Official Luthiers Forum!

As promised here are some sound clips of the Lutz/Cuban Mahogany guitar I posted on a few days back, topped with one of Shane's great pieces of wood:


The pieces are ones taught to me at Burwell by Ed Boyd and Brian Finnegan of the group Flook. I have recorded them on my Fostex FD4 using an AKG microphone with no EQ adjustments or effects added. Both pieces are in DADGAD and are pretty representitive of the guitar's acoustic sound. The strings are D'Addario EJ16's (0.012"-0.053") about a week old.

The first piece is "Famous Last Words" written by Donald Shaw of Cappercaille and recorded by Mike McGoldrick on his CD Wired. It is a great piece in 7/8 time and pushes my naff flatpicking to it's limit - and sometimes as you will hear I fall of The lead is flatpicked with a Dunlop nylon 0.73mm pick and the accompaniment is picked with thumb and fingers:

Famous Last Words

The second piece is illustrative more of the guitar strumming. It was written by the Scottish piper Fred Morrison and is called "The Lochiver Badger". Again on the lead I use the pick and also strum with the pick. Forgive the bad "stop" in the middle:

Badger

Thanks for listening and I hope you enjoy them.
Dave White38961.6289236111

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

Dave, that sounds sweet! That's some pretty fancy picking going on there too.

I was just wondering, are there any special thing to take into consideration when building a guitar to play in open tunings, such as the DADGAD tuning mentioned?Dave Rector38961.6379050926

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Dave Rector
Rector Guitars

Great question Dave! Me too.
ALso, with everything being equal, what is the difference in sound between Cuban and Nicaraguan Mahog?

Great sound, as expected, Dave. Thanks for posting we don't have enough music on here.

Dave, my answer about a DADGad guitar is to build with parabolic top and X back braces, to get the attack. Then dedicate the guitar to DADGad and similar tunings by using a balanced set of strings weighted accordingly.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

I like that "woody" sound that you've got there. Enough overtones but not so much that it loosses focus and doesn't get muddled. I can't wait to get my lutz top finished! You should be pleased. Clinton

*melts* 'Tis the very Genre I try to aspire too in my playing...simply beautiful....

Got the TAB for both songs? I'd love to learn them...

The second tune was jussst SWEEEET....tingles down the back of the neck...

I would loved to have heard a REALLY strong sustained bass throughout this peice, although you can hear it already in the beautiful tone of this guitar.

awesome stuff!!

I do AGREE, we need more music on here. More samples of the guitars that were built...

Sam Price38961.6932175926

Thanks Dave!
Nice Full sound!
It's a real treet to hear some of the fine instruments we see here.
I'll just add these to the other great mp3s from you my friend.

Wade

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Wade
Nashua, NH
http://www.wadefx.com

Thanks Colin, that's exactly the kind of information I was looking for!

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Dave Rector
Rector Guitars

Thanks for the kind comments.

Dave R - DADGAD and other open tunings usually involve tuning down from standard and have open strings that sympathetically ring and support what you are playing. Tuning down I find makes a guitar more alive and responsive but you have generally slacker strings. So I am looking for a guitar with great sustain and balance across the strings. I do this by using a big arch in my tops (13' radius braces) and keeping the top thicker in the middle (to help with mids and trebles) and feathered behind and at the sides of the bridge. I use a very narrow X brace angle and have the soundhole large but shifted forwards. I prefer parabolic bracing but the top needs to be ringing and sustaining as much as possible everywhere. Lightly braced upper bout with free floating fingerboard extension (only attached by the 2 neck bolts) adds to harmonic richness. I personally deal with the string tension by using longer scale lengths - 25 3/4" is my favourite. I play over a dozen "altered" tunings and use a set of EJ16's and retune for all of these, although I'd probably tell my customers that they need a guitar dedicated to each tuning


Bob - Cuban is one of the hardest of the mahoganies so you get more of a Rosewood tinge to it. It gives a sound that I really like.


Hesh,

Funny you should say that. Apparently Fred Morrison wrote it after listening to North American Indian chants - Scottish bagpiper goes West . In the band class at Burwell where we played it, it went round and round and was beautifully hypnotic. It actually finished with the instruments stopping and lots of wine glasses with water in so they were tuned to A C and E being "rung". Magic.

Sam,

I have tabbed Famous Last Words and have it in tabledit (a .tef file) that I can e-mail. If not give me your snail mail and I'll print it out and post it to you.

Dave White38961.8002777778

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

Dave.....Yo Da Man

Beautiful guitar, terrific sound and great playing

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

Dave.....Yo Da Man

Beautiful guitar, terrific sound and great playing

Thank you for sharing.....

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

Double Post??? That's ok...can't say it enough!!

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

Great sound!! Is that you playing??

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Peter M.
Cornerstone Guitars
http://www.cornerstoneukes.com

Wow! Such clear tone and sustain. Very nice Dave!

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Joe Breault
Merrimack, NH
Perpetual novice

Cool picking and very cool guitar!!!

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Andy Z.
http://www.lazydogguitars.com

Very nice and elegant guitar Dave and the music was a " pure delice" for the ears! Thanks for sharing your talents in building and playing!

Serge

Dave, thanks for sharing your thought on building with different tunings in mind! I've been wondering about this for a while now, just hadn't gotten around to asking about it.

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Dave Rector
Rector Guitars

Dave, Thanks for sharing YOU with us!

WOW, what beautifully inspiring music.

I would like to ask you - in my classroom I have a quit area for my students who are having a difficult day. It is an area with a fish tank of angel fish, a rocking chair, and soothing music should they like to stay awhile. May I add "The Lochiver Badger" clip to my disc of music?

[QUOTE=Jeanne]
I would like to ask you - in my classroom I have a quit area for my students who are having a difficult day. It is an area with a fish tank of angel fish, a rocking chair, and soothing music should they like to stay awhile. May I add "The Lochiver Badger" clip to my disc of music?[/QUOTE]

Jeanne,

Please go ahead - that sounds wonderful.

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

Dave,

This is an awesome display of your gifts with both wood and strings. I am sure that Shane's lutzii is superb tonewood, but just as certain it was delivered justice at your hand through tool and touch.

Well Done

Cheers

Kim

Dave

Sorry for being late to the party.

Another mighty fine looking instrument beautiful as always, I love it and I really like the sound too, as you say a little muddier than Euro, but a very pleasing tone.

As always your playing is magnificent.

What more can I say but Bravo