Christmas In July? ...YES!!

[GuitarLight]

Hi Everyone! Santa just brought a new Masterbilt AJ-500M.(Hog) It is beautiful and plays just great! Wonderful tone. No buzz that I can find. ---The neck however is very straight with almost no relief. Again no buzz. The action is easy. But it seems to be missing that certain growl, volume, and resinous sound I would like to hear from it. It has reasonable volume, but it doesn't ROAR when I play hard! I am wondering if this is because it is new and not yet broken in, or could it be because the neck is so straight that it could be stifling some vibration to the top. It does feels like it wants to explode with rich vibrational sound but is slightly hindered some how. Normally I do not put relief in a straight neck unless it buzzes, which in turn keeps the action nice and low. Will a slight relief to the neck truss rod produce a richer resonance in sound? Should I wait till it is more broken in before adding some relief to the neck? I am very satisfied with it in every way, but would just like a little more GRRRRR to its overall volume, tone, and general sound. It has only been played for about 6 hours with new Martin 80/20 coated lights on it. (.12- .54) Yes I am a coated string fan, but I have used coated strings with great satisfaction on many other guitars, with only a slight diminished sound from them, as expected. So what effect do you think some relief to the neck will have on tone and resonance? Thanks! --PS. I do also have an AJ-500R (rosewood) with Elixir coated strings and it simply blows the roof off the house, and I would like the new Hog to do the same! Thanks again. Any helpful input or suggestions from the generous and knowledgeable people in here would be most appreciated!

[diverden]

Hi Everyone! Santa just brought a new Masterbilt AJ-500M.(Hog) It is beautiful and plays just great! Wonderful tone. No buzz that I can find. ---The neck however is very straight with almost no relief. Again no buzz. The action is easy. But it seems to be missing that certain growl, volume, and resinous sound I would like to hear from it. It has reasonable volume, but it doesn't ROAR when I play hard! I am wondering if this is because it is new and not yet broken in, or could it be because the neck is so straight that it could be stifling some vibration to the top. It does feels like it wants to explode with rich vibrational sound but is slightly hindered some how. Normally I do not put relief in a straight neck unless it buzzes, which in turn keeps the action nice and low. Will a slight relief to the neck truss rod produce a richer resonance in sound? Should I wait till it is more broken in before adding some relief to the neck? I am very satisfied with it in every way, but would just like a little more GRRRRR to its overall volume, tone, and general sound. It has only been played for about 6 hours with new Martin 80/20 coated lights on it. (.12- .54) Yes I am a coated string fan, but I have used coated strings with great satisfaction on many other guitars, with only a slight diminished sound from them, as expected. So what effect do you think some relief to the neck will have on tone and resonance? Thanks! --PS. I do also have an AJ-500R (rosewood) with Elixir coated strings and it simply blows the roof off the house, and I would like the new Hog to do the same! Thanks again. Any helpful input or suggestions from the generous and knowledgeable people in here would be most appreciated!

 

 

Try Elixirs on this guitar as well. I've been using them for years on my 2006 AJ500ME and they sound great.

But remember, this is an AJ, it is not going to boom like a jumbo Guild.

[milod]

Well... I have the AE version...

 

Just a cupla comments. First, it ain't gonna sound quite like the rosewood. I'm not certain given differences among individual instruments, but it may never give the volume of the rosewood instrument you already have, even if it also were rosewood.

 

Secondly, Yeah, let it sit or get played a while before you mess with it. It's my observation that "new" guitars, especially flattops, need to adjust a bit on their own.

 

I really like mine, btw. As an AE it may not have quite the volume of a guitar that doesn't have a hole cut it its side and "stuff" crammed into it in various places. But it's a nice sweet sound with plenty of volume for the house and the AE can sing outside the house plugged in.

 

Also, I guess playability for me comes first, a nice tone second. Since all my flattops are AE, I don't really think about volume. And I'm usually a gentle fingerpicker who's still pretty gentle with a flatpick...

 

 

m

[GuitarLight]

Well... I have the AE version...

 

Just a cupla comments. First, it ain't gonna sound quite like the rosewood. I'm not certain given differences among individual instruments, but it may never give the volume of the rosewood instrument you already have, even if it also were rosewood.

 

Secondly, Yeah, let it sit or get played a while before you mess with it. It's my observation that "new" guitars, especially flattops, need to adjust a bit on their own.

 

I really like mine, btw. As an AE it may not have quite the volume of a guitar that doesn't have a hole cut it its side and "stuff" crammed into it in various places. But it's a nice sweet sound with plenty of volume for the house and the AE can sing outside the house plugged in.

 

Also, I guess playability for me comes first, a nice tone second. Since all my flattops are AE, I don't really think about volume. And I'm usually a gentle fingerpicker who's still pretty gentle with a flatpick...

 

Thanks Milod, good advice. It has opened up quite a bit as I have been playing it a lot! The sound seems to be richer and getting better. After about a week of playing, and humidification to about 48%, I tweaked the truss rod ever so slightly and seemed to make a difference too. I have a Fishman Rare Earth sound hole which I have tried on it to amplify it on my Marshall Acoustic amp, and it seems to work very well, so I will be able to electrify on occasion when I need to. What a wonderful sound quality to this guitar, I am very pleased with it, and the AJ model has always been my favorite for some reason.

 

[milod]

Glad you're enjoying.

 

I've never been as "anti" mag soundhole pickups as some. Nor of the early AEs that functionally had a single pole pickup somehow attached around the end of the fingerboard.

 

I know a lotta "modern" pickers prefer pickup stuff that costs more than a guitar back in my olden days, and holler about "gee, you can't get good sound on acoustic strings with a mag pickup," but... it never bothered me much.

 

A friend has an old early 1950s Gibbie small Florentine cutaway with a single pole pickup that sounds super fine to me. And if you wanna take it from him, better figure on a company of Marines.

 

I honestly think each guitar somehow wants to be played as an individual and will best respond somehow to a bit of difference in how the picker handles it compared to his/her other instruments. I'm not suggesting so much that they are living creatures as I am that each is of individual bits of wood that are never identical. But I'm convinced it's true that each has its own character that the wise picker of any skill level will seek to exploit.

 

m

[zombywoof]

A guitar is born with a voice and there is not much you can to do to change that voice. You can mess with strings, guages, saddles and such and you can certainly brighten a guitar a bit or tone it down. You cab raise the action and go to heavier guage string and drive the top a bit more. But the fact is say a Martin 00-18 or something is never have going to have that percussive low end and bit o' midrange snarl that an old Gibson has. Heck, even the new Gibsons ain't got it. Guitars these days seem to be awful polite.