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Isn’t the “honeymoon” supposed to be over by now?


jjrpilot

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The more I play the J-45 Standard the more and more I love it.

 

I regret not trying one earlier but then again maybe I need to wander around in the guitar world so that I could really settle on the tone and sound I wanted.

 

The J-45 is just magical.

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The more I play the J-45 Standard the more and more I love it.

 

I regret not trying one earlier but then again maybe I need to wander around in the guitar world so that I could really settle on the tone and sound I wanted.

 

The J-45 is just magical.

 

If it is a brand new instrument, wait a few weeks to fall in love all over again when that top opens up.

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The more I play the J-45 Standard the more and more I love it.

 

I regret not trying one earlier but then again maybe I need to wander around in the guitar world so that I could really settle on the tone and sound I wanted.

 

The J-45 is just magical.

How uplifting to hear. Few things better in the material/spiritual world than to find the soulmate.

Let the H-moon continue - well, it probably will.

The G's in this temple still amaze and are a daily blessing.

 

If it is a brand new instrument, wait a few weeks to fall in love all over again when that top opens up.

You could have written years there, good drath.

My from birth rather monstrous 45 Std. is now 8 and has gotten much looser and less compressed over time. 5 and 8 are significant corners.

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When I wore a younger man's clothes, I kept any new-to-me guitar on a stand in the bedroom so it would be the last thing I saw when I fell asleep and the first thing I saw in the morning. If the honeymoon is going to end though it is often when something else new enters your life. A growing familiarity with a certain make and model of guitar tends to instill a more critical approach as you inevitably start comparing them. Generally that means while you love the characteristic family voice of this or that guitar there will be some aspect of it that makes a certain instrument stand out from the crowd for you. For me it is the low end. For others it might be that one that sounds a bit brighter tan the others.

 

Then again, the honeymoon phase can go on a very long time. I have owned my old J-50 for quite a while. But every time I take it out of its case and hit some big fat open chord I mutter a silent "whoa" to myself. It is like hearing it for the first time over and over again.

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My from birth rather monstrous 45 Std. is now 8 and has gotten much looser and less compressed over time. 5 and 8 are significant corners.

 

Newbie question - what does 'looser and less compressed' mean (I've heard lots of folks saying their guitars have opened up)? Any other way to describe it, what happens to the tone / feel of the guitar - or is that the only way to describe it, and I need to experience it to understand it?

 

Rgds - billroy

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Newbie question - what does 'looser and less compressed' mean (I've heard lots of folks saying their guitars have opened up)? Any other way to describe it, what happens to the tone / feel of the guitar - or is that the only way to describe it, and I need to experience it to understand it?

 

Rgds - billroy

 

Think of a Bugle. Then think of a Saxophone.

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Newbie question - what does 'looser and less compressed' mean (I've heard lots of folks saying their guitars have opened up)?

Any other way to describe it, what happens to the tone / feel of the guitar - or is that the only way to describe it, and I need to experience it to understand it?

Good question - especially as we refer to those terms all the time.

 

First - compare the new guitar to a pair of new boots.

They are fine, but very tight when you get them (the guitar is stiff straight from the plant - the woods don't yet know they are supposed to make music).

Then the walking (playing) starts and the leather begins to widen (the approx 100/125 components of the instrument begin to vibrate).

After a month the boots are walked in (the guitar is broken in).

And from then on they only get better ending a place where it feels as if they were painted on your feet

(due to the now uni-swinging parts - top, sides, back, braces, neck, headstock etc. - the acoustic guitar hereby down-right swings and responds like a squire).

Things have loosened and will continue the process. Everything will get drier thus ever more willing and alert.

The whole creature is now like one big organic vibe.

The 45 is opened up - it has found itself.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Regarding compression, some J-45's have a certain 'veil' over them, which is heard/felt when playing dynamically.

Being so powerful as mine is, it actually had a lot of that. But as you guessed it melts too and though the 'lid' still is there, it's much lighter.

