New Body Material Build w Sound Clip

[kp8]

Originally Posted by tdowns

Hehe!! Can you imagine the poor sucker that made a TDPRI donation and wound up with that POS???

Actually Terry, as crazy as this sounds, i would happily buy that from you if you were willing to sell it. I have a need for something like this and don't have wood working tools around to make one myself.

cheers,

kp

[tdowns]

It's baaaaaaacccck !!! I'm sure folks think I'm nuts for doing this, but it sure was fun.

What it didn't have:

• No Tele shape
• No Tele "Tone Wood"
• No vintage bridge
• 6 saddles and not 3
• No Rube Goldberg $50 tone capacitor that is NOS
• Nothing vintage

What it did have:

• A Tele bridge pickup with a copper plate
• A Tele bridge pickup mounted at the original tilt and spacing as any Tele out there

Originally Posted by kp8

Actually Terry, as crazy as this sounds, i would happily buy that from you if you were willing to sell it. I have a need for something like this and don't have wood working tools around to make one myself.

cheers,

kp

Really? What would you do with it? I'd come way down from the $50,000 price I gave to Johnny Isaacs.

[kp8]

Originally Posted by tdowns

Really? What would you do with it? I'd come way down from the $50,000 price I gave to Johnny Isaacs.

Well do you remember my sensor guitar? I posted a vid of it a few years back and got laughed at and mocked <winK> (guitar equipped with FSRs, Accelerometers, Bend sensors... etc.)

That kind of thing but now we have solenoids and an arduino.

A guitar body like this would make it easier to work on.

;)

[tdowns]

Originally Posted by kp8

Well do you remember my sensor guitar? I posted a vid of it a few years back and got laughed at and mocked <winK> (guitar equipped with FSRs, Accelerometers, Bend sensors... etc.)

That kind of thing but now we have solenoids and an arduino.

A guitar body like this would make it easier to work on.

;)

I don't remember. Perhaps I missed it. Do you have a link to it?

Is that the ardunio with the Atmel microprocessor?

[kp8]

Originally Posted by tdowns

I don't remember. Perhaps I missed it. Do you have a link to it?

I took it down, but i think i still have an old movie file of one of my students playing a prototype (using the parallax BASIC stamp micro-controller). I can upload that to my .mac account. That will take a minute (uploading now)

Originally Posted by tdowns

Is that the ardunio with the Atmel microprocessor?

Yes. It has a ATmega168. The Ardunio is fantastic and cheap (unless you get the bluetooth version and need wireless)

[tdowns]

I got some questions about the pickup. It was the GFS Lil Puncher Cool Vintage H101.
Here is the link:
http://store.guitarfetish.com/lilpuxlnewfi.html

No affiliation.

It's important to remember the higher output pickups have more inductance, which results in a lower frequency resonance. The Tele bridge needs to have sparkle, not icepick or mid mud IMHO. But MHO ain't worth much.

[kp8]

Originally Posted by tdowns

I don't remember. Perhaps I missed it. Do you have a link to it?

not me playing (a student)... not great sound or anything... it is an old vid, and just "proof of concept"

This is with the BASIC stamp 2 FSRs and an accelerometer on the headstock. All going into a Macintosh running Max/MSP. The sensors control certain parameters of the sound in real time.

http://homepage.mac.com/kp8/iMovieTheater42.html

[jwc5]

My guess is armadilla hyde or balsa wood...... Has to be balsa if its that light.

