Jump to content

NGD


Recommended Posts

  • Members

Pics maybe tomorrow. I bought a small orchestra Venetian cutaway from Binh. I wanted a Maple dread like Katopp bought. Still do want one too. But this little thing just has monster volume at 1/2 the price. Acacia B&S, Spruce top. Very narrow waist around sound-hole.

 

Very low price too. I normally hang my Guild D60 in the bistro. But I am having it worked on. So this will be my bistro guitar for awhile. After that, I may use it for Nashville tuning.

 

Pics to follow.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Congrats on the NGD!

May you play it long and in good health!

And remind Binh that the other guitar is not going to be a "SKT", but a "Binh" showcase guitar. So he has free hand to show his abilities and his craftmanship.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members
Congrats on the NGD!

May you play it long and in good health!

And remind Binh that the other guitar is not going to be a "SKT", but a "Binh" showcase guitar. So he has free hand to show his abilities and his craftmanship.

 

Not sure what guitar you mean Katopp. You'd better tell him. BTW, I don't care much for his new decal logo. Very modest, hard to read from a distance. Don't know where he got the idea. Almost looks like the old Guild ghost.

 

Here's what I bought that he wrought.

 

g.o.1a.jpgg.o.9a.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members
I believe Binh has been looking at Taylor guitars.

 

Maybe. I wouldn't know, because I haven't been looking at Taylor guitars lately. I was shopping for a Maple dread. A customer/friend from my bistro was with me and noticed how loud this thing was.He apparently hasn't been looking at Taylors either. But neither of us have lived in the US for over a decade at least. We're a bit out of touch.

 

Which one does this look like?

 

Now I regret not buying the dread. Prettier; it was Bird's-eye Maple. Sounded warmer too.If I'd known this little one resembled a Taylor*, it would have swung the sale the other way.

 

This had more volume. But the sound has a raw edge to it. Binh's Maple/Spruce dreads have a special sound, bright, yet warm.

 

At any rate, this one is my bistro guitar while my Guild gets worked on. Customers play it. When the Guild comes back, this will probably my high-string guitar for recording. I doubt it goes back to the US with me - assuming I ever do. I have guitars in the States that can fill its void.

-----

*I like T5's and 814/914ce's quite a lot BTW. But my F65ce fills the 814ce niche nicely.

-----

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members
Congratulations and Happy New Guitar Day. Lovely guitar. I've never seen acacia used as a tonewood before. It's mentioned in the Old Testament. The Ark of the Covenant was supposed to be made of it.

 

Sounds like Hog to me.This has an edgy mahogany tone to my ears. Raw but very loud. Maybe it's the tight-grained Spruce top though or the design. It might be the strings too. I'll find out in a few weeks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members
Maybe. I wouldn't know, because I haven't been looking at Taylor guitars lately. . . . A customer/friend from my bistro was with me and noticed how loud this thing was.He apparently hasn't been looking at Taylors either. . . .

 

. . . Which one does this look like? . . .

More a general resemblance than anything else. Here's a Taylor 612CE, which is probably closest in size and shape, for comparison:

 

fetch?id=31500174

 

Note the bridge design especially.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members
I believe Binh has been looking at Taylor guitars.

 

Yes, he has. At least when it comes to the visual design. But in terms of construction and - more importantly - sound, he's not Taylor-like at all.

Consider Binh doing what Martin is doing with the Performing Artiist Series. Pick the best of both worlds and marry it to build guitars that sound rich, pay easily and look the part, too.

I have a Binh Koa Jumbo which is basically exactly that, a Taylor body shape married to a Martin-inspired bracing and a dovetail neck. Soundwise it's like Angels singing. I also have a pair of 814-inspired guitars, one steel, the other nylon. Same concept. Take Taylor's more comfortable shape and marry it with Martin construction, you get a hell of a guitar.

Works with other conceptsd, too. Take a Guild D60/D55 hybrid, for instance. have it built with maple body and spruce top and you have a cannon that enjoys banjos for breakfast.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

More a general resemblance than anything else. Here's a Taylor 612CE, which is probably closest in size and shape, for comparison:

 

fetch?id=31500174

 

Note the bridge design especially.

 

g.o.8a.jpg

 

Yeah, the bridges are alike. Similar headstock too. After that, they are quite different though. Note the narrow waist size at the sound-hole. V cutaway seems different too, as are the joints, tone-woods and probably bracing.

 

What I really wanted was that Maple dread riff he made for Katopp off my Guild D60. That thing was amazing. But he only made 2 for the world. And they're both long ago sold. He'd have to custom-make me a 3rd. He has a Bird's Eye Maple dread in the shop for the same price as this. I sort of regret not buying it. It didn't have this one's volume. It sounded like a Binh Maple/Spruce guitar though. And you have to hear one of those to know what I'm talking about.

 

Next time, I might specify I want nothing "Taylor" though. That's easy enough. I could even get him get him to de-Taylorize this one if I wanted. I'm not really a big fan except for the 814ce.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

g.o.1a.jpgActually, I'm a little miffed about any resemblance to a Taylor at all. Nothing against the brand, but I'm not a fanboi of Taylors. I bought this guitar because it was so damned loud. I actually intended to buy a Bird's Eye Maple/Spruce dread at the same price. Then a guitarist/friend who had accompanied me was browsing through Binh's guitars and said,

 

"Hey, listen to this thing"

 

He's not a Binh aficionado. He buys from the maker across the street, Duy Ngoc. But he was taken aback by the volume of this little guitar. So I strummed it and yeah, it was louder than the dread or my D60 for that matter.

