Any guitar buffs here?

I just saw this (you may have already heard...lol.) But Taylor has teamed up with Rupert Neve to create a new line of amplified acoustic guitars. I bet the price tag is double now as well, but imagine what one of the best preamp engineers and acoustic guitar makers can do....

My brother just bought a Garrison acoustic.

Name-brand recognition aside, this is one of the best-sounding acoustics I've ever played. And I've played 'em all. The Buzz Feiten tuning system is a HUGE step forward in maintaining intonation up and down the neck.

Cool. I will have to check out the Buzz Feiten, never heard of it =).... although I dont really play guitar much anymore.


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I used to play this beater Ibanez Acoustic/Electric that just sounded incredible as well. Must of been the odd one in the lot. It was a nylon string, but had a normal steel string style neck, not the big wide classical style necks.

Besides the Grace pre amps (which I actually prefer for any acoustic instrument.) The Neve 1272 is one of my favorites. Just sounds fabulous on vocals and acoustic guitars. That was always one of my beefs with acoustic/electrics. People were insistent to use them (with the preamps), when they sound like sh*t. But if Neve is making them they might sound pretty decent.

Did you go have a look at the technology behind Garrison Guitars, Marble? If I ever get in the mood to buy a new acoustic, it's very likely to be a Garrison. Much as I really like Takamines and Taylors, the price/quality/tone of the Garrisons is tough to beat. I'm quite interested to see how they progress as a company over the next 5 - 10 years. And, it might take some study for you to understand, But the Buzz Feiten (that's actually the guy's name who invented it) tuning system is bloody brilliant. Cool thing is, any guitar can be retro-fitted with it, and I have a feeling it, too, will start to become commonplace.

I don't know about Grace preamps, but you're right—the Neve preamps have a great reputation and I can't imagine them creating crap.

And speaking of preamps...I had the opportunity to try out AmpliTube for Mac OS X at my brother's place a couple weeks ago. Even on an older 450MHz G4 with tiny Cambridge speakers th thing sounded amazing and performed flawlessly, with no audio signal lag. [si-i-i-i-i-gh] another piece of software to add to my "want" list.

Man I have to do some reading lol....

http://www.gracedesign.com/

Grace is a company started in a guys garage in Colorado. I have chatted with the owners a few times at the AES shows in LA and it is quite brilliant what they are doing. But their pre amps are becoming a standard in any good studio these days. It is the most transparent pre amp I have ever heard, and where that particularily shines is with acoustic instruments. Some things I prefer the coloring of a specific pre amp - mostly the Neves and the API's, but with acoustic guitars, cellos, violins, percussion, overheads, the Grace is my number one pick. But it comes at a hefty price. I think 5 G's for the 8 channel and about 1 G for the single channel.

Amp modeling is pretty ingenious. But.... nothing beats the real thing. I had to deal a lot with peeps coming in with their studio pods and a power amp and wanting this 'sound' that was on a recording. Problem is it wasnt recorded with a pod or another amp modeller. It was the real deal. Their is a presence that can't be beat with 100w of pure tube power through a 4 x 12 2/3 full volume with double mic's in a medium size room.... lol. But I am not trying to say those modellers are bad.... I had a pod for while and it was freaking brilliant.

As much as I love gizmos and will try anything available if it gives me the sounds I'm looking for, I can be quite content exploring the tonal nuance of 1 guitar, 1 cord, and 100 watts of tube power.

Two instances of brilliant analog thinking:

1) Neil Young's "Whizzer." This was a device he invented that was a box with servo-motors that fit over top of the physical knobs on his main amp. When he would choose a program via a footswitch, signals were sent to these servo motors which in turn physically rotated the amp knobs to the positions he had predetermined.

2) I believe it was on "Young Americans" where David Bowie recorded the vocals in a stone walled room, approximately 30 ft W, 20 ft H and 100 ft L. Vocals were recorded with 3 mics. The first, right in front of him. The second, 15 feet away and the third 50 feet away. The two outer mics were each set to trigger (via hard-knee gating) at a certain volume level. If he was singing quietly, only mic #1 captured his vocal. A little louder, and mic #2 (along with mic #1) would send signal to tape capturing more of the stone-walled room's natural reverb. At full wail, Bowie's voice would be captured by all 3 mic's, with all of the attendant natural reverb of the room. Because these 3 signals were sent to separate tracks on the tape, the engineer could mix them as he saw fit. Listen closely to the vocals on that track and you can differentiate between when 1, 2 or all 3 mics were capturing signal.

Lol. That Bowie example is brilliant. With all the latest and greatest technologies (with the exception of samplers, and synths.) Nothing beats a decent pre amp and a decent mic. You wouldnt believe how much of what you have heard over the years has all been done with just a handful of mics and about maybe 6 different pre amps. and of course a little ingenuity, like the Bowie example....

I play bass guitar in like 3 local bands around here... its a lot of fun. I have a Peavey Bass guitar... its like sparkely blue and white... I like it, but I broke my E string a long time ago and never got around to buying some new ones :P If anyone plays bass around here they know how much a new set of good strings is :P

I dunno if this would help, but for my guitar, I buy Ernie ball strings, 10 gauge. They're about 5 bucks for a full pack, and they're awesome, they last forever, they sound great, etc.

I dunno about bass strings though. It would be more expensive though because bass strings are as thick as a tree :D