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PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 2018 11:53 am 
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This interesting take on acoustic guitar design showed up in my Google newsfeed this morning, and I thought maybe the OLF would like to check it out...
https://www.designboom.com/design/maxwe ... 2-12-2018/

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These users thanked the author Chris Pile for the post: Michaeldc (Thu Dec 13, 2018 1:43 pm)
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 2018 12:52 pm 
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Visuals are cool. I would have to know more about the string anchoring system. Looks a little sketchy. Wonder how you would ground the strings with a pickup.

If it sounds great and plays well it would definitely be a head turner at a gig.

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PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 2018 2:02 pm 
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I agree with Terence - visually very interesting, but wonder about the string attachment at the body. Also I wonder how well it is heard out front.


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PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 2018 2:29 pm 
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I LOVE different - very interesting design

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PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 2018 3:18 pm 
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That is very cool looking. I sure would like to see what it looks like on the inside...

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PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 2018 3:33 pm 
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That is very cool looking. I sure would like to see what it looks like on the inside...


You and me both.

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PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 2018 4:16 pm 
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Fun to look at and would be interested to see it and hear it in person. Not my cup of tea. Some of the comments were amusing.

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PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 2018 5:36 pm 
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Soundclip and some details listed -https://www.facebook.com/MaxwellCustomGuitars/videos/2313597772003145/

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.



These users thanked the author Colin North for the post: Michaeldc (Thu Dec 13, 2018 7:24 pm)
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 2018 7:27 pm 
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Colin North wrote:



It sounds exactly how I expected it to... It's very interesting to look at though!


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PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 2018 7:45 pm 
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I love imagination but on a nice guitar I like binding.


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PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 2018 8:12 pm 
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Gee, now that I've listened to it I'm not impressed. Perhaps it was recorded poorly. Sounded cheap and thin. Not what I expected at all. Also - half-round strings would have eliminated the string squeaks. Perhaps a pickup would help out?

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PostPosted: Fri Dec 14, 2018 10:20 am 
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I agree Chris... Perhaps it sounds more like an archtop rather than a flattop.

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PostPosted: Fri Dec 14, 2018 12:29 pm 
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Again, I LOVE different and innovative design but I tried twice to listen and stopped about half way through. Not an expert on these things and perhaps I'm missing something but couldn't listen all the way through...

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PostPosted: Fri Dec 14, 2018 6:56 pm 
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I literally could not find a sound file that I could listen to outside of Farcebuch and I refuse to join. What bothers me most about the instrument aside from no binding or forward projecting hole is the rediculous break angle over the bridge. I'll take everyones word that it doesn't sound like much.

Image

A break angle that steep puts a he!! of a lot of pressure on the top. It actually is most likely a deterrent to moving the top and having it pushing down on the top and literally a couple of inches away doing the exact opposite doesn't do anything to make the top vibrate. In mandolin family and archtop guitar family, break angles are very important. Lower angles make for a more refined tone and higher make a louder instrument but you start to loose that refined tone till it just becomes brash and LOUD.
Probably an earlier one here that makes a little more sense, but would have rather seen a tailpiece and a bridge an inch lower than the one above. Any good repair person would say that the neck needed a reset.

Image

Now the blah that went with the first set of photos said no bracing other than some kind of CF or whatever plate to hold the string ends and I suppose the counter reinforcement to the bridge. That was tried on mandolins some 15-20 years ago by "The Loar" or some other Pac-Rim mfgr and that was a waste of time. I can say with a lot of certainty that top reinforcements are there for a purpose and that is to stabilize the tone produced. Those mandolins with no tone bars had a rather "scattered" tone and lacked focus.

Guess if I were an acoustic jazz player, I would rather have a Loar signed L5...

Image

But you all knew that...


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PostPosted: Fri Dec 14, 2018 7:36 pm 
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I had some time a couple months ago to play that guitar.

