Vive la Difference! - '15 McCarty WL Maple Neck, 58/15s

Les, did you mesmerize UPS so much with your new beauty that they've forgotten to WORK??!! Mine isn't a NGD (only a new case) but this is what I got from them moments ago...

"We left the package in our facility. This may cause a delay. We will deliver as quickly as possible. / Delivery will be rescheduled."

Seriously??!! *sigh*
 
Great review Les, thanks for the insight!

My next PRS will hopefully be a maple-necked CU22 or McCarty Trem. Not sure if they offer that as an option at the moment though.
 
Les, did you mesmerize UPS so much with your new beauty that they've forgotten to WORK??!!

It's definitely all my fault.

Great review Les, thanks for the insight!

My next PRS will hopefully be a maple-necked CU22 or McCarty Trem. Not sure if they offer that as an option at the moment though.

Pretty sure the maple neck is an option with the Artist Package on the CU22.
 
I don't think so. 'cause then I have to make the terrible decision of moving the 58/15s to the maple-neck, or...?

But yeah, I get your meaning -- I, too, suspect I will be happy with the maple neck.
 
Congrats! Really nice to see the emphasis on the acoustic sound, and a reference to its relationship with the amplified sound. I think this point is way too underrated in the electric guitar world. People tend to think electric guitars are just pickups.

I completely agree with you!

Granted, the pickups are important, but the sound of the strings isn't like a string in space, it's the sound of a string whose anchor points are in a vibrating assembly of woods and hardware. Also, pickups are microphonic to a surprising degree, and actually do pick up the sound of the guitar as it vibrates through the ADSR envelope of a plucked note or chord.

The woods are important, and as I said earlier, the proof is in the guitar itself.

Not everyone would expect a McCarty to sound like this one does, but its light weight woods and maple neck give it a completely different vibe. It's a really nice addition to the guitars I had here previously - precisely because it does different things!
 
I completely agree with you!

Granted, the pickups are important, but the sound of the strings isn't like a string in space, it's the sound of a string whose anchor points are in a vibrating assembly of woods and hardware. Also, pickups are microphonic to a surprising degree, and actually do pick up the sound of the guitar as it vibrates through the ADSR envelope of a plucked note or chord.

The woods are important, and as I said earlier, the proof is in the guitar itself.

Not everyone would expect a McCarty to sound like this one does, but its light weight woods and maple neck give it a completely different vibe. It's a really nice addition to the guitars I had here previously - precisely because it does different things!
+100
All of my favorite guitars are stupidly loud unplugged.
 
The magetic transmission process of electric guitar pickups is as alien to direct acoustic sound transmission as you can get. A magnetic field is induced, it is disturbed, induces an electrical current to be converted back to acoustic sound. So long winded and involves unrelated mediums.

No more so than a phonograph needle sending an electronic analog of the signal to a modern record player instead of an acoustical signal to a megaphone on an old gramophone.

Actually, the transducing process of a magnetic pickup isn't all that much different in principle from that of a condenser microphone, that has a metal-sputtered plastic membrane vibrating in front of an electrically charged (and thus electromagnetic) metal backplate, or a dynamic mic with its diaphragm moving a metal bar back and forth inside a magnetic coil. An analog of the sound wave is generated.

In each case, you have something vibrating in an electromagnetic field,. This disturbance of the field creates an analog of the sound wave. This is sent as an electronic signal to an application device, which creates a larger signal that is sent to another transducer, the speaker, which converts the electronic analog of the waveform back to sound waves.

The job of the pickup is to sense and transmit vibration of the string. That's all a microphone would do, except the mic would "hear" more of the whole guitar in the room. An analog of the waveform is created. It is sent to be amplified.

Moreover, guitar pickups are very microphonic. When I was a kid, you could actually talk into some guitar pickups and your words would come trough the amp. Yes, the pickup senses the strings vibrating, but it also directly vibrates from the wood vibrating. And of course, the strings' waveforms are also themselves affected by the vibrating parts of the guitar, hence the timbre we hear.

i realize you know this, and I'm quibbling. ;)
 
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