Grateful Dead Music Forum

Any opinions on tone?

On my Scott Walker, I can go solid on the body, chamber it with a solid top, or chamber it with an F-hole.

i'm not sure on the tone differences from lack of experience, but damn those are beautiful guitars! i'd never seen his site before.

http://www.scottwalkerguitars.com/MODELS.html

any idea how much $$ $$ they run?

That's a tough one. If you pick one and end up not being overwhelmed by the guitar, you're going to drive yourself crazy thinking that's the reason why. I'd say the safest be t would be not chambered at all because it won't be a big departure from what you're used to. After that i'd say chambered w/ no f-holes.
Is this going to be your new stage guitar or guitar for non-Garcia type stuff? If it's the latter, shoot the moon and go for something different by chambering it w/ f-holes. It will sound different and be noticable against what you're used to playing.

I think you really have 3 options: solid; weight-relieved; chambered. The latter two are quite different in design and sound.

Here's weight-relieved



and here's chambered.



One is not "better" than the other. It all depends what you're looking for. If what you're looking for is solid-body tone without killing your back, choose weight-relieved. If, on the other hand, your main goal is the airiness of a Strat or the openness of a semi-hollow. choose chambered.

It would be a true chambered guitar if I go that route. Not sure about the F-hole, I wouldn't think that would make much difference tonally since it's not a true hollowbody. The neck and pickups will be sitting in solid wood, not mounted to a hollow top. Is my thinking straight on that?





To answer Hogan's question, it will be a back-up Playing Dead guitar to my Tiger, and I plan to wire a Super II in the middle position on it and have a defeatable buffer for that reason. However, I'm not looking to duplicate the Tiger, will be different woods, and so if it sounds different, that's probably a plus.

I'm thinking about either a spalted maple top over a purpleheart core, or a redwood top over a maple core. Scott sent me some photos of the spalted maple he has; it's from a big old tree named Bertha, which is pretty appropriate. These are my two favorite options if I go that way:





Here's a finished guitar from the same tree:

playingdead wrote:It would be a true chambered guitar if I go that route. Not sure about the F-hole, I wouldn't think that would make much difference tonally since it's not a true hollowbody. The neck and pickups will be sitting in solid wood, not mounted to a hollow top. Is my thinking straight on that?

The same could be said for 335 style guitars, but to my ears the sound different than a Les Paul. Is it a huge difference? no, but pretty apparent.

They definitely sound different, but I've never compared a 335 to a chambered Les Paul, either; I'm just curious how much the F-holes themselves have to do with the sound of the guitar, i.e., would a 335 with no F-holes sound substantially different from one that has them.

The Walker chambered guitar is only on the one side, too, with one F-hole.

Rosebud was chambered, wasn't it?

A 335 is constructed much different than the guitars pictured. Though it has a solid center block, a 335 is essentially constructed like an acoustic archtop in the way the sides join to the top and back.

The pictured guitars are just routed out before the top is attached, more like a Tele thinline, and you won't get nearly as much "acoustic" response as on a 335-style semi-hollow.

If it were me, I'd go chambered, with no f-holes - I'd rather look at that gorgeous wood than an f-hole.

drewfx

Roger Sadowsky is a boutique bass and guitar builder who built my J-bass, and basses for Marcus Miller, Will Lee that cute young bass player for Jeff Beck (Tal Wilkenfeld), guitars for Walter Becker, etc. He experimented with weight-relief bodies just to save weight and found them to sound better and more dynamic and responsive than fully solid bodies. It's just a small part of a great interview that touches on setup, preamp design, etc, but unfortunately the site is down. So if it were me I'd go with weight-relief.

www.sadowsky.com is his site, the interview used to be on http://www.behindthenotes.com/

The Gibson ES 335 is a "semi hollow body" as mentioned above but it is not like an arch top. Archtops are completely hollow and have a violin style bridge. I have the cheapo Ibanez 335 knock off and it's definitely a unique sound, smooth very resonate, not very les paul at all. So Vic if I'm hearing you right you are thinking of going that route (semi solid body) or routed chambers like the Rosebud. If it was me I'd just keep it solid I think with a guitar that size your not really losing that much weight by the routing of chambers. Further, the 335 is a big guitar, and the reason is that the sound chambers need lots of space to develop that resonance. Long story short F holes on a smaller guitar like that might not do
all that much and again as above I'd rather see that nice wood grain.

Rusty the Scoob wrote: cute young bass player for Jeff Beck (Tal Wilkenfeld),

sorry for the Off topic, but that cute young bass player from the Jeff Beck group is absolutely unbelievable.She is what 21-22 years old?!
I have the whole 2 days of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame from this fall at MSG on DVD and the Jeff Beck Group set where they are backing other musicians (Buddy Guy, Billy Gibbons, Sting) and then playing a couple of their own tunes, is incredible. They do an "A day in the life that flips my wig everytime I see it. Her bassline on this is sublime........

Here is the performance:
<object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/o1tHshH8e0c&hl ... ram><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/o1tHshH8e0c&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object>[/youtube]

I'm surprised that dude let that guitar you posted look like that. Does anyone else think those look like birthmarks?

dleonard wrote:I'm surprised that dude let that guitar you posted look like that. Does anyone else think those look like birthmarks?

You're joking, right?

P.S. Very talented young woman.

I am working with this guitar lately. I noted on a gig, it can take on that verge of feedback resonant freaquency (up... I think I just hit on a new band name... "Freakuency"... oh brother ) where the guitar body is physically vibrating. I liked it.

dleonard wrote:I'm surprised that dude let that guitar you posted look like that. Does anyone else think those look like birthmarks?

I respect everyones opinion obviously, but people pay a hefty chunk of change for that "birthmark" look!
That is an unbelievable piece of spalted maple.

By the way Vic,
if options 4 and 5 are for your choosing: From those pics (and it looks like they are drawn for a lefty cut so I assume they are), I prefer 5. it is like a tie dye burst pattern almost and VERY cool looking, I also think it would be cool having the grain empty out at the horns like it does in #5.