Tag: guitars

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I Swap Out a Larger Irish Guitar for a Smaller More Comfortable One… I Review the Lowden S-50

Introduction:

During the Summer of 2023, right after I moved to North Carolina, on the way to visit my daughter in Wilmington, I stopped along the route at the small town of Southern Pines and visited Casino Guitars. I’d become aware of Casino Guitars because of the owner, Baxter Clement’s omnipresence on YouTube and, most importantly, I also knew that they were one of the rare U.S. dealers of Lowden guitars. I’d owned an all Koa Lowden many years ago and regretted trading it in and wanted to explore reacquiring one. With me along for the ride was my Collings 0002H as a potential trade item. I wrote at length about the purchase process of my Lowden F-50 on that trip and the blog article can be found here.

Me and my Lowden F-50 that I purchased in early June 2023.
The F-50 was a beautiful guitar

Though I wrote enthusiastically about the F-50 when I published my review, I’d since become somewhat disaffected by the guitar. I’d written about the guitar’s playability and how I struggled with it, and finally took it to my local shop for a set-up. I was initially pleased with the set-up, but in time came to the conclusion that the guitar was just too difficult to play. When compared to my Martin 1937 Authentic and my Santa Cruz H-13, it was just not in the same league of playability. Consequently, I was playing it less and less, mostly because it was too difficult to fret the strings. Perhaps it was the long scale length, but more likely the string action.

Further, one evening a friend who is an accomplished guitarist, played the F-50 while I sat in front to the guitar’s sound hole. Unlike me, he really digs in with a pick, which is more aggressive than I ever play, and to my disappointment the instrument just sounded so harsh to my ear. Even though I play finger style with a lighter touch, I was deeply affected, and not in a good way by what I had heard. Still, I stuck with the guitar for a year, but I knew it was a serious problem for me when I finally put extra light strings on it, which was an admission that this guitar was just too difficult to play the way it was intended. Finally, the large lower bout, on occasion, resulted in shoulder soreness because of the “reach over” of my right arm required to play it. As I’ve written before, at the time of this guitar’s purchase my enthusiasm overrode my sense of good judgement.

Casino Guitars in Southern Pines, NC

I Return to Casino Guitars

Baxter Clement and the Lowden S-50

On occasion, I check out Casino’s guitar inventory on their website and one day, I discovered that they’d stocked a new Lowden S-50! This is a smaller more intimate guitar than the F-50 that I currently owned. In addition, the guitar was built with Sinker Redwood over Cocobolo, which I thought would offer a warmer sound then the Spruce over Cocobolo F-50. Further, the guitar had a shorter scale length which in theory makes it easier to play. I was interested in auditioning this guitar.

Interior of Casino Guitars

I watched the S-50 from a distance for quite a while, holding my breath every time I dialed into the Casino website, hoping it was not sold. It was only after I crawled out of a month’s long medical rabbit hole that I decided to celebrate life and make a pilgrimage to Southern Pines to audition the S-50, and along with me was the F-50 to see if I could trade it in exchange.

The Lowden S-50, Baxter Clement and me….

It was a typical visit to Casino Guitars. The guys who work there were exceptionally helpful and when Baxter became aware I was lurking around the store, he came down from his apartment, which is upstairs above the shop. He made time to visit with me despite the fact that it was his son’s birthday and it was a Saturday. We played some music together and he auditioned the guitar for me too so that I could hear it directly. As you probably know, the acoustic guitar sound hole projects the guitar’s sound away from the player, so it’s nice for someone else to play the guitar as you sit in front of it. In the meantime, Sean gave the F-50 a once over and arrived at a reasonable trade in value.

In sum, the S-50 really suited my sensibilities and we closed the deal. Afterwards I met my wife for ice cream across the street from the shop and then we headed back home.

An Initial Comparison Between My New Lowden S-50 to the Older F-50

George Lowden in his shop in Northern Ireland

I drove into Southern Pines with a large bodied Lowden guitar, built with Cocobolo on the sides and Lutz Spruce on the top. Later, I returned home with a smaller bodied Lowden guitar with Cocobolo back and sides and Sinker Redwood on top. Obviously, a tonal variation would be expected based on size and wood differences between the old and new guitars.

On the other hand, a key commonality between the two guitars was Lowden artisanship. Lowden guitars are exquisite instruments that are aesthetically pleasing to the eye and made with obsessive attention to detail, which is why they’re expensive. According to George Lowden, what might appear to be small trifling details in guitar manufacturing, add up over the course of the build, finally making a considerable impact on the instrument’s performance. In addition, both guitars were designated style “50” models, which means they were built with the very best master grade tone woods in the Lowden inventory.

Partial bracing pattern under the sound board with example of dolphin shaping

Both of the Lowdens were braced similarly with what is referred to as an “A-frame” design. According to Lowden, the A-frame design stiffens the guitar around the sound hole and up through the neck so no sound is lost to unnecessary movement, but leaves the lower bout to vibrate freely, which creates the guitar’s sound. The braces themselves, which support the sound board, are individually hand carved in the form of a dolphin cresting the waves to give maximum stiffness with minimum mass for efficient sound transmission. As a result, Lowden guitars are known throughout the industry as being exceptionally powerful with extraordinary sustain. In other words, with a Lowden it is possible to get a loud sound without having to work the guitar hard and the sound lasts or sustains for a long time. It’s quite marvelous to behold when you strum a Lowden or pluck an individual string.

Lowden S-50 Headstock

Other common design features between the two Lowden’s are the headstock, neck construction and neck join to the body of the guitar. The headstock of both guitars is similarly sized, shaped, and adorned with an attractive veneer on both sides, though the veneer differs between the two guitars. It’s a bit of a mystery what the wood veneer is on the newer S-50, but I suspect it is Sinker Redwood to match the guitar’s top. The tuners are Gotoh 510’s with Ebony buttons. There are lots of effective guitar tuners out in the world, but the high-tuning-ratio Gotoh 510’s are, in my judgement, the best. While they probably are not congruent with the aesthetic of a traditional (Martin-like) guitar, for a “contemporary” guitar like the Lowden, they are a perfect complement.

Lowden five piece neck and dovetail join to the body

Both the S-50 and the F-50 were built with a five piece mahogany and rosewood laminated neck, which lends to stability and resistance to twisting torque. I’ve owned a guitar with a twisted neck and it’s not pretty. A twisted neck will render a guitar largely unplayable.

The necks of the Lowden F and S models are joined at the body with a traditional dovetail join “which offers excellent transfer of vibrations from the neck to the body due to the tight fit, producing a warm, rich tone with good sustain, and offers tonal depth and resonance.” (ChatGPT)

Lowden S-50 with 12 fret neck, Ebony fretboard and Sinker Redwood soundboard

Finally, the S-50’s neck is built with an ebony fingerboard, but unlike the F-50, the newer guitar has an old school, more traditional 12 fret length, generally offering a warmer, fuller tone, which is what I was looking for in the F-50’s replacement. With 12 frets as opposed to the more common 14, the bridge is closer to the center of the lower bout, where the soundboard is more flexible, enhancing bass response and overall resonance. Further, in theory, the shorter scale length should make it easier to play.

In sum both guitars, the one I traded off, and the new one I brought home were made with the highest level of attention to detail, as well as the characteristic Lowden design features such as the rigid neck, dovetail joint and their idiosyncratic soundboard bracing. All the aforementioned result in both power and sustain, which are incredibly important attributes of an acoustic guitar. What differed between the two guitars and why I selected the new one over the old was the guitar’s tone character and playability, which is a function of design differences like the number of neck frets, scale length, guitar size, and selection of woods on the top, back and sides.

Below is an excellent video of a seminar held by George Lowden where you can hear, first hand, his design philosophy in his own words:

The Lowden S-50’s Playability

Compared to the F model, the S model is smaller in both width (approximately 1 inch) and depth (approximately 0.5 inches), making it more intimate and easier to handle, especially for fingerstyle playing. In other words there’s far less effort to wrap my arm around the guitar to get to the strings with my right hand.

Smaller guitars can run the risk of sounding boxy, but that is not the case of the S-50. It’s reasonably deep body, 12 fret design, and Lowden’s bracing method free the guitar’s body to push out sound like a cannon.

Similar to the F model that I traded in, the S model came from the factory with, for my taste, string action that was too high. The Lowden literature refers to the string height as middle low, which is anything but in my judgement. It’s not quite a cheese grater but it is too high for me to enjoy playing. It’s just too much work for me to fret the strings with the in-factory set height. My first two acoustic guitars were higher end Taylors and they had very low string action, so I’ve been spoiled ever since. I don’t own those Taylors anymore, but my ’37 Martin Authentic D-28 and my Santa Cruz H-13 both have low action and are a dream to play.

Brian McGee at Twin House Music in Carrboro, NC

I knew that I was going to have to get the guitar set up properly if I was ever going to enjoy playing it. As I recollect, back in the past with the F model, my luthier adjusted the neck relief only with the truss rod, which in the end was just not enough for me to feel comfortable playing it. This time I had to get it right! I was going to have to have the string action lowered more effectively then when I had the F model in the shop.

As preparation for the trip to my luthier, using a string height gauge, I measured the action of the Lowden S, the Santa Cruz and the Martin guitars that I owned. At the twelfth fret the Lowden’s 1st string was almost 1/3 a millimeter higher and the 6th string was 1/4 millimeter higher off the fret when compared to the Martin and Santa Cruz guitars. That’s an annoying difference that can be felt during play! Before taking the guitar to the shop, I actually contacted Lowden in Northern Ireland about any issues lowering the action, and they saw no reason to prohibit adjustment downwards. To them it was a matter of taste and they believed it was easier to drop string height than to raise it, which was why the action comes out of the factory a bit on the high side. Some players like it a bit high, but not me.

Lowden Split Saddle

I took the Lowden into the shop at Twin House Music with the measurements I’d made and asked that the Lowden be adjusted to match my other guitars. Brian McGee, a great luthier, was initially reluctant to make the changes, being concerned about string buzz and also working with the Lowden split saddle. Most guitars have a single saddle, but the Lowden is split in two pieces to enhance intonation. Making action adjustments are more challenging with a split saddle because they have to be sanded down identically to avoid introducing unwanted intonation issues. I was really insistent and Brian finally agreed, and in the end he did a fantastic job. I’m now happy with the action on a Lowden guitar. Lowden’s do not have to be cheese graters!

The S-50’s Aesthetic and Tonal Character

Lowden S-50 Sinker Redwood Top and Cocobolo back and sides

A key determinant of an acoustic guitars aesthetic appearance and tonal character are the woods from which it is built. My Lowden is built with the master-grade tone woods of Sinker Redwood for the top and Cocobolo back and sides. Master-grade tonewood refers to the highest quality of wood used for crafting guitars and other musical instruments. It is a premium designation reserved for tonewoods that exhibit exceptional visual, structural, and acoustic qualities, making them ideal for producing high-end guitars. 

Cocobolo

According to ChatGPT, Cocobolo (Dalbergia retusa) is a premium tonewood, often commanding higher prices due to its scarcity and desirability. It is visually stunning, featuring a variety of colors such as reddish-orange, deep browns, and even purples, often with dramatic grain patterns and black streaks. Cocobolo produces a lush, vibrant tone with pronounced overtones, offering a complex and harmonically rich sound. The treble response is bright and clear without being harsh, making it well-suited for fingerstyle playing. The low end is focused and powerful, providing a solid foundation without being muddy. While not overly pronounced, the midrange is clear and contributes to a well-rounded tonal palette. Its density and stiffness give it excellent projection and sustain, making it a favorite for players who want their sound to carry. Cocobolo excels in styles that require clarity and articulation, as it allows individual notes to ring out beautifully lending itself well to fingerstyle, which is how I play.

