dhanners623

Yeah, I figured if Blake signed off on it (literally and figuratively, since he signed the labels and a letter of authentication for each guitar) it is probably cool. There’s a nice video on their website showing him playing and talking about the guitars. I’d post a link, but that would be disrespectful of our Gibson hosts. The PWG website is easy enough to find.

Pre-War Guitars has come out with its Norman Blake Collection of 12-fret dreads and if you’ve got several thousand bucks to spend, they look like darn-fine guitars. But I note they feature “bar frets.” So is there any particular advantage/disadvantage to bar frets over what we’re accustomed to today? Or is it just a period-correct thing? I also note PWG has this notice/disclaimer when discussing the collection’s use of bar frets: *These guitars are compression fretted, with a non-adjustable ebony reinforcement rod. As a result, they will be light, responsive, period-correct, and will not be able to have the neck relief adjusted. They will sometimes require a more generous attitude about what constitutes an acceptable setup, and/or a different saddle for different seasons to account for movement of the wood due to changing conditions. The guitars feature through-cut saddles; in my experience, they’re always glued in and so raising the action at the saddle is kind of a major undertaking. When I had my dread built back in 2011, I wanted a through-cut saddle. Kevin Schwab, the luthier/repairman building the guitar, argued against it, saying changing the height of a drop-in saddle is much easier. But he relented and the guitar has a through-cut saddle. In 11 years and living in four different countries with different climates, I’ve never had need to adjust it.

Fine job all the way around — writing, singing, playing. And the guitar sounds sublime.

How can something be both gritty and smooth? You somehow found a way. Great job!

Thanks for that. Took my guitar in last week to Jim Fleeting in Manchester and he drilled out the endpin and installed the StrapJack for the M1A. Played it Sunday night at a performance and at least it sounded ok on stage. No idea what it sounded like in the house. I may still go with a K&K. Or I may just decide at some point to get it all removed and stick a StewMac NoJak endpin in it. The older I get, the less I want to play out, and I’ve still got two guitars wired for the M1.

What a great opportunity! Color us jealous….

I think Glen Campbell could’ve done a good job on the song if he’d wanted to. When it comes to “selling” a song, few were better. He was an entertainer and had a great feel for songs. Perhaps the lone exception to that, though, was him turning Jimmy Webb’s slow, melancholy anti-war song, “Galveston,” into a rousing “Let’s all go to war” (in Webb’s words…) song. Of course Campbell’s version became iconic and made Webb rich in the bargain….

Excellent job! Your friend had great advice….

I don’t know about someone’s voice being “too nice” for a song. You sing with the voice you have. You either sell the song or you don’t. Roger sells it. Our expectations of that song is for a voice like Cash’s (the guy even talked off-key…) or Kristofferson. If somebody with a “nicer” voice, like Glen Campbell, had recorded the song first and made it a hit, that would be how we remember it. I think Roger’s take on the song is very good. His only crime is not being Johnny Cash and we’re all guilty of that one. Decades ago, Cisco Houston wrote an essay about how tired he was of self-appointed folk purists complaining that his voice or anybody else’s was too “nice.” He wrote, “Some of our folksong exponents seem to think you have to go way back in the hills and drag out the worst singer in the world before it’s authentic. Just because he’s old and got three arthritic fingers and two strings left on the banjo doesn’t prove anything.” That noted vocalist, Leo Kottke, once said in an interview that an audience will forgive a wrong note but they won’t forgive an insincere note. The example he cited for the latter was Ethel Merman recording a disco album.

I don’t get the reluctance to make upgrades/improvements to acoustic guitars, either for sonic or aesthetic reasons. Since getting my J-35 Reissue in 2016, I have: — Switched out the stock tuners for better ones from Golden Age Restoration; — Had the hefty Baggs Element system (and associated battery and wiring) removed and had the guitar wired to accept a Baggs M1; — Had the ill-fitting Tusq saddle replaced with a properly fitted Bob Colosi bone saddle; — Replaced the Tusq nut with one of ebony; — Ditched the plastic bridge pins in favor of camel bone pins. All of those improved the sound and/or functionality of the guitar, at least to my ear. And my ear is the one that counts….

