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Greg.Coal

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  1. I've sold two things in the last two days in Denver, which is a pretty crowded market. In each case, they sold after I "renewed" the ad. That is, each ad got moved back to the top of the first page. Otherwise, in Denver - and I'm sure it's worse elsewhere, your ad goes to page 2 or worse pretty fast (within the first day). I can't believe I'm not getting any nibbles on my Bandit . . . . Greg
  2. . . . let's keep in mind that successful guitar companies have spent lots of dollars in infrastructure for a reason. This is not an argument against your comment but an addition. I do believe that a main reason for humidity control during construction has to do with process control and QC: controlling as many variables in the process to influence the final build quality which, then, has some relation to the ability to offer warranties on the product as well as maintain and increase the perception of the brand quality. I've read in some luthery discussions that some manufacturing decisions are made solely for those reasons but to the detriment of the sound or playability of the instrument. None of us know the effect of the air-drying that we have seen in the VN and Philippines vid's; perhaps they take care of all of the free water removal leaving the wood equilibrated with ambient. And, if the wood is high quality to begin with, it may do better than we expect in the finished instrument as it moves through climates. I've been reading the "Wood drying" article in wiki and it mentions that: 1. along the grain, wood shrinks the least (0.1 -0.3%) 2. across the grain the most (5-10%) - which is why the cross braces rip the top apart when your guitar has an acute drying episode, but: 3. along the pith - that is, from the heartwood towards the cambium, it shrinks less (2-6%). I posted earlier that my Lowden wasn't harmed or affected by extreme arid conditions of Arizona: that may, then, have to do with the fact that they build only with quarter-sawn wood (rather than slabs). I wouldn't mind seeing this thread end ... though I am (obviously) extending it. As someone else said: whenever it does end, it will end right where we are now. NealP and Etiene are needlessly opposed to each other. I agree with NealP that a guitar assembled in VietNam (all else being equal) will have a higher than average chance of a structural problem when shipped to a much drier climate. I agree with Etienne that his guitars come back to the US and don't have problems. That is, if he says they do, I believe him. I would like to see more guitars leave a factory or workshop equilibrated either to drier or wetter than average conditions - so long as shops can practice climate control. My Tanglewood behaved like an earlier poster described his VN guitar reacted to less humid conditions: everything fretted out below where the neck met the body. I fixed that. A lot of us live in either drier or damper climates than where the instrument is made. Running humidifiers or de-humidifiers to baby our guitars just doesn't seem right to me. Greg
  3. Ayer's is constructed in a climate controlled environment, Binh's guitars are not. ........ If not, caveat emptor. I'm not taking issue with NealP or the OP. Just want to point out that guitars have been made and played all over the world including the dry southwest of the US and similar areas in Central and South America and Europe for many, many years without humidity control and they don't splinter and disintegrate. I know I'm sidestepping the issue here when I say "what the hell happened to a musical instrument being an instrument to be played and not locked in an artificial environment?" It's usually not practical to keep them locked away and I am pretty sure guitars existed in blissful oblivion for many years before somebody started preaching 40-60% humidity as if it was gospel. Okay, if you've spent $4000 on a guitar and you're scared to death of putting a mark on it, much less letting it venture outside of the sacred humidity range then maybe you will be happier to keep it stored in an artificial environment. The OP testifies - as have others - that his instruments aren't shriveling during the dry season in Houston. I had my made-in-Ireland Lowden in Tucson AZ for 15 years and we're talking many months at ~7% humidity and temperatures way outside the divinely-inspired optimum range. It's fine. I will recommend that instrument owners should try to avoid sudden and sharp humidity and temperature swings. I'm sure many have had some unwanted changes occur to their instruments in response to the weather. My Tanglewood responded to humidity but I finally cured it by adjusting the setup and fretwork to work all the time in Denver's low humidity. No humidifier, no case. I certainly understand how a solid top, especially, responds to humidity changes but, overwhelmingly, a wooden instrument kept with humans in homes seems more often than not to survive without extraordinary care. Also, I have played some very old guitars that have divine tone and maybe that is due to swinging with the climate for many, many years. I'm trained in science and have a PhD and have seen more obvious things overlooked by supposedly bright people because they somehow weren't prescribed to them in their training - despite things occurring before their eyes. Also, too many self-described smart people make authoritative announcements based on a best-guess built from a small fact or two, all the while ignoring the larger context or loads of human experience to the contrary. And, no, I don't mean to lay that on NealP who seems like a decent and bright guy and plays good slide. I will chip in $10 to a pool of money to get somebody to bring a guitar back from VietNam and leave it out as a daily player in somebody's house in Texas or somewhere like that. That would be interesting (told you I was trained in science). Greg
  4. I bet you can go to a party and suck all the fun out of a room in no time flat. Spend more time in Japan then we`ll compare notes. Sounds to me like your experience here is extremely limited. Zenbu, I don't think you understood a word he said. Your somewhat impolite comment (attacking the speaker rather than what he said) surprised me; then you provide no notes now or previously to refute his general comments about there being craftsmanship and the craft as an entities separate from business and corruption of which you had spoken. Also want to approve of Gary Palmer's comment about lightly shellacking/sealing the underside of a guitar top. As guitar prices reach the stratosphere and tops have cross-grain wood glued to them (braces) builders should consider more ways to protect guitars that they might want to sell to players in all climates. Greg