[Pete Galati]

Originally Posted by kp8

not me playing (a student)... not great sound or anything... it is an old vid, and just "proof of concept"

This is with the BASIC stamp 2 FSRs and an accelerometer on the headstock. All going into a Macintosh running Max/MSP. The sensors control certain parameters of the sound in real time.

http://homepage.mac.com/kp8/iMovieTheater42.html

Bizarre. Never heard of that, whatever the sensor system is. What's it doing? Sounds like something triggering synthesizer circuits to my untrained ears

[kp8]

Originally Posted by Pete Galati

Bizarre. Never heard of that, whatever the sensor system is. What's it doing? Sounds like something triggering synthesizer circuits to my untrained ears

It isn't a commercial product. I made it. The force sensing resistors (there are two) i think are controlling the L & R stereo spread and the registeral spread of the grains. The tilt is controlling the density? I can't remember, i did this in 2003... so

The data coming in from the x/y of the tilt and the pressure sensors can be mapped to do anything... you would map it according to the effect you were using, like tilt could open a filter or increase the delay time, the pressure sensors could be used to control pitch shift, or tremolo speed, it totally depends on the musical context. In this case we were not using it to control an effects box, but i wrote some code on the computer that chopped up the sounds in little bits. The sensors get fed into a BASIC stamp the basic stamp massages the data and puts out MIDI and the midi numbers are then sent through a MIDI interface and used to control the parameters of the software.....

I use other sensors too, like a bend sensor, light sensors and even sonar (though the sonar sometimes gets picked up by the guitar p/ups!)

-k

anyway sorry for the highjack. I posted this here in 2004 and got lots of less than an enthusiastic response as i recall. Admittedly the instrument doesn't work all that great and the clip is awful, but it was just to demonstrate the general concept and was not intended to be public.

[Wild Rice Chris]

Originally Posted by kp8

anyway sorry for the highjack. I posted this here in 2004 and got lots of less than an enthusiastic response as i recall. Admittedly the instrument doesn't work all that great and the clip is awful, but it was just to demonstrate the general concept and was not intended to be public.

Nonetheless, it's still way cool. I'm sorry I missed it the first time around.

[varakeef]

Originally Posted by tdowns

It's baaaaaaacccck !!! I'm sure folks think I'm nuts for doing this, but it sure was fun.

What it didn't have:

• No Tele shape
• No Tele "Tone Wood"
• No vintage bridge
• 6 saddles and not 3
• No Rube Goldberg $50 tone capacitor that is NOS
• Nothing vintage

What it did have:

• A Tele bridge pickup with a copper plate
• A Tele bridge pickup mounted at the original tilt and spacing as any Tele out there

.

One's that's not listed and you do have is a maple tele neck bolted on the MDF. Therefore I challenge you to glue a Les Paul type neck into it.

[Pete Galati]

Originally Posted by varakeef

.

One's that's not listed and you do have is a maple tele neck bolted on the MDF. Therefore I challenge you to glue a Les Paul type neck into it.

Yeah! That's cheating!

I think a mahogany/rosewood neck would sound significantly different. Not like I didn't steal the idea from someone else (don't ask, I don't remember) but I've been saying that the neck is one of the main things that makes or breaks your guitar's sound.

[Geoff738]

Terry,

Hate to burst your bubble, but apparently Gibson meat you by some 40+ years!

The December, 2008 VG mag, at page 60, says that Gibson used mdf on their Kalamazoo line starting in the mid-60s. The article claims this was one of the first commercial uses for mdf!

The guitar player in my band in high school had a baby blue one. i remember it being ok.

Cheers,
Geoff

[tdowns]

I know. I was just having some fun here on the forum.

[iansmitchell]

I think I like the 3-ply body design and shape...
I have some 1/2" cedar that would work...
That could be cool.

[Maxwell Street]

Thanks!.....my Blues Jr. just started sounding too good.....

[Telemarkman]

While it certainly proves nothing, reading through this thread again in the light of a couple of recent/ongoing threads about myths and different body woods, at least confirms my suspicion that body wood is impossible to identify in an amplified, recorded solid-bodied guitar.

You may hear a difference, sure - but no one guessed right ... Just disappointing that none of those with very "sensible ears" participated in the discussion.

[stephent2]

Originally Posted by Telemarkman

While it certainly proves nothing, reading through this thread again in the light of a couple of recent/ongoing threads about myths and different body woods, at least confirms my suspicion that body wood is impossible to identify in an amplified, recorded solid-bodied guitar.

