Acoustic Slide Guitars Although my guitars are currently priced at the cheaper end of the scale, the quality and tone are of the highest standard. The price will go up as they become better known. This forum compares a number of lap steels including mine Click on pictures to enlarge
More info and specs Fret scale length - 644mm or 683mm.....Nut width - 50mm (8str 60mm) Fingerboard markings Using large inlays as fingerboard markers is very different to using dots. The large wood inlays are good for seeing where you are with peripheral vision. (without looking directly at the fingerboard) If you were to include all the frets that are marked on a normal guitar (3, 5, 7, 9, etc) the markings become useless because they look the same. After a lot of experimenting, I have found that just using 5, 7, 12 and their octaves is by far the easiest way to find your position. I can do added frets for those who really want them, but I can promise you that after a couple of weeks of using my system, you would understand exactly why I have ended up using it as my standard. You really don't need a marker to show you 3 frets above or below the octave and you can always use stickers while getting used to it. Bridge and Pickup The spacing at the bridge is 58mm between outside strings, which is a good fingerpicking size. The pickups I use as my standard are a custom made K&K, which has classical width but is balanced for steel strings. I charge $140aud to supply and fit it. Despite the low price, I find these to be the best undersaddle pickup I have come across, having a true tone and needing no boosting as they have more output than a strat. I must point out that mixers and most amp inputs are not designed to take ultra high impedance piezo pickups. Most modern FX pedals, or signal processors can handle higher impedances, so using one between the guitar and the mixer is a good way to match the impedance. The word 'scale' refers to string length, not to instrument size. A longer scale guitar allows for a lower range of tunings. In slide guitars this is usually called a "baritone" but as there is no defined string length for such an instrument, the term is not that useful. My long scale is just one fret longer than my standard scale which makes it just under 27 inches. A good set of strings for slide is GHS Phosphor Bronze True Medium. (also available as cryogenic) The extra heavy top and bottom are good for DADF#AD tuning. This set of strings can also be tuned up a tone to EBEC#BE on my standard scale guitar without a problem. (Jeff Lang uses these strings in this tuning) For G bluegrass tuning GBDGBD, I would use this chart to work out the string gauges. I don't recommend the flat wound slide strings used on Dobros. My long scale guitar will handle the DADF#AD tuning but will also have plenty of power in CGCEGC tuning. That is the main practical difference between the two scale lengths. The guitars are optimised to a string tension of around 70 to 80kgs. (150lbs) They will handle more tension than that, but increasing the tension a lot more will cause damage. Although my guitars are stronger than others, you can still destroy them with excessive string tension. Here is an excellent string tension calculator and here is a chart for calaculating string gauges. Dynamic Differences in the Bridge A fixed bridge guitar has a fast attack because the soundboard is already under tension. (the full tension of the strings is twisting the soundboard) The floating bridge however has the string tension supported by a tailpiece which means that only a small amount of that tension is being applied to the soundboard, and that is only applied as downwards pressure. (not the twisting pressure of the fixed bridge) This means that plucking a string hard or soft on a floating bridge instrument results in a greater variation of loud to soft volume than you would hear on a fixed bridge guitar. This increase in dynamic range tends to requires a bit more control. Another difference between the two bridge designs is that the floating bridge guitar takes slightly longer for the plucked string to reach full volume. This minutely slower attack coupled with a faster decay gives the note a more percussive sound. If you look at a range of tailpiece (floating bridge) guitars including f-hole jazz guitars, Maccaferris (Django style), and resonator guitars like Dobros, you will notice that they are all mostly used as melody instruments. When they are used for chords, those chords are very percussive and are usually choked with the left hand. So the floating bridge version has the advantage of individual melody notes being more distinct and having more dynamic response to finger pressure. The fixed bridge however, has the advantage of the notes and the background sustain blending together and making the guitar generally easier to play. If you want the sound to fill a lot of space then the fixed bridge is the right guitar. If you want the individual notes to stand out more then you might want the rounded punch of a floating bridge guitar. |
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