BoSoxBiker

Very nice, again, BK! 🙂

Perhaps the question is not sustain, but rather how musical the sustain is? The "pretty" factor of a note dies out quickly while the loud resonant mid-range motor keeps on going, continuing even the loud volume. That much has gotten in the way of sounds I have set out to obtain. A few hundred milliseconds can be a long time.

I tried to determine what it sounded like, comparing it to others. The presence of their sample recordings is all over the place, which makes comparisons difficult. I was thinking later on, and on a theoretical level only, if I would give up my traditional sounding Hummingbird for it. Not having that 150-190Hz ooomph might be too radical a concept, despite it's own low end tones having their own qualities.

I'm not sure why, but this one appeals to me. Looks and sounds nice. Not a traditional hog, though. Hummingbird Regal

Do you mean a Firebird? edit: Never mind. You were answering the one regarding a guitar from a video. I didn't retrace back far enough. My bad.

It was a few months at least before flaking, but only a couple weeks of flaking and good tone after the flaking had begun. (just to be clear) The low-e string thump seems to be more forgiving at times. There's almost as much of a natural dynamics taming going on as there is EQ. I tracked again the other day using a different mic position, and it came out very nice. (still adjusting room's acoustics, though, so we'll see) There is something about the A string that feels like it sits higher. I didn't pay much attention to it, but the A and D strings are each .001 thicker than the D'add NBs and the Martin Flex Cores I currently have on the other 2 guitars using 12s. Still, surprised that I can feel so small a difference.

Sounded great to me, Murph! Perhaps the absence of dancing ta-tas doing BGVs section?

I don't know what that Fender instrument is. At first glance, I thought it was their 'Stratkulele', or whatever they call it, but those are acoustic. I wonder if there was an electric version at one time. Regardless, the tone following whatever else was involved ended up in some mashed combo between Duane Allman's medicine bottle slide playing LP , a fiddle and maybe a mando. Just guessing. It really does lend a great sound to the arrangement. Even just doing the harmonics. I'm really digging that bass(es) tandem when it was their turn to step out. There's another cover song from that session. The Beatles' "With a little Help From My Friends". Not as good, but not bad, either.

That was nifty! Thanks! I went 'tubing for about 3 hours after this. Found a cover of "For What it's Worth". This cover doesn't fit the thread, but does fit the Acoustic section of the Gibson forum. This one has the bonus of actually sounding really nice, technically speaking.

These are still doing strange things. I couldn't get into any sort of rhythm early in the evening, but picked it up several hours later on my way to bed and ended up playing a few songs. Their sounding and feeling very nice now, too. I think the not being too quick to yank new strings off thing is probably a good bit of advice. That coating issue on the Elixers surprised me more than once. I remember at least a couple times leaving them on well past that point because the felt and sounded just fine. This last time was like a warning sign, though. I don't think it was 2 weeks.

I've got a couple sets of 80/20s hanging around. Most everything in my acoustic string box is either NB or PB. Interestingly enough, I kind of made the switch to PBs on my Taylor 614 (baked top, maple back & sides) from the 80/20s last year. I pet a set of Martin flex cores PBs on it a couple weeks ago that seems to push the volume too much.

I hope they get along! 🙂 Was the one you played an aged/vintage model, or some recent Standard? I REALLY like my 2018 Standard. It's hard to put away. There was this one late 60's model in a store nearby, however, that still sort of haunts me from 5 years ago. Mine is still a baby in guitar-years, but it's opened up and settled in mighty nice-like.

I think I was surprised to see him on a US-based production from this era. This guy and his brother (Andy) have their stamps on a lot of music I enjoy.

A cover of CCR's "Long as I Can See the Light" by Ted Hawkins. An interesting enough character in music history. From what I understand, he was a long time street performer in Venice Beach who played an open tuning guitar with a leather glove on his fret hand. And this one. Stan Webb and his Chicken Shack doing "Last Night I Lost the Best Friend I Ever Had". If you like over-driven Les Paul Tone, but can't sit through10-15 minutes of Blues, fast forward a bit and find his solos. Magnificent tone in it's rawness and imperfections, IMHO. This is one of those Blues classic rhythm and progressions that one can go from this song to "Somebody Load Me A Dime" to an alternate tuning of "Since I've Been Loving You" and play for an hour before you think 15 minutes has passed.....even considering how bad I am at this. Anyhow..... (btw - another music world tied at the hip moment - there two covers of "I'd Rather Go Blind" by this band. One version features the future Fleetwood Mac star, Christine McVie. )

Sorry about the mis-post earlier. 🙄 My favorite Bruce changes several times a year. The title song of The River might be as close to a consistent Bruce favorite as I have. Another one that has re-emerged recently is "Point Blank". I've been working on an acoustic version of this for a little while. Once or twice a month, though, so slow going. Great overtones with the progression sans capo, but I really need the capo to make it through. Damned bad place for a pain trigger point.

