It's all about stress ! The top or back of a carved guitar starts out as a 1 inch thick block of solid wood. This is carved on the outside and inside, resulting in a stress-free top or back. This stress-free wood can be precisely tuned to the desired characteristics of the guitar. Pressed or laminated wood is not stress-free. The development of the tone is influenced by the stress in the wood. However, pressed or laminated guitars can have an excellent amplified tone.

Quality handmade archtop guitars are pieces of art that can not be rushed. Besides that, more time is taken to let things settle down compared to factory production. Freshly glued pieces, especially important joints like the two halves of the top or back or the fingerboard and neck, are given some weeks to dry completely before they are worked. This ensures long-term stability in the joints and in the entire guitar. See similar questions...

Archtop guitar maker Bob Benedetto has published an excellent book and a video about archtop guitar making. The site of Dave Weimer shows many of the steps involved in making an archtop guitar. You can find them on the Links page of this site. See similar questions...

Compared to a flattop guitar, the archtop guitar is a lot more work because of the carving of the top and back. Especially the hard maple for the back is hard work. The tuning of the plates takes up a lot of time. The perfect set-up of the guitar takes time in a handmade instrument. An archtop guitar can take up to 150 hours to produce. See similar questions...

Audio players start to generate distortion, when you have to increase the volume to max or near max just to hear them. This occurs as most audio drivers in portable players aren't properly designed to produce clean audio at high volume levels. The higher the volume level, the greater the distortion. By using the Boostaroo, you can leave the volume of your player at a lower level thereby reducing distortion and even increasing the battery life of your audio player. See similar questions...

Trees that are suitable for guitars are from 200 to 500 + years old. If you take a look at the top of your guitar, each dark line is one year of growth. By counting the lines from the middle of the top towards the edge you can estimate the minimum age of the tree ; probably some wood was cut off during the building proces. The wider grain near the edges is the oldest wood. The narrow grain is the youngest. I have once used a Sitka spruce one-piece top that had over 500 grain lines. See similar questions...

For tops, almost any softwood could be used. Some makers have made good guitars with Western Red Cedar topwood. I sometimes use alternative woods like Alaska yellow cedar and Douglas fir; both woods make excellent guitars. The back and sides can also be made in walnut, mahogany or even rosewood. See similar questions...

Gold plated plugs can actually cause problems. When plugged in to a regular nickel plated socket, the dissimilar metals can create distortion (through a slight diode action). The real benefit of gold plated connectors is that they do not tarnish, but they must be mated with gold sockets. See similar questions...

From the MTV Unplugged book: "The night before the Mellencamp Unplugged, John decided to carve "Fuck Fascism" into his guitar. Because we've stated over and over that the purpose of the show is to showcase the songs and the simplicity of the acoustic instruments, it was pretty much impossible to film him playing without having the message flash across televisions all over America. So we compromised. See similar questions...

I would say that most woods can be carved. But there are some that are less than desirable for a number of reasons. The grain of the wood may be unattractive, or the wood itself may be too soft. On the other end of the spectrum, hardwoods can be very difficult to carve, and dull saw blades quickly, making them more time consuming and more expensive. Some woods like poplar are considered a hardwood, but are a bit easier to carve. See similar questions...

Once the retouching is done, the print is laminated with a clear lamination that goes on top of the print. It provides the type of finish that you want on your print and it also has an ultraviolet guard built into it. This helps extend the life of your print for many years beyond what you might normally expect. When the lamination is applied you can also get away without putting glass over your print. See similar questions...

Laminated refers to pieces of wood that are glued together to make a larger turning square, then turned in order to achieve the dimensions required for the finished product. See similar questions...

The JD7 is as perfect as perfect can be! The JD7 has been designed to reproduce your guitar as faithfully as technology will allow. In other words, although nothing is perfect, the JD7 is as close to perfect as possible. The JD7 does not employ any opamps or ICs – it is 100% discreet Class-A. This is what audiophiles insist on for best reproduction. Further, the JD7 uses the worlds finest Jensen Transformers. The best circuit with the best components produces the best results. See similar questions...

Yes. Press and hold the main button to access the secondary Main functions. Turn the fourth knob ("Mix /SEP") all the way to the right to select "SEP" This will route the drumbeat to the right output and the instrument (preset) to the left. How do I get more than 2 outputs? I want to send both the drums in stereo and the instrument signal in stereo. Buy another AdrenaLinn and synch them together via MIDI, using one for the instrument signal and the other for the drums. See similar questions...

The library charges $.10 a running inch. We can laminate large items up to 25" wide. If you would like large quantities of items laminated, we ask that you contact the library at (229) 985-6540 to make arrangements in advance. We do not guarantee same day turn-around. You may drop off your materials and we will call you when they are ready to be picked up. Not all items can be run through our laminating machine. Library staff will determine whether we can do each job. See similar questions...

Yes. I recommend getting a 5" X 5" plaque and putting the artist name on it and mounting it under the neck. It makes the display look a lot more professional. Check out the Guitar Gallery for more ideas. See similar questions...

The production mix team are the individuals charged with recording your live dialogue, in sync with the camera team. The Production Sound Mixer is your most important ally at this stage in the movie's production. Although you will be anxious to complete as many setups as possible during each shooting day, a little extra time given to the sound mixer to allow him to capture scene ambience (called room tone) will pay off handsome dividends later during our dialogue editing. See similar questions...