I've got the greatest guitar of them all!

[Help!I'maRock!]

matou, you're trolling me and flaming me with words like that. Remember me ("do you like stuff"- "yea")?. Directly calling me some idiot - shame on you even if that were true. PLEASE STOP.

If you send me, John Watt and other hobbiest to coventry then no wonder the most expensive new guitar is just coils pots and a switch with no active electronics. Yr'all Tube-Snobs or something like that. If I'm wrong go ahead and point out your build-stories and engineering patents and how you've contributed to these forums. Like with ellengtrgrl I again wonder why are you guys reading this thread if you don't like me or seeing the worst of hack-job guitar projects?
Thanks,

the issue here is bravado. you've got the greatest guitar and now have come off as though you're gracing us with your presence. people only respond to those kindsa things by rejecting them. most people are reading this thread just to watch the trainwreck.

as for the state of the guitar industry, the reason the most expensive guitars are just coils, pots, and switches with no active electronics is because that's what the "rock gods" played and that's what people want. if you want innovation, then you're not playing rock guitar. (i don't necessarily subscribe to that thinking, but it is how the market is operating). now if you want to talk about innovation and moving the guitar forward, there are plenty of companies out there doing that in their own way. but technology is not the end all/be all. it's about making music. you only need as much technology as is necessary.

 

[reitze]

the issue here is bravado. you've got the greatest guitar and now have come off as though you're gracing us with your presence. people only respond to those kindsa things by rejecting them. most people are reading this thread just to watch the trainwreck.

as for the state of the guitar industry, the reason the most expensive guitars are just coils, pots, and switches with no active electronics is because that's what the "rock gods" played and that's what people want. if you want innovation, then you're not playing rock guitar. (i don't necessarily subscribe to that thinking, but it is how the market is operating). now if you want to talk about innovation and moving the guitar forward, there are plenty of companies out there doing that in their own way. but technology is not the end all/be all. it's about making music. you only need as much technology as is necessary.

Hi Help!I'maRock!.

Ive seen things go either way - though thought here in 1 forum named for what it is that it would be a build-story instead of a flame out. Although looking around for various project stories there aren't many without lots of flamers telling them how bad or wrong they are unless they have very expensive parts and tools for the audiences to droole over. Try looking for pics inside common equipment and they're hard to find. I saw even worse flame-hostilities-offense-taking-etc in the automotive blogs - just reading them to gather info on a repair-issue once... anyway - and people still participate there. So for me whatever it is just is but I do get tierd of participating in the nasty ones so we'll see how it goes. I stated my intent on future posts and haven't heard any off-line suggestions other than what's here. Thus that's how I see it unless Mark or a mod asks that I reduce content, change-threads or forums or even go to Coventry --- that's fine with me too since it would better representing the forum audience and forum owner's objectives in total better than my second-guessing (unless I guessed right - so far so good!).

And sure in some hind sight (got flame-blogged first in approx February) maybe I am overly idealistic and coming across in ways that trigger emotions (eg: ugly cut => destruction perception) while expecting technical exchanges to be more in line with an audience I don't know very well and falsely expecting them to take interest in technology like the excellent people I get to work with in my day job on the really cool stuff.

Anyway, thanks for sharing your perspectives too and from your past post I was very glad to have had the impression you were at least one person who seemed to enjoy my contributions. And yes I consider it all "contributions" because it does take time and I'm not in the guitar industry for a living so there's no real point in it other than my idealistic hopes of changing the world a little bit. I think a lot of us out grow chasing our idealims too far as we pass our 30s (thus that 60s quote bout never trustin anyone over 30).

Thanks,

 

[Help!I'maRock!]

Hi Help!I'maRock!.