The beauty of Cocobolo heartwood as well as sapwood shown in the center.

Cocobolo shares some tonal similarities with Indian and Brazilian Rosewood, such as a rich low end and sparkling highs, but it has more pronounced overtones and a slightly brighter overall character. While Mahogany has a warmer, more midrange-focused tone, Cocobolo offers more tonal complexity and dynamic range.

From a builders standpoint, Cocobolo is very oily and must be handled accordingly to ensure glue joints are sound and finishes remain intact. The dust from this wood can be obnoxious too, causing an allergic reaction during cutting. Of course, the oil and dust are not an issue with the finished consumer product.

Finally, from a sustainability standpoint Cocobolo is becoming less readily available because of unfortunate and unscrupulous over-harvesting. Only ten to twenty percent of Cocobolo harvest goes into musical instruments, including both guitars and woodwinds. On the other hand furniture, cabinetry, and flooring account for up to eighty percent. As the attack on Cocobolo sources continues, premium guitars made with it will be seen as rare heirloom instruments. My Cocobolo Lowden will be a guitar that goes on to my children after I’m gone, though I am dubious that they will understand what they have in hand. At that point, I probably won’t care.

Sinker Redwood

Probably the most remarkable aspect of the S-50 is its top, which is comprised of two book matched pieces of master grade Sinker Redwood. It’s my first experience with this type of soundboard where its reddish/brown hue, with vertical dark streaks embedded across the boards set it apart. My other acoustics have sunburst or standard unstained spruce tops, so the S-50 just looks different from typical acoustic guitars that I’ve owned in the past. The guitar is endlessly fascinating to behold.

Sinker Redwood top on the Lowden S-50

As I said, my other acoustic guitars all have traditional spruce tops, though they are of varying subspecies, including Sitka, European, and Adirondack (Red Spruce), so from a sonic/tonal standpoint the S-50 stands apart. Generally speaking, Spruce offers a sound that is bright, clear, and dynamic, while Sinker Redwood is warm, rich, and overtone heavy, so there’s a nice difference in both appearance and sound that distinguishes the S-50, making it a great addition to my collection.

The origin story of Sinker Redwood is fascinating in and of itself. In the late 1800’s on into the early twentieth century, which was a time of rapid industrialization in the U.S., loggers harvested Northern California Giant Redwoods without abandon. These were old growth forests with trees as old as 1000 years. Sadly, only five percent of the original old growth forests remain, and they were saved by a combination of conservationists, activists and government intervention.

Harvesting of Giant Redwoods in Northern California

The trees situated along waterways were the easiest to manage as they could be dropped and floated downriver to the sawmills on the California coast. Along the way downriver, the trees were sometimes held back in large jams with the use of chain booms until the sawmills needed them. It was under those circumstances that some logs sank to the bottom of the river and became embedded in the river bottom mud never to make it down to the sawmills.

Redwoods making the trip downriver to the sawmills.

Submerged in anaerobic (oxygen-deprived) conditions for decades, perhaps some for a century, the sunken Redwood logs would undergo physical change. While submerged, Sinker Redwood logs absorb water, which, over time, leads to compression of the wood fibers enhancing the grain density. Also, logs that sank and remained submerged tended to have very tight grain patterns simply due to the slow-growing nature of the old growth trees from which they came. In addition, while submerged, the Sinker Redwood absorbed minerals from the surrounding water, which changed its color. The wood often took on rich, darker hues, ranging from deep reddish-brown to even greenish or purplish streaks, depending on the minerals present in the river water.

Sinker Redwood embedded in the river bottom in Northern California

Over time, submersion in water also leads to a breakdown of the wood’s structural components, lignin and cellulose, particularly in the outer layers. The cold and anaerobic conditions underwater slowed this breakdown process, allowing the core wood to remain structurally sound while developing unique tonal characteristics. This slight degradation can contribute to a smoother resonance when used in guitars, often resulting in warmer and more responsive sound.

Recovery of Sinker Redwood from rivers and estuaries in Northern California

Many years later at the close of the twentieth century entrepreneurs discovered and began recovering sunken Redwood logs from the rivers and estuaries in Northern California. Only the logs that had not rotted were of value, so recovery is a tedious, risky and expensive process. Since old growth redwood was so rare, the thinking was this recovered wood would have value in end-uses such as fine furniture, paneling, sculptures. Also as a function of its appearance and tonal properties, custom guitar builders and boutique luthiers adopted Sinker Redwood for high-end musical instruments.

Luthiers discovered the wonderful properties of Sinker Redwood tops in the early 2000’s.

Sinker Redwood Combined with Cocobolo

The combination of Sinker Redwood for the soundboard and Cocobolo for the back and sides on a small-bodied guitar creates a unique tonal palette. Both woods bring specific acoustic properties that complement one another beautifully, resulting in a guitar that is both visually striking and acoustically rich.

Sinker Redwood on Cocobolo

Sinker Redwood’s warmth and harmonic richness blend seamlessly with Cocobolo’s bright, articulate clarity, creating a balanced tone that is neither too warm nor overly bright. Sinker Redwood enhances responsiveness for nuanced playing, while Cocobolo’s density adds sustain and projection, even in a small-bodied guitar. Both woods have rich overtone profiles, resulting in a lush and dynamic sound with a natural reverb-like quality. The small body shape focuses the sound, while Cocobolo ensures that projection and presence aren’t sacrificed, even in a compact form.

Finally, the visual contrast between the richly colored Sinker Redwood top and the bold, exotic Cocobolo back and sides enhances the guitar’s aesthetic appeal, making it a showpiece as well as a fine musical instrument.

Comments On Some Aesthetic Appointments

There was a time when I believed that one should aspire to own the blingiest guitar possible, with abalone adornments and inlays galore like Gene Autry’s famous decked-out Martin D-45. In fact the very first really upper end guitar I ever purchased was a Taylor 914, which was loaded with glitz. Eventually, after playing incredible sounding but relatively unadorned guitars like my Martin, Collings and Santa Cruz instruments, I realized that the wood, the build quality and the tonal output far outweighed the importance of external appearance enhanced by inlays and other doodads..

Singing Cowboy with highly adorned guitar

By most accounts George Lowden also thinks that an overly-ornamented guitar is not a particularly important design philosophy. Besides the classic dimension of the instrument, the preponderance of Lowden guitars are tastefully simple in surface appearance. The tone woods, the wood bindings and the purflings contribute to an elegantly simple appearance.

Lowden S-50 sound hole rosette

One of more extravagant touches on a Lowden S-50 guitar is the abalone and figured wood sound hole rosette. It’s really quite beautiful in person.

Final Comments

I put pickups in all my acoustic guitars. I like playing the guitar plugged into an acoustic amplifier (Genzler Acoustic Array Pro) facing me so that I can appreciate the output of the guitar. I use K&K Pure Mini pickups exclusively because they sound natural and don’t require a lot of fiddling, although an acoustic DI like an LR Baggs Venue is very helpful in the signal chain, which I have on my acoustic guitar pedalboard.

My acoustic pedalboard

The K&K Pure Mini is a snap to place in an acoustic guitar with a pinned bridge. Two of the pin holes are used to accurately place the pickup under the bridge with the use of a jig that K&K supplies in the box. A pinless bridge like the Lowden is built with is a more challenging installation. If you follow the K&K instructions, it requires drilling two small holes underneath the saddle. This is not for the faint of heart. My luthier cleared it with me and followed the instructions, including drilling the holes. The installation is perfect and the pickup works flawlessly. I wish I could have said the same for the F-50’s installation. I don’t think it was done quite right, as I had to really boost the gain to get the pickup to function at all, which was another irritant about that guitar.

Some Sound Samples

I am embedding a couple of sound samples from YouTube. The first is Baxter Clement from Casino Guitars playing the exact model guitar I purchased from him, but this was one he had in stock several years before mine arrived. Note Baxter plays with a plectrum, which I do not. He is a very accomplished musician, much more so than me:

Below is a video produced by Heart Breaker Guitars, a dealer of fine guitars and a major supplier of Lowdens in the U.S. After a brief introduction, Mike Romano plays an S-35, very similar to the S-50, with the woods the same but maybe not quite as choice. Mr. Romano plays finger style and he’s quite good.

Here’s a sample of me playing my S-50 through a Shure mic that’s designed to interface with the iPhone that’s doing the filming. As a result there are limits to fidelity. To boost it a bit, I am running the guitar through my Genzler Acoustic Array Amplifier and my pedal board. I am playing the Mississippi John Hurt classic, Spike Driver Blues.

Here’s another sample. This is Townes Van Zandt’s instrumental arrangement of the Rolling Stones tune Dead Flowers:

Finally, here’s the instrumental arrangement for Taj Mahal’s Queen Bee:

A note of thanks to ChatGPT for help with questions about woods and some history, and for the creation of support illustrations.

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The Immaculate Santa Cruz H-13… My favorite all time guitar?

Introduction

National Reso-Lectric

I’ve written on this blog before that I lose patience with a guitar that no longer calls to me and as a result will consider it trade worthy for an instrument that I’d put to greater use. There’s too much financial value and physical space being occupied by an unused guitar. If you follow this blog, you may remember that I owned a National Reso-Lectric, and enjoyed it for several years, but then I subsequently acquired a National M-1, which is, in my judgement, the ultimate resonator and found afterwards that I had to force myself to pull the Reso-Lectric from it’s case!

At the time this story takes place, I was still residing in Iowa and was about a 2.5 hour drive from one of the largest guitar stores in the Midwest, Dave’s Guitars. An interesting thing about Dave’s is that they facilitate guitar trades through internet communication. Fill out an online form, send some photos and they’ll give you a trade value in very short order. I like this trade approach much more so than the tire kicking, frowning, hair pulling , hemming and hawing that can happen at a smaller Mom and Pop shop. So, I sent Dave’s the scoop on my Reso-Lectric and they got back to me with a reasonable price the same day.

Iowa countryside

Shortly thereafter on a gray December morning back in 2022, I loaded the Reso-Lectric into my vehicle and headed out to Dave’s to see what was what. I was not in the market for an electric guitar, as the one I had was all I think I would ever want or need. In fact, the differing tonal voices of electric guitars were not of interest to me, but that was not true about acoustic guitars. Varying shapes, body depths, wood compositions, bracing techniques, 12 vs 14 frets, glues, and finishes all, in my experience, contributed to the magical tonality of acoustic guitars. So, when I took off for Dave’s, it was acoustic guitars I was going to look at.

Me and Dave’s burgeoning inventory

I think because the national economy was slowing down a bit, Dave’s acoustic guitar inventory was actually accumulating for a change. The past few years there was a Covid related feeding frenzy in guitar stores. Collings guitars, for example, flew off the hooks at Dave’s making it near impossible to test out their very popular OM model. I knew as I was driving over to Wisconsin that Dave’s actually had a couple of Collings OM’s in stock and they even had a solitary Santa Cruz acoustic in stock too!

