Lap Slide Sound Bites

[ozziebluesman]

Hello everyone,

Here is a little fun for you all! I have recorded some sound bites on my three weissenborn style lap slide guitars each built from different tonewoods.

From left to right in the picture below are:

"Annie" built by my friend and fine guitar builder, Taffy Evans. I have had this beautiful guitars for a few years now. She is a Cedar top, New Guiena Rosewood back and sides, Jarrah fingerboard and bridge with a Walnut head plate.

"Blackie" is one of mine and he is all Tasmanian Blackwood.

"Sassie is my first build and she is Tasmanian Golden Sassafrass with Tasmanian Myrtle appointments.



If you go to this link www.myspace.com/ozziebluesman the three sound bites are posted there. The same tune was played on all three guitars.

Just for fun please have a listen and guess what guitars goes with which sound bite.

Recording chain was a Rode NT3 mic pointed at the 12th fret into a DBX pre-amp straight into the Zoom MRS4 recorders channel one. Channel two is a single coil, Fishman soundhole pickup fitted to each guitar during the recording process. These are not great pickups IMObut it did the job. I then balanced the volume of each channel on the computer, added a little reverb and saved the file as an MP3. Annie has a k&k bridge plate pickup system fitted and they sound wonderful IMO. As my two new guitar have no pickups as yet to achieve a good comparison Annie was fitted with the soundhole pickup also.

Hope you all enjoy a little fun.

Cheers

Alan

[Allen]

First Bite...Sassy
Second Bite...Annie
Third Bite...Blacky

They all sound great, I've got no idea, so this is just purely a guess. And I'll gladly add one to the collection Alan.

[Kim]

Sassie 1

Blackie 2

Annie 3

Nice playing as always Alan, they all sound tremendouse.

Cheers

Kim

[Dave White]

1. Blackie

2. Annie

3. Sassie

[snidermike]

First of all, they all sound amazing. Here's my guess.

Annie
Blackie
Sassie

[Dennis Leahy]

Alan, How many years were you in prison? You got da blues, man!!! Just kiddin' about prison, but you do have blues in your soul.

Great playing!

Blackie
Sassie
Annie

Dennis

[ozziebluesman]

Well thank you everyone for your comments and having a go at picking the tonewoods. The tone differences are easy to pick when you hear the guitars live. Not so easy to pick off a MP3 recording.

Snidermike you are spot on!

Annie (sound bite 1)
Blackie (sound bite 2)
Sassie (sound bite 3)


This is what David White said on the OLF forum about Annie, sound bite 1. "It seems to be more complex, interesting and somehow sweeter to my ears". I agree with you David. The wood selection and lutherie skills of Taffy shine.

I am still very happy with the tone of the other two guitars though. Blackie has a brighter, hawaiian slide tone and Sassie has a very big, warm tone. Sassie has more volume that the other two but I expect the Blackwood to open up in time.

After trying all guitars in different open tunings Annie will stay in Open D, Blackie in Open C and Sassie will be E or Eb open tuning.

Thanks agin to all my friends on the forum for your interest.

Cheers

Alan

[Dave White]

Alan,

I don't think for a minute that it's a reflection on your building skills compared with Taffy - I had it pegged as one of yours . Annie is a few years older and played in. Keep doing the same piece with the same recording set up over the coming months/years and compare it with these "raw" takes. I bet the sound will get more complex and interesting.

I still think you need a double necked one Mind you Steve K's suggestion of a single necked 12 string - but with steel strings not nylon - could be interesting too.

[Kim]

Baaaaaah! #%$#@#@ I demand a recount!

There all great Alan, only thing I'm peed off about is we did not get a big enough sound clip for do'in time in the work shop.

Cheers

Kim

[ozziebluesman]

Hey Dave! There will be no double neck guitars coming out of my shop mate.

I have my next build planned. Two concert size acoustic's, one ladder braced and the other X braced. I would like to follow your recent concert size build. Can I ask you a few questions at a later date?

