livemusic Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 This '56 Gibson Country Western... bought it from Fred... got smashed from UPS... many months or repair... I still love this guitar. I think it sounds awesome. I note that the grain on this guitar is most unusual... it's VERY wide grain. I have not seen a grain like this on modern guitars. I wonder if that is a secret to the tone. My recording engineer here in Nashville (who works with the greats)... 'your guitar is amazing in that it is so EVEN, very evenly balanced across all strings.' What about grain? (Talking about the top.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duluthdan Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 Can you post picture of the top? Was the top damaged at all in transit? I seem to recall The bottom side suffered the most? That's high praise from a Recording Engineer. Of all my guitars the J45TV has the widest grain, but I don't think its unusually wide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hall Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 livemusic, sometimes feels like the CW is overlooked a bit. I read the threads on the damage and kept my fingers crossed hoping all would end well. Glad to hear your guitar is gaining compliments. Hey, maybe it's the player's touch! Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarrr Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 I've read a number of boutique builders say that wide-grain, stiff sitka can be the best spruce. Comes as standard equip with adi-spruce, but not always better. fwiw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobouz Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 I like wide grain visually, and have had many that sounded terrific. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L5Larry Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 I had always "heard" that tight grained woods were best for guitar soundboards. A friend of mine is a master violin maker and we have had many guitar design/build vs violin design/build discussions. He says that wide grain wood makes the best sounding violins. He explained to me that with fewer growth rings there is more "wood", as the growth rings are of a different biological makeup that the "meat". Makes perfect sense to me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zombywoof Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 My opinion, which I know ain't worth much, is all the stuff about grain, run out and so on is much ado about nothing. It is an aesthetic consideration that guitar geeks like to blow up into some make or break quality of wood issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zombywoof Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 He says that wide grain wood makes the best sounding violins. He explained to me that with fewer growth rings there is more "wood", as the growth rings are of a different biological makeup that the "meat". If you ever look at a violin top it is not made solely of wide grained wood. The grain at the edges is very close and very even only widening out as it gets toward the center. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hall Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 My opinion, which I know ain't worth much, is all the stuff about grain, run out and so on is much ado about nothing. It is an aesthetic consideration that guitar geeks like to blow up into some make or break quality of wood issue. Me too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zombywoof Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 If you think about it - violin makers will tell you to use only old growth wood harvested during the cold dormant season. I would think this would make the guitar top - especially one made of Adi - seem a pretty sub-standard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jayyj Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 My opinion, which I know ain't worth much, is all the stuff about grain, run out and so on is much ado about nothing. It is an aesthetic consideration that guitar geeks like to blow up into some make or break quality of wood issue. I'm with you, Zombywoof. I'm sure there are lots of valid theories about the properties of different pieces of spruce and if a maker knows he can get best results from a particular grain type then timber selection becomes an important part of the process, but that's a different thing to wide grain spruce being better or worse than close grain. I've spent time around very high end violins, and the grain found in the selection of spruce on the old Italian master instruments wildly differs from maker to maker so it's hard to draw any strong conclusions from the violin trade. All in all the thing I'm most confident saying when it comes to timber selection is that the only really crucial ingredient in a high quality instrument is the hand holding the chisel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ol fred Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 It's not the wood grain Bill, It sounds so good because I took all those years breaking it in for you. When you gonna post some pics? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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