I’d been aware of Santa Cruz guitars for decades since I first saw an advertisement in a guitar mag with Tony Rice playing a Santa Cruz knock-off (even with the odd oversized sound hole) of his famous Martin D-28. I’d also sat next to Catfish Keith in his home and listened to him play his Santa Cruz signature small bodied guitar with the Catfish logo inlaid on the headstock. Keith’s guitar was awesome sounding, so I was very interested in test driving a Santa Cruz acoustic.

Acoustic Captain JR at Dave’s Guitars

When I got to the store, the acoustic guitar sales manager, JR set me up with a downstairs audition room to try out both a Collings OM and the Santa Cruz which was an H-13 model. Since the acoustic guitar sales room can be very busy and noisy, it was great to be able to quietly sit and contemplate the playability and tonality of the two guitars side by side. I switched back and forth between the two several times and stayed down there for quite some time. Both guitars were similar in that they were smaller Mahogany bodies with Spruce tops, but the similarities ended there. They looked completely different and, in the details, built differently. More on that later.

Santa Cruz H-13 in the audition room

Guitar shopping at Dave’s is a double-edged sword. As a customer, you are pretty much on your own. The guys working there are so busy that they really do not have time to chase you around to cajole you into a sale. Internet sales are the preponderance of their business so they are often preoccupied with moving product out the door. Unlike a Mom and Pop store, it’s difficult to establish much of a personal relationship with the folks in that store. I’d purchased several guitars in the store and Dave, the owner, barely acknowledged me because his customer base is so large and his attention spread so thin. This was a far different atmosphere from the very personalized Casino Guitars where I recently purchased a Lowden F-50. Nevertheless, I managed on my own to come to a conclusion as to which guitar I liked most and whether or not I would make a purchase.

The H-13 ready to roll

Both the Collings OM and the Santa Cruz were exceptionally playable, but the H-13 was a beast by comparison with greater depth and breadth of tone, possessing an expansive bottom in the bass range and some serious headroom with sparkling treble highs. It was a full spectrum cannon! The H-13’s sonic advantage during my audition may have been the combination of body depth being 3/4 of an inch deeper than the OM, Adirondack Spruce vs Sitka Spruce bracings under a European Spruce vs Sitka Spruce sound board and the 13 fret vs 14 fret neck to body join allowing ideal placement of the bridge on the body for the H-13. Both guitars were built with hot hide glue, so no advantage there. The H-13 is the lightest guitar I’ve ever held, which I think contributed to its far greater resonance as a stringed instrument. I was sold by the Santa Cruz H-13 and decided to complete its purchase with the trade of the Reso-Lectric.

Finally, I may have been recognized as a good customer during this visit to Dave’s Guitars, because JR threw in an installed K&K Mini pickup for no additional charge. After installation of the pickup, I headed back home to Iowa.

I Review the Santa Cruz H-13

General Observations

The Santa Cruz H-13, a medium sized premium guitar, was described recently by an acquaintance as a “museum piece.” This was from an accomplished musician with a long professional history, including back up and recording work with Chris Smither. Nevertheless, despite its elegant beauty, it is a simple looking instrument with just a few embellishments, including a slot head with ivoroid tuners, a sunburst finish, and an S29 top purfling, The real beauty of this guitar is how it sounds and handles.

Design Inspiration

Richard Hoover in the Santa Cruz shop

There are small scale guitar manufacturers like Santa Cruz and Collings who specialize in precision made instruments that often take their inspiration from guitars manufactured during the early to mid part of the 20th century. The old vintage Martins and Gibsons that people pay enormous sums for serve as a design jumping off point, from which boutique manufacturers copy design features but also implement modern techniques, design enhancements and small scale builder advantages with a good deal of old world handwork. Richard Hoover of Santa Cruz has made an incredibly successful run as a thoughtful and exceptionally skillful small scale guitar manufacturer, roundly regarded as one of the best in the industry. His vision is to bring the traditions of the ancient violin masters to the steel string guitar. Below you can see a video in which Hoover discusses his approach to guitar making:

Dylan and his Nick Lucas Special

Now, as I understand it, the H-13 is inspired by the 1930’s era Gibson Nick Lucas Special. The initial impetus for Santa Cruz’s decision to create the H-13, as we know today, is credited to the late, well known luthier, Paul Hostetter. The original Special was actually made in a variety of styles and shapes; some with trapeze and others with pin bridges, 12, 13 or 14 frets, and varying tone woods. It was Gibson’s first artist endorsed guitar and what made it special was its extra body depth, which Nick Lucas wanted for a more robust bass tone. I believe Santa Cruz, at the behest of Paul Hostetter, decided to use the Gibson L-00 shape with 13 frets and the deeper body as the basis for their design, which I think is also the version that Bob Dylan made so notable early in his career.

During the height of the Covid pandemic lock-down, accomplished musician, Steve Earle did a series of Youtube videos about his vast guitar collection, which serves as an excellent history of highly valued vintage Martin and Gibson guitars. In the video below, Earle gives some historic background about the Nick Lucas Special:

Here’s an actual film of Nick Lucas playing his signature Gibson:

Finally, in this clip from D.A. Pennebaker’s film Don’t Look Back, ultra badass, Blonde on Blonde era Bob Dylan plays his Special in England where he pretty much schools Donovan during that gathering… Dylan is like a wound spring watching Donovan sing one of his ditties, and he’s waiting to explode outwards with a far more sophisticated tune than Donovan could ever imagine playing. After Dylan basically rips his guitar from Donovan’s hands and starts to play, you can see Donovan sink into himself in a defensive posture… Game over man…

Notable Elements of the Santa Cruz H-13

Slotted Headstock (front)

Starting at the top end of the guitar, the H-13 is built with a slotted headstock topping off a “standard Mahogany” neck. Hoover uses the term “standard Mahogany” to note that Santa Cruz’s mahogany is responsibly harvested from a former British plantation. This he speaks to in the video I embedded above. Based on my research, standard Mahogany is Swietenia macrophylla, commonly referred to as Honduran or Big Leaf Mahogany. The face of the headstock is elegantly simple with no binding, but enhanced with an ebony veneer and a Santa Cruz script logo inlaid with ivoroid on the top front. Santa Cruz offers multiple logo types in varying locations when purchased as a custom made guitar. If you refer to the Santa Cruz website for the H-13, there are multiple features that can be chosen when ordering the guitar from scratch, which I obviously did not do having bought this item “off the rack” at Dave’s..

Slotted Headstock (side and rear)

Slotted headstocks are often used with guitars built with less than 14 frets as an aesthetic identifier, but also to alter tonality by creating a steeper break angle at the nut causing the string to exert more downward pressure, consequently driving more energy into the guitar when the string is plucked. I like how slotted headstocks look, but they are more tedious to restring.

To the right you can see a side/rear view of the headstock. You’ll note the “open back” or “open gear” Waverly nickel tuners with white ivoroid buttons, which are design consistent with the vintage guitar from which the H-13 takes its inspiration. The Waverly’s work just fine, but they are not near as buttery as the closed back Gotoh’s on my Lowden F-50, which are built onto a paddle-style headstock. What makes the closed back Gotoh’s so good is their high turning ratio, thus tuning is more smooth and precise. Gotoh does produce a slotted headstock “opened back” tuner but having never played with them, I am not sure that they are any better than the Waverly’s.

To the left, you can see a lower section of the neck and the upper bout of the body to where it is attached. The preponderance of steel string guitars are either 12 or 14 frets, but in the case of the H-13, it is 13 frets. According to the Santa Cruz website, the 13 fret neck, combined with the bridge location allows a longer string length which, combined with a deeper body, creates a very powerful small bodied guitar. I can attest to that!

The neck is a solid piece of mahogany, serving as a platform for an ivoroid bound ebony fingerboard. The V-shaped neck, attached precisely to the body with a traditional dovetail join, feels full in hand and is exceptionally comfortable to play. Finally, you’ll note the fretboard is unadorned with inlay keeping to the elegantly simplicity of the H-13.

The H-13 Soundboard

There was a time in my life when I thought that owning a fancy guitar with inlays and other adornments was a sign of musical accomplishment. I’ve since traded off my fancy guitars for those made with old school sensibilities where the emphasis is on tonality as well as playability, and for the most part they are much simpler in appearance with fewer adornments like wood bindings and inlaid Abalone. I have a fondness for old school ivoroid bindings which adorn many boutique guitars inspired by vintage instruments.

European Spruce Top

The top of the H-13 is lovely; however, it boasts no unnecessary adornments, with the possible exception of the S29 purfling, “a pattern best described as a herringbone split with line of colored-wood marquetry.” The ivoroid rosette, the tortoise pick guard and the ebony pyramid bridge are all old school simplicity. Nevertheless, the high gloss nitrocellulose finish overlaying the sunburst top makes the H-13 a glory to behold.

A good bit of the tonal magic of the H-13 lies with the soundboard itself. In the case of my H-13, the standard Sitka Spruce is substituted out with European Spruce, originating from the Italian/Swiss border. Often used to build classical guitars, European Spruce is also frequently selected by boutique builders of steel guitars. “It has a sound rich in overtones, while it offers some of the headroom of Adirondack and a quicker response than Sitka, but with a warmer, thicker tone.” All in all it is a tonality that appeals to finger style players like me.

As I understand it, the sound board is tap toned at Santa Cruz to fine tune how it’s braced. In the case of my H-13, the bracings are Adirondack spruce. Theoretically, Adirondack provides greater strength and stiffness with less weight than Sitka. It generally allows for a lighter-braced top, which makes it more responsive.

Below Tommy Sands elaborates on the nuances of European Spruce:

The back and sides of H-13 are standard Mahogany. At first glance, the use of Mahogany for the back and sides of a premium guitar may seem a poorly conceived choice. Remember, Mr. Martin used Rosewood on his top-of-the-line D-28 and reserved Mahogany for the somewhat “less than” D-18. That preconception of Mahogany being a second rate tone wood still exists today. A local luthier Rob Sharer dismisses that prejudice writing that “Where (Mahogany) really shines, though, is when it is used for the back and sides of a steel-string acoustic guitar. Less dense than the rosewood species, its medium weight and open grain produce both warmth and punch, de-emphasizing the bass register while accentuating the crucial midrange, which, after all, is the guitar’s home turf in the tonal spectrum… For the player who values a dry, crunchy, punchy sound, mahogany gets the nod over rosewood’s rum-jug bass and metallic overtones.”

In sum

The Santa Cruz H-13, built to exacting standards with first rate woods and components, is still more than the sum of its parts. The guitar is feather light, but has a huge warm voice. As expected for Mahogany back and sides, it’s punchy in the mid-tones; however, the deep body and the very responsive European Spruce top offers the player surprisingly resonant bass tones and sparkling highs for a mid-sized guitar. This guitar is an absolute delight to hold and play. It is a finger style player’s delight. During the week, I try to cycle through my guitar collection on a daily basis and always look forward to H-13 day!

If you want to dig deeper into Richard Hoover’s guitar building philosophy, where he brings to bear the skills of the ancient violin makers onto steel string guitars, here’s an inside look at Santa Cruz’s shop providing intimate detail on guitar construction philosophy. After watching this, I consider it a true blessing to own one of these marvelous instruments.

Santa Cruz H-13 Tone Samples

Elizabeth Cotton – Freight Train
Drop D Fishin’ Blues
Carl Miner of the North American Guitar rocking out on an H-13 spec’d out like mine…
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An Irish Guitar Joins the Stable – I Review My Lowden F-50

Introduction

Collings 0002H

It was a confluence of events and cognitions that lead me down the path to purchase a different new guitar. First, I was becoming increasingly disaffected with my Collings 0002H. It was an excellent instrument that sounded great and it was my first Collings, which made it special; however, the guitar was, from the very moment I started playing it at home, difficult to play.