Ive seen things go either way - though thought here in 1 forum named for what it is that it would be a build-story instead of a flame out. Although looking around for various project stories there aren't many without lots of flamers telling them how bad or wrong they are unless they have very expensive parts and tools for the audiences to droole over. Try looking for pics inside common equipment and they're hard to find. I saw even worse flame-hostilities-offense-taking-etc in the automotive blogs - just reading them to gather info on a repair-issue once... anyway - and people still participate there. So for me whatever it is just is but I do get tierd of participating in the nasty ones so we'll see how it goes. I stated my intent on future posts and haven't heard any off-line suggestions other than what's here. Thus that's how I see it unless Mark or a mod asks that I reduce content, change-threads or forums or even go to Coventry --- that's fine with me too since it would better representing the forum audience and forum owner's objectives in total better than my second-guessing (unless I guessed right - so far so good!).

And sure in some hind sight (got flame-blogged first in approx February) maybe I am overly idealistic and coming across in ways that trigger emotions (eg: ugly cut => destruction perception) while expecting technical exchanges to be more in line with an audience I don't know very well and falsely expecting them to take interest in technology like the excellent people I get to work with in my day job on the really cool stuff.

Anyway, thanks for sharing your perspectives too and from your past post I was very glad to have had the impression you were at least one person who seemed to enjoy my contributions. And yes I consider it all "contributions" because it does take time and I'm not in the guitar industry for a living so there's no real point in it other than my idealistic hopes of changing the world a little bit. I think a lot of us out grow chasing our idealims too far as we pass our 30s (thus that 60s quote bout never trustin anyone over 30).

Thanks,

i try to be civilized in my criticism. but honestly, i can't see a use for your product. keep your day job and play the guitars that you love. but don't foist them upon us. in case you haven't learned, guitarists are a fickle group and will reject a concept because it smells wrong. just look at the reactions to the Guitar Pic of the Day threads.

 

[mosiddiqi]

Ok, let's keep it civil here.

 

[Mark Wein]

Ok, let's keep it civil here.

+1


I'll be honest, I'm a little annoyed. Folks need to chill out. Technically this IS a spam thread since you (Reitze) are constantly pushing a live eBay auction and I can close it at any time for that reason alone. I've let it run because for one reason I didn't think anyone would really spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on existing products hatcheted together and for another it really isn't hurting anyone.

If this thread turns into a shitstorm it will be closed.

 

[reitze]

i try to be civilized in my criticism. but honestly, i can't see a use for your product. keep your day job and play the guitars that you love. but don't foist them upon us. in case you haven't learned, guitarists are a fickle group and will reject a concept because it smells wrong. just look at the reactions to the Guitar Pic of the Day threads.

you have been nice and I've appreciated it. I must admit I am very perplexed as to why good guitar players such as yourself see no use in an amped-up acoustic? Sure they're not studio but my acoustics have been there so I do gain a sense of certainty of their value from my own experience and readily extrapolate (debatably too far) that there's others like me who will want such things. But yea surly not what's left of them from appearances which I've been impressed is most of they purchasing buyers. Others like me would prolly rather build their own anyway, and use a blog like this to gain starting info (hmmm idealism again - sorry) - I do that too.

+1
I'll be honest, I'm a little annoyed. Folks need to chill out. Technically this IS a spam thread since you (Reitze) are constantly pushing a live eBay auction and I can close it at any time for that reason alone. I've let it run because for one reason I didn't think anyone would really spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on existing products hatcheted together and for another it really isn't hurting anyone.

If this thread turns into a shitstorm it will be closed.

+2

Hi Mark, thanks. I will increase-self-filter notions to reference ebay (eg: change$ or end or whatever). And yes I thank God every day for my day job and fun hobbies. And BTW I've been reading other threads more and do believe your forums are far better than the "shit storms" I wish got closed elsewhere. Good stuff here. Thanks for that too - the value-add info content such as photos of projects is a big part of why I publish to these - cause I do find good info in them - usually via google.

