BTW, lately I've "rediscovered" my little Danelectro HoneyTone mini-amp. I don't know if they even make these things anymore.
Dano still shows them on their web page.
I wrapped a newspaper ’round my head
So I looked like I was deep
a band mate had a blue Artcore. it really played nice for a few hundred dolloars. the neck felt good. I had no problem playing my strat stuff on an Artcore.
yes, it does feedback like a demon in a small room playing at good rehearsal volume. but at gigs it performed well. really well.
unplugged it is what a semi hollow sounds like.
get one.
I have a very high end solid wood hand carved hollow body that sounds fantastic plugged in or not.
An artcore or similar lower end hollowbody will never give you that same sound -- it's not the same quality or even type of materials.
If you are playing one of these for jazz -- mostly clean and really looking for the great clean sounds you hear from guys like Joe Pass and Wes Montgommery -- you will never get that from a low end model. I know, I tried for years.
If you want to do rockabilly stuff, or other uses with distortion and other effects, those lower end guitars will all do fine. But if you want to hear a loud clear crisp tone, they'll never get you there.
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." -- HST
I've got a Yamaha semihollow that I like.
Sweat guitar, but some old dude's golf pants ate your couch.
I really like smokindogs guitar too.
I have a very high end solid wood hand carved hollow body that sounds fantastic plugged in or not.
An artcore or similar lower end hollowbody will never give you that same sound -- it's not the same quality or even type of materials.
If you are playing one of these for jazz -- mostly clean and really looking for the great clean sounds you hear from guys like Joe Pass and Wes Montgommery -- you will never get that from a low end model. I know, I tried for years.
So, is it the quality or the construction style that prevents one from getting the clean jazzy sound? If one had a high quality ES-335 (Gibson or good clone) would you get the sound? Or would you need a different style of guitar - full hollow body (not semi), deeper body (more acoustic tone), and one of those floating neck pickups? Maybe an L5 or ES-150 (though I don't think either of those has a floating pickup).
Pop music is about stealing pocket money from children. - Ian Anderson
If you are playing one of these for jazz -- mostly clean and really looking for the great clean sounds you hear from guys like Joe Pass and Wes Montgommery -- you will never get that from a low end model. I know, I tried for years.
So, is it the quality or the construction style that prevents one from getting the clean jazzy sound? If one had a high quality ES-335 (Gibson or good clone) would you get the sound? Or would you need a different style of guitar - full hollow body (not semi), deeper body (more acoustic tone), and one of those floating neck pickups? Maybe an L5 or ES-150 (though I don't think either of those has a floating pickup).
It's a little of both, but construction quality has a lot more to do with tone in hollow bodies than in solid bodies.
A thinner body will have less rich mid tones, so if you really want the classic "jazz" sound, you'll want a thicker body (mine is 3"). But if you want a more rock tone, you can go with a thinner body and it will work well, provided the material quality and build quality are there.
But to get a sense of the difference in tonal quality, go put a good electronic tuner on two guitars, one a full-body well built hollow-body and the other an Artcore version of the same basic guitar. On the artcore, you'll see the needle wave back and forth pretty wildely on each note. On the well built high end guitar it will peg right at the note that's being played and it will not move until the note dies.
That is a difference you can hear. But when you see it, it really drives it home.
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." -- HST
I have a very high end solid wood hand carved hollow body that sounds fantastic plugged in or not.
An artcore or similar lower end hollowbody will never give you that same sound -- it's not the same quality or even type of materials.
If you are playing one of these for jazz -- mostly clean and really looking for the great clean sounds you hear from guys like Joe Pass and Wes Montgommery -- you will never get that from a low end model. I know, I tried for years.
So, is it the quality or the construction style that prevents one from getting the clean jazzy sound? If one had a high quality ES-335 (Gibson or good clone) would you get the sound? Or would you need a different style of guitar - full hollow body (not semi), deeper body (more acoustic tone), and one of those floating neck pickups? Maybe an L5 or ES-150 (though I don't think either of those has a floating pickup).
It's a good axe, but an ES-335 is by design not going to give one a nice 'woody' hollowbody tone. It's got a massive center block and a laminated top -- neither of which is conducive to producing much of an acoustic tone. There are probably some solid body guitars that have nicer acoustic tones than a '335.
-=tension & release=-
But to get a sense of the difference in tonal quality, go put a good electronic tuner on two guitars, one a full-body well built hollow-body and the other an Artcore version of the same basic guitar. On the artcore, you'll see the needle wave back and forth pretty wildely on each note. On the well built high end guitar it will peg right at the note that's being played and it will not move until the note dies.
That is a difference you can hear. But when you see it, it really drives it home.
I'm not sure you meant this as anything more than a one dimensional measure of timbral differences -- it's certainly not a measure of tonal "goodness."
This phenomenon is probably due to the differences in harmonic content. Carved-top hollow bodies with that classic "dark" timbre are dominated by the fundamental tone and have a far lower level of harmonics than other types of guitars. Flatwound strings and midrange dominated pups further emphasize the same. The result is that there are fewer harmonics (which are rarely an integer multiple of the fundamental) mucking up the zero crossings used to count frequency. Get yourself an expensive, harmonic-rich flattop acoustic guitar and do the same test -- I'll make a guess: bouncy needle.
