ILF Unplugged

[dubkitty]

i have a solidbody electric bouzouki tuned Gg Dd AA DD…i tried the high strings at EE, but even though i used to play mandolin that didn’t really work well for me. i use a banjo capo occasionally if i want a key that’s not friendly to the intervals. in general i wind up adapting stuff from banjo to the EB a lot; i had to choose individual banjo strings to get a set that’s not bronze-wound and has loop ends. i used mandolin tuners when i changed the old, lousy tuners because i couldn’t get the string pairs enough in tune that it’d work through a chorus pedal; there really were no other options due to the shape of the peghead. i tend to play on the lower courses because they’re easier to find chords in and IMO sound better.

[Gone Fission]

Recording King has a 000 sized tenor acoustic with of without pickup that I’m seeing new prices of about $250 for the base model. I’ve generally liked their cheapies, though they can have some warts. I’ve seen better fret ends on cheaper models than on the more expensive JTE that I have—out of the box you may want to file the ends.

The fifths tuning thing is interesting. When I’ve seen old cheap tenors I’ve usually seen them tuned DGBE, which seems kind of like a kid’s Loog guitar. Mandolin is a no-go for my fingers, but octave mandolins and bouzoukis have caught my thoughts from time to time.

[dubkitty]

i got into the bouzouki as the direct result of seeing David Lindley playing an acoustic one at a show back in the 1980s. spent a long time thinking about an acoustic model, but after i saw the Luna somewhere i became obsessed. i looked for one for a loooooong time, and missed two that came up on Reverb but sold immediately. i still need to try running it through a pedalboard. i've seen later footage of him playing a Trinity College Irish bouzouki retrofitted with quarter-tone frets.

i enjoyed playing mandolin, but at this point i'm not sure my back/neck would appreciate me playing an instrument that requires such a weird position to play. you have to hold both shoulders higher than natural, and when i just tried that i could hear my shoulders complaining.

[Blackened Soul]

That reminds me… I have a really weird neck in my neck stash.., I think it’s a unixox.. but it’s a 6 string peghead but the nut and heal dimensions are too skinny for a 6 string guitar… I always thought it would make a good tenor… it’s made to fit on those 330 type 60s/70s Japanese bodies with the weird smaller bolt-on heal/tenon.. I use to have one of those bodies.. but I sold it on here a loooing time ago…

[friendship]

A family member of mine has a Hummingbird- I’ve never played one but I hear it’s a really nice guitar.

I have a 90s Alvarez nylon string- I think it’s an intermediate instrument, not sure. But very pleasant to listen to. I used to have a bottom of the line Alvarez dreadnaught- I really liked it. I think that brand is slept on a bit.

Yeah it's a beaut, from the early 70s which everyone back then said were trash years, but I always got compliments on its sound. It was my first big boi guitar so I am very sentimental about it. I definitely want to get it restored someday; maybe if we survive WWIII.

Alvarez is nice. Having played some nice expensive guitars and nice cheap guitars over the years, I've learned that an instrument is only as fun as the fun you bring to it.

Re: tenor guitars, I read Neko Case's memoir a couple months ago, and she talks about how she never played guitar until she tried out a tenor at some point in her 20s, and I guess that's what she plays exclusively.

I really want to get one of these. Semi-baritone, semi-12 string: I saw Taylor made this style 10 years ago but I couldn't afford it. But I can afford this: Guild BT-258E https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... n_products

[dubkitty]

wow, that would be perfect for the Leo Kottke kind of low open tunings. i know he went down to C sometimes because i learned all that shit off the "Ant and Armadillo" album. i don't know how i figured that stuff out other than i have a good ear for altered tunings, capo usage, etc.

my Alvarez 12 is officially a Great Guitar, at least on my block.

[Blackened Soul]

I know a luthier that does a 7th string like those guilds, doubling the G string.. he uses one of those steinberger gearless tuners in the middle of the headstock.
His stuff looks like this

https://www.danielmckinstry.com/

[dubkitty]

interesting! it looks like a Danelectro Convertible that grew up to be a real guitar.

