Custom Guitar vs. Guitar Synth

[Constance]

Yeah he was doing the entire fripptronics catalog.  And I like some of the stuff like Islands, and Starless and Bible Black.  When you consider the entire catalog, including the League of Crafty Guitars, his career has been pretty amazing.

Very true.

I guess one of the big problems with discover King Crimson when I was 12 is that it made quite an impression on me. The fact that it was possible to coax those sounds out of guitars just amazes me. Then, there's the technical ability. Amazing indeed.

[tekla]

The fact that it was possible to coax those sounds out of guitars just amazes me

That's where he crosses the line between talent with practice, and art.

[Constance]

The fact that it was possible to coax those sounds out of guitars just amazes me

That's where he crosses the line between talent with practice, and art.

Again, very true.

[Suzy]

Any neck with 12 strings is tough to keep true long term.  I had a friend who had a Carvin like this:

http://www.carvinmuseum.com/decade/images/93-doublenecks.html

It was a great instrument, though some people think otherwise.  From what I can tell, they do still make them special order, and might be able to get you somethink like what you want.

I assume from what you are saying that you are looking for a 12 string acoustic (Dreadnought) sound.  A guy in my band uses a Digitech pedal for an acoustic sound with his Les Paul for one song where the switch happens fast from electric to acoustic.    It actually sounds pretty decent.  I am not terribly impressed with those guitar synths.  Get individual pedals that do just what you want. 

I have an old RP-7 that has a 12 string setting.  I played my Martin 6 string through it and it did sound like 12 strings and sounded awesome.  You can get one of those on ebay very reasonable.   Plus it will do a lot more.   There is one on there right now, in fact.

I think you might do best getting a pedal board and building your own pallet of custom sounds for what you want to do.  For my strat I use a board with a bunch of pedals then a Line 6 Pod X3 live.  Sort of the belt and suspenders approach, but I sound how I want.

What kind of a sound are you looking for in your amp?  I can't really tell.

Best of luck!

Kristi

[tekla]

I would think that if you're going to be driving the signal though all sorts of F/X you would want the most natural sounding amp, perhaps the SWR California Blonde II, which a lot of the pros use and less than half the price of a Genz Benz Shenandoah Series Shen Pro LT.

[Constance]

The pedal-board approach is one I've thought of before. It's beginning to sound like a better idea more and more, after reading the various replies here.

As far as the amp goes, I'm not entirely sure. I guess I'd like the most flexible set up possible. A pipe organ has a wide array of stops to produce a wide array of sounds. I guess that's what I'm hoping to achieve: anything from a "true" guitar sound to something "out there."

[Suzy]

Those are great amps, no question.  The one I have been playing around with is this one:
http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/Peavey-Ecoustic-112-EFX-Acoustic-Combo?sku=481373
It is one cool amp, and a nice clean sound.

Oh and another thing.....please do not buy a Squire if you are going to run it through nice equipment.

Kristi

[Constance]

please do not buy a Squire if you are going to run it through nice equipment.

OK, so what affordable make would you suggest?

There's a good second hand instrument store here in San Mateo, and the Fenders there are regularly priced like Squires elsewhere. The trade-off is, it's hard to predict what will be there when one actually has the $$$ to spend.

[tekla]

The Squire's are made of the wood blocks that were not good enough for the Strats and Teles.  I wouldn't want a Fender that was made after Leo left the company, ie, pre-65.  Once CBS took it over the quality dived.

[Constance]

I had a Peavey Milestone 12 for a while, and I was pretty satisfied with that. But, I bought it when I was 18 and I could just blow $600 on a whim. These days, it would take a while to save that much.

[tekla]

Paul Reed Smith has been putting out some pretty good stuff, at least at the higher end, and I'm sure that Peavey would cost more than 6 bills if you went to buy it back now.

[Shana A]

And you're going to hate me for this - but at least you'll hate me for the right reasons, but a bunch of years ago Meyer's was testing out their new concert array that would become the Milo System.  King Crimson was booked that night and they asked if Mr. Fripp would test the system and tell them what he thought.  So Fripp wanted the entire hall cleared, which was my responsibility, and I said "Gee, I have to go up in the balcony and fix the seats that the headbangers broke last night before we open" and so the ever so polite Mr. Fripp said "OK, you and no one else."  For the next hour and 45 minutes he sat there playing while I was fixing seats.  One of the most amazing times in my life.  Almost makes up for all the crappy bands I've worked for.

Wow, that is being in the right place at the right time!

I heard an impromptu performance of the League of Crafty Guitarists once, the audience sat inside a circle of acoustic guitarists, I was about 3 feet from Fripp. Amazing!

And here's the ultimate multiple neck acoustic guitar

http://www.oddmusic.com/gallery/om23350.html
http://www.themomi.org/museum/mfa/electric_guitars/1993_Manzer_Pikasso.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02dZhhDICzQ#noexternalembed

Z

[tekla]

League of Crafty Guitarists

Its an amazing concept, have you ever tried those tunings?

[Constance]

I've played around with some alternate tunings, but I usually fall back to standard.

[tekla]

Fripp did the whole LoCG based on the notion that he had a tuning that made playing a whole lot easier.

Its C, G, D, A , E, G (low to high) in case you're interested.

[Shana A]

League of Crafty Guitarists

Its an amazing concept, have you ever tried those tunings?

I use a lot of open tunings, but haven't ever tried the Crafty tuning. One would have to change a few strings to do it. It's basically fifths though, with a third on top. I play mandolin family instruments and fiddle, I find tuning in fifths very intuitive, makes more sens than standard guitar tuning. But there's things you can do on guitar that wouldn't work in the other tunings.

Z

[klodefm42]

How about those babics guitars?  http://www.hudsonvalleyguitars.com/shop/cart.php

[V M]

Virginia is lazy and doesn't like to tune up. I guess that's why she tends to have 5-7 guitars around

[tekla]

Danny Zagar (of Zagar and Evans, In the Year 2525) makes some good ones too, I've played them and they are EZ to play, as he says

http://www.zagerguitar.com/index.php?event=public.store.guitars.list

And as Jerry Garcia once said during the constant and almost never ending tuning breaks (he did his own tuning on stage) "We tune because we care."

[V M]

Guitars that are virtually unavailable are always appealing