I've got the greatest guitar of them all!

Scott Henderson - Shreds and Tries Live Strings. Pretty Funkey! And a glimps of #8.



The small body acoustic held in front of Scott in the 2nd video is my next one, an Ibenez Tolman TCM50:
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I'm starting this because my acoustic-Deans are wipped. I did like having a small body acoustic based Power Guitar for the light weight high mobility. And using a slightly larger but still "small body" acoustic will make amp fitting easier. I also have a pair of 6x9 coax car speakers which I'm considering using 1 on the back of the guitar. I'm hoping it will nicely resonate through the sound-hole.

My primary sound quest is to augment the acoustic sound (similar to the unusual and highly saught tone of John's SemiSolid - though more toward standard acoustic (what I want this time)).
 
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reitze! Thanks for the wood-working compliment. That's more true than you know.
I blasted the video for a while, really hearing how your guitar sounded online, and it hit me.
A nice warm crunch, but not a one dimensional sound, with a bluesy, archtop tone.
That's not a tone that will cut through busy street traffic, but it's nice to tone down for indoors too.

If there's one thing about me that I think is different from most guitarists,
it's that I never used an echo unit for myself onstage. I had a custom three-spring Hammond B-3 reverb.
I usually thought I was blending in with the p.a. echo, and I wanted to hear the bass onstage too.
Now I've got two Roland Boss micro-digital, half-rack units for always on echo sweetner,
and another for prolonged or wild echo effects. I've got a similar unit for stereo panning.
This is actually irrelevant, but seeing you with more knobs than my single volume got me going.

My banana seat order came in. I saw it today, the identical seat from the same catalog,
ordered maybe ten years apart. I paid over $12 back then, and it's $15 today.
Shure microphones is one of the only companies I know who say they've been making the same thing,
for so long, it's gotten less expensive to manufacture and distribute.
Henry Ford thought assembly lines would allow him to give a free tractor to every farmer in America.
Too bad it didn't take very long until his special hired security killed five strikers at his one factory.
Yeah, you talk about most people not being into inventing and making something new for themselves,
it's just not that easy. I usually say, considering the shape the world is in, the less I do the better.
I've got some left-over tan sign-painting paint, and I'm thinking of painting my bike,
and doing it up with those marine mammal stickers I have. Don't get heavy with me about that,
painting is fun for me and I'll wipe it off if I don't like it.
I've got to finish my guitar.
If you want to look at what my domain has become this last week, being a mayoral candidate,
please, take a peek and tell me what you think. I have horrible things to say, simply awefull,
but I want it to look as beautiful as possible. www.johnwatt.ca
Have a good weekend, reitze. I'll be typing to reproduce previous campaign statements.
And believe me, I get more motivated and have more to say about politics and crime in Welland,
than anything musical. So I'll be typing to copy a lot.
Some police officers still say they have a copy of one of them on their computers.
I'd rather be onstage in front of a dance floor. That's for sure.
 


The small body acoustic held in front of Scott in the 2nd video is my next one, an Ibenez Tolman TCM50:
ce67e8b2.jpg
53b80ac5.jpg

I'm starting this because my acoustic-Deans are wipped. I did like having a small body acoustic based Power Guitar for the light weight high mobility. And using a slightly larger but still "small body" acoustic will make amp fitting easier. I also have a pair of 6x9 coax car speakers which I'm considering using 1 on the back of the guitar. I'm hoping it will nicely resonate through the sound-hole.

My primary sound quest is to augment the acoustic sound (similar to the unusual and highly saught tone of John's SemiSolid - though more toward standard acoustic (what I want this time)).


don't use car speakers. their job is to reproduce all frequencies, not just "guitar frequencies" and you'll end up with a very harsh and unpleasant sound.
 
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don't use car speakers. their job is to reproduce all frequencies, not just "guitar frequencies" and you'll end up with a very harsh and unpleasant sound.

Thanks for the suggestion. I ordered a Roland MC for it since I like the clean-models of that amp better than the clean from the Line 6. Funny though. My guitar instructor likes the Dean/VoxDA5 Power Guitar the best. He also said weight was the primary thing limiting his desire to use it more. So today he played the prototype original (the metal-head guitar). That one is still < 7 lbs and is the reason for making the new Ibenez/Roland I'm planning.
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So thus I played the Dan/VoxDA5 for my weekly "studio" video. Made this up on the spot...
 