 

This guitar purchase was intended to find a guitar to hang in my bistro. It is on a noisy street. So it seemed a good choice. I don't intend to record or perform with it, unless I use it with Nashville tuning some time. I have my old Guilds for recording. My customers will likely play this guitar more than I will.

 

I was sitting talking w/some friends talking about this tonight, including the player who first noticed this guitar. He didn't notice the Taylor bridge resemblance either. But I'm a little aggravated about this. I sort of regret not buying that dread. Nothing Tayloresque about it.

 

I guarantee - it sure doesn't SOUND like any Taylor I've heard or played.

But its volume to my ears is a bit raw, edgy. It wouldn't suit my style on recording. I am even of thinking stringing it with Polywebs to calm it down a bit.

 

g.o.5a.jpgg.o.6a.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

It's a well known fact among audiophiles that a speaker that is louder will sound "better." Upscale shops like the defunct Hi Fi Fo Fum here in St. Louis used to have the ability to match volume for accurate comparisons. I suspect your new guitar has lots of midrange projection, which is why it's so loud and also why it doesn't sound especially good. A set of flatwounds might help to tame it a bit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Well gee, how was I to know I would hit a nerve by saying it looked like a T****** guitar. I said nothing about how it was built internally or how it sounds. You must admit that the bridge, the headstock, and even the cutaway resemble the T****** guitars. Too bad I guess.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

It's odd Binh didn't come out with where he got the inspiration for this guitar. It's got Taylor all over it. Not attempting to piss you off. It's just that the thing is a ringer for a Taylor and I thought it was just that at first glance. Still, there was a time when the 414CE was on my watch list. You can do much, much worse, IMO.

 

Funny that you have a wood bistro-beater instead of a Formica (HPL) all weather interceptor for patrons to bruise. I kept a Martin HPL on the wall at my bar for that. It saw some beer, bashing and lot's of blues and still hung on. I still have it. I've forgotten the model number. I keep it at the office now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members
It's odd Binh didn't come out with where he got the inspiration for this guitar. It's got Taylor all over it. Not attempting to piss you off. It's just that the thing is a ringer for a Taylor and I thought it was just that at first glance. Still, there was a time when the 414CE was on my watch list. You can do much, much worse, IMO.

 

Funny that you have a wood bistro-beater instead of a Formica (HPL) all weather interceptor for patrons to bruise. I kept a Martin HPL on the wall at my bar for that. It saw some beer, bashing and lot's of blues and still hung on. I still have it. I've forgotten the model number. I keep it at the office now.

 

It was a good idea to hang a less expensive model of a prestige brand like Martin at your bar. Me? I'm an idiot. I hang an expensive and rare Guild at my bar. But it attracts good and curious guitar players who have never played a Guild, but have heard of the brand. Most of our customers are not from the USA. They're from ANZ, EU, UK and lots of other places.

 

For two years, my Guild D60 hung there. A lot of paying customers came in just to play it. They bring their friends. And since I have the only real Louisiana food for several-hundred miles, it has worked out well. But it's a tough environment. We're known for our food. So we do a lot of cooking in the same small area. Smoke, grease, accumulate on the guitars and on the artwork hanging on the walls, on everything.

 

When the Guild comes back, I'll likely hang it back up and take the little one home for Nashville tuning work. Although customers seem to like it too. I'm curious how it will sound w/high strings. Apparently, Acacia is in the same family as Koa.

 

I used to have a lot of Binh's instruments on the wall for sale. But we sublet the place. The sublessees only wanted one guitar on the wall. That was the Guild until this week. Everything else is still basically the same. I still cook the gumbo. I still stir the roux.

 

And I have officially ceased to give a s*** about the Taylor BS. I might have a ẃord w/Binh though. I want nothing Taylor on my guitars. Nothing. It is a distraction from an otherwise unique-sounding instrument. None of my other guitars resemble Taylors or any other famous brands. I'm not happy about that.

 

But I will keep it for the sound. I won't fly it back to the US. I'll probably give it away one of these years.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

FWIW, here is what it sounds like in its native habitat during the slow time after lunch. I recorded it on my cell phone. Staff shouting, customers eating, drinking, street noise. It's all here, just a little less of it than peak hours. And you can still hear the little guitar amidst it all. It has found a new home I think.

 

This guitarist BTW, is a friend of mine. He was famous in Europe in the 70's and 80's. You can read about him here in line 1, paragraph 3 of the 'Early Career' section of Chrissie Hynde's Wiki entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrissie_Hynde

 

He likes the guitar quite a lot. How can I tell? He says so on the video. He didn't notice the appearance either.

 

Video 1 has the left channel missing on my headphones. Dunno why.

 

Video 2 has both channels.

 

MV5xR17zf_g

 

yy8IFwmmr9I

 

That's why my pal noticed this guitar. That's why I bought it.

It's loud enough to be heard in this place, even if you play it softly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...