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January 2004
Posts: 123
Location: Massachusetts | I still have my S771 Balladeer which is the easiest playing guitar with the greatest playing neck in the world.
I wanted to trade up or have a custom built O but really jonesed for the sound of an all wood guitar.
So, I bought a Gibson Songwriter Deluxe Cutaway.
Neck is a tad wider than O's and a tad shallower. It is harder to play but the tone is sweeter..unplugged anyway. I haven't had the action lowered so I'm sure that will help a bit.
How do you get used to playing between different feeling acoustic guitars? |
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Joined:
September 2004
Posts: 96
Location: Eugene, OR | I don't know if you ever really "get used to it" but switching back and forth with greater frequency helps to make it less of a whiplash experience. |
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Joined:
January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | If you change between them frequently and quickly you get past the whiplash and just have a head that spins around like the Exorsyst.
Short answer, you just get used to it.
I find that I play different tunes on different guitars and when playing will go between them fairly often. Then when that gets old play the tunes on different guitars. |
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Joined:
June 2004
Posts: 365
Location: NC | Corvair-
I have a Walden acoustic and it does affest you some. My Walden has a a slightly thinner neck so it takes a few minutes to adjust but I catch myself slipping into a piece.
As far as play time:
Ovation-95%
Walden-5%
I need to pick up the Walden more often but I keep grabbing my "O" :) |
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Joined:
June 2004
Posts: 365
Location: NC | affest....no no no....I meant affect :eek: |
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May 2004
Posts: 2850
Location: Midland, MI | Affest, attest, affect. It's all the same. Ain't it?
The only problems I have going between guitars is that my Elite is strung with 12s and everything else has 10s (or, gasp, 9s). So, after playing the Elite (which I do for several hours each day) and then picking up one of the others, I find myself pulling strings right off the edge of the neck (unintentionally) or bending notes a whole step up (unintentionally). The other problem that really, really gets me is the extra-freaking-long neck on the Viper. Maybe I'm the only one, but I expect my hand to be at a certain distance from my body in order to hit certain frets. With the Viper, everything is shifted out a couple inches and it throws me off.
Anyone else have that problem? It's like I'm watching my left hand (I'm right handed) out of the corner of my eye, so I expect it to be, spatially, at a certain location, but that results in the wrong chord/notes when I'm playing the Viper. Entertaining and frustrating all at once. I just say I'm playing 'jazz' and let it pass. :) |
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Joined:
January 2004
Posts: 627
Location: Cherry Hill, NJ | Besides my Ovation collection, I own a Taylor 415ce, Gibson Dove and Guild D-45. I play my Ovations the most. The O's are by far eaiser on the fingers to play, action wise and neck feel. With the new LX guitars, Ovation has improved its sound over most of the all wood models, out there. I always struggle a bit with non-Ovations guitars, especially when playing above the 5th fret.
Tommy |
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June 2002
Posts: 6202
Location: Phoenix AZ | I have no problem going back and forth between Ovations and Martins. I have bigger issues going from deep O's to supershallows. The SS's just feel strange to me. Maybe that's because I only play seated. |
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Joined:
May 2002
Posts: 3005
Location: Las Cruces, NM | I solved this problem years ago when all I could afford were Kays and other arch tops with 1 inch action. I milked up to 15 cows a day by hand on some of the farms that couldn't afford milkers, mine for one, I could play right up the neck on those atrocities, and even adjust for intonation by dropping back a fret above the fourth to keep it in tune. Even now, I only adjust action on my acoustics to stay in tune as all of today's guitars are duck soup as long as I can get a Mint Patty under the strings.
I can't help you if you don't have any cows.
Bailey |
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Joined:
February 2004
Posts: 171
Location: Tulsa, Oklahoma | I find that each guitar I have... (two wood and four ovations)... have different sounds and feel to them... It's not unusual to pick up at least 3 or four different ones in an evening to play different sounding songs.... I love'em all for different reasons and sounds... I played wooden guitars for so long that switching is just like going home again...
Gerald |
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Joined:
February 2004
Posts: 116
Location: Freeport, IL | Bailey,
Quote: "I could play right up the neck on those atrocities, and even adjust for intonation by dropping back a fret above the fourth to keep it in tune. Even now, I only adjust action on my acoustics to stay in tune as all of today's guitars are duck soup as long as I can get a Mint Patty under the strings."
You are sick, man. I only wish that I could say the same - life would be a lot easier. I am constantly tweaking my guitars to achieve the lowest possible action before the sound begins to diminish too much. I can't even use 12's anymore - 10's or 11's for me. Like 'em fast and low.