You’ve convinced me. I’ve seen the error of my silly ways. I’ll sell all my guitars and buy a Maton®. Matons® are the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful guitars I’ve ever known in my life. You’ll get a sales commission from Maton®, right?

No, you inject a gratuitous mention of Maton® at any and every opportunity. You commented earlier in the thread about your experience with the K&K, which was what I was after. So thank you. But instead of leaving it at that, you then go full-Maton® sales rep on the rest of us, even posting a video and telling us we’re being silly for even asking about other pickups. For good measure, you then call me a liar for saying I had played a Maton® but had no lasting impression of the guitar. Is there a Maton® discussion forum I can join so I can spend endless threads talking about how good Gibson acoustics are?

This advertisement brought to you by Maton Guitars®…. And, again, you are missing the point. I asked about a specific pickup. I am not interested in a new guitar. So I don’t need to hear your repeated and unsolicited endorsement of Matons

To quote Prof. G.H. Dorr, “and what, to flog a horse, that if not dead is at this point in mortal danger of expiring,” was there in my post that indicated to you I’d never played a Maton? To be clear: I played one. Long ago. At The Podium, then in Minneapolis’ Dinkytown neighborhood. The guitar left no lasting impression. I know that may be hard for you to accept, but that’s the reality. And I’ve certainly not denigrated or insulted you for fawning over a manufacturer that does nothing for me. You can disagree without being disagreeable.

That’s nice. Accuse me of lying. You know, it was so long ago I have no independent recollection of the model. Or even the shop, for that matter. It may have been a used one that cycled through The Podium (now defunct) in Minneapolis. I didn’t plug in. I know that might hurt your feelings, but the guitar left no lasting impression on me. Among the reasons was it was just another guitar hanging on a wall filled with great guitars. If you’d ever been toThe Podium, you’d know. Ask Tommy Emmanuel. He’s been there. But you know what? IT DOESN’T MATTER. My failure to fawn over Matons does not make me bad and does not make my own guitar preferences bad. Just stop it.

Aw, jeez. Really? Yes, I have been in the same room as Matons. Everyone has different tastes in guitars, but that doesn’t mean we are settling for “ordinary” if we don’t buy a Maton. Is that really your position? I lament all the great guitarists now and through history who settled for “ordinary” by not making their music with Matons. Somehow, they got by. Oh, if only Doc Watson had played a Maton, people would probably remember him. Same with Eric Clapton or Stephen Stills; when it comes to acoustics, those fools play Martins. If only James Taylor had used a Maton instead of a Gibson J-50 to record “Sweet Baby James,” maybe his career would’ve taken off. As it is, nobody’s heard of him. Taking note of the thread title and original post is helpful. I was wondering if anyone had experience with K&K pickups, because I was looking for a pickup to use on a guitar I already own. I know that may be a “silly” question to you (?!?) but I wasn’t asking for guitar recommendations. I asked about a particular pickup and your reply was to tell me to buy a whole new guitar. That’s like somebody asking you what kind of oil they should use in their car and you telling them to buy a whole new car. I’m not in the market for a new guitar — and if I were, the £2199/$2,583 that your recommended guitar costs would sure as heck go for a guitar other than a Maton. So when I bring that up, your reply was, “Yes, I was just putting the information out there for others reading this thread.” What makes you think people who click on a thread about K&K pickups want to be told that the only way to get “KILLER” live sound is to buy an entirely different guitar? Does Maton pay you to insert Maton testimonials and videos on threads totally unrelated to Matons? Which brings us back to the “tastes” issue. I know what my tastes are. Accusing someone of being “mean spirited” or “ordinary” for merely saying a particular guitar doesn’t do anything for him is insulting and trollish behavior. Guitar sounds are subjective and we all have our preferences. Did I say Matons were bad guitars? No. I just said I wasn’t enamored of them. That is not being “mean spirited.” Want to know what is mean-spirited? Telling someone you don’t know personally that their questions are “silly” and that their choice of guitars/pickups is “ordinary.” THAT is mean-spirited. Your comment was demeaning and disappointing.

