Travis Bean TB500 Ideas?

[waldo041]

I can say that the Kramer aluminum necked mahogany one I had sounded fantastic. Full tone with lots of bite and dynamics.

the TB500 i played was exactly the same.



nothing cold about it, this was the guitar that the first estimated and terrapin were played with live. it is without a doubt a pretty SMOKIN guitar!

~waldo

[Jon S.]

Literally, NOT figuratively.

[TI4-1009]

I thought Jerry liked TBs for their stability!?!?

Sorry, it was "consistancy". GP interview, talking about how the Irwin (Wolf) is custom made and not replaceable. "Only the Travis Beans offer that level of consistancy.... I have a couple of Beans, and they are virtually identical in terms of their setup, neck, and fingerboard, so there's no question of regaining chops if one breaks down on the road or something. No other production guitar is like that- they're all completely different.. I also think the Bean's single coil pickups are the best I've heard. As far as I'm concerned, the Travis Bean is the finest production guitar on the market." (no date, but late Bean/pre-Tiger).

[ccw3432]

This one looks pretty nice.

http://www.maverick-music.com/other/197 ... -and-strap

[tigerstrat]

Oct 2, 1977 Portland, Oregon, backstage post-soundcheck interview. Garcia has just finished putting fresh strings on Wolf:

> **Interviewer(GT):"Is that the one you were using last night?"
> **JG:"Yup."
> **GT:"What was the one with the 'T' in the neck?..."
> **JG:"Um, Travis Bean."
> **GT:"Are you still using that one then?"
> **JG:"Uhh....yea, I had been using it, but I just got this back from uh, the guy (Irwin) who made it for me; whose been- whose worked on it some...and uh, wanted to...see if there's...still anything...between me and it."
> **faint tuning noises**
> **Unidentified Girl:"You done?"
> **JG:"Well, I have to let it sit for awhile,"
> **GT:"Stre-e-e-tch..."
> **JG:"...And everything has to get adjusted.

See, the Travis Bean, the nice thing about it is that it's uh, incredibly stable, so you can change the strings and it doesn't have to go through any changes.

...But this guitar (Wolf), like other wooden guitars, to get it to really work right and play in tune and stuff, you gotta set it up again every time the strings are changed, because it changes the whole (unintelligible)."
> **GT:"How old is that thing?"
> **JG:"Oh,it's about 5...maybe 5 years...6 years old I guess. I'm not exactly sure how old."

I really don't think metal expands or contracts nearly as much as wood.

[Tennessee Jedi]

Oct 2, 1977 Portland, Oregon, backstage post-soundcheck interview. Garcia has just finished putting fresh strings on Wolf:

> **Interviewer(GT):"Is that the one you were using last night?"
> **JG:"Yup."
> **GT:"What was the one with the 'T' in the neck?..."
> **JG:"Um, Travis Bean."
> **GT:"Are you still using that one then?"
> **JG:"Uhh....yea, I had been using it, but I just got this back from uh, the guy (Irwin) who made it for me; whose been- whose worked on it some...and uh, wanted to...see if there's...still anything...between me and it."
> **faint tuning noises**
> **Unidentified Girl:"You done?"
> **JG:"Well, I have to let it sit for awhile,"
> **GT:"Stre-e-e-tch..."
> **JG:"...And everything has to get adjusted.

See, the Travis Bean, the nice thing about it is that it's uh, incredibly stable, so you can change the strings and it doesn't have to go through any changes.

...But this guitar (Wolf), like other wooden guitars, to get it to really work right and play in tune and stuff, you gotta set it up again every time the strings are changed, because it changes the whole (unintelligible)."
> **GT:"How old is that thing?"
> **JG:"Oh,it's about 5...maybe 5 years...6 years old I guess. I'm not exactly sure how old."

I really don't think metal expands or contracts nearly as much as wood.

Might explain some of the problems with my guitar .....
Since spring it has been real touchy .... lots of fret noise and buzz
Had the action raised a bit and for the summer it was playing and sounding better
Cold has come in though and it is whacked again ....
The one tech said something about all the wood in my guitar ... hippie sandwich and neck thru .... being prone to get whacked when the weather changes ....
Guitar sounds awful right now.