-=tension & release=-
But to get a sense of the difference in tonal quality, go put a good electronic tuner on two guitars, one a full-body well built hollow-body and the other an Artcore version of the same basic guitar. On the artcore, you'll see the needle wave back and forth pretty wildely on each note. On the well built high end guitar it will peg right at the note that's being played and it will not move until the note dies.
That is a difference you can hear. But when you see it, it really drives it home.
I'm not sure you meant this as anything more than a one dimensional measure of timbral differences -- it's certainly not a measure of tonal "goodness."
This phenomenon is probably due to the differences in harmonic content. Carved-top hollow bodies with that classic "dark" timbre are dominated by the fundamental tone and have a far lower level of harmonics than other types of guitars. Flatwound strings and midrange dominated pups further emphasize the same. The result is that there are fewer harmonics (which are rarely an integer multiple of the fundamental) mucking up the zero crossings used to count frequency. Get yourself an expensive, harmonic-rich flattop acoustic guitar and do the same test -- I'll make a guess: bouncy needle.
Ummm not on my Gypsy-style flat top acoustic.
I do agree it's a function of the harmonics and doesn't necessarily indicate good tone by itself. But, in my experience (which is admittedly biased to jazz and low-distortion genres), bouncy needle = crappy clean sound with acoustic guitars.
on the flip side, my strat, whose tone I love, bounces all over the place, and sounds just fine with clean amplification.
I don't know enough about the physics of sound to really even try to explain why that is. But I do know that if you're looking for a good clean jazz sound, bouncy needle generally is bad. ;)
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." -- HST
Ummm not on my Gypsy-style flat top acoustic.
Right -- I was thinking more "bluegrass" or folk/country fingerstyle flattops. A Selmer-Mac type guitar is a notable exception, being fundamental "thumper." These are timbrally similar to archtops in many ways.
I don't know enough about the physics of sound to really even try to explain why that is. But I do know that if you're looking for a good clean jazz sound, bouncy needle generally is bad. ;)
I think that's a reasonable assumption if one is looking far a dark, jazzy timbre.
-=tension & release=-
the big brother of the Oscar Schmidt (Washburn) OE30 the OE40 is on clearance sale now at MF for $200
it's a big fat tub of a guitar with pretty nice sound and remarkable craftsmanship for a low priced instrument.
how are those oscar schmidt guitars? I have been eyeing one for a while.
I have the OE30, and it's a really nice guitar. I've been thinking of that OE40 too... :wink:
Dan
"The only way I know that guarantees no mistakes is not to play and that's simply not an option". David Hodge
I have the OE30 as well and I'm very happy with it.
#4491....
I've been looking at (drooling over) some high end hollowbody guitars like gretsch for quite some time. Recently I've seen the Ibanez Artcore series which have a decent review on most sites and I like the look of them, yet I find very few people actually use them apart from jazz.
I use mine for blues all the time, and it sounds SWEET, especially in open tuning for slide playing. However, to get that effect, you'll probably need to adjust the factory settings.
1. Get some new strings. The factory ones are too light, at least for my taste, and definitely for getting a "fat" sound. I recommend "Be-bop" brand strings, which are a little heavy for some tastes, but which give a very full sound (they're also more durable than standard strings.
2. The action was set way too low for slide (and for most other purposes) when I bought it. This is pretty easily fixed, as the guitar has a floating bridge. When I changed strings, I pushed the bridge as far north as it would go (against the bridge pickup) and raised the strings as high as I could, especially on the high strings (the strings are individually adjustable, and require only a small standard screwdriver.
My question would be: are these guitars usable unplugged as I assume they are made for? Of course I dont expect them to sound as good as an acoustic which is of course made for playing unplugged, but do they come close?
My Artcore (AF-105) sounds quite good unplugged. Good resonant tone, though as you said, it's not exactly an acoustic Martin. But you do get a lot of the subtlety of tone you want from an acoustic/hollowbody, as opposed to plucking on a generic solid-body electric (or a semi-hollowbody).
I ask this because I own a cheap electric guitar, but I find it sometimes too much of a hassle to go to my room, plug everything in etc, and find playing in the living room very nice sometimes. My classic guitar can do that perfectly, but does not have the right "feel" for bluesy songs. (apart from the fact i can only bend up half a step, looking silly doing it).
So if anyone owns or has experience with a hollowbody guitar or has tips for me I would be glad to hear them.
(Also, I've been wondering what the differences are between the artcore guitars, is it just finishes, vibrato and necks?)
If I remember right, some of the Artcores come with a single pickup; the 105 has 2 humbuckers (which are good--I would'nt recommend replacing the factory models unless you're REALLY fussy) and separate volume/control knobs for both, along with the toggle switch. No vibrato bar, which is a little annoying (and part of the reason [read: excuse :-) ] ) for my finally giving into temptation and ordering a Gretsch Anniversary model hollowbody.
But the Artcore is a great guitar in its own right, and a superb value--you can pay twice as much (or more) and not get either the sound quality or the looks (the gold hardward, flamed maple, and abalone inlays on the neck, bridge and tailpiece look terrific).
The OE-30/40 and artcore guitars i still hear are great value for the money although i have never played one. As to strings i use DR 'pure blues' strings and my HB-35 sounds and feels great.
