? None of that matters. Can you do that?

 

I'll go 1st.

 

Nut - 1-3/4" is my narrowest as well as my widest option. Fat fingertips and short fingers limit me to that size. This guitar is 1-3/4" at the nut.

 

Saddle - 2-1/4" suits me fine and that's what this guitar has.

 

C-Shaped Neck - Low oval or c-shape has proven to be my choice. The v-shaped necks are fine for some who rest their thumbs on the back of the neck per the conventionally taught method. But, some of us apply a loose palm grip of the neck and utilize thumb fretting. A v-shaped neck on a loose palm grip requires constant adjusting of the shape of the grip to move over the humped v-shape. Not so with the c-shape. The grip remains comfortably constant and makes all the difference relative to hand fatigue for me.

 

Body size - I have a jumbo concert. It's bordering on too big but still doable. Larger than that requires my small frame accommodate the guitar versus the other way around. I prefer the latter way. I watch people play their jumbos and dreads and it's obvious the reach around the guitar is a bit much for them. It's like watching a little kid riding a bike too big for him. Again, body fatigue is an issue I learned is diminished with the smaller guitar.

 

Intonation - It's good in a world of guitars that are a lot worse. Still, I can manage to adapt it by tuning at mid board instead of the 1st position.

 

Sound - It is the key reason I bought it. While the quality of that sound is basically inexplicable in the objective sense, I'll just say that it yields the entire tonal spectrum of the guitar rather than just a less expressive fundamental. I can always nuance fundamental from a guitar with technique but technique alone cannot enrich the sound of an acoustic guitar.

 

Balance - Again, a sound product of the guitar. Pluck for pluck the volume is basically even across the strings save for the high E after two weeks into a set of strings. Three weeks in and I'm losing the guitar's brilliance and breaking fingernails trying to dig it out. But, I'm happily balanced with new strings for those 1st two weeks. Capo'd up to the 7th fret, I'm still articulate and balanced.

 

Those were the important aspects that this guitar passed. Aesthetically, I have my preferences and this guitar meets most of them. The ones that don't I ignore.

 

 

 

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For me, my favorite guitar had these characteristics: C-shaped neck: fits well in my hand when fretting chords and still comfortable when I plant my thumb to fret individual notes. Real ebony fingerboard: muuuuch better than rosewood IMO, worlds better than a glossed maple fingerboard. It has the "grip" of the former with the firmness of the latter. Now I won't look at a guitar with anything but. Rosewood feels too soft and maple too slick. 1-3/4" wide nut: lots of room for my stubby fingers. A flatter 17" fretboard radius makes the neck feel even less like a baseball bat in my hands and gives my fat fingers an easier surface to plant into. Slim waist sits more comfortably on my thigh. While as an OM it lacks the bass response of a dread but the shape is much easier for me to play. Again, my favorite guitar may lack the bass and breaks up when hit hard but I'll take focus over power because a good guitar doesn't get in the way of a good technique. I also like that it's voiced so that the G and D strings aren't buried under a too powerful low E or A string or too brittle of a high E or B string. Again, those can be accentuated with good technique, not a heavy hand.

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I have three favorite guitars and each exists because of things that I didn't like about something else that I owned. Interestingly they all have some of the same characteristics even tho they are very different - all have wide fairly flat fretboards, wide spacing at the saddles. They all have pronounced vee to the back of the neck. They are long scale twelve fret slot heads. They all came from the same mold - happens to say 000 on it. Two of them have six strings, the other has twice that many. One of them has three metal hubcaps in the center of the top.

 

All three say "FK" on the headstock

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Hard to say.

I have so many. Too many.

But if there is one, maybe three to name, it has to be the ones that Binh built for me. Each of them is the result of a rather crude concept, a rather impossible idea - and Binh made it possible.

 

First, there is the Binh blonde Banjo Killer. She's the first guitar that I commissioned at Binh and it is a rather impossible thing. I wanted a guitar that was not only LOUD - and I mean LOUD, but one that also sounded well. One that still was a fun to play. For being just LOUD, I could have opted for a resonator, but that would mean giving up some guitar-like sustain in favor of resonator twang and noise, nothing that appealed to me in the context of Irish Folk, which the Blone Banjo Killer was made for.

To achieve this, Binh opted for proven technologies from LOUD guitars and we patterned the lines along a hybrid between a Westerly Guild D60 back and a Westerly Guild D50 front, but with a chunky Guild D55 neck, with the top made of a very fine grained, very blonde spruce and the back, sides and the neck being made of flamed maple.