There are things about the playability of a guitar that sometimes elude me in the store when excitement overrides critical assessment. Or, perhaps it’s the change in ambient environment when the guitar arrives at home that causes the guitar neck to shift around and alter the instruments action. At any rate, It was just hard on my hands and more of a challenge to play when compared to my other guitars, including my Martin D-28 Authentic, the Collings C10-35, and my recently purchased Santa Cruz H-13. The playability issues continued despite having a shop luthier at Dave’s Guitars do a full set-up some weeks later. In sum, I was not playing it very much, so I knew in my heart of hearts that it had to eventually go.

’37 Martin D-28 Authentic

Further, the 0002H was constructed with a Sitka spruce top and East Indian Rosewood back and sides which is fine; however, my Martin ’37 Authentic is composed of an Adirondack spruce top and Madagascar Rosewood back and sides which is arguably a more choice version of the Spruce and Rosewood combination. While it’s worth repeating that the 0002H was a marvelous sounding guitar, it did not compare to the incredible sounding Martin on the level of playability and wood quality (splitting hair here), so it became an ever so slightly “less than” and redundant guitar in my stable, leaving it in the category of high trade potential.

My thinking was that If I were to trade the 0002H it would be for a guitar with a wood combination and body shape that I did not already possess. One of the guitar manufacturers that I was particularly interested in was the Irish company Lowden. Many years ago I had owned an all Koa Lowden guitar that was quite beautiful, but I traded it off because the neck was a bit narrow for finger-style guitar which I’d recently adopted. Over the years I regretted parting with it.

George Lowden in his shop

Lowden manufactures guitars in a small shop in Northern Ireland with great individual care. George Lowden was in the same mid-century generation of successful guitar builders who started from the ground up decades ago with their own idiosyncratic approach to constructing the instruments. This would include builders like Richard Hoover of Santa Cruz, Bill Collings, and Bob Taylor.

There were no Lowden sellers in Iowa where I was residing and I was not interested in purchasing one online without trying it out. Further, I was totally unsure of which particular Lowden I was interested in. I wanted to visit a location where I could try a variety of them. I knew, for example, that Casino Guitars in Southern Pines, North Carolina was a major dealer in Lowden Guitars. I was familiar with Casino Guitars because the owner, Baxter Clement, was a highly visible Youtube personality uploading several videos every week about different aspects regarding guitars and the associated industry. Baxter was an advocate for Lowden instruments and offered a healthy variety of them in stock. Below you can watch one of Baxter’s videos about his commitment to Lowden guitars.

Baxter Clement in his store, Casino Guitars in Southern Pines, NC
Our new home in NC

While my thoughts about guitars in general, Lowden’s in particular, and trading the 0002H were percolating somewhere in the back of my mind, my wife Annette and I decided to move from Iowa to North Carolina. The state of North Carolina has a strong pull on my life. It’s where I came of age decades ago, having graduated from High School in Durham and then subsequently completed undergraduate degrees at both the University of North Carolina and NC State. We were both retired and thought it was the right time for a change of venue. We had multiple children and grandchildren who lived in NC and we were both worn down by the long and brutal Iowa winters. So, we purchased a new home outside Chapel Hill, NC, sold our Iowa home, packed up and settled into NC in early June of 2023.

Casino Guitars

Casino Guitars

I think it was as early as the second weekend that we were living in North Carolina that we planned to head to the coast to visit one of my daughters and her family. I decided that we would leave earlier then necessary and take a side trip to Casino Guitars in Southern Pines on the way to Wilmington, NC. While I was not planning on buying a guitar on this particular visit, I packed the 0002H in the event that I wished to make a trade on a guitar that I liked.

An hour away from my home, Casino Guitars is located right in the heart of the Southern Pines historic downtown district. The building itself was, back in the day, a casino, bowling alley, speakeasy and a brothel. Baxter Clement, a Southern Pines native recently renovated the building, built an apartment for his family on the second floor and established his guitar retail space on the main floor. As you can see from the images below, the shop is well stocked with premium electric and acoustic guitars, including PRS, Fender, Gretsch, Martin, Taylor and of course, Lowden. Besides the awesome inventory, the interior space is absolutely stunning. Just a great place to be!

Casino interior
Casino interior
Casino interior
Casino interior
Southern Pines Train Station

I was lucky to find a parking space reasonably close to the store because Southern Pines was mobbed with visitors there to attend a concert that night. Leaving Annette and our dog Nike at an Ice Cream parlor, I crossed the railroad tracks that cut through the center of town and eventually found the store, which delighted me! When I entered the shop, a fellow I did not recognize from Youtube videos was manning the main desk. I later learned that he was was James Villone. Since the shop was pretty quiet at that moment James was kind enough to quickly show me the way to the Lowden’s.

Lowden Guitars at Casino

Initially, James thought the only store inventory was the three Lowden’s in the glass cases. I was a little disappointed at first but thought, “what the hell,” I ‘d give those three a try out. James pulled out all three Lowden’s and brought them to this lovely audition room in the back portion of the shop. While I was playing the first one, James went out, at my request, to find me a music stand so I could play some tunes off of my iPad Pro.

Me getting dubious with Lowden’s

Not long after, just as I looked up from my music, Baxter Clement burst into the audition room! I was delighted to finally meet him after seeing him with my morning coffee for several years. He was every bit as fun, affable and accessible as he seemed on his Youtube videos and like magic, he filled the room with Lowden guitars that he produced from his inventory hidden somewhere in the shop. He walked me through the different Lowden styles and produced various wood combinations for me to give a go. I was particularly interested in playing a guitar with a Cedar top because I’d owned a Taylor years ago with a Cedar top and I liked its warm sound; however, the Cedar topped Lowden’s on that particular morning did not work for me enough to get seriously interested in a purchase.

My Lowden F-50 at home in Pittsboro, NC

Undaunted, Baxter kept showing me additional Lowden’s of various wood combinations and sizes; however, after playing numerous guitars, I was about to give up, collect my wife and dog and head to Wilmington. Then finally, he dropped a Lowden constructed with Cocobolo back and sides and a Lutz Spruce top into my lap and it was magic to my ears as compared to all the others I’d played. It was a style F-50, which I would learn later meant the guitar was made from all master grade tone woods, which are the best of the best tone woods available anywhere, chosen for their exceptional tonal and visual properties!

I played the F-50 for quite a while, including some tunes with Baxter accompanying me, which delighted me to no end. Later, I met his wife, Taylor, and one of his sons. At Taylor’s behest, Annette and Nike were even invited into the shop. The whole experience was quite marvelous. Sometime thereafter we made a deal, which included a trade on the 0002H. Baxter even carried and then packed the Lowden F-50 into my car, and after farewells we headed out for a weekend in Wilmington.

I Review My Lowden F-50 Cocobolo and Lutz Spruce

My First Impressions

Much to my regret, my earliest experiences with the newly purchased F-50 were somewhat dismal. It began when I arrived in Wilmington to visit my daughter, Sally. Having just purchased the Lowden, I travelled cross state with the guitar from Southern Pines. After settling in at Sally’s, I disappeared upstairs to the guest bedroom and pulled the F-50 from its case and right away, despite the guitar still sounding great, I noticed the action was far higher than I’d observed during the Casino shop audition. In fact, the guitar was quite difficult to play, particularly in the treble section. Had my enthusiasm in the store again overridden my ability to critically analyze the guitar’s playability? On the other hand, was the Lowden exceptionally sensitive to ambient conditions and did the neck start shifting around? It should be noted that I keep D’Addario moisture packs in the guitar case, so my attempt to control guitar conditioning was functioning during the drive.

Me and Sean at Casino Guitars

When I got back home, I measured the string height distance from the frets and observed that the the guitar was out of specification on the high side across the fretboard, this being based upon data from the Lowden website. I was subsequently welcomed back by Casino Guitars for an adjustment and returned a few days later. Sean Diesfield, Casino’s resident guitar whisperer did some work on the saddles and the neck relief and sent me on my way. At the shop the guitar seemed improved, but when I got home and played the instrument at length it was somewhat better but not good enough.

Lowden Truss Rod Tool

At this point I was suffering some major buyer’s remorse! Did I trade the Collings 0002H because it was a pain in the ass to play for a different guitar that might, in fact, be a worse pain in the ass to play? At that moment it seemed so.

Rather than give up, I decided to find a local skilled luthier who could give me a full set-up and lower the string action to my comfort level. That was easier said than done. Though there were a number of “repair” luthiers in town, they were either booked up for months, non responsive to my request, or occupied with life trauma and unavailable. I finally left the Lowden for over two weeks at my local shop, Twin House Music, where I take lessons and and a couple of luthiers (including the owner) do their magic. Eventually the Lowden was properly cared for. In the end, the neck relief was adjusted and the guitar now plays as well as any other in my collection! In the past, I’ve adjusted the neck relief on many of my guitars, but in the case of the Lowden, the adjustment is very difficult to make and requires a tool that I did not possess. Further, I thought the guitar had more serious problems than neck relief. At any rate, badda bing, badda boom, the guitar is great now!

The Twin House Music owner and luthier, Brian McGee, who tamed the Lowden

In the end, I don’t know how to account for the difficulties I had getting the guitar to a state of acceptable playability. Perhaps Lowden’s are more sensitive to ambient conditions? Was it the long voyage from Northern Ireland to the U.S. that caused the neck to shift? Why did I not notice the guitar’s issues when I tried it out in the store? Did the guitar’s action shift between Southern Pines and Wilmington? On Lowden’s website, they are clear to point out that a new guitar will settle-in during the first months of playing and would probably require adjustment. There is no truer statement than that!

Basic Lowden Observations

Mr. Lowden and his tone woods

Lowden builds three basic guitar shapes with the F being their middle size between the Jumbo O and the smaller S. Originally designed to compete in the flat-picking market, the F guitar is now favored by finger-stylists too, hence my interest. For example, world renowned finger-stylist Pierre Bensusan plays an F shaped signature Lowden.

Lowden builds the F style with a variety of wood combinations. According to Lowden specifications, the 50 designation means that the woods used to construct this F shaped guitar are the best of the best that the company acquires, being selected out for a combination of tonality and appearance. In my case, the guitar body is topped with Lutz, which is a hybrid White and Sitka Spruce, characterized by a light creamy color with a very tight grain. On the other hand, Cocobolo is used for the back and sides with a showy reddish color and swirly grain lines.

Lutz top wood

According to one leading U.S. guitar manufacturer, “in terms of acoustic response, Lutz blends the positive characteristics of Sitka and White spruce and its close cousin, Engelmann. Lutz tends to exhibit characteristics of Adirondack spruce. The result is powerful sonic horsepower that translates into strong volume, projection and tonal richness.”

The back and sides of the body are composed of Cocobolo, a member of the Dalbergia species, which includes other various Rosewoods. According to the aforementioned U.S. manufacturer, “Cocobolo is a dense, stiff tropical hardwood from Mexico, which produces a fairly bright overall tone emphasized by sparkling treble notes. The tone is fast, responsive, and articulate.” Cocobolo is a substantial, heavy and oily wood that requires skill and competence to draw out its potential as a guitar tone wood; however, when it is properly deployed Cocobolo has been described as “Brazilian on steroids!”

