|
|
Joined:
November 2002
Posts: 1196
Location: Lafayette, Louisiana | Hello everyone. All this talk of tonewoods and things like that brought this question to mind? Being that some acoustic guitars sound better as they age, how about the Adamas? I know it does not have a wooden top, but is does have a thin layer of birch inbetween the layers of carbon graphite. And how about the wooden braces? Would time and alot of playing have any affect on the tone of the guitar? I really don't know. Mine has sounded awesome from the get go!....Paul Hebert |
|
| |
|
Joined:
May 2002
Posts: 3005
Location: Las Cruces, NM | Paul
My guess is, yes it will age, as ageing is as much in the joints and intersections as in the wood. Also, there is no reason to think that a composite top will not change with time. Ageing, IMHO, is just all the parts loosening up so there is less resistance to vibration. There was a good discussion of ageing and mechanical enhancement of ageing some months back.
Bailey |
|
| |
|
Joined:
January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | They will improve with age but mostly they'll improve with playing |
|
| |
|
Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 15686
Location: SoCal | Bill, very succiently (sp?), hits a very important point regarding not just Ovations, but all guitars. They improve with age, but it's not the age that comes with just sitting in a case, but the age that comes with playing them. Materials, ie, tops, backs, bowls, etc., all loosen up as they are played and played hard. Woods look better when they are older, but I think that they sound better when they are played.
I knew somebody who had a Tailor 7 series and he put it away in a case in a closet figuring that he would take it out in 10 years and it would look and sound great. Wrong. He should have kept it out and played it everyday. Not only does he lose 10 years of playing a nice guitar, but the guitar would be a better guitar for having been played for that 10 years.
See how concise Bill is. He said in one sentence what it took me two paragraphs to say. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | Yeah, and he spells better too. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 15686
Location: SoCal | Also a concise comment. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
June 2002
Posts: 6202
Location: Phoenix AZ | YUP. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | But then again will a Traitor 7 series ever sound good?
There's another aspect of this too. It takes a certain amount of playing to "wake up" a guitar. In December I got back a 1934 Martin C-2 archtop that I had converted to a 42-style flattop. (Long story but it was the right thing to do for this guitar.) I was in CT for the month of December, another long story, and it was so f#@*ing cold all I did was sit inside and play. After about 3 weeks it was noticably louder and warmer sounding. I recently have gotten new two trophy Collings, an OM-42B and CJ-41B and it's the same with them, about a 20-30 hour break-in period. About the second or third set of strings they open up.
I remember seeing service guitars come back from endorsees that had been played ALOT and they sounded much better than the off the line same production model. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 10583
Location: NJ | I agree there is something to a guitar that gets played expecially an acoustic. The technical term for it is "mojo" |
|
| |
|
Joined:
December 2001
Posts: 7247
Location: The Great Pacific Northwest | I'm guessing at the microscopic level, as the top "moves" more and more it starts to move easier. Much like when you bend a piece of cardboard the first time, then continue to bend it back and forth. A cardboard will eventually break, but I would surmise the guitar top just gest easier to "flex" causing it to project even more.
Of course.. the technical term for this is Mojo :) |
|
| |
|
Joined:
May 2002
Posts: 3005
Location: Las Cruces, NM | The technical term for this is getting older and better, those old guitars just know what notes and tones sound best and that's what they put out. They just had the shit played out of them and only the good stuff is left, just like the rest of us old pickers who have done it all and learned what works and what is BS.
Bailey |
|
| |
|
Joined:
February 2003
Posts: 2178
Location: the BIG Metropolis of TR | Hey Bailey - I beleive the technical term for that is MOJO!
Mike :D |
|
| |
|
Joined:
March 2003
Posts: 12
Location: australia | in my opion, no it wont, you need a solid top but you must also play the solid top to death, the constant vibration of strings, will open the solid top's pores, producing excelent sound but of course, you'll need to change the fretts from the constant playing b4 u ever really notice any improvement in sound. |
|
| |
Can an Adamas improve with age?