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Over 6 hours play-time in less that 24 hours. Now that's a great guitar! I just couldn't put it down man. Sure I've experienced that before but each time requires the guitar playing better than everything previous... This guitar is amazing. I'm still trying to figure out how to make it look better. I was thinking I could get some of that great-stuff (spray-styro-foam) to fill it to level and then maybe something linke bond-o (automotive mind set). So luthiers offer ideas please.

Howie: per your speaker suggestion for the Ibenez/Roland MC I'm intending to test speaker against speaker again for each guitar build. Oh and
 
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If no luthier, but maybe you can make a custom body for the next model that will fit the electronics perfectly. Maybe you and John can team up, with john doing the build/carve and you doing the electronics/finishing work. It might be an interesting project. His semi-solid guitar has lots of room for electronics under the thin top wood, and with a little effort, you guys could make an electric guitar that also had an acoustic microphone setup in the tone chamber.
 
If no luthier, but maybe you can make a custom body for the next model that will fit the electronics perfectly. Maybe you and John can team up, with john doing the build/carve and you doing the electronics/finishing work. It might be an interesting project. His semi-solid guitar has lots of room for electronics under the thin top wood, and with a little effort, you guys could make an electric guitar that also had an acoustic microphone setup in the tone chamber.


I like that idea though without external sponsorship it would be slow going... for example, if you read all the failures and destruction in this thread electronics fitting is not 100% till actually done. So even if john built a nice guitar for me to cut into with a planned cut-dimension (I could provide:thu:)... there's still risks for electronic noise, physical vibration, RF feedback and so-on. So investor should consider 3x costs for loss perfecting any production orinted thing.

The numerous issues I've had to overcome represent reason why products aren't out there - in addition to all my return-ribbs toward fasshion function mentalities. That's why I believe I have advanced the amp-in-guitar technology via this threads experimentation. That result in me going in 2 basic directions:

1. Most like the Aliseven build - for solid-body-electric oriented (VoxDA5 or Line6 Micro) - High-gain HIGH POWER!
2. Ibenez and now an Ovation - for acoustic guitars with a built in electric boost (Rolland MCs) - LIGHT WEIGHT!

BTW, here's a pic of the new Ovation Celebrity GC-057 that I just picked up for $115 (with a nice case too):

04b2f7f4.jpg


That's likely to become a Christmas present as are some of the older ones:)
 
It's nice to be back. It's not easy for me, a Watt, to transmit anything teslan,
and I've been typing about him quite a byte lately. So it's nice to be back, doin'it the reit way.

reitze, have you ever tried using the juice from a generator on your bike?
I would think there's enough to get an amp going, maybe, I don't know.
I never really had one for long. The ones I had made a real drag on the pedals,
so they didn't last long, even if I had some pretty neat lights.
My new banana seat came in. It's hard to believe the same seat is still out there,
and only cost $3 more than twelve years ago, and $6 more than over forty years ago.
The same seat from the same catalog.
I almost feel as good about that as thinking about when I bought a Stratocaster in 1970.
Not that the value was going up, there wasn't much left of that guitar towards the end.
It needed frets for sure. I couldn't file them down any more.
That guitar would be worth what, $15,000 if it was in good shape, but I don't care.
I really felt like I played it out, there was nothing new left in it, and it was just a rightie, not a reitze.
My right-handed attempt at playing out my mayoral campaign is producing some hybrid results.
I'm being contacted by a lot of media, but they're not printing everything I'm saying, just yet.
And a lot of people are saying what I've been saying all along is true, even if they're not sure they can vote for me.
But you should see me. I haven't cut my hair since May Ist, and I've been told I should be in the Bounty,
play Custer with my bad dark blonde wash away the gray, and.... and.... some people just can't handle
me pealing up with my bike and skidding to their stop. I have to make brake sounds with my mouth,
and rev myself down, not being self-powered like you.
I like my idling sounds though, getting a pop pop pop like European diesels.
This big, long-haired guy on a bike ahead of me didn't know I was behind him,
and he made a little braking sound, so I laid into him, hitting him from behind and going rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..........rrrrrr,
just like a big Harley. I scared him. He was a little upset, but when he saw it was me he said be careful,
he heard I signed the papers.
Yeah, see what I mean? I'm going on about making motor and brake noises,
but here in Welland I can just sign some papers and everybody hears that.
I know how to be noisy, not just onstage.
And reitze, what's another nice thing about being a lefty?
There I was, being asked to raise my right hand to swear the oath.
Which I did, but I also raised my left hand and put it over my heart, and felt it.
It's so nice to have both happening.... sometimes.