I last 6 seconds on You Tube with that one. Had to go to Tidal to listen (or anything but the 'tube) Sheeesh!!! Did you see who produced that? Glyn Johns? Dang! That's some serious pedigree. The music world is more tightly related than most barn cats.

Nice, Lars. I'm going to find it on Tidal. I suspect the song had some of it's ebb and flow squeezed out of it. I've got two entries. The first is a song that was popular and not lost, but I do feel it never got the accolades it should have. Very tough subject to boot. One of those songs that I wish I had written, but wish never had to be written to begin with. It's tragic to the nth degree. The second is one of those Blues acts who got "discovered" way too late in life, but we still have a decent sized catalogue to work with. My favorite version of Rolling and Tumbling Blues with his grandson on drums and his one-time neighbor and, as he says, "white son" on guitar.

I think the different alloys thing had me curious to begin with. The additional volume would be a negative for me. Anyhow, I recorded a few takes earlier in the week for possible use in a song. They didn't turn out so bad. They were as I described earlier. The dynamic range of these strings is remarkable. Not just ion terms of how they were played, but also the plectrums being used. It's as if these strings amplified those differences. I found a layer of warmth underneath the stringy resonance on a strummed part that is shining through in a very nice way. The big change happened, quite by coincidence, as I was changing out bridge pins as I wrote about in a separate thread. Bridge Pin Bingo A fortuitous moment of an otherwise negative thing left me with a set of bridge pins too small for the issue I was trying to fix, but just right for the slightly undersized bridge pin holes in the hummingbird. I put these in and most of that blatty string resonance thing was gone, leaving a very solid tone. Still very dynamic in nature, though. The biggest effects on tone from pic to pic that I've ever had. Even bigger, though, is that this 'bird with these strings become that "cannon" as people describe some guitars. Not so much in a bad way, though. The volume got louder as the advertising suggests, but the layers and depth of tone coming from this also increased. There are some overtones I just don't get normally. I don't know if these will end up as the strings to use forever and ever on my Hummingbird, but they are NOT being yanked out on Monday as I had been planning. These could end up being used on occasion for recording purposes if I can't otherwise find a specific tone or something.

I really am trying to keep this short and sweet. It's not working. Sorry! I really am. Hokey Dokey - The newest, thickest pins are in the SJ, and the first pins I had purchased moved to the Bird. To recap, both guitars had the same sized pins, but were under-sized. The SJ had an additional issue of oversized bridge pin holes that ended up taking a .220. I think I should point out that I had recently re-read some pretty firm statements online and in Dan Erlewine's book on the proper fitment of bridge pins, bridge condition and their importance for good tone, noise impact and even effects on playability. I had some noises that were quite annoying and increasingly obvious, so why not explore. So , how did it end up? SJ - The SJ's improvement was noticeable in terms of playability, solidness in overall tone and in reduction in the B and E string buzzing. The geometry changed in a measurable manner, which was baffling. What was surprising was how much better this guitar sounded afterwards. It's just a deeper tone, and I don't feel like I'm over-powering a plectrum through the strings like it used to. I had always worked to keep this one in optimal playing condition. I think that job just got easier. I later I changed the strings to a new set of D'Add NBs. The warmth of this pairing with the improved clarity is nice. I am VERY tempted to take the UST out again, put in the taller saddle and see what this guitar sounds like with brighter strings. Hummingbird - This one baffles me. It was always the prettiest sounding of my small, high-quality acoustic collection. It's always been the hardest to put up. It took less effort than the SJ to keep it in great playing order. It was never a cannon, which is not a bad thing. That said, and as described in this thread, the Cleartone EQs that I had been trying out were just plain noisy. I put the proper sized .210s pins in it is now that cannon - and with far less noise. (?) The Cleartone EQs increased volume thing became real. I'll describe it more in that thread. I guess these threads can be one now. The feel of the strings is very solid as was the case with the SJ. The bottom line on this pin journey FOR ME is that it is a very real issue. The book and articles to that end were on target for mine. That improper pin fitment has many effects on a guitar. A nice, cheap(ish) improvement. I will no longer brush off and ignore loose fitting bridge pins. I feel like I fixed issues with the SJ, and that I just enhanced the 'bird into a different stratosphere. These are guitars that played and sounded far better than the vast majority of higher end wall jobs at the local guitar stores. These were not duds. This Hummingbird, especially, might just be in that class of "special". Time will tell. I need to track this one again. 🙂

I don't know anything about that process. I imagine at some point that there should be a human somewhere in the process doing his/her best effort to make sure that the pin and tapered hole fit perfectly. Wood changes with a little age, maybe? I never would have thought of that solution. Makes sense, and extreme small amounts of moisture on occasion shouldn't hurt long term(?).