Cocobolo backside of the F-50, note the characteristic blond sapwood section down the back’s center

Below is a video in which a luthier interacts with a sample of Cocobolo tone wood:

Below, George Lowden discusses various types of tone woods that he’s used for guitar building. While he briefly describes Cocobolo, he seems more enthusiastic with back and side woods like Walnut, Honduran Rosewood and especially African Blackwood:

Perhaps a more uplifting analysis of Cocobolo is given by the incomparable Lindsay Straw for the North American Guitar:

In the end, George Lowden says play the guitar and choose the one that speaks best to you, which is what I did when I chose Cocobolo from the crowd of Lowden’s at Casino Guitars.

To me, my F-50 is an example of high craft and understated physical beauty. The ratio of upper and lower bout sizes combined with the curvy narrow waist and sloped shoulders speak to classical Greek proportions. The satin matte finish, the understated wood bindings, the lack of decor on the fretboard and the dark veneered headstock create a sense of elegance without the gaudiness that some high end guitars self-consciously display. The figured koa/abalone rosette is a tasteful embellishment, but also holds back visually enough to avoid seeming overdone.

Other Aesthetic and Structural Features of the F-50

The Lowden paddle-type headstock has a handsome dark Ebony veneer on the face and backstrap with the brand logo inlaid top front. The tuners are the most excellent Gotoh Gold 510’s with Ebony buttons. I’ve owned several guitars in the past that were equipped with Gotoh’s. My current other acoustics are inspired by vintage Martin and Gibson guitars so they’re equipped with Waverly tuners, which are nice, but not near as supple as the Gotoh’s. I am delighted to have a guitar again with Gotoh’s. They tune like butter. As far as the nut goes, it was unclear to me based on the paucity of specs available on the Lowden website what it’s made of; however, Lowden’s website has a nice chat function and their tech rep, Simon, confirmed that bone is used, which is not surprising given the general excellence of the F-50.

I own 5 other guitars with varying neck profiles, and I am not that particular about the neck shapes other than by using it, it must not stress my old hands. Lowden is not forthcoming in their specs about their neck shape; however, I find it full-in-hand, and comfortable to play as it’s not too clubby or too thin. The neck is a five piece composite of Mahogany and Rosewood while the necks on my other axes are all solid wood, so the Lowden by comparison is somewhat exotic looking. Further, the five piece neck is theoretically more stable and less likely to twist over time. I had a Taylor solid body at one time with a twisted neck and it was ugly; fortunately, Taylor generously replaced the neck, but that’s another story. Finally, unlike the satin matte finish on the body of the Lowden, the neck has a glossier surface making it quite easy to move up and down while playing.

F-50 Neck Join

You can see the aesthetically pleasing “hockey stick” sweep of the Rosewood section embedded in the mahogany at the base of the neck. Again, it is hard to find out all the construction details on the Lowden website, but I am pretty sure that the neck is attached to the body with a traditional dovetail join. Also visible in the associated image is the contrast of the glossy neck versus the satin matte finish on the body, the figured Koa binding and backstrip, the beautiful wood grain striations in the Cocobolo, and finally the section of blonde sapwood running up the center back of the guitar.

To the right, you can see a section of the Ebony fingerboard with its Maple bindings. No blond streaks on the F-50’s fingerboard, with Lowden choosing only the most select all black Ebony wood for their Mastergrade model. The fingerboard extends into the sound hole to catch the highest possible treble notes, a place that I will probably never travel with my fingers. Nevertheless it is an aesthetically pleasing visual design feature. You can also see the unique and stunning sound hole rosette which is figured Koa and Abalone.

Unlike my other acoustic guitars which all have pinned bridges and one piece saddles, the F-50 and all other Lowdens are built with pinless bridges and compensated two-piece saddles. Put several guitarists in a room and they’ll debate the merits of pin vs pinless bridges. In my experience both approaches work fine. The pinless bridge makes for an attractive surface element on the guitar and certainly simplifies restringing although care should be taken to avoid having the string ball end slapping down onto the soundboard and dinging it during insertion through the bridge. Because the slap-down is almost inevitable, Lowden supplies a nifty little cardboard insert to slide beneath the bridge to protect the soundboard during stringing.

Finally the bottom of the lower bout can be seen on the right. Again, the wonderful Cocobolo grain patterns can be seen as well as a strip of figured Koa where the two side pieces meet. You’ll note a K&K Pure Mini jack installed at my request by the kind folks at Casino Guitars. I use this pickup on all my acoustics as it’s neat, simple and the amplified guitar sounds natural to my ears. If you’re interested in my tech for amplification you can click here.

To Sum it Up

Despite my initial buyer’s remorse before the F-50 was given a pro set up, this guitar is a real keeper! It is beautifully constructed, quite comfortable to handle and play, and the sonic palette available from this instrument is, as I had hoped, distinctly different from my other acoustic guitars. The body woods of Cocobolo and Lutz Spruce combined with Lowden’s exacting construction methods (of which they are quite mysterious) creates clean punchy bass tones, bell-chime like trebles with underlying warm overtones with tonal sustain that exceeds the eternal.

After I wrote this piece, Peach Guitars released a video in which some nice Lowden construction details are considered, particularly how the soundboard is manufactured:

For someone primarily used to Sitka Spruce combinations with Mahogany or the more accessible Rosewoods (but not unobtainium like Brazilian), a body of Cocobolo and Lutz is a nice stretch to something significantly different, but without being too exotic like Macassar Ebony or African Blackwood.

Tone Examples

I’ve reviewed several guitars on this website, but have never had the availability of linking to a Youtube video of my guitar being demonstrated; however, in this case Casino Guitars recorded a gentleman playing my F-50, which I show below:

I will also include a clip of me playing the F-50 also. What would be more appropriate than playing a selection of Piedmont Finger-Style Blues since I now reside in the Piedmont of North Carolina. This tune is credited to one of the most recognized and highly regarded Piedmont Blues players, Etta Baker entitled Carolina Breakdown!

Etta Baker’s Piedmont Blues: Carolina Breakdown

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One ring to rule them all… a Martin Authentic 1937 moves into place…

Introduction

My Taylor T5z

When I completed the purchase of my second Collings, a lovely guitar inspired by Gibson’s 1930’s era L-00, I thought I was pretty much done acquiring guitars. My six guitar collection included two resonators (one being electric), two electrics (one being a hybrid acoustic/electric, and two acoustics. But I wasn’t really done. There were two remaining issues affecting my sense of guitar balance and purpose:

First, my hybrid, semi-hollow bodied Taylor T5z, was going for long periods without being played, and that’s a red flag warning that it may be time to go. In the end it’s a niche instrument best for switching back and forth between acoustic or electric tonalities depending upon the tune being played. It’s most suitable for a gig where you only want to bring one guitar, which is not a dilemma I ever find myself in. The truth was, if I wanted to play electric, I had a far better instrument (Collings I-35) to do the job, and there was no way the T5z could match the sonic performance of the Collings acoustics in my stable.

Secondly, I’ve found myself playing a number multiple tunings on my acoustic guitars, including standard, Drop D, and Skip James’s Cross Tuning. Further, there was a Chris Smithers Open D tune that I wanted to take a run at. My experience is that guitars like to settle into a specific tuning so it’s best not to be frequently changing the tunings on a single guitar. For this reason, I began thinking that it might be nice to have a third acoustic guitar at my disposal!

Consequently for the two aforementioned reasons, I decided to eventually trade the T5Z one day in the future. In preparation, via their online process, Dave’s Guitars give me a trade-in value so I knew what I had to work with. Not surprisingly, I was going to take a haircut on a trade, but that’s the guitar business. At first I thought I might swap the T5z out for an American Professional Stratocaster at my local shop, but I was reminded during that Strat’s audition that I was not, at some fundamental level, a Strat player and my Collings Electric really met all my needs, so dumping off the T5z was put onto the back burner for a while.

A Rare Martin Guitar Finds Me

at my local shop

I take lessons weekly at my local guitar shop and it’s not unusual for the former store owner Bob, now store consultant, to greet me and show me some new guitar arrival that might be of curiosity. Most of the time the guitars, usually recent trade-ins, do not arouse my interest. But a couple of weeks ago, Bob dropped a dreadnought into my lap and explained that it was a pre-owned “Martin Authentic” built to the exacting specifications of a vintage 1937 Martin from the golden age of dreadnoughts. The guitar was in immaculate condition too and had been owned by a collector who’d passed away. His son traded the Martin in for a Taylor 814ce. So much about guitar acquisition is driven by idiosyncratic personal taste.

Me and the Authentic at the Bob’s Guitars

Initially, the guitar Bob placed in my hands was not of interest to me. For years, I’d been playing smaller bodied guitars, not a Howitzer sized dreadnought. Yes, my first two guitars, in a former lifetime, were dreads, but when I gave up on bluegrass flat picking and took up finger-style I moved to 000’s, OM’s and other smaller sized instruments. Further, I’d never been that enamored by Martin’s tonality, fit/finish and general appearance for the cost involved. But this guitar was different, sounding and feeling unusually interesting to me! Perhaps this guitar’s tone appealed to my ears because it was seven years old and had “opened up,” or maybe because the vintage “hand-built” construction techniques employed by Martin’s exclusive Custom Shop appealed to my sense of design aesthetics. Finally, the combination of rare tone woods, specifically an Adirondack spruce top with Madagascar rosewood back and sides produced a tone I’d never experienced before. It was in contrast to the Martins I’d played in the past that required really digging-in to the strings to get a decent sound. As a finger style player, my touch was generally too light to elicit magic from a Martin dreadnought. I noodled around with the guitar for a while and then went to my lesson. Afterwards, on the way out, I glanced at the Martin again hanging on the wall and thought that it might be a nice complement to the Collings acoustics I already owned, particularly for the alternate tunings I like to use.

The next day, I went back to the shop and played the Authentic again for quite a while and found it even more appealing especially since Bob replaced the existing strings with some new ones. At some point, I played the guitar into a Shure SM-57 mic plugged into a Genzler Amp to better hear it and then went home to think about it some more. Finally, the next day which was a quiet rainy Saturday, I went back to the shop with my T5z, made the trade, and purchased the Authentic. The combination of the trade along with a considerable reduction from new because the guitar was pre-owned brought the price down to something reasonable. Current new versions of the Authentic are far more pricey than I’d be willing to spend, so I feel fortunate.

Overview of the Martin 1937 Authentic D-28

To the right, you can see the Authentic. It is a formidably large guitar. Both the size and depth of the body were designed to produce a large sound. In short, the Martin Company designed the guitar to meet the needs of a popular Hawaiian slack key player (open tunings) in the early part of the 20th century. It was some time later in the 1930’s, that the Martin Company decided to begin regularly producing this large guitar and named it the “Dreadnought.”

By the time of the Second Folk Revival in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s the Dreadnought guitar became the “go to” size for acoustic players. The Martin brand was one of the most prized among those large guitars, especially, the mahogany (back and sided) D-18 and the rosewood D-28.