Once again though, I decided to get into dangerous musical territory.
That's when the regressive side of my nature expresses itself.
I decided to try and make up another riff that only I can play,
and I came up with something really sick. It almost hurts me to hear it.
It just doesn't stop. I did my usual thing, starting in a key so I have an open chord,
at the end of the neck, something to give my barre chord fingers a rest,
but I didn't need it. This constantly pounding bass with the riff working with it,
goes anywhere on the neck. I'm not sure what kind of music it is, even.
I feel like I've got what Jimmy Page had happening for Whole Lotta Love,
but it's not a little, duh-duh, duh-duh, it's more like eight duh-duhs in a row,
and then again wherever the bass note is. I have to be careful.
I'm playing more than I can hear sometimes. It's bending my brain, so I got a good one.
And I can just sing my heart out, it's so easy to play. What a good day!
Other guitarists are saying, John... just play the riff, John, just play the chords,
or John... stop playing the bass, I wanna hear the guitar.
I gotta go. I got 52 new photos uploaded and installed in my domain, two new pages,
so I have to provide some narrative, not comments.
That should cause most members here some mental distress, trying to imagine me being narrative,
not just commenting casually like I do in music forums. rrrrrrr... that was a printing press,
after being told to halt the presses. John said something else.
I gotta admit, everyone, everyone, is starting to agree with me.
This might be the first election in Welland to feature a candidate fatality.
I'm thinking this Thursday night, after the televised mayoral debates.
No-one but me knows what two new things I'm going to be talking about.
When those bits hits their fans, I think I'll catch more than hybrid applause.
Some people are starting to say they're saying they'll vote for me, just to help keep me alive.
It's really not nice to see some fear in others eyes, afraid for me even if I'm laughing.
But I got over that look the first few times I stood up there with a Marshall behind me.
Back them some people thought it might make them want to do acid.
yeah... it's a good thing some people thought I wasn't a real guitarist and just left me alone.
But there's no way I could just plug my guitar straight into the amplifier,
even if that's all Richie Blackmore was doing when I saw him that year, 1970.

Deep Purple played a one-nighter in Montreal, coming to North America the first time,
and got held up before they could go over the border to Buffalo, for a six-nighter.
A radio d.j. was talking about them setting up to run through some new tunes,
in a mall in Toronto, and someone was taking cash to get in. $2.
By the time we got there from Welland, there were over two hundred.. uh.. musicians there.
Deep Purple was set up on Board of Education risers, six inches tall, 4x8 one inch plywood,
at the one mall intersection. We went and got some munchies and came back, it was so good.
Everyone was talking about the band, some guys had some hot guitars just to show off,
and the audience was like a floating jam, and we were getting into it, making sandwiches
and giving them away. We were in the middle, twenty feet from the stage.
I still can't say what Deep Purple were doing, walking onstage. They looked around,
they looked at each other, you couldn't even tell if the equipment was on, except for the lights.
And then bang, they were playing and it just didn't stop.
Every time Ritchie even made a little move towards his amp,
two big guys would go rushing behind it, until finally he made some big moves,
running up to it, running up it, and then flipping over backwards, while he was playing.
And it sounded like the record. I still don't know what that was.
I couldn't see his fingers. And Jon Lord, playing with knives, sticking them into the organ,
looking just nasty, but then taking the knives and sticking them between the keys,
making more notes than humanly possible, and riffing off like some wild man.
They all were. Nobody could count those notes per minute. Nobody thought like that back then.
And then it got quiet, and it seemed just as everyone started lifting their head,
looking around like the worst is over, you heard a quiet, breathy organ, doop doop doo,
doop doop doo, and then a little riff, eight notes, a little louder, Ritchie coming in,
and it became Sweet Child in Time, ripping your brains out while they looked angelic,
for a little while. Strange to say, but only Yes pulled off a moment like that,
something I'd expect from them. But I was there when Deep Purple did it. That was the best.
And they were something you never heard before.
Ritchie had that "tearing" sound, unique, from his Strat, a Les Paul tone,
but other than that he sounded classical, like a violin or cello most of the time,
just plugged in straight to his amp.
He'd be holding up his guitar like a sword and doing flamenco stomps with his boots.
What I didn't expect was they looked like a band, all dressed in the same purple shirts,
black pants and black boots. I thought for sure they'd be navel gazers, not head bangers.
No, no, they were Deep Purple for sure, whatever that was.
And what was the one thing I really learned, watching them all up close?
Ian Gillan kept talking while the band adjusted things between songs, he was entertaining.
He said they had a new little riff they wanted to try out, and it wasn't on Deep Purple in Rock,
their new album. We all bought one before we left Toronto. We had to stand in line.
Ian's still rapping away, moving in to talk with audience members, shaking hands,
keeping his hair out of his face, saying they wanted to smoke it up a little onstage,
even if they couldn't call it that, and Ritchie started Smoke on the Water.
I know, I know, Mozart can cry and scream in pain, but at least we retained that riff,
and could play it when we got back, kind of.
You knew Deep Purple had something because when I played the riff at the store back home,
it got everyone going. Deep Purple originated a lot of hard rock song styles.
That's still the only single to sell over a million with the original recording,
and then selling over a million again when a live single version came out.
And that's when selling a million was really selling.
I haven't seen one of those record for over thirty years.
I think that's because I always say that might be the only thing I'd ever lose it for and steal.
Believe me reitze, nobody was thinking old Delta blues.
After we went outside, the sun seemed an alien event, and we just sat on some benches.
We should have stayed and watched them tear down and talk to some roadies,
but our minds were blown, we didn't care, we banged on the wood and sang smoke on the water,
and fire in the sky. A couple of older winos even came over, offering us some booze.