10-gram silica gel packs. I should have gotten bigger ones. Cheap in the 50-100 pack online. Clip a few onto your strings, 1 or 2 in the headstock and neck chamber. Change out every few days until the problem is gone. Do this in the case, obviously. I use less in maintenance mode. I've got two maples, the Taylor will get thumpy and woofy in a heart-beat. But when it's perfect, it's PERFECT. This is the way I keep it close. The Gibson maple(SJ) will change to lesser extremes, but will change. The Rosewood and 'Hog are more consistent, though action is still affected somewhat. I live in the mid-Atlantic region of the US in North Carolina. People from Florida come up and ***** about the humidity. People like me move down here from where jedzep is from (me = 4 years in RS on 20) and cry the Blues during the 3rd week of June when the thick air rolls in for the summer. It seemed to get easier after the first 10-15 years. It's that kind of bad. Tornadoes one week, snow the next. Just redamndiculous. I digress. Anyhow, I have no use for the d'Addario system. Not extreme enough to keep up here. There's the charcoal things, too, but I found it to lack repair-level qualities. It, and the sound-hole sponge humidifiers for the opposite direction, are what allows me to keep mine on a stand for a week at a time without worrying that it will get too far. (It's D-41 week downstairs and Hummingbird week upstairs in the studio. Life is good.)

I wasn't sure if I should revive a 3-year older thread or start a new one. Etiquette won out. Cleartone EQs on day-3. One of a few new to me offerings I bought or was gifted in the past 6 months to try. I don't know what to say. These things suck? These things are great? No where in-between? These are the most enigmatic set of strings I've ever tried. Many plectrums used for different things are behaving oddly, sometimes in an oxymoron-like fashion. One pic in particular sounds like I stuffed a pillow into my guitar. The feel of them is as if someone asked them to design a string that encourages one to not try to slide their fingers on. Not tacky, but not slick, either. My tuner is all over the place so far. A light-to-standard strum reveals some secondary tones that are a totally different noise than I am used to hearing. It's as if these were laying on the fret-board, and simultaneously, raised up with enough action to ring brightly. Not all is bad, though. Using certain pics, digging into the strings at just the right manner reveals a magnificent depth. Reminds me of maybe a rich dropped or open tuning. I might even be able to claim that more of the guitar's wood can be heard. I'm very curious to learn how these will finally settle in. There's huge potential in there. I'm hoping giving it a solid week will help simmer them down. Next up in a couple weeks is a set of those Martin Titaniums on my SJ.

Recent, newfound clarity in mic'd recordings has directed me towards some annoying resonances. Not show stopping, but simple enough to fix in the form of loose bridge pins. Mine on the SJ-200 have been loose since day-1. The high-E and B positions drop in way too easily, and have an annoying resonances buzzing thing even when height at the 12th is raised to 5/64th. Compared to the hummingbird, they have that ill-advised tilt back towards the head-stock. Sooo, off to the races. The stock pins measure .2075 - .2090. The taper angle is 3 degrees. My Hummingbird's pins range match. So long story later - it turns out that the .210 size is still far too loose in my SJ. A late Google search that ended up back on this forum and a 7-year old thread revealed someone stating that the bigger sized 2A pins at .220" have been what his recent Gibsons have taken. I try one from my Martin D-41. Darn near perfect. Might have been perfect if not so out of round. I relayed the info back to Mr Colosi and now I have a set of the bigger 2A pins coming my way. The .210 pins I got last week will go into the Hummingbird, which does use that size a lot better than the SJ does. I'll take my biggest new .220 size and try it in a suspect position on the Martin where the pins seats lower than the others. If it's just a faulty pin size issue, I'll end up getting a set for the D-41, too. The funniest thing did happen after installing the new pins on the SJ. Although undersized as they still are, they were .0015 to .0025 bigger than stock, and the E-B positions are .0035 bigger. The resonances were largley reduced from the E-B strings, yes, but the whole guitar seemed different in a tighter, more responsive way. I was not expecting that in the least. I know there is great debate out there about bridge pin changes and tone change/no change. I don't want to start a riot, but there was a change. I've read that undersized pins can cause tone issues, and that is what I'm calling this at this point in time.

I'm glad to read that it came out. I bought one of the kits last Autumn, but ended up putting the UST back in. Still have not used it either. (kit and UST - have played the guitar often)

I dig it, Lars! Nice job all the way around. You're really driving the vocals instead of the other way around. The song is very well written, conceived and implemented, and well performed material to boot. Much kudos.