Freeman Keller

First, most of the things about the tone of a guitar are built in and you can't change. Body size, materials, bracing pattern are all pretty much fixed and have the biggest effects on "tone" (whatever that is). I'll come back to this in a minute

Over the years I have experimented with some of the variables that can be changed and have posted the results here. Please note that everyone has different ideas of what sound what way and sometimes can describe what they hear. What I did was take a good guitar as a standard and change one thing at a time, recording it, and posting clips here for discussion. The main guitar was an old D-18 but I also did comparisons with several others. This is a really good way for you to experiment - record your guitar, then change one thing and record again. Listen to the two clips, decide what you like, move on.

In my humble, strings do make a significant difference in sound. Gauge seems to mostly affect volume or intensity - heavier gauge strings are louder and you can see that with a graphical program like Audacity. Composition colors the sound - to my ears 80/20 strings are brighter sounding, PB's a little more mellow. Age also changes the sound - I've recorded the same strings at several different stages in their life. Coatings seem to have a small effect on tone, heavy coatings do seem to muffle the string slightly.

Believe it or not, bridge pins can change the sound of a guitar. In my pin test I recorded the D18 with stock plastic, bone, ebony, brass and no pins (it has a slotted bridge). The brass and no pins were the most dramatic but lots of people who listened to the clips felt that there was a good reason that Martin uses plastic.

I haven't done much with saddles or nuts - I did try switching the Tusq saddle on a Taylor to bone and frankly couldn't hear any difference. It is very hard to do any kind of comparison - its a hassle to make different saddles so I just use bone for everything I build. My personal ethics don't allow me to use any ivories no matter how long its been dead - however some people think they hear something with FWI.

I don't use picks (I did for the tests but it was a generic medium plastic one) but flat picker swear by different materials. Again, my ethics wouldn't let me use real tortise shell, but you can certainly experiment here. Fingernails, attack and other techniques can really change the sound.

Lastly, when I say that guitars can't be changed, that is not totally true. Tony Rice hogged out the sound hole on his old Martin and both my D18 and D12-28 have had some "hot rodding". I can't say that the tone changed that much but they certainly are louder. Forumite Gitnoob has done a lot of fiddling around modifying guitars - you might find some of his threads.

Hope this helps. In my search for the tone I like I currently own 9 or 10 guitars and will add more to the quiver as the old GAS attacks.

You don't need to measure them - it will be marked on either the handle or the socket. They usually come is sets. If you are removing the nut on top of the headstock, make sure you get a driver with a hollow shaft or a "deep socket" driver wich will allow the tuner post to fit inside. The other option is to use a 10mm box end wrench (assuming you are correct that the nut is 10mm). I am not a huge fan of adjustable wrenches in small sizes like that, but they will work in a pinch.

If you don't want to buy the tools, you could take it to a mechanic and let her remove the old nut and tighten the new one. You may also need to fill and drill new mounting holes for the little screws on the back - they seldom line up when you swap tuners.

Be very careful working around the headstock - it is easy to scratch it. Good luck - let us know how you like your lockers

First, welcome to HCAG. Second, to bring this back on topic, most people feel that solid tops are more desirable for several reasons (which I'll get to in a minute). Usually when it doe not say "solid" the implication is that the top is a laminate, lets say "plywood". That allows the builder to us a nicer looking piece of wood on the outside, but to laminate it will maybe slightly lesser quality on the inside.

Many player feel that the top is the most important part of the guitar, and if possible a good piece of solid wood is desirable. Solid spruce is the ideal engineering material, it is light, very strong, fairly homogeneous, fairly pretty and can be worked to achieve the tone a builder is seeking. It also has the wonderful character that as it ages, the tone usually improves. For these reasons, various spruces have been the top wood of choice for hundreds of years.

Laminated woods are usually found on less expensive guitar. They can be pretty and some actually sound remarkably good. I happen to be one of those folks that Baba talks about, my first guitar was a very old Yamaha - I new the back was laminated and didn't care, but it sounded so darned good I couldn't believe the top wasn't solid until I got down and really looked carefully. My old "plywood cheapie" is an amazing sounding guitar.

Last comment, sort of aside, it is interesting to me as a guitar builder and engineer that laminates are coming back in some very high end guitars. There is a lot of experimenting in the classical world with guitar with three piece tops - two very thin pieces of spruce with nomex (yup, the cloth) laminated in between. Strong, light, pretty and amazing sound.