gotta go... as never before, John Watt
 
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It's nice to be back. It's not easy for me, a Watt, to transmit anything teslan,
and ...
...rd for over thirty years.
I think that's because I always say that might be the only thing I'd ever lose it for and steal.
Believe me reitze, nobody was thinking old Delta blues.
After we went outside, the sun seemed an alien event, and we just sat on some benches.
We should have stayed and watched them tear down and talk to some roadies,
but our minds were blown, we didn't care, we banged on the wood and sang smoke on the water,
and fire in the sky. A couple of older winos even came over, offering us some booze.

gotta go... as never before, John Watt

Hi John, those older winos can be lots of fun with the stuff ya just make up like I do. There's a video on my channel of one doing a song about Lou and Sue...

I put a layer of card-board then glue on the Alisevin today. Here's a couple pics:

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Here's one for screen-backgrounds.... its the windmill I built with my father.
IMG_0158z.jpg
 
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Videos are up with AliSeven played in the park. Also a couple with the natural.

Heres 1 with AliSeven most visible in action (most relevant here):
 
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This one uses the tremolo with a tap-chime playing style. There's some close ups of the Aliseven in it. If you listen close you still can hear traffic in the background but it is as loud as I feel like raising my voice so this setup works nicely for a volume output which seems about 10x an acoustic short of using such acoustic as a drum (there's one in my youtube set of that being done via the flute).
On the Water Foul
 
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Enough to work with a drummer

In this video I had my Power Guitar with a drummer behind me.
 
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how is the drummer supposed to hear you?

Hi Howie, he probably didn't hear me very well. But it did work better than nothing. I'm missing the mic option too (another thing to buy).

Talman-Amp-Blown
BTW, I somehow blew the Rolland MC amp for the Talman :facepalm:
will have to get another since its sooo close... just the cash-thing slowing the progress.

Laguna Improvements
With the back removed I liked it thinner and also noticed the bridge was 1-directional wammy only. On closer inspection the adjustment screws for the bridge wammy-springs were really tight and with 3 springs there was just no way for it to create any ballance for bidirectionality. So I removed the center spring and adjusted it till it works the way desired. Theres about 2mm gap under the rear of the bridge on it now. Once that much was done I went ahead and broke down the backside of the amp-mount and moved the circuilt board for the mic to a higher/thinner position. I still need to come up with something to cover the amp-section and figure on leaving the batteries accessible. Sure looks like shit though. Here's it's pics now:

Edit: Started new thread on bridge setup issue: http://markweinguitarlessons.com/forums/showthread.php?19467-Over-Sprung-Bridge-on-New-Guitar-1-Way-Only-normal&p=292649#post292649

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