[Phosphene Audio]

The only acoustic instrument I currently have is a Charango that a friend picked up for me in Ecuador when he was living there (he is married to a diplomat).

It's not a super fine instrument, but it sounds pretty good. I need to spend more time with it.


I am hoping to buy some kind of acoustic this year, though I am waffling on whether to go nylon or steel string.



Actually, the guy who gave me the Charango also gave me a Sarod (he has lived in India more than once and takes lessons), but just tuning that thing is daunting, let alone playing it.

[dubkitty]

i would lose my mind trying to tune all those drone strings, even with an electronic tuner. when i replaced the ancient strings on my autoharp which i completely forgot to mention it took about a year and a half off my life.

[Zork]

My acoustic instruments are:

My Fender F-35. It was originally my fathers guitar he bought when he was in the army. It's the guitar I learned to play on and he gave it to me on my 35th birthday. Nothing more to say. Except for maybe it's extremely loud!

My Epiphone J-45. My first own acoustic guitar. It survived two car crashs, the neck, the headstock and several cracks in the top are functionally repaired without any touch ups or whatsoever and I carried it around pretty much everywhere for years as a teenager. I currently keep it in Nashville Tuning.

My Harmony H1215. My first "vintage" guitar. Found in Bucharest on a flea market for 14 bucks 25 years ago. Stupid 17 year old me drilled holes in the top to install a pickup. Pickup is long gone but I play it very often, maybe the most of all my acoustics. It has the fattest strings I could find, is tuned to C or D Standard and I haven't changed the strings in 15 years because the dead strings fit the sound of the guitar like a glove.

My "Jazz Guitar". It's probably a Musima, could also be a Marma arch top with beautiful drop shaped f-holes. It was made in the GDR in the 50s or 60s and most likely hand built in the "Musikwinkel", an area in Saxonia that is famous for its rich history of lutherie. Strung with flats, has a cheap Japanese pickup installed. Found on a flea market in Berlin almost 20 years ago, got it in a trade for a Squier Strat I had bought earlier for 20 bucks.

My Harmony H425 "Batwing" mandolin. I just bought it this year but holy shit, I love that thing!!!

I will post some pics later.

[Phosphene Audio]

I have had acoustic instruments, but have managed to get rid of them all.

I had a Cankaya Lute (Turkish company that makes ouds and sazs, and does a respectable lute) for a bit, murderously hard to play, coming from a guitar background.

I had a Godin Inuk and later a Glissentar, that I think one of you bought.

I also bought one of the first Emerald acoustics when it turned up used, but I sold that too. I probably should have kept that, though I suspect their newer ones sound better. It wasn't bad, but I think they improved their product over time. It didn't have a pickup and looked quite a bit different than their current stylings.

I had a Yamaha classical that I picked up at a flea market, but gave that one to a friend when his acoustic was stolen.

[friendship]

The only acoustic instrument I currently have is a Charango that a friend picked up for me in Ecuador when he was living there (he is married to a diplomat).

It's not a super fine instrument, but it sounds pretty good. I need to spend more time with it.


I am hoping to buy some kind of acoustic this year, though I am waffling on whether to go nylon or steel string.



Actually, the guy who gave me the Charango also gave me a Sarod (he has lived in India more than once and takes lessons), but just tuning that thing is daunting, let alone playing it.

Charangos are sick. I want to play on donkeyback through the winding paths of the Andes.

I had a sitar for a period of time but, like your sarod, that went as well as your might expect haha. I wonder sometimes about getting a tanpura, miking it up and plugging the mike into a DI box and sending the thru output to a bunch of pedals and droning my afternoons away.

[Blackened Soul]

Also they actually work pretty well with a slide

[Zork]

I wonder sometimes about getting a tanpura, miking it up and plugging the mike into a DI box and sending the thru output to a bunch of pedals and droning my afternoons away.

...have you heard about the wonderful Raagini Digital Tanpura? No? Check this out: https://youtu.be/281R0Am_KBE?si=fCshe0rNQj-CFqR6

The thing is all over all the Kula Shaker records. I have one, too. Simply modded to an output jack and a switch to turn the crappy internal speaker on and off. I love this thing.