Cockos Incorporated Forums - View Single Post - Guitar hotwire 101

J Kennedy · 05-05-2007, 08:59 PM

Friends,

Don’t know much about acoustic mods except for shaving struts and learning the hard way not to load the box up with too much hardware. Came up with some excellent sounding electric/acoustics that completely ruined the acoustic application. Neat to have an acoustic that sounds like a Les Paul, but not so neat if you can’t hear it across the room without being plugged in. I settled on one or two in-phase transducers fed thru a strap pin jack. Placement of the transducer(s) is critical. Double-back carpet tape lets you move the transducers around and get a 75% good idea of what it will sound like before you commit and epoxy them in. There’s a kind of plasticy, nylon string artifact with transduced acoustics, you know the sound. This can be largely avoided with multiple transducers deftly placed.

One thing that works that’s even more off the wall than the glue trick though, is freeze drying the acoustic. You probably don’t want to do this with your Gibson Hummingbird, but if you have an old acoustic to experiment with that you don’t mind a few (well..maybe a lot of) hairline cracks in the finish... Dijon, you’ll want to spare your 335 this assault.

A dead friend who was an extraordinary guitarist took his 45’ Martin on an international flight. The guitar was in the cargo hold over the Atlantic for several hours and froze. He was shocked by the hairline cracks that had gone thru the finish, but swore that it was a different guitar, for the better.

I started experimenting with dry ice, freeze drying electrics and acoustics. Didn’t do much for the electrics, but the acoustics did resonate better. Doesn’t make any sense, but it does work. Even the finish cracks are a bit artistic. Undo the string tension, finely hammer the dry ice to small gravel size and dump in the soundhole. Cover with an insulating blanket and roll the ice around every couple minutes so the front, back and sides get evenly nuked.

Brainwreck, just an opinion, but the bass plate shouldn’t make a whole lot of difference in the sound since altering a solid body has less effect on the string/magnet/coil relation that what you can achieve with a hollow body alteration. Best boost with the same pickup would be thru increasing the magnet strength.

How I learned this stuff is a story so depraved that even the most macho guitar player would break down and weep. Sad, terrible sad story… I’m on call at the hospital tonight so I can’t get drunk to forget the memory, and without alcohol, all the PTSD stuff comes back and I start shooting holes thru the walls and ceiling again. The wife said this is the last time she’ll move back in. Since this forum is “about life” also, I’ll get a bottle of Mad Dog in a couple days and get it off my chest. Jeez, such a terrible sad story for a guitar player.

Best to all,
John K

05-05-2007, 08:59 PM	#9
J Kennedy Human being with feelings Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: ocean mists Posts: 860	Friends, Don’t know much about acoustic mods except for shaving struts and learning the hard way not to load the box up with too much hardware. Came up with some excellent sounding electric/acoustics that completely ruined the acoustic application. Neat to have an acoustic that sounds like a Les Paul, but not so neat if you can’t hear it across the room without being plugged in. I settled on one or two in-phase transducers fed thru a strap pin jack. Placement of the transducer(s) is critical. Double-back carpet tape lets you move the transducers around and get a 75% good idea of what it will sound like before you commit and epoxy them in. There’s a kind of plasticy, nylon string artifact with transduced acoustics, you know the sound. This can be largely avoided with multiple transducers deftly placed. One thing that works that’s even more off the wall than the glue trick though, is freeze drying the acoustic. You probably don’t want to do this with your Gibson Hummingbird, but if you have an old acoustic to experiment with that you don’t mind a few (well..maybe a lot of) hairline cracks in the finish... Dijon, you’ll want to spare your 335 this assault. A dead friend who was an extraordinary guitarist took his 45’ Martin on an international flight. The guitar was in the cargo hold over the Atlantic for several hours and froze. He was shocked by the hairline cracks that had gone thru the finish, but swore that it was a different guitar, for the better. I started experimenting with dry ice, freeze drying electrics and acoustics. Didn’t do much for the electrics, but the acoustics did resonate better. Doesn’t make any sense, but it does work. Even the finish cracks are a bit artistic. Undo the string tension, finely hammer the dry ice to small gravel size and dump in the soundhole. Cover with an insulating blanket and roll the ice around every couple minutes so the front, back and sides get evenly nuked. Brainwreck, just an opinion, but the bass plate shouldn’t make a whole lot of difference in the sound since altering a solid body has less effect on the string/magnet/coil relation that what you can achieve with a hollow body alteration. Best boost with the same pickup would be thru increasing the magnet strength. How I learned this stuff is a story so depraved that even the most macho guitar player would break down and weep. Sad, terrible sad story… I’m on call at the hospital tonight so I can’t get drunk to forget the memory, and without alcohol, all the PTSD stuff comes back and I start shooting holes thru the walls and ceiling again. The wife said this is the last time she’ll move back in. Since this forum is “about life” also, I’ll get a bottle of Mad Dog in a couple days and get it off my chest. Jeez, such a terrible sad story for a guitar player. Best to all, John K Last edited by J Kennedy; 05-05-2007 at 09:11 PM.