jt
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Posts posted by jt
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4 hours ago, chasAK said:
... “Just because something is dead and not in active growth or repair does that mean it is not reactive?” I believe what we are talking about is the reactive properties of sound wood to an extended period of inactivity. Plastics and even our metal strings have memory. A piece of car molding when heated will often return to a relative normal (previous) shape. Cold that not be so concerning wood in reference to vibrations, whether the memory is the old stiffness or new looseness?
Concerning humidity causing sharpness, the physics of the wood swelling would support that proposition.
Jt, that sounds like another interesting book!!
Great points! Thank you.
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9 hours ago, E-minor7 said:
Yet I keep experiencing the opposite. ...
My own feeling (I'm no scientist) tells it's a mix. Adjusting ears combined with glued together warmed up wood. Actually what I tried to express in post #3. "The trick is to patiently facilitate the rendezvous between your hearing and the warmer'n'warmer guitar."
But JT, let's hear more about everything you find out. The entire acoustic universe is curiously waiting, , , and probably will remain divided no matter how any dice falls.
Interesting. We do hear what we hear. I'll post another thread that links to my study of hearing preference--do we favor bass or treble frequencies--and tonewood and string preferences.
Thanks for posting this.
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21 minutes ago, E-minor7 said:
So are you saying an acoustic guitar can't fall to sleep or even go dead when not bein' played. I just need to be sure.
Good luck with the book.Yup. Ain't possible. But our ears can forget how a guitar sounds. I've experienced this many times.
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Think of the physics of the proposition that guitars go to sleep and then wake up when played. Guitars are composed of long-dead pieces of wood (or never alive scraps of carbon fiber). Playing them cannot change them. Really.
I'm currently at work on a book about the art and science of the guitar, which will contain a chapter on the physics of the guitar (and chapters on history, the neurology of hearing, the psychology of hearing, acoustics, etc.): The Acoustic Guitar: Inside the World’s Most Popular Musical Instrument (Oxford University Press, 2024). I'll address the notion of inanimate objects falling asleep and then waking up.
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11 hours ago, Murph said:
Slick as a snake's back, old man...
Thank you, kind sir.
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19 hours ago, fortyearspickn said:
Amazing rendition of two songs. I heard a Chet Atkins recording of the blend - got the tablature... Decided I'd stick with chewing gum and walking ! Sort of funny how similar the two songs are ! Great, thanks.
Thank you! It took me a long time to work that out.
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I regularly gig with my vintage Gibsons. If micing the guitar is not an option (because of a noisy environment), I use an LR BAggs soundhole pickup, with the cable hanging out the soundhole.
Here's a very old video of me playing my 1942 Banner LG-1 at a club in Liverpool, England:
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It's a KG-11.
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23 minutes ago, fortyearspickn said:
I knew this would be stepping on your toes !!
But, remember: "Plagiarism is the highest form of flattery."
Ha! In truth, I am honored to know that my work has become widely accepted. The little book that changed my life!
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59 minutes ago, Sgt. Pepper said:
Gibson never does anything wrong. What are you implying?
Ha! You're right, of course.
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Oh, my. There's so much wrong about this: "the plant was also deploying a platoon of “Kalamazoo Girls” (named for the location of the factory and the women who replaced the male workers) to produce upwards of 25,000 “unauthorized” guitars. When the war came to an end, Gibson denied the factory had made any guitars at all."
Use my work, don't give me credit, and refer to the "gals" as "girls?" And, as I carefully point out in Kalamazoo Gals, the company produced 25,000 instruments, including the mandolin family of instruments and banjos. A minority of those 25,000 were guitars.
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8 hours ago, DanvillRob said:
John, that's much the way I think about real estate in California.
VERY expensive to get started, but once you do....you can live in a beautiful home...for free! (except for Property Taxes).
Ha! I should have been thinking on a larger scale!
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1946 Gibson flattops are fantastic. In fact, they are nearly Good Enough. 🙂
Seriously, I spent a couple of decades buying vintage guitars with the goal of selling enough of them to cover the cost of my remaining collection with the net profit of the sales. A few years ago, I accomplished my goal. I sold about a dozen vintage Gibsons (and one Larson) and netted enough from the sales (sale price minus my purchase price of the guitars) to cover the purchase price of the guitars I kept.