For more background on Martin Dreadnoughts, you may enjoy the following wonderful film:

https://vimeo.com/594705036?embedded=true&source=vimeo_logo&owner=133332214
Martin Guitar Museum

In the case of my guitar, the D-28, it has over the years, for a variety of reasons, been modified in terms of woods, bracings, and neck designs, still maintaining its general specifications. Because of a combination of rare aged woods and design features such as the hot hide glues used in the olden days, wood thicknesses, and placement of bracings, the 1937 era D-28 is considered a “high-water” mark in Martin Guitar design, and people will pay hefty sums for that vintage. Given that an original ’37 Martin D-28 is far beyond the price range of most guitar players, Martin, in the recent past, responded by producing a Custom Shop rendition of the ’37 that comes as close as possible to the original instrument. I’ve read that they took their museum specimen of the ’37 to the Smithsonian for detailed medical-technology imaging and analysis to generate the specs to manufacture an exact replica. Other than the substitution of Madagascar Rosewood for the practically unobtainable Brazilian variety, the guitar comes as close to the original ’37 as is technically feasible, hence the moniker, the “Authentic.”

Though I was certainly familiar with the value wealthy players placed on rare vintage guitars, up until the time Bob dropped the Authentic into my lap, I was unaware of Martin’s production of a more affordable “authentic/vintage” guitar. Below you can see a short YouTube film of Steve Earle speaking about his 1935 Martin D-28, which is also from the golden era of dreadnoughts. He refers to the ’35 as the holy grail of Martins. Earle’s enthusiasm for that guitar speaks to the motivation behind the Martin Company attempting to reproduce authentic versions of the past.

In addition to the singular sounds emanating from this combination of wood and steel, there is a perceived inherent beauty with this guitar connected to its decades long history as one of popular music’s most essential instruments. From the CF Martin & Co. decal on the headstock, down the mahogany neck, to the herringbone purfling surrounding the soundboard, as well as the tortoise colored pick guard, the guitar projects a culturally constructed aesthetic intertwined with the likes of Tony Rice, Elvis Presley, Eric Clapton, Hank Williams and Bob Dylan among others.

Still, as an observable object in visual space, the D-28 body is not really proportioned to the dictates of classical aesthetic beauty. A more classically designed guitar would have a narrower waist separating a smaller upper bout from the larger lower one. In many respects the Martin dreadnought is a big box with curved corners attached to a long neck, but its awkwardness relative to classical proportions is today considered an essential part of its beauty.

The Headstock

Authentic Headstock with “traditional” decal…

Before I got annoyed with their heavy-handed marketing and later became disenchanted with their tone, I was the owner of several higher end Taylor guitars. I bring this up because In comparison to typical Martin D-18’s and D-28’s, my similarly priced Taylor’s were appointed way more nicely with wooden bindings and purflings, as well as abalone inlays in the rosette, fretboard and headstock. I was completely put off by the “prosaic” C.F. Martin decal on the headstock, wondering why Martin would not use an inlay in the headstock on their flagship (and expensive) guitars.

My opinion about superficial guitar “surface” bling changed after acquiring two incredible sounding and rather simply appointed Collings guitars. I finally realized that the nice features Taylor offered were all well and good, but the guitar’s tone was by far the controlling factor for the instrument’s worth and value to me. I came to appreciate simplicity in appearance when accompanied by superior tonal output!

Headstock rear showing Waverly tuners and carved volute.

Given my new frame of reference, I am delighted with the Authentic’s headstock. Although I myself would not recognize the subtle differences between other more modern D-28’s, the headstock of the Authentic is shaped in thickness and taper as the ’37 was originally made, in this case with a Madagascar rosewood veneer instead of Brazilian, and embellished with a stylish volute carved into the back. Topping it off on the face of the headstock is the traditional C.F. Martin and Co. decal.

The paddle style headstock is equipped with vintage-style Waverly open back tuners and nickel butterbean knobs. In the past, I became very partial to Gotoh tuners and had them on three different Taylor guitars, two of which I “after-market” installed. The Gotoh high gear ratio tuners make precision tuning very easy. By comparison, I think the Waverly’s do an equivalently nice job and work well on my two Collings’s as well as the Authentic. They look very cool too!

The Neck

The 1937 D-28 was one of the earlier models that was built with fourteen frets between the body and the nut. Despite the fact that the guitar was at least 7 years old, the frets were in mint shape with no visible wear. Eschewing modern CNC milling, the neck is hand carved in the Martin custom shop to the shape of the original ’37 out of a mahogany block. This, in part, accounts for the high cost of this guitar.

I’ve got six total guitars made by National, Collings and this Martin. The necks all vary in shape and I happily play them all. The Authentic has a “1937” shape which is actually kind of meaningless to me; however, I will state it is a pleasure to play.

The 1 3/4 inch nut is bone and wide enough for comfortable fingerstyle playing. The fretboard is a solid black ebony which is somewhat difficult to acquire nowadays. Due to ebony wood scarcity and preservation, most fretboards of that material today have blond streaks randomly running through them. The fretboard inlaid markers are subtle but handsome 1937 diamond and square shapes.

Dovetail neck join. Note the rich red color of the mahogany neck and the Madagascar rosewood sides of the guitar.

The neck has a reinforced T-Bar to give it stability and it is attached to the body using C.F. Martin’s traditional dovetail joint. Unlike modern guitars (like my other 5), consistent with the design of that era, the Authentic has no adjustable truss rod. Since I tweak my guitar neck with the truss rod on occasion, I find this a bit unnerving; however, from everything I’ve read the Authentic’s neck is supposedly very stable. Right now the string to neck play is quite good up and down the neck. I imagine controlling the moisture content of this guitar is fairly critical to maintain neck stability!

The Body

The Authentic soundboard. Note the Adirondack’s wide grain.

The Authentic’s body is constructed with an Adirondack spruce soundboard and Madagascar rosewood back and sides. Every other acoustic guitar I’ve ever owned was built with a Sitka spruce soundboard, as is 80 percent of all other quality acoustic guitars. In the early years of the D-28’s construction all the tops was made with Adirondack (Red) Spruce; however, due to scarcity of the heavily logged Red Spruce trees, the guitar industry transitioned to the more plentiful Sitka Spruce. Sitka is a pretty tight grained wood that yields a warm response when played, whereas Adirondack, a wider grained wood, is harder and more glasslike as compared to Sitka, giving it a sharper more more immediate response. Adirondack is prized by Bluegrass flat pickers and strummers because of the way the top responds to those styles of play, but I think too that the boutique crowd also values Adirondack because it is a relatively rare, high status wood. I do not have the ear to detect the subtleties of Sitka vs Adirondack, but I do, very much, like the guitar’s overall tonality (for a very articulate discussion of the Authentic’s tone as it relates to Madagascar versus Brazilian back and side wood, I suggest you read this blog article).

Close-up Adirondack top grain

The D-28 Authentic 1937 was first introduced at a 2013 NAMM show and records show that my instrument was ordered by Dave’s Guitar Shop for delivery to its previous owner in 2014. The initial production models of the ’37 did not utilize the Vintage Tone System (VTS), a torrefication heat treatment of the Adirondack soundboard to enhance the tone via “premature” aging. I think all subsequent production from 2015 on are torrified. I am agnostic about that type of wood treatment, but pleased the guitar has been played-in for 7-8 years in a natural manner. As I said before, it sounds quite lovely.

For a hefty monetary charge, C.F. Martin also offers an aging process in the custom shop to relic the instrument. I am not particularly enthusiastic about “relic” technique and am delighted this process was not applied to my Authentic. In fact, other than a barely visible crease-like ding in the soundboard, a small ding on the bottom, and some marking on the pickguard, this guitar was immaculate even though having been played for 7-8 years. The previous owner took great care of this guitar and makes me wonder if it ever left his home. Me, on the other hand, as much as I try to care of my guitars, I end up inadvertently beating the shit out of them because I play them and use them in and out of my home. Guitars are awkward shaped objects as they move through three dimensional space, and with me guiding them, they can attract wear marks, dings, and finish checking, so in the end I unwittingly relic them the old-fashioned way.

Unlike my Taylor 914ce, which was an exercise in excess, with abalone appointments galore, as well as wood bindings and purflings. The Authentic is more scaled down, but beautiful in its own right. You can see in the image to the left that the sound hole rosette is simple yet tasteful, and the soundboard is appointed with traditional bold herringbone purflings and grained ivoroid bindings. While I play fingerstyle and don’t generally like pickguards, if you are going to have one, the “old school” Delmar faux tortoise type is a nice one to have.

Rounding off the guitar’s top is the authentic ebony Style Belly bridge with long bone saddle. The bridge pins are polymer plastic with black dots. The bridge is located to give a comfortable 25.4 inch scale length.

A photo of the back of the guitar indicates the subtle beauty of Madagascar rosewood. The color of the wood is toward the red end of the spectrum and exhibits some nice but restrained grain. As suggested earlier, Madagascar rosewood has somewhat similar tonality when compared to the essentially unobtainable and certainly unaffordable Brazilian rosewood. A guitar constructed from Brazilian would be many times more expensive. Finally, note the 28 Style Zig-Zag (Authentic) purfling down the center of the back. It’s a very nice touch.

Cable jack for K&K Pure Mini Pick-up

I love my guitars and I love to play them. It is a privilege to own and play National Resonators, as well as Collings electric and acoustic guitars, and now an exceptional Martin Authentic. Nevertheless, I view those guitars as tools and a means to an end, which is to make music. I won’t leave the guitars hiding in their cases preserved from the dings, scratches and bumps of use. They’re tools and I will hammer nails with them as long as I can.

My acoustic guitar pedalboard

To that end, I perform with my guitars around town, and host a monthly open mic night at a local coffee shop. I own a Genzler Pro Array and a Bose L-1 Pro 32 PA that I plug into when I perform. Consequently, I had a pick-up installed in the Authentic. In the image to the left you can see the jack for a K&K Pure Mini pick-up, an elegantly simple device that utilizes 3 transducers that are glued under the bridge plate. I’ve seen some high end guitar owners fret about adversely impacting the resale value of their guitars by altering them, such as adding a pick-up. I do not worry about such matters, especially with a low impact addition like the K&K.

Because the K&K Pure Mini is so simple, without onboard preamp and tone controls, I’ve built an acoustic guitar pedal board to manage the tone of the Authentic and my two other Collings. For more information about the board, click here.

Summary

The Martin D-28 Authentic 1937 is one of the “Kings” of acoustic guitars. It is made with incredible care and dedication to evoking the golden age of guitars. In my home the Authentic has fierce competition for playing time from a Collings 0002H, a Collings C10-35, and a National M-1 Tricone, yet at this time it rules the roost. It is a magical guitar and rules them all…

Example Sound Clips

Below please find some Vimeo clips I made with the D-28 Authentic. The clips were made on an iPhone 11 Pro Max with a Shure MV 88 clip-on Mic. The guitar was played through my pedalboard into a Genzler Pro Array acoustic amp. I added a dash of compression, delay and reverb. The clips was processed on a elderly MacBook Pro with iMovie. The guitars tone would probably be best appreciated with headphones.

The first two clips are the Authentic tuned in Open D:

Following is a clip in standard tuning:

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On Building a Pedalboard for My Acoustic Guitars

At Dave’s Guitars, the Acoustic Room Manager

Late last year 2021, I was at Dave’s Guitars in LaCrosse, WI and it was there that I acquired my first Collings acoustic, a 0002H. Since I perform monthly live at an Open Mic Night that I host with a friend, and because I like to play through an acoustic amp when I play at home, I requested that the shop install a pick up in the guitar before I headed back home to Iowa.

