Timber!

In the mail today- Timber Tones picks. I'm swallowing some pride & returning to wood. I used to find wooden picks detestable but I guess I was bothered by the size more than anything else. This time, I'm giving the jazz size a go. It's gonna be a busy weekend.

Gibson: In the government's face

I have to give it to Gibson for rubbing salt in the wound- the Government Series II seen here are made from confiscated wood returned to the manufacturer after the matter was resolved. The legality of it involved Gibson importing certain wood types from countries with acute logging issues. Gibson paid their fines for this contravention & apportioned some funds to the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation to support conservation efforts. All this done & dusted in 2012. The guitars seen here are new for 2014, of course.

Hear tone

There's too much shenanigans about not hearing the good stuff coming from electric guitars; there's excessive interference along the way- pickups, capacitor, amp, effects, cables, ... At the end of it all, it's difficult to say, 'I bought a good guitar!' because you know your electric is more about good wood per se.

You wanna hear good wood doing its stuff? Go Acoustic. I'm not an acoustic person, I won't be one any time soon but I appreciate good tone because addictive guitar playing starts there- hearing the sound of goodness. You'd argue that the strings in there influence the tone- yes. But because you are the discerning guitar player, you'd take note of tonal differences upon a re-string; you'd notice that the fundamental tones of your guitars are retained, it's a little tampered by the strings, that's about it.

I'm currently pre-occupied with hearing my acoustics react with the different string brands. Right now, Elixir is way down the list. I acknowledge the Elixir goodness vouched by so many people out there but lest we forget, there are other strings brands out there to be discovered & someone else's ear candy might be your rotten tone.

Wood talk: Mahogany

Mahogany enjoys a pronounced popularity largely due to Gibson's preference; the Les Paul guitar is synonymous to a mahogany highlight. It is a fairly dense wood but differences in mass do occur depending on the pedigree. Mahogany gives off a tight, bottom end response (that Les Paul low end is unmistakable, yes?) & its high frequencies are unpronounced. As such, the wood is prized for its deep resonance & sustain inducing properties- 'my Les Paul vibrates till tomorrow' is a good account of this capacity.

The situation today is that mahogany is the standard to beat when it comes to tonal depth which is largely a celebrated association with the Gibson brand name. For a deep sounding acoustic resonance, the more massive ash & maple would beat mahogany to it. In this light, what you hear from mahogany is actually lower midrange; some clarity is still present.

Mahogany which ends up as a musical instrument is actually wood put to good use as opposed to furniture where the industry takes into lesser account the wood's sonic properties & overall value.