Binh said, he wouldgive it a nice V-shaped neck, because he needed a solid and massive base and at first I was a bit scared. All the V-shaped necks I've tried so far just annoyed the hell out of me, I was a lover of the Martin modified low oval, so a V-Shape would be as far away frommy comfort zone as a neck could be. But Binh said he could do it right and I believed him.

 

The day the guitar arrived in it's case I could not help myself, Ihad to open it and give it a strum while it still was in the case and man, that thing rang, sang ... I had to check where the battery compartment for the amp was, but I could not find one. It was all just acoustic. Unbelievable, but true. The sound JUMPED out of the case and it continued to grow. Even the v-shaped neck proved to be more than just playable, but just being fun to play. And did I mention the ebony fretboard. Have you ever dreamt of a fretboard that feels like satin, silk ... smooth, black ...

 

Ahhh, this is still one of my favorite guitars. Apart from, well, the OM that Binh has built for me. This one is a mix of a OM45 front with an OM35 back - Rosewood with a wedge made of the gorgeous maple that Binh used for the Banjo Killer. But this one is light, airy, almost too light. But it withstands the pull of the strings, so it should be ok. This one is deffo not for the pub or a stage, it's too fragile. But it has a dynamic that is to be heard to believe. From featherlite touch to digging in deep, this one can do it all. First, I was afraid to dig in, really whack it, but I learned that it would do her no harm, she can take it and she can sing.

 

What amazes me most, is the understanding that Binh has, with his limited English. He knows what I want, he knows what I expect and he delivers in buckets. It's not, that the guitars that I've ordered from him are all alike. They are not, they each have their own, very distinctive personality.

 

Looking at my factory build guitars, I am very surprised to have neither my Martin D40 nor my Martin D35 at the top of my list. It is a rather inexpensive Vintage VE2000GG - the Gordon Giltrap Signature model. Cedar over hog and a very wide 1 7/8 inch fretboard. The bosom of a delicate 00 with the bottom of a jumbo. A narrow waist that nicely sits on you lap and a very, very sweet voice....

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Great tone and excellent intonation, mainly. The smaller body size is comfortable. To me, the whole experience of that guitar may be one won of just plain ol' mileage. If there's anything wrong with it, I got used to it so long ago that I've forgotten. :)

 

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You've created some speed bumps that a few have ignored. I understand the OP's decision, I've played ONE Goodall, and it was truly Angels, what a nice builder if you can afford it. And we all could, in hindsight. I have a few, guitars and ukes, that fit that bill, but not just "one". I use all for totally different things, would be hard to cull the list. So let's get rid of ukes, and stick with guitars. Guitars, 3 National, one 6 string, single cone, 2 12 strings, one single, one tricone, one Martin, '37 00-17. Also a Dell'Arte Leadbelly 12. I love 'em all. Now I feel like an intruder that should have just kept his yap shut. I'm keeping them because they all say something different, but couldn't really narrow it down, so.... sorry?

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No thread rules. There was just a request put up to keep it relegated to attributes, which a name is not. I guess some think the headstock says it all. That's exactly the kind of thinking flocks graze on. I was looking for individual assessments of stand-out instruments and why by description. If you can't describe it in words, go one better and put up a tune. I like bartering.

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I'd edit, but can't on the iPad... Again, sorry for the name-drop, but they all stand out. Waxing prolific on them would take pages of boring prose. And don't get me started on the ukes... Were you looking for specs? Tone? Chasing tone is a lose-lose, all well made guitars sound bad in the right hands, and vice-versa. I did mention the resos, called them "Nationals", and those are all very different. No single one stands out. Music? Nah, too embarrassed to play in front of a camera., and then there's the whole lesson thing, it'd be months before I'm ready. Hah! Edit!

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The guitar that, when strummed or picked, hits the pleasure centers in my brain which then transmits the message to my cortex saying 'MINE!'

 

It's really hard for me to say. I am comfortable with most nut widths and neck shapes. The only neck shape that I really don't like is Hagstrom's, which is far too thin for my hands.

 

For me, the guitar has to 'feel alive.' It has to purrr, and it has to roar. The sound has to be full, either lush like good solid Rosewood/Sitka combination, or crisp like a good Mahogany/Sitka combination. I have a few nice acoustics, they are all different to some degree, but they are all 'pry-from-my-dead-hands' guitars. Only in dire need would I ever sell them. One has a 46 mm nut, one a 44.5, one a 43. They all suit me fine.