K&K Pure Mini Pickup

The gentleman who manages the acoustic guitar department was emphatic that the best pickup for a Collings acoustic guitar was the K&K Pure Mini because it was generally transparent sounding, way less prone to feedback, and relatively easy to install.

L.R. Baggs Venue DI with tone controls and tuner

A challenge with a passive pickup like the K&K Pure Mini is the absence of a preamp/equalizer to control guitar tonality, such as bass, mids and treble, as well as to boost the signal. My previous acoustic guitars were Taylors which had a preamp/equalizer and pickup installed as part of the guitar itself, so I was at a bit of a loss, until my Dave’s guy suggested that I should also purchase a DI/Preamp with built in equalizer to manage the pickup, and he recommended the L.R. Baggs Venue for the job. When I suggested that I already owned a rather extensive pedalboard that I used with my electric guitars which might accomplish the same thing, he visibly shuddered and said he would never, ever run a Collings acoustic guitar through those electronics. It would be a major compromise to the guitar’s tone, which is what Collings guitars were all about!

At a gig with the Venue DI & 0002H

So, I ordered an L.R. Baggs Venue and put it to good use when I played a gig at one of our local coffee shops. The 0002H was cabled into the Venue which was then cabled into a Bose T4s Mixer and then on into a Bose L1 Pro PA and it worked well enough.

Still, I was unsure whether or not I had the best possible tool kit at my disposal for projecting the best possible tone from my Collings. Consequently, I started digging around the internet and discovered that the L.R. Baggs Company in the past few years has developed a line of pedals that were specifically attuned to the unique complexities and frequencies of acoustic guitars. They’re referred to as the Align series of acoustic pedals, and include a compressor, a DI, an equalizer, a reverb, a delay, and a chorus.

L.R. Baggs Session Compressor Pedal

In my judgement an essential pedal for all amplified guitars is a compressor, because to me it makes the guitar sound better. Most importantly the compressor levels the dynamics of different strings, which can be very helpful in making the guitarist sound more pleasant, especially when playing fingerstyle. As you can see on the right, the L.R. Baggs compressor has a simple layout with volume and gain controls at the top. I use just enough gain to keep the signal flowing through the chain as I don’t want gain fattening up the signal beyond what I perceive to be a natural acoustic tone. The various pedals in the signal chain all have some form of volume control, some of which alter the guitar’s overall dry signal and other control the loudness of the effect the pedal was designed for. I tend to keep the loudness/volume controls set close to mid-point and do final volume control at the Venue DI or the Amp/PA. The effects volume is set to keep the effect subtle and not to overwhelm the guitar’s dry signal.

The Compressor’s saturate knob can “enrich” the tone, but with a Collings I don’t find that a necessity, so I keep it tuned down so as not to affect the natural brilliance built into the guitar. Where the “rubber meets the road” is the comp eq knob and here is where the guitar tonal dynamics are controlled. What I do is adjust the knob, and then back and forth mute or activate the combined Session compressor and Venue DI so that I eventually get the natural sound of the guitar unplugged but simply louder when the signal chain is engaged, and “By-Jiminy” it works!

In truth, the combination of the Venue DI and Session Compressor would be enough if all you wanted during a performance was the natural sound of the guitar amplified. During the time that I possessed just those two pedals I ran them in series with the guitar into the compressor, then feeding directly into the Venue. When I used the chromatic tuner that is built into the Venue, I would turn the compressor off before hand so that a clean signal reached the tuner.

L.R. Baggs Reverb

The fact is, sometimes I like to use tone modulation pedals in very light doses to add mood or flavor to the guitar’s basic tone. Consequently, I anticipated eventually adding the L.R. Baggs Reverb and Delay pedals to the signal chain. I sold some old pedals I was not using and purchased the Reverb first.

Again, as with the Compressor, the control knobs for the Reverb are fairly simple. No choices of multiple types of Reverb are available as typical on pedals such as those manufactured by Boss or Neunaber. L.R. Baggs engineered a Reverb signal they thought best complemented an acoustic guitar, and I like it. In the case of this Reverb pedal, the volume and tone controls just alter the reverb effect and not the guitar’s dry signal. Also onboard are knobs to adjust the amount of reverb and the decay, which is the duration of the effect. As I said before, with an acoustic guitar like a Collings, if I engage reverb, I like to do it with subtlety.

FX Loop Input/Output in rear of Venue DI

After studying the L.R. Baggs Venue literature, I decided to reroute my pedals from a straight line configuration, meaning they connect to each other train car style, one after the other, until they reach the Venue as last entry point. Instead, I chose to use the Venue’s EFX loop with input and output jacks located in the back of the device. Basically the Compressor and Reverb pedals are lassoed together and run via a cabled loop into and out of the Venue’s rear. As I understand it, the native signal from a guitar’s passive pickup, such as my K&K Pure Mini, is not particularly strong. Consequently, it is prudent to use effects pedals after the guitar’s signal is strengthened by the Venue’s Preamp. Theoretically, this results in a cleaner signal for the pedals to manipulate, giving precise and more audibly pleasing control over the effects. Effects such as Reverb and Delay would clearly benefit from flowing through the EFX loop. Whether or not the Compressor belongs in the EFX loop or is instead located before the preamp can be debated; however, I have it located in the loop and it sounds just fine to me.

L.R. Baggs Delay

I completed the signal modulation section of my acoustic pedalboard with the acquisition of the L.R. Baggs Align Delay pedal. This pedal too is tied into the EFX loop and I tend to set it to give a subtle slapback effect, which, when used adds some further depth to the guitar’s tonality. To maintain subtlety, I limit the delay time with the delay knob, limit the number of repeats per unit time and keep the time of the delay relatively brief. The tone knob controls the brightness or darkness of the delay effect and I tend to keep that setting relatively neutral.

It is apparent via this discussion that I tend to use modulation and compression pedals in this configuration in a “set it and forget it” mode. I don’t like fiddling about with the pedals especially when performing. On the other hand, I do have separate Venue DI equalizer settings depending on which guitar I am using. I keep a photograph of the settings for the 0002H and the C10-35 on my iPad, and can easily adjust if I switch guitars when playing.

The last pedal on my board, which is a Korg tuner, really should not have been a necessity because the Venue DI has a built-in, onboard chromatic tuner. Sadly, it is not as responsive as other tuners I’ve used, and I lost confidence in its accuracy because of its oddball circular LED interface. Consequently, I added the KORG pedal and it works just fine! The raw guitar signal feeds directly into the Korg, which then cables into the Venue DI.

A handmade George L patch chord

It is worth noting that I use George L patch chords on both of my pedalboards. They are infinitely variable lengthwise because you build them yourself and have discretion as to how long the patch chord wire is. At my local shop, you purchase the plugs individually and the wire is paid for by the length. I keep a small coil of wire at home. The plugs are all nickel colored and the wire comes in multiple colors including black, blue, white and red. You build the patch chord by cutting the wire and then removing the cap to the plug. This is followed by inserting the wire into the opened plug and finally screwing the plug’s cap back down, which cuts the insulation on the wire and creates a proper circuit. I also use the optional rubber stress relief caps that keep the plug cap from unscrewing, which can happen over time. The George L’s are pricey. You can make 6 patch chords for roughly $100. My guitar shop guys consider them the best in the marketplace, but opinions around the web vary.

Genzler Acoustic Array Pro Amp

It goes without saying that an essential element in the signal chain is the amplifier itself. I currently use the Genzler Acoustic Array Pro amp and am very pleased with it. It offers a lovely transparent amplification of the guitar’s signal, which is a necessity when so much has been invested in the tonality of a Collings guitar. I would not want my guitars signal colored by the amp. The Genzler offers two channels, as well as chorus and reverb effects. I keep the effects turned off because I choose to use my pedals instead.

At home, I use one channel of the Genzler for the guitar and the other to practice singing my tunes. I own a very nice Sennheiser e965 condenser mic, which requires phantom power. Sadly, the Genzler’s phantom power is too wimpy to work with the e965, so I had to purchase a rechargeable phantom power booster that I stick between the mic and the amp and that works out adequately. I have not taken the Genzler out for a gig because I use a Bose L1 Pro PA; however, the Genzler is ready to go if I decide to use it. There is a socket built into the bottom of the amp so that it can be mounted on a stand at ear level for the audience.

The complete Acoustic Pedalboard

Above you can see the completed pedalboard. While there’s room for another pedal like the L.R. Baggs Align Chorus, I think this signal chain offers more than enough tone altering capability, without being excessive. You will note the pedals are velcro mounted on a Pedaltrain Classic JR chassis. Bolted below is a Pedaltrain Spark power block that offers 5 isolated power channels. Sadly, the Spark is no longer manufactured, but there are other power blocks in the marketplace. On my electric guitar pedalboard I use the excellent Walrus Audio Phoenix.

Below I offer some tone samples using various pedal combinations for both my Collings C10-35 and then my 0002H. I recorded the clips with an iPhone 11, equipped with a Shure MV88 mic plugged into its jack, and did final processing in Apple’s iMovie. The recordings are probably best appreciated with decent headphones.

The sound samples from the C10-35 are drawn from the music that accompanies Blaze Foley’s Clay Pigeons:

The sound samples from the 0002H are drawn from the music that accompanies Steve Earle’s Fort Worth Blues:

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My Search for Transcendent Acoustic Guitar Tone – I review my Collings C10-35.

Introduction

The first solid wood acoustic guitar I ever purchased was a 1994 era Taylor 510 (Mahogany and Spruce) Dreadnought. After I learned through hard knocks and dirty socks that I was not quick enough to be a bluegrass flat picker, I dumped the Dread and worked my way through a series of other Taylors more suitable for fingerstyle, including a 1997 612 (Spruce and Maple, now owned by my son), an early 2000’s 714ce (Cedar and Rosewood, traded away), a 2015 914ce (Spruce and Rosewood), and finally a 2016 812ce (Spruce and Rosewood). In short, I was a Taylor fan-boy. The brighter, more modern sound of Taylors, for a long time, appealed to my ears and sensibility. Over the years, I auditioned other major brands but they fell short of my expectations in tonality, as well as fit, finish and value.

Me and the 0002H

Then several months ago, my opinion about acoustic guitars took an abrupt change in direction when I traded my Taylor 812ce and purchased a Collings 0002H, which I discussed in some detail here. In sum, the 0002H bloomed with overtone when plucked, whereas the Taylor 812ce’s tone was more fundamental and somewhat anemic sounding by comparison. As a result I suffered zero remorse replacing the 812ce with the 0002H and have since greatly enjoyed playing it at home and when performing.

The 0002H and I were largely inseparable, except when I played slide in Open D on my National M1, which created a dilemma for me because I had my remaining Taylor acoustic, a 914ce, sitting idle and unplayed for an extended period of time. To try to remedy this situation, I put new strings on the Taylor and played it a bit to see if I could get some traction with it. Not suprislingly my expectations for acoustic guitar tonality had changed and the 914ce was now irretrievably disappointing to me ear… really disappointing.

My friend Grant and me at my local shop

In sum, the 914ce became a candidate for trade. Sadly, there really were no acoustic guitars at the local guitar store that interested me. They have a fine selection of Taylors but I was done with Taylors as I’d owned two of their finest instruments for several years. Further, I was pretty much underwhelmed by the tonality of their newer, reinvented, heavily marketed V-Class line of acoustics. The Taylor Guitar Company is a great company and over the years they’ve been very kind to me, but for now I am done with their guitars, with the exception of a T5z which I am hanging onto. My local shop also has some nice Martins in their inventory, but those guitars have always left me cold.