Cheers

Alan

[ozziebluesman]

Ok Kim! I had already decided to record some much longer clips over the next few weeks on all guitars in different tunings. I have some tunes already rehearsed up so jobs on!!!

Stay tuned!

Cheers

Alan

[Stephen Kinnaird]

Alan, great stuff M8! You are a fine player fo' sho!
I like the way Dave thinks, and was contemplating a double-neck as well.
Or perhaps a Harp-Weisenborn?
With pedals?

Steve

[Dave White]

Or perhaps a Harp-Weisenborn?
With pedals?

Steve

Steve,

What a great idea given the current oil-crisis - how fast do you want it to go

[ozziebluesman]

Mr Kinnard, your a champion! Thanks for your kind remarks.

Mate no fancy building here. I've still got my LEARNER plates on.

It is a buzz to be able to create an instrument and play it as well!

Cheers

Alan

[Kim]

Ok Kim! I had already decided to record some much longer clips over the next few weeks on all guitars in different tunings. I have some tunes already rehearsed up so jobs on!!!

Stay tuned!

Cheers

Alan

Thanks Alan, to that news I give my best Monty Burns impression of.. 'Excellent!'

Cheers

Kim

[Dave White]

Hey Dave! There will be no double neck guitars coming out of my shop mate.

I have my next build planned. Two concert size acoustic's, one ladder braced and the other X braced. I would like to follow your recent concert size build. Can I ask you a few questions at a later date?

Cheers

Alan

Alan,

Of course you can - ask away. I'm having to rebuild my website and won't have the photo-documentary build of the X braced concert sized guitar on the new one. I do have it saved though as a Word Document (about 11mb) and if you pm me with your e-mail address I'll be happy to e-mail you the .doc file. I did a sort of tutorial on the ladder braced version in this post giving dimensions, bracing etc.

[ozziebluesman]

Hey Dave.

I have saved all your posts on the concert size guitar along with the specs and the pics. I think you posted it on the OLF. I think I have all the info I need to make a start on the guitars. The only stage of the build that I thought looked difficult and I wasn't sure what was going on was the carbon fibre support system inside attached to the sides and neck block. Are those arms inside the box designed for support or to generate tone? Do you think for my build do I need to fit this support. I have sone carbon fibre rod for the necks and planned to insert one each side of the truss rod.

When you have some time spare could you send the file to me please.

My email address is: ozziebluesman at yahoo dot com dot au

Thank you for your interest and help Dave.

Cheers

Alan

[Dave White]

The only stage of the build that I thought looked difficult and I wasn't sure what was going on was the carbon fibre support system inside attached to the sides and neck block. Are those arms inside the box designed for support or to generate tone? Do you think for my build do I need to fit this support. I have sone carbon fibre rod for the necks and planned to insert one each side of the truss rod.

The cf flying buttress braces inside the box are both for support and for tone. They take the stresses of the string pull from the strings on the neck into the strongest part of the guitar - the rim - rather than on the top and neck-block and so let you brace the upper bout for tone, especially if you let the neck extension float free. Old ladder braced guitars have a reputation for bellying behind the bridge and collapsing into the sound-hole. By using the cf buttress braces and a top that is heavily domed I think this gets over these problems. I really do think that "modern" built ladder braced instruments is an exciting new area. I use the same 1/4" x 0.2" cf rods for these braces that I use for the necks. Just route slots in the neck block and make braces with routed slots that are inlet into the linings and glued to the sides at the other end. There are a few post here on the ANZLF where Rick Turner shows how he does his (I got the idea from Rick, Mike Doolin and Howard Klepper)

I always use two cf rods in my necks - not for stiffness reasons as such but to eliminate "dead spots" in the neck and to help give an even volume of notes as you fret up the neck.

I've e-mailed the file.

[snidermike]

Woohoo! I win! I must admit though, it was much more of a lucky guess than anything.

[ozziebluesman]

Well done Mike. Thanks for having a go and having some fun!

I received the file thanks Dave.

Cheers

Alan