Thanks,

 

[Help!I'maRock!]

you have been nice and I've appreciated it. I must admit I am very perplexed as to why good guitar players such as yourself see no use in an amped-up acoustic?

because i want a guitar that's a guitar and an amplifier that's an amplifier. i don't need the added weight around my neck. also, your guitar is no longer an acoustic guitar. it is an electric guitar. hollowbody electric guitars feedback. in some cases, badly. putting the speaker inside the body doesn't solve this problem, especially with distortion. go play any of the other amp in body guitars posted in this thread. they're terrible. they're a solution searching for a problem with poor execution.

 

[reitze]

New Head in the works

Well thanks to everyones patience I got outside, played guitar. Here's the solution to running to a store for string-mounting-pegs. Just a match stick or 2:

It's such a relief this head made it play again. Actually the relief part is the sturdiness of the 2 bolts in the neck here:

So after a long time playing except for the dog insisting I throw his ball, I noticed the niceness of shape of the handle from the refrigerator I just replaced as a candidate head stock. Here's the first fitting of the fridge-handle-head:

 

[Help!I'maRock!]

rotflmao

 

[matou]

 

[paulskirocks]

 

[reitze]

because i want a guitar that's a guitar and an amplifier that's an amplifier. i don't need the added weight around my neck. also, your guitar is no longer an acoustic guitar. it is an electric guitar. hollowbody electric guitars feedback. in some cases, badly. putting the speaker inside the body doesn't solve this problem, especially with distortion. go play any of the other amp in body guitars posted in this thread. they're terrible. they're a solution searching for a problem with poor execution.

Well said! agreed! Hollows feed-back when high-volume. And existing products suck. I bought a first act amp-in-guitar (toy-ish junk). I'm not even considering any parts from it. Not only are the existing products poorly executed their compromised to uselessness. And I REALLY WANT such products. I just don't want to sacrifice neck-lenght below 24.75" or weight over 8lbs or battery life > play time (rechargables can cover cost if it eats bats). And clearly my execution is worse than engineering prototype since i don't have a real model shop to execute my designs like I've enjoyed at work so many times. That sort of detail-finishing is one aspect where teams help fill in for me a lot.

If I were more in demand for on-stage work I may want guitar=guitar amp=amp split more but having spent 20 years 99% acoustically while trying to do electric stuff on that Carlos 24QK. In a way you can say this is what happened to my electric playing. I strung the carlos with electric strings for proactice back in the late 80s while still running sound for that heavy metal band. From there it out-did my shit-amps even with my Crestwood electric. That was a firebird copy which had excellent sound but 14 lbs weight and crappy cord connect, scratchy pots (now on the blond), etc. Here's that great Carlos:

I had an H pickup on it in the 90s but removed it cause of cord and mounting quality issues. I'm becoming a believer in the built in transmitter concept since my house has a lot of electric noise. That noise has always been a reason not to bother plugging in. Every guitar on every amp in my house (including the new ones) makes noise unless I touch output cord or wave my arms just right - that ol rf drill. Maybe I should decorate w/ copper tape. Anyone got advice for that one? Building in the transmitter with an attenuation knob to balance it's gain appears best so-far (convenient too - otherwise I don't bother amp-ing myself). I have always attributed this issue to crappy equipment I had but I finally have new amps, guitars, cords, and still noise - it's me and my house.

PS: That Carlos represents 98% of my total lifetime guitar-play-time just like in that photo. I bought it from a deaf person in 1985 and it's been through an amazing amount of travel-abuse since. It originally had extra-heavy strings (heaviest sold at house of guitars in Rochester) and deepest acoustic sound I've ever witnessed even among Taylor Ovation and Martin good stuff I compared it with. Even with the electric strings it's still better sounding than average in its class. So I feeeeel when scrollin by that image!.

