Private Stock Acoustics

Greywolf

Retired Luthier and Zengineer
Joined
Sep 30, 2022
Messages
11,169
Location
Duluth,Ga
We all love the Electrics , but not enough comment much about the acoustics ..

A place to show and discuss and hear the US / Private stock acoustic line started by Steve Fisher .. With Martin Simpson, Tony Mc Manus, Cody Kilby and Ricky Skaggs inputs . When the SE Acoustic were introduced the US line shifted to PS only ..



I played Taylors for decades .. then came the all pernambuco Tonare grand PS, and 2 PS Angelus .. I rarely touch the Taylors now..


This Koa Masterpiece is out there now ...
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Mum was 100% Irish , and I've got Scottish on Pop's a bit too .. Celtic music always seems "natural " to me
No wonder Celtic seems natural to you!

You probably already know this...what's now Scotland was the home of the Picts (another Celtic group) until the 800s AD. But why not take this opportunity to have a history lesson?

The tribe the Romans called Scotti originally lived in Ireland, but formed a successful raiding colony in Pictland (now called Scotland) late in Romano-British times. So the Scots were Irish.

This eventually gets confusing, but don't worry - it was the Dark Ages - no one was reading and writing except monks.
So you can't be all that right or wrong about the history; no one actually remembers much of it, and they have to reconstruct it from archeology, linguistics, etc.

All that stuff can be misinterpreted.

"What about The Venerable Bede? Maybe he can shed some light on this."

"You can ask him. Hold a seance. Here's the Ouija Board. He was more interested in ecclesiastical history, but he touches on lots of Dark Age stuff.

Anyway, we know the Picts merged their kingdoms with the Scotti kingdom in the 800s AD. Not that I remember how we know that. But everyone who's anyone in history seems to agree with it. So there's that.

"Maybe they were on a space ship and the captain said, 'Beam me to Pictland, Scotti'."

"Uh, sure." :rolleyes:

The merger could have been at the point of a sword, or it could be that the Picts just wanted to learn to play the bagpipes - after all, this was before The Beatles lived in Northern England, and there wasn't much music around.

"The Beatles were probably around in the 800s. I mean, Paul McCartney is pretty long in the tooth."

"Uh, sure." :rolleyes:

Well they do call the place Scotland now, so there's gotta be a reason why. Personally, I think the Picts basically said, "Hey, if you want to live here, it's all yours. We're not even putting up a fight. You're welcome to change the name of the country from Pictland to Scotland, and no one will bother you as long as you stay above the Firth of Forth. We, on the other hand, are moving to California."

Unfortunately, they couldn't find California or anyplace else, because the Compass hadn't been invented, and travel was a bit 'iffy', so they got lost and had to turn around and go back to what became Scotland.

No one knows for sure how they found their way home, but bagpipes are pretty loud and the sound carries for a long way. So maybe that's how.

End of history lesson.

"This has nothing to do with guitars."

"And everything to do with bagpipes. But at least they didn't play accordions."

"They do now. They have parades of accordion bands."

"Well, the accordion was a 19th century invention, so they probably didn't have accordions in 800."
 
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Nobody, absolutely nobody, does music quite like the Scotti. As living proof of this fact, I give you the Queen Elizabeth Accordion Band marching through Glasgow; look at their faces. Is anyone having a good time? Hell, no. Playing the accordion is serious business!

I assure you, we have no entertainment remotely comparable to this in Motown.

Glasgow:


Detroit:

 
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"What about the Russians? They also like accordions."

"Oh yeah, I kinda forgot. Here's a very angry-looking man playing some very serious music on the accordion. He's very, very pissed off because he's playing the accordion instead of, say, an organ or piano. I mean, the expression on his face right from the get-go gives you the whole, rather...um...let's just call it 'interesting' picture."

"And we talk about guitar faces! What about guitar?"

"I dunno. I'm not sure guitar is the best instrument to play Toccata and Fugue in D minor on, but then, neither is the accordion. A polka on the other hand, sure. No problem."

 
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I’m guessing these guys might be classed as “red necks”? In Scotland they would come from Kirriemuir -

One thing you can hear in this music when listening - I think it's awesome - is that it's based in part on Celtic reels and jigs, but with a different rhythm that evolved over the years in the US.

Lots of folks with Celtic backgrounds settled in the places where this kind of music started.
 
Speaking of PS acoustic guitars, my maple Tonare Grand came with D'Addario's older, coated 80/20 EXP 'Bluegrass set' (medium bottoms, light tops), and after trying lots of other strings, including D'Addario and PRS phosphor bronze, the original EXPs sounded best with my guitar. I'm guessing the PS department voiced the guitar with those strings.

Unfortunately, a few years ago they replaced the EXP with XT, and the guitar hasn't sounded the same. The XT are OK, not bad, and better than others I tried (there are ten zillion I haven't tried) but seemed to have lost something in the translation.

I'm not sure who recommended the recent D'Addario XS strings - might have been Greywolf - but I picked up an 80/20 Bluegrass set and put them on this afternoon. I think they sound really good. So whoever recommended these strings, a big shout out goes out to him!

I actually didn't expect them to have more edge and shimmer than the XTs based on what I'd read - reviews have said if you want more sparkle lose the coating, or go with the different type of coating on the XTs - but on this particular guitar, they improved the tone of the guitar, and I'm hearing a crisper sound.

They're also noticeably more comfortable to play than the XT (assuming you like a coated string). Reviews say they last longer than the EXP or the XT sets, which is good for me because I really hate changing strings!

Every guitar responds to a string differently, and every player will have different needs - for example, if you prefer more midrange, phosphor bronze strings have it - but my maple guitar has plenty of midrange, and I like to hear articulation and sparkle on the top end.

Anyway, despite the expense ($20 a pack), for me these are totally worth it.

There are two caveats:

1. As noted above, every guitar and player has different needs. So don't take my word for it, if you're curious, try a set. At twenty bucks it's cheap thrills to experiment with string types. Skip the extra beer at the bar and you've saved the difference.

2. I often get excited about a change in tone just because it's a change in tone. I reserve the right to change my mind about whether a change is great or no biggie in the next ten minutes or sooner! 🤣
 
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