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treble development on new Guitars?
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Ricardo
Posts: 14862
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
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RE: treble development on new Guitars? (in reply to Paschi)
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number 1 factor on dullness or brightness of a guitar, I find, even with old strings, is humidity. When a guitar is introduced to a new environment, say, a dry one to a wetter one, the guitar literally drinks the water in the air and becomes bloated. All guitars do this that are made of wood, no matter how old they are. I have guitars older than myself that have good or bad days based on the weather. When the guitar dries a bit the sound is affected. Sometimes action too. IF the guitar dries too quick it will crack, so be careful. You probably want to get the guitar in a stable condition humidity wise and let the strings settle down so the harmonic overtones can add up and make the guitar bright. One crazy thing also, to show how relative equalization is; Put on some big headphones, not plugged in, the kind that cover you ear and mute out the background sound. Practice your guitar like this for a little while, your guitar will sound quite muffled and midrangy. AFter about 30 minutes, take off the headphones...the treble strings sound like breaking glass all of a sudden.
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Date Feb. 13 2015 16:13:24
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estebanana
Posts: 9377
Joined: Oct. 16 2009
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RE: treble development on new Guitars? (in reply to Paschi)
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Guitars are funny. But consider this: They can be built to sound good right away. Usually guitars with thinner tops can sound good really fast in a few days. However guitars with thicker tops and thicker dimensions overall can take some time to develop. But when they do develop they can be very fine guitars. How can you tell? You can't it's mostly taking a chance. My gut is that if a guitar is thin and responsive, but does not have a lot of guts, it won't get guts over time. It will speak well, but usually stay with the same amount of power and become about more mellow. If a guitar is tight and tough, but has guts, a profound feeling of power within it, then it has a chance of developing with a lot of play. Usually thicker topped guitars can develop if they have some inherent power but are a bit lackluster at first. Most guitars sound good soon after being strung up, a matter of a few days, but after that they continue to change. One thing I've noticed is that guitars that have tops that are too thin can be fantastic in the beginning, but grow flabby and loose sounding over time. I'm a bit wary of guitars that sound worn in right from the start, they have little room to develop.
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Date Feb. 15 2015 13:29:26
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Sr. Martins
Posts: 3079
Joined: Apr. 4 2011
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RE: treble development on new Guitars? (in reply to Paschi)
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One of my guitars behaves in a strange fashion when it comes to high humidity (such as it is right now, 70%). The middle part of the top behind the bridge stays in the same place but the longitudinal sides of that area (where the bridge wings end) bulge up, making that center area appear sunken (well, it is). When the guitar was new, everytime the humidity rised the guitar felt slower and less midrange-y. Nowadays it must have stabilized as a whole because the change isn't as noticeable as it was before and even the action at the 12th fret doesn't vary as much with humidity as it did a year ago. Iam thinking that maybe, besides other factors, the wood kind of gets used to frequent changes in humidity. Regarding the topic, it must be my ears or what I consider to be the treble region but I notice humidity changing the upper midrange (the growly, "clack clack" part of the sound) more than the treble. Either way, when the trebles (the strings) on a guitar sound like crap and the red/black trebles don't improve it, the guitar will always be treble dead.
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Date Feb. 15 2015 16:29:25
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Andy Culpepper
Posts: 3023
Joined: Mar. 30 2009
From: NY, USA
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RE: treble development on new Guitars? (in reply to Ricardo)
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quote:
One crazy thing also, to show how relative equalization is; Put on some big headphones, not plugged in, the kind that cover you ear and mute out the background sound. Practice your guitar like this for a little while, your guitar will sound quite muffled and midrangy. AFter about 30 minutes, take off the headphones...the treble strings sound like breaking glass all of a sudden. A little off-topic but you reminded me of something I've been meaning to bring up: Sometimes I'm wearing headphones in the shop while I work (just Skullcandy earbuds that go all the way in the ear). Once I had those in, but not listening to anything, and I picked up my guitar and started to play. The guitar sounds absolutely amazing when wearing the earbuds! Why is this? It sounds totally focused, punchy, dry... like a great flamenco guitar but better. Is it because the earbuds filter out high and low and make the sound more mid-heavy? I need to figure out how to make guitars that sound like that naturally! (Not really possible of course but an interesting thing to aim at)
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Andy Culpepper, luthier http://www.andyculpepper.com
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Date Feb. 16 2015 13:09:25
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