Last comment is that a sold wood guitar does require very slightly more care, particularly wrt humidity than a laminated one, but it is not unreasonable. I would always choose solid tops if I could, but I would also let my ears guide me.

One of Martin's best sig models IMHO. My local shop had one a while back, I tried to help them sell it to a forumite. Looks like you need to change your sig, eh?

Neck angle, neck angle, neck angle. It is almost impossible to reset the neck on old Yamies and many need it. $65 is a lot to pay for a slide only guitar. However, if you can get it for ten or twenty bucks and want to gamble on my resetting it, I would try (I've been looking for one to practice on before I do my FG-150). The Sick Guitar article in the Annex tells how to check the angle.

Other potential problems - bad tuners (there are some Grovers that fit for about $50), frets (crown and dressing runs $40, replacement about $10 each). The pickguard on mine was lifting and made a buzzing sound, and some have bad or broken truss rods.

With a good neck and other wise structurally sound you sometimes see them selling for a couple of hundred (which seems high)

Need to make them bigger, tho

It has been done, but lots of pretty big guys seem to do OK with the standard necks. Being a double coursed instrument you fret two strings at once and the very short scale means the one finger spans two frets. Tuned like a violin it is a natural for someone you plays the fiddle.

One of the hardest things for me was getting used to the way you wear the strap (and it is almost impossible to hold without one).

A mando is a great "travel guitar" - you can carry it on an airplane and it is quiet enough to play in your hotel room at night.

The two finger chord from Mando Cafe' and a few simple fiddles songs are about all I know on mine. The Cafe' is a great resouce for beginning players.

Terrible picture but here is the one I built (and no, it is not red inside - weird effect from the flash)

I am anything but an expert on mandos - I built mine a year ago and still haven't really learned much on it. They range dramatically in price, largely because of the construction involved. Have you settled on a type of music and/or shape of mando you want? ("A" style, "F", etc). Most bluegrass mandolin will be played on the classic F5 shape which tend to be the expensive ones, but a friend has a nice little Horner F5 that I think was pretty reasonable.

It is also a reasonable project if you are at all handy - the StewMac campfire mando kit is only $150 and I think Grizzly has one for even less.

Does this help? Might be worth contacting him

http://www.angelfire.com/blues/rockinjohn/ventura/ventura_bruno.html

I dropped the name into the HC database and came up with nothing. It is pretty complete, but doesn't include many of the boutique and one off builders. Sorry

Originally posted by da mayor By the way Freeman, if you read this, I don't know if I've said it before, but I just want to say thanks for all you do here. I've learned a lot from that sticky, a well as many of your other posts. Unfortunatly, it hasn't made me a better player (dang), but it has given me a greater understanding and appreciation of the instrument.

Thanks. Hasn't made me any better either. But it's sure been fun.

Krazy, go thru the quick measurements in the "Sick" sticky. Don't do anything yet. They all affect each other, so lets see where we are starting.

The neck angle thing is quick and easy - a 24 inch straightedge (a yard stick works if it is pretty straight) should just kiss the top of the bridge (not saddle)

The nut sounds like it is pretty OK. They rarely "get bad" but take a quick squint at the clearance between the strings and the first fret capoed at 2. Should just barely clear

Put the capo on at 1 and hold down a string at 12 - you should just be able to fit about one business card under the string at 6. More than two is bad, if the string touches other frets that is bad also.

Take the capo off and measure from the top of the 12th fret to the bottoms of the E strings. I didn't show it in the pics but my trick here if you don't have an accurate rule is to make a mark on your business card at 1/16 (2/32), 3/32, 1/8 (4/32) and 5/32. If you have a ruler in 16th you can guesstimate between marks - use a sharp pencil. Now measure the action with the card.

Last thing is to measure with the same card how much saddle is sticking out of the bridge.

Report all those things back here to the Mothership and we'll decide what to do next. btw - how old is the Tak?

true. Nanos will feel rougher and will have more string noise. There are also two flavors of Nano's - PB and 80/20. They might have a slightly different color to the metal.

And what every you think of coated strings, one advantage for a manufacture (or store) is that they will sound relatively fresh in the shop. I've played too many new Marties with dead sounding strings. One reason people tend to like Taylors in the store.

Jasmine, why does a two year old guitar need a neck reset? This sounds like some serious structural issues. Both my Martins needed it, but not until 25 and 30 years - pretty normal. Can you at least take it back where you got it for advice.

I can PM you information about the luthier that I have used and have been extremely happy with if you would like his opinion.