You may hear a difference, sure - but no one guessed right ... Just disappointing that none of those with very "sensible ears" participated in the discussion.

My ears are sensible ears, they never buy anything they can't afford. I wish I could get my feet to do the same thing.

Read the very first post after Terry's OP.

I'm more interested in making guitars that make music rather than playing games. When someone's "new guitar material" sounds like crap to me, I don't feel I need to post my opinion.

I passed on Gibson's Sonex line many years ago. Guess what, the vintage Sonex models still sound like crap (unless you like that sort of sound).

And once again, the idea that the recorded sound of a guitar is the benchmark when determining what body wood suits an individual player is just silly. It is the choice of the player and how the guitar responds in his hands, that is the only valid benchmark.

The rest is idle internet forum chatter.

[tpaul]

Wow, this thread do have some legs.

[Telemarkman]

Originally Posted by stephent2

And once again, the idea that the recorded sound of a guitar is the benchmark when determining what body wood suits an individual player is just silly. It is the choice of the player and how the guitar responds in his hands, that is the only valid benchmark.

Mais oui, I agree! I would never tell anyone what type of body wood suits another persons taste, just that he won't be able to identify it with any degree of certainty in a blind (double or not) test.

Originally Posted by stephent2

The rest is idle internet forum chatter.

That's what we do around here, n'est-ce pas? (pardon my french ) ...

[stephent2]

Originally Posted by Telemarkman

Mais oui, I agree! I would never tell anyone what type of body wood suits another persons taste, just that he won't be able to identify it with any degree of certainty in a blind (double or not) test.

And again, who cares besides you and Mark?

I'm back to work, I be creatin' rather than speculatin'.

[Telemarkman]

Originally Posted by stephent2

And again, who cares besides you and Mark?

Don't be so modest ... Hee, hee!

[mellecaster]

This has to be one of my all time favorite "anti-Corksniffer" threads !

Terry Downs Rules !!!!.....

[fretbuzzard]

Originally Posted by stephent2

the vintage Sonex models still sound like crap (unless you like that sort of sound).

Well, that pretty much covers it! It just shows to go ya, there's no accounting for taste--particle board or swamp ash, different strokes for different folks!

[tdowns]

Originally Posted by mellecaster

This has to be one of my all time favorite "anti-Corksniffer" threads !

Terry Downs Rules !!!!.....

"anti-Corksniffer". LOFLOL. I'll say YOU rule.

[Uma Floresta]

That's it, I'm making a trip to Home Depot :D

[tdowns]

Originally Posted by Uma Floresta

That's it, I'm making a trip to Home Depot :D

Yes, but you will be challenged to do as crappy of a job as I did!!! Do it!!!

[mellecaster]

Originally Posted by Uma Floresta

That's it, I'm making a trip to Home Depot :D

Be sure to Load carefully......

[JohnnyGtar]

Originally Posted by Pete Galati

Terry, someone over in one of the Duncan forums discovered that his cheap Epi SG is made out of fiberboard. I was trying to remember the name of the guitar Gibson made that was made out of fiberboard. Finally came to me this morning. The Gibson Sonex, and they called their fiberboard "Resonex", but I guess what they had was a real wood core, with fiberboard laminated to that from what I can tell.

But it kind of reminded me of your Utahcaster. What ever happened to that?

Here's a webpage on the Sonex:

http://www.vintageguitars.org.uk/sonex.php



There're several of them on ebay, and they're asking insane amounts of money for them, claiming that they're rare.

Pete

One of the BIG reasons for high priced Sonex guitars these days is that those guitars came stock with 2 Dirty Fingers pickups, and original Dirty Fingers pickups are selling for a big fat bucks these days. A pal of mine scored a Sonex a few years back and I told him what the pickups were worth, he was impressed with my honesty, so he sold them to me for 5 bucks...for the pair! OK, I'm putting my body armor on now...