Just wimpin' along in Illinois,
Jon |
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January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | Bailey, Great story. Don't they call those cows that aren't milkers bulls? |
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May 2003
Posts: 4389
Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | Different guitars get different styles.
The country artist is fingerstyle.
The MEWP is for a flatpick.
The tele is flailed on, cranked to 11. |
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November 2004
Posts: 382
Location: USA | The simple and honest truth is , you dont and you never will. That is unless you put just as much time into your new guitar or you want to put the same neck on your newbie, which would defeat the whole purpose.
I started out collecting many guitars, then i sold them. Ive learned the addage, you can have many guitars and be good, or you can have one and become a master of that guitar. |
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May 2002
Posts: 3005
Location: Las Cruces, NM | Jon
I told the truth about milking cows and playing 50's arch tops with atrocious action, the Army day rooms in the early 50's all had guitars with necks bent back at a 15 degree angle (like the head angle on some Ovations) and I could play them because of my strong hands.
I lied a little about my present guitars. I, like you, spend too much time adjusting them for optimum action and intonation. I just wish I could pick them up and wail away no matter how they look, but I examine them every time and if the action is high, I brood for a few days then get out the allen wrench and start tinkering.
CWK2
The bulls are easy to tell from the cows, you chase the cows into the barn at milking time, The bulls chase YOU into the barn at any time, the other tipoff is that the milking machine has four teat cups and if you are hanging it on a bovine with one long teat it is time to start running swiftly as that bovine has dreams of stomping all over your city boy ass and the ability to make those dreams come true.
Bailey :p :p |
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Joined:
May 2004
Posts: 295
Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada | I've been playing my Martin a lot - the new baby always gets more attention (plus it's a helluva nice geetar). The action is a bit higher than my Elite, although the shorter scale makes it a little easier than a standard scale. I've played it so much I'm used to the different action now, and when I go back to the Elite, I have no problem "adapting" because the Elite has lower action.
I do have a bit of trouble adapting to my Beneteau 6-string; the action's higher, plus it's standard scale length. I also have trouble with the Beneteau 12-string because a) it has 12 strings! and b) the wider neck. However, I bought a Shubb 12-string capo, and I've tuned the geetar down a semi-tone and capoed it at the first fret, to make fingering a bit easier.
I usually opt for the Elite when I feel the "need for speed" (that great Ovation action) or when I want to go through my amp. |
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January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | Bailey, Thanks for the lesson. I'll keep that in mind that four is good, one is bad. |
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April 2003
Posts: 2503
Location: Fayetteville, NC | But That's Not SHE Said!!! :D |
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May 2002
Posts: 3005
Location: Las Cruces, NM | CWK2
My dad insisted that we raise one bull calf in the hope that he could avoid breeding costs each year when we had to haul or lead a cow in heat to someone's farm who had a good bull. In order to give milk, all dairy cows have to be bred and calved each year or they dry up and quit giving milk, (sorta like a wife that has been neglected).
When I was 16, I came down with the mumps, dangerous for someone that age, the doctor said avoid strenuous activity or they may "go down", I, being home sick, had to take this yearling bull out each day for grazing in a field behind the barn. This young bull was beginning to feel his bullishness and had got to where I could only tie a rope to his nose ring and run ahead of him to save my tail from his budding horns and drop a loop over a sturdy stake we had for him and keep on running until he hit the end of the rope usually causing a funny somersault on his part and escape on mine.
My mumps went down and I was laid up for some weeks with a swollen scrotum, I survuived as testified by my four kids, we sold the bull as too dangerous for society. A bull is like the worst enemy you ever had, many farmers have been killed by one they thought was a pet.
Bailey ;) :D |
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Joined:
January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | I love these farm stories. When I was in the 12-18 age range we cleared about 80 acres behind the house and would up having about 20 Herfords, 40 sheep, a horse for a while and a couple of pigs. Always lots of fun to go out to feed them before school, in January (not!) Did the 4H baby beef program and county fairs. Learned to drive a tractor before a car, all that good stuff. We'd hay twice a year and learned that the hay loft was also good for other things. It was always difficult to get a sheep up the ladder, don't you think? |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | ". . . It was always difficult to get a sheep up the ladder . . ."
Yes, but they always seem to "push back" better that way . . . |
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Joined:
January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | Oh, you've had that experience too? |
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March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | Me??? . . . uh, . . why, No!!! . . .
I uh, . . READ about it in the back of . . . . . uh, . . . "Boy's Life"! . . . yeah! . . . THAT'S it!! |
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May 2004
Posts: 295
Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada | You are BAAAAAA-A-A-D boys! |
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December 2003
Posts: 13997
Location: Upper Left USA | Sheep lie!
Specially the ugly ones! |
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Question for those with other acoustics