It's a concept guitar and it is a cool concept. The tone is what you'd expect. It did play very nice though.

One thing I found was kind of cool about it was the fact that it had a "3D" effect in the sound. You had sound coming from multiple places so depending on how you'd play it had a "splash" effect which I thought was pretty cool. Be a nightmare to really record though.

The same place I played the Maxwell I also got to put some time on a Klein as well as a Kinnaird. Kind of hard to ignore the Klein compared to the archtop.


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PostPosted: Sat Dec 15, 2018 4:30 pm 
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Whuppi....nice made....but the string breaking angle is brutal, like already mentioned above


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PostPosted: Sun Dec 16, 2018 5:09 am 
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Would have been so much better off going with a tailpiece. Those string must make your fingers bleed after about 3 seconds of playing. The only break angle I’ve ever seen that high was on a Cello!


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PostPosted: Sun Dec 16, 2018 7:14 am 
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Quote:
I agree Chris... Perhaps it sounds more like an archtop rather than a flattop.


Most archtops of quality have a smooth, full sound.

This thing... regrettably, sounds like a very cheap plywood flattop.
Adding a good pickup and playing it through an amp or processor would yield something more listenable.

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PostPosted: Sun Dec 16, 2018 8:49 am 
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"Adding a good pickup and playing it through an amp or processor would yield something more listenable."

Adding a pickup and playing it through an amp can make a piece of swamp ash sound good. laughing6-hehe
As a musical instrument it doesn't sound so bad, but as an acoustic guitar not so good. It doesn't meet our expectations for a high end acoustic. The quality of the tone woods don't appear to be the greatest. Knots and flat sawn wood may not be the best choices for soundboard material. Bob Benedetto might be able to pull it off, but the average CNC maybe not. Torre's paper mache and Taylor's pallet wood guitars still used decent material for the tops.
This might be a good guitar for the generation of singers who use autotune as a second language. bliss


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PostPosted: Sun Dec 16, 2018 12:17 pm 
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I did not like how it sounds at all although it looks cool. I question one line in his description of the design:
Quote:
it allows the guitar to resonate more like a loud speaker, revealing a more diverse and dynamic instrument.


A loudspeaker is designed to evenly replicate a sound, you should not really hear the loudspeaker. A loudspeaker has a simple response curve in the audible range. I do not want a guitar that is just flatly amplifying the sound of the vibrating string rather I want a guitar that has its own voice in response to the vibrating string. The complex vibrational modes on an acoustic guitar are what provide the rich and complex voice of a good guitar. It seems like by design he decided to simplify or flatten that response.

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PostPosted: Sun Dec 16, 2018 1:55 pm 
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Well, here's how I feel about pickups on an acoustic guitar building forum...


Here's how I feel about those sound holes? Ports? Whatever...

How much of a monitor does the audience hear?


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PostPosted: Sun Dec 16, 2018 4:14 pm 
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I often feel that what I think about it doesn't really matter. If it 'works' in a way that the market wants, it will be, by definition, a 'good' guitar for the folks who want it, and it will succeed in the market. I didn't listen to the sound clip, since such things coming over my computer speakers don't convey much about what the guitar does IMO, so I can't comment on the sound. I would expect it to sound like an archtop. I would offer different structural/acoustic criticisms than others, but that's beside the point. When people come by waving money to get me to make one, maybe I'll try making one, but I doubt it.


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PostPosted: Sun Dec 16, 2018 4:55 pm 
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If it 'works' in a way that the market wants, it will be, by definition, a 'good' guitar for the folks who want it, and it will succeed in the market.


Alan is ON THE MONEY with this comment.

Quote:
When people come by waving money to get me to make one, maybe I'll try making one, but I doubt it.


And the real crux of the biscuit. It's a business, after all.

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PostPosted: Sun Dec 16, 2018 5:19 pm 
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Yup, some folks will do anything for a buck...
Some won't.

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