Clarifying COVID-19 Information - funny

@tbeltrans,

Yes a top quality wood guitar is a work of art, beautiful to look at, great to play, and the sound is as a wooden guitar should sound.
But in all fairness the Carbon Fiber guitar is a relatively new kind on the block, give it a little longer and they will be beautiful to look at, a great Engineering build and sure they will improve on sound/quality, but they sound very good now.

@tbeltrans,Derick,TonyKgull,

Interesting about the big bass. A lot of people seem to like that for some reason. I hear it in car stereos pounding out the "big beat", and in nearly all pop music since disco. To me, when producers do that, it sounds like a bad mix because the drums and bass seem to be competing with the singer. Compare a pop mix from today to, say, a Frank Sinatra or Ella Fitzgerald recording where there may be a full big band or orchestra, but the singer is still front and center in the recording so you can easily hear the lyrics at all times.

The CA Guitars Cargo is rather bassy, but my McPhersons are quite balanced. So is my Taylor K14ce Builder's Edition. Comparing those two (the Taylor and the McPherson), the McPherson does produce more low end, but it isn't boomy. I use those for comparison because I have all three and am therefore quite familiar with them. Rhythm, rather than melody seems to be the rule of the day ever since disco.

I never understood why we have to have all that pounding, because every human activity (well, maybe except white people jerking around on the dance floor to pop music) has rhythm. Our speech, in order to be intelligible has a rhythmic cadence to it, as do our movements when reaching for something or walking. So rhythm is inherent in our bodies and does not need to be loudly beat into our heads.

I have seen a number of comments over at AGF saying that Taylors are too bright and not enough bass, where Martins have that big bass and are often preferred for that reason.

If a person has a heavy strum style on the guitar, I would think many different makes and models would provide that bass. I tend to have a light touch and always play fingerstyle, so I would not get as much bass from a given guitar unless maybe I wore a thumbpick.

Tony

@tbeltrans,TonyKgull,

For all those that would like to see a video of Carbon fibre compared to wood guitar.
For all those not interested, it's still worth watching.

While these comparisons can be interesting, remember that on youtube, these things are messed with, especially heavily compressed, not to mention any possible inconsistencies with how the recordings were made.  I would never judge the sound of a guitar by what I hear on youtube.  In my own experience, in person, the guitar sounds quite different from the same model on youtube.

Unfortunately, for many people who don't live within reach of a guitar shop that has what they are interested in, there is little else to go by.

There are people who like to claim that certain models of carbon fiber guitars sound like wood.  To me, that is just wrong.  Carbon fiber guitars have their own characteristic sound, as does wood have its own.  Just as different manufacturers of wood guitars have their own characteristic sound (a Martin typically sounds like a Martin and a Taylor sounds like a Taylor, etc.), so do carbon fiber guitars.  

When shopping for a guitar, regardless of what it is made from, I would think the shopper would judge a guitar on its merits according to the interests of that particular shopper.  One person may prefer the sound of a Martin and buy that, while another prefers the sound of a Taylor, or maybe playability is more of an issue to some players.  In my experience, Taylor guitars seem to feel more easily playable to me than Martins, so when I looked for a carbon fiber guitar, I also wanted that playability and McPherson has it, while Rainsong and Blackbird don't.

But, then, I can say all this from having actually played all these types of instruments rather than looking at a picture, reading somebody's opinion, or watching a youtube video.

My description of a guitar may not match somebody else's experience because we are different people with different priorities, body builds, etc., which are all factors in choosing a guitar we like.  I have read much praise over at AGF for certain boutique instruments, and figured that if so many people hold these up on a pedestal, than they must be something I should want.  But then when I have actually had a chance to play them, I didn't agree with all that praise.  Sure, they are well made and beautiful instruments, but they just were not for me because they were uncomfortable for me to play and/or I didn't care for the sound, or whatever.

So, in the end, the only way I know to accurately judge an instrument is to play it yourself.  All else is really little more than conjecture. I can honestly sa that, until I played a carbon fiber guitar, I would have had absolutely no interest in them as anything more than a sideline curiosity.

Tony

@tbeltrans,Derick,TonyKgull,

I hear some subtle differences, but as I mentioned earlier, a lot is lost in translation in a youtube video. I think that if I heard these in real life in a blind test, I would not be able to tell you which guitar I am hearing, but could probably tell you which I liked the sound of best.

I still maintain that hearing an acoustic guitar as an acoustic guitar, being in the same room, is going to provide a different sound than converting the acoustics to electric impulses (i.e. amplified). There are microphones and various doodads these days to more accurately represent the sound of the acoustic guitar, but it is still a representation as soon as it is no longer the acoustic sound bouncing around the room. There is a reason I prefer acoustic to electric guitars.

Tony

But...but...but...didn't Star Trek solve that problem by creating the "transporter"?

Beam a Martin up, Scotty.  No, no, you say down there.  Just send the Martin.

Tony