  5. I downloaded the mp4 & watched as much of it as I could, but the video keeps vanishing after about 2 minutes. I'm not sure what's wrong. It's only 2:19 long. Maybe you saw it all. Greg
  6. Caught this segment on a show called "Travelscope". They are in the Phillipines and are on an island called (I think) "Matcong" and visit a shop called Allegre Guitars that makes classical's and other stringed instruments. Reminiscent of the Vietnamese shop; there is a rough edit whereby they are describing the construction of a top and in the next breath they're talking about carving the back of a guitarron or something like that. Click on the pic; should download and can play in video players like VLC, etc:
  7. ...there's something undeniably different about the older wood. When your fingers rub it, it creates this papery sound that's louder and clearer. When you tap it it pings instead of thuds. It has this papery character to it instead of a spongy quality to it that the newer wood has. This is true even though the wood hasn't been under the strees of string tension. There's definitely something to the effects of age over just moisture content. To say that old wood sounds better because it's "drier" isn't an accurate description to me. The chemistry continues to happen with the lignin. Loss of the elements of water, for instance. The cellulose and hemi-cellulose don't really undergo much change - unless there are cellulose-degrading fungi involved. The lignin, however, is pretty different chemically (it's the second most abundant organic compound on earth). It involves ring structures of several kinds while cellulose has none. The diverse lignin molecules can undergo change while still part of wood and, long after the cellulose is gone, it will continue to change. The youngest coal is "lignite" (from ancient plants) and as coal matures, it becomes more and more like pure graphite. This takes many millions of years, though. But, you are right about the spruce top, for example, becoming lighter - while still remaining strong - and everything else you already said. Some wood used today is not very acoustically alive. I am not sure that all of it has the potential to become better with time: you point out that some think that how it is handled in the first year may preclude it's maximum improvement; I think some of the grain in use today may be wider than would have been used many years ago and who knows its potential. Good posts, guitarcapo, Greg
  8. I don't dispute that guitars need care, yes of course they do. These guitars however, as has been demonstrated, will not last outside their environment of high humidity, plain and simple. I thought that the original poster (repeatedly) claimed that of his 5, 6 or 7 guitars he's brought back (to his air conditioning in the states) either one or none have failed. I understand the theory that guitars built in a more humid environment will shrink more later and could cause problems but, when he presents (demonstrates) his many exceptions to the theory, it suggests that the theory needs some qualifications and refining. As someone else said, not all wood is equivalent, if only based on the chemistry of aging. I have a Lowden (made in Ireland). I owned it 15 years in Tucson Arizona (7% RH common) and now in Colorado. Maybe twice a year I remembered to wet the soundhole humidifier, if that often. It's fine and has no cracks. George Lowden has been drying and storing wood longer than most if not all of the Asian manufacturers so I wouldn't be surprised if the otherwise high quality Asian wood would crack before the traditionally managed stock. We are buying Asian-made solid wood instruments probably faster than the wood can be properly prepared. Also, worth pointing out that instrument humidifiers are relatively recent in the history of stringed, solid wood instruments. I know that there is probably a history of instrument failures, too, but they are not the norm. Somehow, fine woodcraft and musical instruments could survive and I hope that we haven't lost the knowledge that people knew then (pre-humidifiers). Plus, I read the whole thread in one sitting: original poster never said the archtop was better than a Benedetto but made numerous references to the loudness. And since this is an acoustic forum, it's not unexpected that people will start a thread to tell others about something they are excited about. Joining wood where the grain is perpendicular will always be a problem and is probably one that craftsmen understood long ago and had/have ways to deal with it or lessen the chances of a failure. I doubt that included "remember, you must keep your house at 40-50% relative humidity year round". It is reasonable to believe that the guitar builder the original poster buys guitars from has good (and probably traditional) techniques to manage his wood properly. I worked in an organ pipe workshop in Switzerland a long time ago and the care and management of harvested and rough sawn wood was very specific and how they had been doing it for many hundreds of years. I spent some days just turning stacked (with spacers) wood where it was stored out in fields (under a tin roof - like in VietNam) for years before it was usable for organ construction. And, as to the suggestion that the original poster has an economic interest: he may, but how much will it add up to when the guitars sell for $300 each? He says that he doesn't, so why do people repeat their claim on these forums and essentially claim that the other is lying? That's pretty serious - especially when nothing really is at stake here - and yet these people say that they will keep posting to "educate us". This has been a great thread until the one poster decided to intrude to educate us that the original poster's guitars will disintegrate - contrary to what is actually happening - and also lower the level of civility. My understanding is that it has been popular and well received. I hope he continues with this excellent story line from VN. Plus, that"grey goose" guitar really does sound great. Greg
  9. Anybody ever see any interesting auctions on the 'bay anymore? Seems the sellers are all a bunch of pusses. I daily check the auctions of a nearby major seller in Denver (Gravity Music): http://stores.ebay.com/Gravity-Music-Gear?_rdc=1 They start 98% of their auctions for a dollar. Great for an amp. They sold a Behringer GMX212 for $98.52 and a Peavey Classic 50 212 Combo for $321 today. I think that's decent. I got a great Behringer BT 108 for $16.18 a few weeks ago (A 15 W SS bass amp with a cult following as a guitar amp; my telecaster sounds perfect through it). So, just saying, search locally if you can and save on shipping if you win. Must pay sales tax, though. But, CraigsList is good, too ..... Greg
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