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Well, after much thought, I have to say that I don't have specific preferences. I have several different types of guitar and there are aspects of each that appeal to me, although probably not in a rational way.

 

I mainly fingerpick on all of them - electric, acoustic 6 and 12 string, classical - so, of course, the neck widths and profiles differ radically but my fingers seen to find their way around OK on all of them.

 

Same with body shape: I enjoy the slim contours of my Yamaha Pacifica electric (and its 40mm wide, "C" neck) - the way it fits nicely against the body - but I'm equally comfortable with my big old Eko Ranger VI (which is a jumbo dreadnought - the bouts are about an inch wider than a standard dred so it really is a big old thing). I love playing my Recording King ROS-16 triple 0 with it's 48mm wide, very chunky, vintage "V" neck and ditto with my 52mm neck classical.

 

 

I suppose i'm just a funny old bugger :idk:

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I'd edit, but can't on the iPad... Again, sorry for the name-drop, but they all stand out. Waxing prolific on them would take pages of boring prose. And don't get me started on the ukes... Were you looking for specs? Tone? Chasing tone is a lose-lose, all well made guitars sound bad in the right hands, and vice-versa. I did mention the resos, called them "Nationals", and those are all very different. No single one stands out. Music? Nah, too embarrassed to play in front of a camera., and then there's the whole lesson thing, it'd be months before I'm ready. Hah! Edit!

 

In that case I'll accept this post in place of music you're too shy to show. Either way: entertaining.

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The guitar that, when strummed or picked, hits the pleasure centers in my brain which then transmits the message to my cortex saying 'MINE!'

 

It's really hard for me to say. I am comfortable with most nut widths and neck shapes. The only neck shape that I really don't like is Hagstrom's, which is far too thin for my hands.

 

For me, the guitar has to 'feel alive.' It has to purrr, and it has to roar. The sound has to be full, either lush like good solid Rosewood/Sitka combination, or crisp like a good Mahogany/Sitka combination. I have a few nice acoustics, they are all different to some degree, but they are all 'pry-from-my-dead-hands' guitars. Only in dire need would I ever sell them. One has a 46 mm nut, one a 44.5, one a 43. They all suit me fine.

 

Can't say mine is like a tiger by the tail but I can make it give back some of the steaks I passed up on to buy it.

 

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Well, after much thought, I have to say that I don't have specific preferences. I have several different types of guitar and there are aspects of each that appeal to me, although probably not in a rational way.

 

I mainly fingerpick on all of them - electric, acoustic 6 and 12 string, classical - so, of course, the neck widths and profiles differ radically but my fingers seen to find their way around OK on all of them.

 

Same with body shape: I enjoy the slim contours of my Yamaha Pacifica electric (and its 40mm wide, "C" neck) - the way it fits nicely against the body - but I'm equally comfortable with my big old Eko Ranger VI (which is a jumbo dreadnought - the bouts are about an inch wider than a standard dred so it really is a big old thing). I love playing my Recording King ROS-16 triple 0 with it's 48mm wide, very chunky, vintage "V" neck and ditto with my 52mm neck classical.

 

 

I suppose i'm just a funny old bugger :idk:

 

Eclectic. But you're too modest to say so. Flexible, too. I've grown into this guitar. It's like I have this favorite comfortable body position that requires a support crutch. The guitar does that. The fact that it has strings and I learned to play them is a bonus by-product of not having anything to do with my hands while resting. Old Buggar is a title I've been toying with painting on my mailbox.

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I haven't played enough guitars to know. All I know is guitars make me happy.

 

Aw, well, you have the joys of starting only recently and haven't earned the intolerance years of playing develops in a person. Either that or you've reached the mellow-jell-o, unflappable age.

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Funny but the type of guitar i was running away from , seems to be my favorite guitar after all .

took a few years and a step backwards - Took a few OM's to realize that the standard type Dread is my fortay .

(still love my OM a bit - but not as much ) but Brazilian rosewood Adirondack topped Dread is what did it for me .

Been a couple of years with that 1 3/4 nut , I look at other guitars , but i compare them to looking at a pretty girl ,

they may turn your head but that Guitar is the real MC'Coy.

I've passed a few Guitar stores with the feeling that their wouldnt be anything their that could compare -

So i dont bother going in , maybe another pretty face, but with no heart !

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