I once recorded an album during Ramadan. Couldn’t drink anything from before sunrise to sundown. The producer and my wife thought my “dry” voice sounded better than the hydrated version. When I listened to the playbacks, I thought they were right.

Indeed. I’m not as enamored of Matons as others may be. Same goes with Taylors.

Both the guitar and pickup are beyond (way beyond) what I want to spend…. Then there’s the main issue: I’m not Tommy Emmanuel. His audiences, I’d posit, tend to be more sophisticated with what they expect to hear out of a guitar. He is more sophisticated with what he expects to hear out of his guitar. I’m not, and neither are the people I play for most of the time. So for me, it is a matter of balancing cost and expectations and trying to make the guitars I already have sound darn good on the music I play on them. Which they do.

Thanks. All things considered, I’d rather mic the guitar, too. But when I play anymore, it seems like I’m just using whatever system/mics the venue has, and the quality varies widely. Plugging in will just be easier. In a “listening room”-type venue, I’d still try to mic the guitar if I can.

Thanks, all. Your insightful replies remind me why I come here. When the trolls stay out of it, there is a lot of helpful information to be learned from the experience here. I’ve decided that for the time being, I’m going with the M1A. It’ll require reaming out the endpin hole to accept the endpin jack, and that seems the less invasive approach. It is also the least expensive right now, since I already have the pickup. If I decide later to go with the K&K, it won’t be a big issue fitting it. I already called Jim Fleeting, a luthier/repairman (and Roberto-Venn alum) here in Manchester and I’m taking the guitar in Monday. He says he even has the reamer Baggs recommends. I took the J-35 in to him last year for a quick adjustment and he did a great job and carried an air of competence.

That sounds like a long signal chain, as they say. I was hoping for a bit more simplicity. I rarely have the patience to keep sussing out the EQ. If I’m going to go the pickup route, ideally, I just want to plug in and play. I know some folks are anal about their sound, and if they have the finances/gear/expertise/patience to be that way, more power to them. But I’m of the belief that once you plug in, it’s going to sound something like an acoustic guitar, but you’ll never really capture the guitar’s true acoustic sound, so why try? I suppose there are some systems that do that, but they are way more than I would ever care to spend.

Yeah, once you plug in, it’s not really an acoustic any longer. And I’m convinced that 98 percent of those in any given audience doesn’t know the difference between a pre-war Martin or Gibson and a cheap Asian knock-off. Their only yardstick is whether you can hear the guitar or not.

Thanks Jinder and Zomby; those are both helpful. For the time being, I may just take the guitar in and go the M1A route. It seems less intrusive for now. I can always try the K&K later. The guitar in question is a mahogany dread built for me from a StewMac kit by Twin Cities luthier/repairman Kevin Schwab. It is a D-18 clone, and I’ve had it since October 2011. It has aged beautifully and is my best-sounding guitar, but I so rarely take it out because I don’t know if the sound person is adept at miking guitars. Sometimes it is just less hassle to plug in. But I have gone the Lyle Lovett route and refused to have any holes cut in my guitar — even enlarging the endpin hole — because I want the guitar to remain as it was built. (As an aside, I understand that while folks at Collings say Lovett’s guitars remain uncut for pickups, they do complain that the tape he uses to secure the cord from his Sunrise pickup screws up the guitars’ finishes.)

Thanks. Yeah, I don’t like batteries in guitars, and in a perfect world, I’d just mic the guitar. One other option is I have an unused Baggs M1 Active sitting around that I could use; I’d just need to get the endpin hole reamed out for the endpin jack. I use M1 passives in my J-35 and Farida OT-22, but I’ve no idea how the M1 Active sounds.