 

I recommend you to record the guitar in this phase - both on 'tape' and in your inner system.

That way you'll be able to follow the development as it unfolds, which will be utterly exciting and bring you closer to the sweetheart.

Have fun, billroy ^ and feel free to ask

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Good question - especially as we refer to those terms all the time.

 

First - compare the new guitar to a pair of new boots.

They are fine, but very tight when you get them (the guitar is stiff straight from the plant - the woods don't yet know they are supposed to make music).

Then the walking (playing) starts and the leather begins to widen (the approx 100/125 components of the instrument begin to vibrate).

After a month the boots are walked in (the guitar is broken in).

And from then on they only get better ending a place where it feels as if they were painted on your feet

(due to the now uni-swinging parts - top, sides, back, braces, neck, headstock etc. - the acoustic guitar hereby down-right swings and responds like a squire).

Things have loosened and will continue the process. Everything will get drier thus ever more willing and alert.

The whole creature is now like one big organic vibe.

The 45 is opened up - it has found itself.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Regarding compression, some J-45's have a certain 'veil' over them, which is heard/felt when playing dynamically.

Being so powerful as mine is, it actually had a lot of that. But as you guessed it melts too and though the 'lid' still is there, it's much lighter.

 

I recommend you to record the guitar in this phase - both on 'tape' and in your inner system.

That way you'll be able to follow the development as it unfolds, which will be utterly exciting and bring you closer to the sweetheart.

Have fun, billroy ^ and feel free to ask

I LOVE it when it gets all metaphysical around here!

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Compression by itself is easy to understand. It puts upper (and lower) limits on the volume you can get out of an instrument. No matter how hard you hit the strings, you won't get any louder. As the guitar "opens up" that limit gets raised and you can take advantage of a much wider dynamic range in your playing. Its clear that as the top is able to vibrate more freely, you can literally pump out a bigger sound. When people record, they often add (digitally) a little compression to the recording in order to eliminate the spikes in volume you get by accidentally hitting a note too hard here and there.

There's more to this opening up though because its not just about volume. Often the quality of the sound just gets better at any volume. I'm not sure what causes that. It must be meta-physical.

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Compression by itself is easy to understand. It puts upper (and lower) limits on the volume you can get out of an instrument. No matter how hard you hit the strings, you won't get any louder. As the guitar "opens up" that limit gets raised and you can take advantage of a much wider dynamic range in your playing. Its clear that as the top is able to vibrate more freely, you can literally pump out a bigger sound. When people record, they often add (digitally) a little compression to the recording in order to eliminate the spikes in volume you get by accidentally hitting a note too hard here and there.

There's more to this opening up though because its not just about volume. Often the quality of the sound just gets better at any volume. I'm not sure what causes that. It must be meta-physical.

Good stuff -

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

 

Regarding quality of sound, we know acoustic guitars are all about wood and vibrations, , , , eeeeehh and the way we activate the strings = TOUCH.

It's obvious that it'll take time for the highly different wooden components to learn to swing together.

Also in the near-scale-every-day-situation where the guit. from the first 20 minutes to 40, 60 and further changes level the more it's 'warmed up'.

 

But in the overall picture we're talking more than weeks here.

The collective wooden groove together with a drying process over 5-8-15-25 years is bound to be the clue.

 

 

I still find it absolutely interesting if a guitar, which for decades was played i fx D and G, actually sings better in these chords.

 

 

 

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Newbie question - what does 'looser and less compressed' mean (I've heard lots of folks saying their guitars have opened up)? Any other way to describe it, what happens to the tone / feel of the guitar - or is that the only way to describe it, and I need to experience it to understand it?

 

Rgds - billroy

(warning - baseball reference)

Imagine the sound difference like the difference between early April outs on the warning track all of a sudden turns into doubles high off the Mahnsta (Green Monster) about the 2nd-3rd week of May.

 

For me, the sound-center moves from the strings to about a foot out in front of the guitar. Nothing holding it back or in.

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