Shopsmith Forums

How is the sound?

burkhome wrote:How is the sound?

How pray tell does an instrument of this genre sound any different by virtue of what it is made from or how it is shaped?

JPG40504 wrote:How pray tell does an instrument of this genre sound any different by virtue of what it is made from or how it is shaped?

Whatta ya think.....Les Paul and Gibson guitars became so popular because of their looks and names?

mickyd wrote:Whatta ya think.....Les Paul and Gibson guitars became so popular because of their looks and names?

Probably!

I be an old cranky opinionated individual who thinks a guitar is what is now referred to as of the acoustic genre.

Now I have nothing against the 'newer' solid wood genre, but cannot for the life of me figger out how either the material nor the shape has anything to do with the electrical signals produced by them.

Just look at the shape of the more 'imaginative' ones(all over the planet).

Yes I believe they are producing eye candy(that is not bad!).

I do believe Les Paul and Gibson produce included quality pickups etc. which also help their popularity.(they sounded good)

mickyd wrote:Sure gets an A+ for looks. Nice job. You happy with the play?

Ah, the old question of tone in an electric guitar.

If you ask a musician, you'll get all kinds of gobbledy-gook about tone woods, glue types, fret types, pickup resistance, bone nuts, stainless steel frets, etc.

Some of the wisest guitarists say that 90% of the tone of any guitar is in the fingers of the guitarist. This isn't a new idea]The Master's Touch[/URL]

Paul Reed Smith builds beautiful guitars out of high-quality tone woods. But the single most valuable guitar he ever built had a maple top taken from a drawer front on his mother's antique dresser. Today that guitar is worth around $100,000 and is owned by Howard Leese. Howard was the guitarist for "Heart" for a long time.

The earliest electric guitars were made from a slab of wood. No body at all. Many guitarists think that while those early guitars were very important, they don't sound all that good.

Good quality electronics (and careful soldering) go a long ways toward the sound of an electric guitar, but there's no reason to assume that the electronics in a 1960 Strat are any better than a 2010 Cort. Probably not as good, in fact. (Cort is the largest guitar manufacturer in the world, producing guitars under contract to virtually all the big name guitar companies, usually for their lower lines. That includes Fender, Gibson, Gretsch, etc. Their Strat copies are probably every bit as good as the Strats built in the 1960's and which now go for $30,000.)

Now, as to this particular instrument, I would have to call the sound "acceptable." Glue has a reputation for being a tone-killer, and you can bet there is a lot of glue in this one. The construction is neck-through, so that has a reputation of improving the sound of an electric guitar. The purpleheart fingerboard is VERY hard, as you'll know if you've ever tried to cut any of it, so that should improve tone, too. But birch doesn't have a reputation for tone quality. Had I known where to get it when I started out, I would have made it from Baltic birch plywood, which is higher quality.

The pickups and tuners came off a cheap e-bay guitar which turned out to have a bad neck. They're OK, but nothing fancy. The pots and switches are good quality. But I know that the fret positions are a little "iffy" in spots. To someone with a great ear, it might be noticeable.

It's really easy to spend a lot of money for specialized luthier tools, and while I have some, I don't have a couple that I would get if I were going to make a lot of guitars.

So, I guess in answer to your question, it sounds good enough, but probably not as good as a $100 Cort Les Paul copy, which likely sounds as good as a 1958 Les Paul did, when it was new.

mrblanche wrote:Ah, the old question of tone in an electric guitar.

If you ask a musician, you'll get all kinds of gobbledy-gook about tone woods, glue types, fret types, pickup resistance, bone nuts, stainless steel frets, etc.

Some of the wisest guitarists say that 90% of the tone of any guitar is in the fingers of the guitarist. This isn't a new idea]The Master's Touch[/URL]

Paul Reed Smith builds beautiful guitars out of high-quality tone woods. But the single most valuable guitar he ever built had a maple top taken from a drawer front on his mother's antique dresser. Today that guitar is worth around $100,000 and is owned by Howard Leese. Howard was the guitarist for "Heart" for a long time.

The earliest electric guitars were made from a slab of wood. No body at all. Many guitarists think that while those early guitars were very important, they don't sound all that good.

Good quality electronics (and careful soldering) go a long ways toward the sound of an electric guitar, but there's no reason to assume that the electronics in a 1960 Strat are any better than a 2010 Cort. Probably not as good, in fact. (Cort is the largest guitar manufacturer in the world, producing guitars under contract to virtually all the big name guitar companies, usually for their lower lines. That includes Fender, Gibson, Gretsch, etc. Their Strat copies are probably every bit as good as the Strats built in the 1960's and which now go for $30,000.)

Now, as to this particular instrument, I would have to call the sound "acceptable." Glue has a reputation for being a tone-killer, and you can bet there is a lot of glue in this one. The construction is neck-through, so that has a reputation of improving the sound of an electric guitar. The purpleheart fingerboard is VERY hard, as you'll know if you've ever tried to cut any of it, so that should improve tone, too. But birch doesn't have a reputation for tone quality. Had I known where to get it when I started out, I would have made it from Baltic birch plywood, which is higher quality.

The pickups and tuners came off a cheap e-bay guitar which turned out to have a bad neck. They're OK, but nothing fancy. The pots and switches are good quality. But I know that the fret positions are a little "iffy" in spots. To someone with a great ear, it might be noticeable.

It's really easy to spend a lot of money for specialized luthier tools, and while I have some, I don't have a couple that I would get if I were going to make a lot of guitars.

So, I guess in answer to your question, it sounds good enough, but probably not as good as a $100 Cort Les Paul copy, which likely sounds as good as a 1958 Les Paul did, when it was new.

I conclude from this that the material in the 'body' can effect the 'sound' by way of its effects on the string anchor points and the stability of the pickup mount(s). The 90% theory is probably an understatement!;) The fret board can also affect the string from the 'other' end(as well as the finger holding it there)!

Interesting reply - thanks:)

Love your post Mrblanche. A couple of more questions...What type of glue did you use? How did you finish the profile of the body....Sander?...What luthier tools don't you have that you would buy if you were going to make a lot of guitars.

Guitar is cool by the way.

burkhome wrote:Love your post Mrblanche. A couple of more questions...What type of glue did you use? How did you finish the profile of the body....Sander?...What luthier tools don't you have that you would buy if you were going to make a lot of guitars.

Guitar is cool by the way.

I used Tite-Bond wood glue, which is a standard in lutherie. But some luthiers swear by hot hide glue. It wouldn't have worked in this case, but it has the best reputation.

I cut out the body with my Shopsmith bandsaw. I used a variety of sanders for the most of the work, but I chucked a drum sander in the Shopsmith (upright position) for doing a lot of the edge work.

I would get all the fret saw and fret spacing tools from Stewart MacDonald, just for a starter. A fret arbor, if I were going to do it all the time. And, to make life really easy, full templates from StewMac.

A drill press (the Shopsmith) makes a lot of the jobs easier. Setting it up as a pin router would make the work repeatable.

Thanks for the info Mrblanche...Building a guitar is on my long list of things to do. Lack of time is my enemy for now. My son is a musician and eventually I think a handmade guitar would make a good gift for him. I figured that I would start with a kit...eventually maybe demenstrating some of your creativity. Once again..."NICE"

Christmas gifts...a pen and a few ornaments

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