 

[reitze]

{IMG}

Hi matou, yea stop means stop. After putting just 1 of the tuning pegs onto the fridge handle head its an obvious stop-it-case even worse than the old-head mounted badly. I'm still looking for a piece of 3/8" stock about 1" x 10" preferably with a tight hole pattern. Then various head-mount-trials will go easier - can replace the neck-bolts with longer dial-rods too. But yea that stuff in the pics is stopped and thanks for alerting my asthetic abillities to take such a look

 

[Help!I'maRock!]

stop means stop.

 

[reitze]

Good Head!

So now that I have an alternate head configuration what I can observe is exactly as expected. The G string is slightly harder to bend while the b and especially high-E are easier than before. I think ideally I'd like an L shape layout. That's the E and A like a normal head and then the other 4 across the top evenly spaced at the length of the D & G strings.

 

[paulskirocks]

 

[reitze]

The Best Head

OK so here it is. Peg position matters. 6" is ideal for anything you want to bend.

For rock/jazz and bending over mistakes (me) it really matters. My 1st guitar was a Crestwood electric from long before I got it - firebird copy. The light-e was only 1" from the nut. When I had a few instructions back early 90s the instructor said my bending sucked no matter how I tried. That's because the Gubson Firebird had the opposite of reality in what strings most people want to bed. Furthermore, the fat-e bends easiest cause there's the least relative tension on it. That motivates all tuning pegs to be 6" from the nut but that's hard to do (possible), or a jazz-style tailpiece (in lieu of string pegs). The counter-motive is that the lower strings bend easier anyway cause there not as tight plus that the tuning pegs are hard to mount side by side like, and consider staying in tune with a wammy bar and it appears realistic that the ideal for electric playing is like Dave Mustang insisted upon and common in guitars such as in this diagram:

.

Alternative ideal if no wamy bar? Yea, L shaped 4 up the top and 2 across the top. Almost like this but I still need to do another mod for the b string to have a mount next to the g. I'm hoping to figure a way to move the light e toward the other side while doing it and thus be able to trim what's left of the head.

The repaired head on the proto replicates this pattern. The issue with it is that by the time you get to the primary bending strings (D*G) it's only about 3 or 4" from the nut. So even though it replicates the perceived "ideal" it still brings in a string I want to bend too far. If I had a whammy bar I'd still want it that way because I'd want the guitar to stay in tune better which I perceive it would since the lower tension on heavier strings provides similar bendability (speculated).

One astonishing side-effect is the guitars have a better "quality feel" - and surely that's not in image. But seriously it seems to effect the sustain and tone on the natural string vibration and help to have extension beyond the nut/bridge. Will be chopping heads from now on!

 

[jelloman]

I'll be over here...in the corner...under the table...

 

[reitze]

Sorry but it's worth the destruction

yea eyeomfg . I know the proto in an test-driven development can get a little ugly. But so what? It works like I wrote. It's the best guitar I ever had or played. Stays in tune and everything. That was best till I moved a couple pegs on the blond. I've been on the back porch for hours playing them today - nice to have a relaxing day. I have found the blond with its approximate L pattern more in line with my playing than the straight-6. And the straight-6 is far better than the standard 3x3 pattern imho.

I haven't chopped any heads yet but the calculations have begun. I'm figuring to bridge over a mount for the b on the blond and if it works nicely do the same to the ML. The proto can keep it's straight 6 which feels good enough. That's just a little tight when bending the G as compared to the blond.

The quality sensation is why the ML is not yet modified. I can't tell why it has the "nicer" feel when playing but have guessed it's the extra bracing it has inside (better built).

 

[reitze]

For those getting interested in cool-tech guitars this one I just saw on the web. It's Casio EG-5, another product-fail (of the 1980s). {why does that happen to the good stuff and not all that copy of _hero-x__ junk}.

Of coarse this one like all the rest has been compromised to toy-ish characteristics but I like the MIDI-usb concept. Even better would be 802.11 so that I could use that for both effects adn transmitter.

http://guitarz.blogspot.com/2009_11_01_archive.html: