Guitar Shopping

Well, window shopping, or perhaps in store looking. I went to a friend's shop today, dropping off two guitars for some work. My 512 needs to have the preamp replaced and the F-40 is having its action lowered. Two jobs I would have done myself in the past, but I'm just getting lazier these days.
While there, I played a bunch of guitars, from a $300 Recording King parlor to a couple my friend made-he always has 4 or 5 of his own models around for sale. I was particularly impressed with a couple, a Crafter 12-fret slothead and a The Loar LH-350VS (archtop with pickup and cutaway). The latter impressed me with its overall sound, favorable to my Artist Award acoustically, at least working from memory. Then I had a thought. I'm playing this in a room, about the size of my living room, and there are at least two dozen acoustic guitars hanging on the walls and from the ceiling, I wonder how much that affects the sound. As I thought about it, I thought I could actually feel some vibrations coming from the instruments all around me. Next time I go there with some time, I'll have to bring along the AA and do an A/B comparison, especially if I can find out what strings The Loar uses and put them on the AA. Oh, I also fell in love with the 12-fret Cigano D-hole gypsy guitar, just such a great sound for a rhythm player, and a good feel to the neck. I liked it much better than the long scale 14-fret round hole model.
Anyhow, I wonder what others think of the idea that the environment enhanced the sound.
Brad

My 512 needs to have the preamp replaced

Click to expand...

Brad, is the replacement for your 2010 F512? Did it just quit working all at once? Some open mic host told me that about my 2010 F512, but he apparently was not so good with his sound equipment, because my pickup eventually "started working". Apparently the DTAR has a preamp? I thought it was just a "pick up". So the pre-amp is in the control wheels of the DTAR?

My JF65-12 came with a saddle pickup and no controls. Its just "on" if the battery is charged, and my acoustic amp has to set the volume. Does it seem like it has a pre amp, or maybe not?

I'm just trying to figure all this out. I was told that my 66' Starfire I bass does not have a pre amp. But all the electrics work OK on it.

Thank you,
Craig

idealassets said:

My 512 needs to have the preamp replaced

Click to expand...

Brad, is the replacement for your 2010 F512? Did it just quit working all at once? Some open mic host told me that about my 2010 F512, but he apparently was not so good with his sound equipment, because my pickup eventually "started working". Apparently the DTAR has a preamp? I thought it was just a "pick up". So the pre-amp is in the control wheels of the DTAR?
Craig

Click to expand...

No, it didn't just stop working, I was plugging in a cord to connect it to an amp and there was a hum and it stopped working, must have gotten shorted out somehow. Yes, the D-Tar load and lock has a preamp, it is in a box connected to the end pin jack and the tone/volume controls plug into it with a 1/8" plug.

idealassets said:

My JF65-12 came with a saddle pickup and no controls. Its just "on" if the battery is charged, and my acoustic amp has to set the volume. Does it seem like it has a pre amp, or maybe not?

Click to expand...

AFAIK, if it has a battery it has a preamp, I have a similar arrangement in my F-50, not sure any more what model the pickup is, though.

idealassets said:

I was told that my 66' Starfire I bass does not have a pre amp. But all the electrics work OK on it.

Click to expand...

It's a different animal than an undersaddle pickup. It is an electro magnetic pickup and doesn't need a preamp to match the input of an amplifier.
Brad

Brad,
As always, thank you for the info. Good luck with your repairs. I suppose that my pickups have held up well, due to being "unplugged" most of the time. But I do like the amplified DTAR sound when its needed with lots of background noise.

Craig

Brad Little said:

I'm playing this in a room, about the size of my living room, and there are at least two dozen acoustic guitars hanging on the walls and from the ceiling, I wonder how much that affects the sound. As I thought about it, I thought I could actually feel some vibrations coming from the instruments all around me. . . . I wonder what others think of the idea that the environment enhanced the sound.

Click to expand...

I've wondered about that too, and hove sometimes taken a guitar out of the showroom into a practice studio if the store has them. My ears aren't very trustworthy in the higher registers, but it always seems to dampen some of the ringing and resonance, as one would expect.

idealassets said:

I'm just trying to figure all this out. I was told that my 66' Starfire I bass does not have a pre amp. But all the electrics work OK on it.

Click to expand...

That is absolutely correct. The buzz words you want are "active" and "passive'. As a general rule, anything without a built in pre-amp is "passive" and anything with a pre-amp is active. If it needs a battery then it is active, otherwise it is passive. You aren't going to find active pickups as a standard factory option for "the masses" until the '80's. I think I am safe in saying that the only Guild bass offered with active electronics from the factory was a Pilot.

My guess would be that the jack is bad on the 512.


I have all my guitars hanging on the wall. I like the kinda natural "reverb" feel you get when the strings sympathetically vibrate. When I play the electrics though, I have to stick a small piece of foam under the strings of the acoustics or it sound like they're going to come apart! The strings will vibrate so viciously that the strings hit the frets.


Guitar shopping is fun 8)