Yes, I've read many posts over the years that vintage guitars are overpriced compared to the price of new guitars. But, well, I now possess a "free" collection of a couple of dozen extraordinary guitars.
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Ceasar, of course, has been number 2 since JC ascended to the Gibson throne in 2018. I've no idea why the decision now, but I credit both with embracing the story of the Kalamazoo Gals and appearing in my January 2022 virtual celebration of the last surviving Gals' 100th birthday (she's still going strong a year later). They appear at the 22:30 mark:
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On 4/27/2023 at 8:20 AM, cunningham26 said:
JT since this got a random bump, per our back and forth in another thread, could it be that this is a war-era archtop not made by the gals? or is it assumed that all guitars coming out in those years were made by them?
Cunningham,
It's possible.
My best understanding is that the Gals did not participate in making carved archtops, except to do the final sanding. But WWII Gibson is a jigsaw puzzle and I only have 1/3 of the pieces.
It's a shame that someone refinished the headstock.
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On 4/21/2023 at 1:55 PM, cunningham26 said:
Is the myth that there were some gibson old timers too old for the war effort doing things the 1940's version of the old fashioned way? I feel like i've heard that before and attributed it more to the archtops that came out of that era with carved tops and 30's style logos. clearly buries the lead on the effort of the women on the factory floor cranking out banners.
Yes, that's the myth. Women did most of the work building the guitars. The video flashes a photo of them (the women I've dubbed the Kalamazoo Gals), but makes no mention of their role in producing those great wartime guitars.
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14 hours ago, J185cat said:
I picked up on the “experienced craftsmen” comment also. The history of Gibson is complicated and apparently not that well documented but you just have to keep trying jt. You have already educated many of us.
Thank you!
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Sadly, the video repeats the disproven myth that the WWII-era guitars were built by the experienced "craftsmen" who were too old to serve in the war effort. 😞
Wrong date, too, for the J-50, which Gibson introduced in 1942, not 1950.
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Fabulous songs and a fabulous performance! Thank you for sharing this with us.
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10 minutes ago, Dave F said:
I thought you were working on a follow-up to the Kalamazoo Gals.
That one, too. But I'm waiting until the documentary film premiers about a year from now (on the film festival circuit). Details (fairly) soon.
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4 hours ago, dhanners623 said:
ISo my hat is off to you.
Don't tip your hat until you've read the thing!
This is my loan book that has had a broad-ranging appeal. My next 2 books (a book for Oxford U Press about the science of the guitar and a book for Springer/Nature about child refugees) will, almost certainly, have limited appeal.
Again, thanks. And I look forward to learning what you think of the book.
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1 hour ago, dhanners623 said:
I’ve seen that. As well as the bit that says, “Kindle titles are available for US customers on Amazon.com.
Continue shopping on the Kindle Store at Amazon.com. “
Went ahead and ordered a physical copy of the book. Looking forward to reading it.
Thank you! I look forward to learning your thoughts about my book.
I'm honored and humbled by each and every purchase.
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2 hours ago, Murph said:
Me too. I simply don't read enough paper books anymore, my wife still does.
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30 minutes ago, E-minor7 said:
Think we may have touched down on this before, but those Gibsons, Martins etc. that went over the sea in the early 40s must have been the first trace of the brands we saw here. Some would have been seriously lost, but others - very few - may have stayed and spread joy on the European map.
Don't know if you zoomed in on this in the book. The war survivors.
Yes, I did address this in the book.
This is a photo of the war effort in North Africa. That case is precisely the case Gibson would have supplied for an SJ, J-45, or J-50. (Yes, it's shaped more to fit an archtop, but that's the case you got for J-series flattop, too, if you wanted a hardshell case.)
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I never realized guitars go to sleep!?
in Gibson Acoustic
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Interesting! All I can do is quote my children, who now long into adulthood still proclaim, "When in doubt, bet against dad. He's almost always wrong." 🙂
I suppose that the friction caused by vibrations raises the temperature of the wood and guitar.
Thanks so much for posting this.