[mgbills]

Hey T-Jedi.
Just an observation...usually for my guitars when they get buzzy, it's a truss rod adjustment. We run a wood stove to drive out some of the dreariness of Western WA. Acoustics's stay in in cases with Damp-it's. My electrics probably should too, but my go to Strat is out every day, so it typically resides on a stand. About yearly it'll need about 1/4 turn one way or the other.

If I remember correctly you're playing a modified Ibanez Musician. I think they physics would be the same, even if the wood mass is greater. Mostly hard maple, and the density will be the same as a Strat neck, even if the mass is different. Point being that it'll respond to changes in humidity. If your house has a heat pump (or any forced air heat), or you're gigging in places with HVAC, moisture is absent to a large extent. The neck will change as a result. (You might ignore everything but the last sentence, as it may be another epic Mart diatribe.)

Raising the action would help, but if the relief is wrong it can still buzz. Mine are now set & 13/128th of an inch (a smidge under 7/64th, which would be Tiger spec. It'll start buzzing a bit about 3-4 weeks after the wood stove starts.

Worth checking regularly.
Peace
M

[Tennessee Jedi]

Hey T-Jedi.
Just an observation...usually for my guitars when they get buzzy, it's a truss rod adjustment. We run a wood stove to drive out some of the dreariness of Western WA. Acoustics's stay in in cases with Damp-it's. My electrics probably should too, but my go to Strat is out every day, so it typically resides on a stand. About yearly it'll need about 1/4 turn one way or the other.

If I remember correctly you're playing a modified Ibanez Musician. I think they physics would be the same, even if the wood mass is greater. Mostly hard maple, and the density will be the same as a Strat neck, even if the mass is different. Point being that it'll respond to changes in humidity. If your house has a heat pump (or any forced air heat), or you're gigging in places with HVAC, moisture is absent to a large extent. The neck will change as a result. (You might ignore everything but the last sentence, as it may be another epic Mart diatribe.)

Raising the action would help, but if the relief is wrong it can still buzz. Mine are now set & 13/128th of an inch (a smidge under 7/64th, which would be Tiger spec. It'll start buzzing a bit about 3-4 weeks after the wood stove starts.

Worth checking regularly.
Peace
M

hey man -
Yeah the tech said the guitar had a " back bow " and needed truss rod adjusting .... it seemed to help a bit - lasted a few summer months ....
And we have forced air , too
The guitar also has what I'm calling fret noise .... little " pinging " sounds .... metallic ugliness ....
Always something
Thanks M

[mgbills]

Brass nut?

[mgbills]

On topic...I'd love to play a TB. When I first started playing Trading Musician in Seattle had one. I was too shy to sit at a Twin Reverb with a Travis Bean and play my E & A chords. I think it was about $1500. Should have snorped that one.

[williamsaut]

Well I just did a little math and it turns out that aluminum's thermal expansion is about 4 times that of wood BUT, a 20 degree temperature rise in a 25" long piece of aluminum is about .006" which I don't think is enough to cause tuning havoc. So perhaps the detune thing was a problem with tuners or the neck joint of something. After all it's the only such necked instrument I've ever been able to check out and ended up selling it before getting to the true root of the problem. Even .012" change from 30 to 70 degree environment wouldn't account for noticeable pitch change. Now .012" total is a lot as anyone whose intonated a bridge will attest but this change would happen gradually as the instrument warms up. My wood guitar does the opposite for some reason. It's always a microtone sharp when I take it out of the case. I tune it down and then have to bring it back up at the end of the set. Then it's steady as a rock until I take it out to the case next time when it's marginally sharp again. The Kramer went steadily sharp as I played it and never seamed to stop. Just continually going sharp. It really bugged me.

Anyhow, other than my newly found desire to build a graphite thru-necked TB copy with fender wide range pickups and wired exactly like jerry's ( thanks for that guys ), I guess I'm done here.

Piece,

[TI4-1009]

That would have been my guess- that wood is more thermally stable than metal. But I'm pretty sure that wood is much more succeptible to changes in humidity. I don't think metal will expand or contract at all with humidity changes.