It was a fun meeting, as usual.
There was a nice demo of some of the latest vacuum stuff: it's come a ways since I fooled with it ten or twelve years ago. Then we adjourned upstairs for the real work: a listening test. We've been talking about guitar sound, and how to judge it, on the NEL mailng list of late, and felt that this might be a good time to have our own 'shootout', like they do at the GAL meetings.
There were eight guitars present for the test: two commercial Dreads (an older Martin in BRW, and a Collings), with six steel strings and two classicals, all by members of the group. We had a nice discussion about what we were listening for, and how to rate things, and then got down to business. Burton first played all the steel strings, to give us a range, and then he played several selections on each of them so we could try to figure out how to rate them. The two classicals followed, played by a different person (who's name, alas, escapes me!). Then we discussed the instruments, and listened again to the two Dreads.
It's really hard to say which instrument was 'better' overall. Each of them had strengths and weaknesses, and would be somebody's 'Holy Grail'. I'm not as much of a fan of the Martin Dread sound, and rated that guitar a bit lower than some folks did, I'm sure. I can see the utility of it, though, and it's just the thing for some settings. One of the classicals was mine, and I'm pretty pleased with it overall. However, while the two classicals were very much different, each of us found a lot to like in the other guy's guitar, and the group seemed to feel, as I did, that they were pretty much equal in terms of musical utility.
Some of the discussion we've been having has broached the prospect that we could do this at every meeting (with, perhaps, fewer guitars!), to try to come to some concensus about what 'good' sound is, and what we mean in using various terms to describe it.
A kudo has to go to Todd Stock, who got up at five in the morning to drive to this meeting from Ithaca NY. Not only was his presence appreciated, but he brought along a very nice, and 'different', guitar that added it's own dimension to the test.
And, while I'm at it, another thank you has to go to Burton, for hosting, playing, and providing one of the best balanced instruments (in all respects) I've heard in some time. Last, but certainly not least, thanks to Steve Spodaryk, who's been organizing this thing (and keeps showing up with those superb parlors!). It's easy to forget that good stuff like this doesn't just happen; somebody has to _do_ it.
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- not to mention very talented.