The Collings Corner at Dave’s Guitars

My thinking was that it might be really nice to have another Collings acoustic in my stable to replace the 914ce, so I asked the Collings Enthusiasts Facebook crowd what they might recommend in a small bodied guitar that would complement my 0002H. Several members made a variety of suggestions. I followed up with research on their recommendations and decided that the best candidate was perhaps the C10 model. Given that the 0002H’s body was constructed of Sitka Spruce and East Indian Rosewood, the C10 offered a nice contrast with a body of Sitka Spruce and Mahogany, The only store within distance that sells Collings Acoustic was Dave’s Guitars in LaCrosse, WI which is about 3 hours away by car. I thus cross-matched the Facebook recommendations with Dave’s inventory, which at the time was 12 guitars. Sure enough, they had a C10-35 in stock, which is a variation of the C10 and it was finished in a lovely sunburst! So I decided to take a trip to the store to check it out. There were some other models too, such as the Collings OM that I wanted to look more closely at also, but the C10-35 was at the top of the list.

Vintage L-0 & L-00

Collings is well know for designing guitar models based upon or inspired by highly regarded vintage classics of the past. But instead of duplicating the older guitars they apply a combination of precision machine technology, skilled, meticulous handwork, and the finest materials (i.e. tone woods) available to produce an instrument that exceeds the original vintage design in both tonality as well as fit and finish. It’s my understanding that the C10 was inspired by the Gibson L-00 guitars of the 1930’s. Vintage versions of this instrument are highly sought after by musicians and collectors. Collings’ limited production C10-35 variant pushes the voicing of the original C10 to more closely emulate a vintage instrument by using ultra-light tone woods, non-scalloped Adirondack bracing, a long cutthrough saddle, and other vintage inspired features such as an abbreviated tongue brace.

It is difficult for me to articulate the care, time and detail that goes into making a Collings instrument, which sets them apart from the big time manufacturers such as Taylor, Gibson and Martin. While a large manufacturer like Taylor makes consistent and beautiful guitars, they are still, in my experience, missing the fairy dust that makes them singular instruments. The brief documentary film I share below does clarify what the Collings philosophy is and why their guitars stand out in the marketplace:

As I wrote earlier, Collings often designs guitars that are inspired by the past, so as the highly regarded 1930’s era Gibsons. Below you can see Steve Earle speak to his vintage L-00, which inspired the C10-35.

If you’re interested in more background regarding Gibson acoustic guitars, the following video is quite informative:

I Purchase a C10-35

As I mentioned above, Dave’s Guitars had a relatively large inventory of Collings acoustics when I initially decided to trade-off the Taylor 914ce. Collings is a smallish operation, so the marketplace is not flooded with their instruments. It’s nice for me that a store just three hours away sells them. It was on a Saturday when I made the decision to move on the C10-35, but I also wanted to audition an OM too before making the final purchase. At that moment in time there were 12 Collings acoustics hanging on the wall at Dave’s. Sunday when I again checked into Dave’s inventory they were down to just 8 and the two OM’s in stock were gone! I was astonished and unnerved. There was a run on Collings guitars going on at Dave’s! In response, without even playing the C10-35, I put it on my credit card, and let the store know I would drive over the following Tuesday to pick it up as well as trade-in the 914ce. I figured that if I really did not like the C10-35, the folks at Dave’s would just refund what I’d paid… no harm no foul…

Me at Dave’s visiting his collection

So I went to Dave’s early Tuesday morning with my friend Grant. The C10-35 was sitting there waiting for me to pick up; however, I sat in the corner and auditioned it for quite a while before closing the deal. I also checked out a Collings CJ-45, a larger Gibson Jumbo inspired guitar but thought it was way too large for my comfort. While auditioning the two Collings, the store examined my Taylor and made, what I thought, was a very fair trade offer, considering that the guitar was pretty dinged up (it sold within the week, so they knew what they were doing).

I closed the deal and remanded the guitar to the custody of Dave’s luthier shop to have a K&K Pure Mini pickup installed. I like to play through an acoustic amp at home and I typically perform plugged into a PA system, so a pickup is a necessity. Dave’s acoustic guy, JR Rabie is emphatic that the K&K is the best choice for a Collings acoustic. I put one into my 0002H and was very please with its simplicity and transparency.

Grant and I grabbed lunch, checked out Dave’s upstairs collection of vintage guitars, visited Daves’ Drum Depot and by then the C10-35 was ready for pickup. I gave the guitar a cursory examination while in the case, then Grant and I headed home with the Collings in the back of car.

Ruh-Roh… This Is All Wrong!!!

Circumferential scarring around the jack

When I got home, I promptly pulled the guitar out of its case and the first thing I did was look at the bottom of the guitar to study what the pickup jack looked like and I was appalled to see that there was a circumferential gouge or scar around the jack’s location. It seemed pretty obvious to me that the luthier/tech damaged the wood around the jack when either enlarging the hole for the jack or when tightening the jack into its final location. Sadly, the damage was not reported at the time it occurred, leading me to have to find it after I got home.

After repair

I contacted several people at Dave’s Guitars via email with the above photograph and in very short order they responded with an apology and an offer to either repair the damage or refund me $200. The monetary refund was not very much considering the overall cost of the guitar, suggesting to me that what they really wanted to do was repair the instrument. I was informed that with a nitrocellulose finish, such as on this guitar, the luthiers would be able to repair the damage. At my request, Dave’s shipped me a suitable box and a prepaid return UPS label. I played the guitar for several days bonding with it before the shipping box arrived, and that same day I shipped the guitar back to Wisconsin. About a week after the guitar had arrived at Dave’s they completed the repair and shipped it back to me. Since it was so cold here in Iowa when the box arrived, I had to let it acclimate in my house for 24 hours before opening. That was a long day! You can see in the photo above the guitar bottom after repair. The damage is largely gone; however, if you look closely enough there’s still some slight evidence of the mishap, but not enough to quibble with. I am very glad to have it back.

I Review the Collings C10-35

Collings C10-35 in TKL Case

On the right you can see the C10-35 in the TKL hardcase that Collings uses to protect their guitars. It’s a decent case with a nice tight fit for the guitar, but the Tolex covering is vulnerable to tearing if not handled gently. As with a typical guitar case, there’s a compartment for storing necessities and there’s a key included to lock the case if desired. There is a cushioned, comfortable handle but rugged enough to last the life of the case.

Collings C10-35

Looking very much like a vintage Gibson L-00 the Collings C10-35 is larger than a parlor guitar but still in a relatively small body. Coming with a paddle style headstock, a mahogany neck, a Wenge fingerboard and bridge, with back and sides of mahogany and a top of sitka spruce. The nitrocellulose coating is so glossy and mirror-like it’s hard to photograph the guitar without revealing whatever is in the background.

The guitar is significantly lighter than my 0002H, which is probably a function of its somewhat smaller size, but also thinned out tone woods for the body. Internally is a pre-war, non-scalloped X bracing, composed of light Adirondack spruce.

The guitar is quite beautiful but spare in adornment. Other than the “just-showy” Ivoroid tuners, the body is bound by thin strips of Ivoroid with no purfling. The sound hole rosette is also basic Ivoroid with some simple black and white purfling. It’s the combination of the high gloss nitrocellulose finish over the stunning sunburst staining of the soundboard that gives the guitar its “wow” factor. As a rule, I do not like pickguards, but the vintage tiger stripe guard also adds to the guitars stunning appearance. The Taylor 914ce I traded for this Collings was a highly embellished instrument and physically stunning in its own right, but in the end when your playing a guitar, it’s not really what it looks like, but what it sounds like, as well as its playability and the C10-35 wins “hands-down” for me!

C10-35 Headstock

The C10-35’s headstock is carved with their recognizable haircut profile and topped with a gloss Ebony veneer and an Ivoroid Collings logo. The tuners are nickel Waverly brand with a 16:1 ratio, which makes tuning a pleasure. The tuner buttons are Ivoroid and the gearing is open in the back adding to he vintage appearance for the guitar.

I have some reservations about Ivoroid tuning buttons because my former Taylor 812ce tuners had Ivoroid buttons, one of which blew apart when I was restringing the guitar with an powered auto-winder. Straight metal knobs like the 0002H is equipped with would have been just fine. Still… the Ivoroid knobs are pretty and add to the vintage look. I really like the appearance of a slothead like the 0002H possesses, but they are considerably more fiddly to restring than a paddle head like the C10-35 has, so that’s good!

Note also, the 1 3/4 inch bone nut. That is a standard width nowadays and fine for finger picking.

Wenge Fingerboard

While the other C10 models are built with Ebony fingerboards, the C10-35 possesses the very grainy appearing Wenge wood. It’s the first guitar I’ve ever owned that has any Wenge on it. Why Collings made this decision eludes me, but I think it has a rather stunning and antique-like appearance with its broad and distinctive grain, The Wenge looks like it might be coarse feeling, but it’s quite smooth making for a functional fingerboard.

Santa Cruz strings

The guitar was shipped with D’Addario EJ 16’s, which I like and they’re pretty affordable; however, I’ve replaced them with Santa Cruz Low Tension Parabellum strings because they are easier on my hands and they sound good. They are very expensive strings so their longevity will determine whether or not I keep using them. Since they are micro-coated hopefully they will last a while.

C10-35 body

To the right you can see a close-up of the C10-35’s body. Note the sunburst stain, the simple unadorned bindings and paired-down soundhole rosette, the tiger-striped pickguard, the Wenge bridge, the vintage cut-through saddle and the plain Ivoroid bridge pins. Simple but stunning in appearance.

Some guitar designers believe the larger cut through saddle creates a different tonality for the guitar because of the larger surface area contact with the bridge. This is open to continuing debate; however, these cut through saddles were very common on pre-war guitars, which is what inspires the C10-35 design.

The guitar’s body has an elegantly narrow waist and proportionately different sized upper and lower bouts giving the guitar aesthetically pleasing dimensions and appearance. Highly regarded independent luthier Ernst Somogyi would point out that the Greek Golden Rule of Proportion was applied by constructing the waist of the guitar to give a perfect ratio of top bout size compared to the lower bout. Further, the shoulders of the guitar add a subtle sloping drop which enhances its elegance giving it an altogether more appealing shape to the human eye!

To the left is a section of the guitar’s back showing the rich Honduran Mahogany color and the stunning grain. There is a barely visible Walnut backstrip joining the two pieces of Mahogany that comprise the back.

Conclusion

This guitar, like my 0002H has great presence, both in tonality and appearance. Unlike the 0002H which blooms with a cascade of overtone, the C10-35 is somewhat dryer and more straightforward, but still dwarfs my Taylor 812ce and 914ce with it’s sonic personality. It is a very comfortable guitar to play with its small-but-not-too-small body size and its shorter 24&7/8 inch scale. In fact, it is easier to play than the longer scaled stiffer 0002H. It’s an instrument that earns respect and demands to be played!

The C10-35 at home…

Below is a Vimeo clip of me playing the C10-35. I play strictly fingerstyle and this piece is a section of the guitar accompaniment to Steve Earle’s tune Goodbye, which was arranged by Tom Feldmann in one of his online lessons, a teacher I highly recommend. As I said above I use a K&K Pure Mini pickup run through the following signal chain: First into an and L.R. Baggs Venue, which is a DI and tone control; Second, in my effects loop, that runs through the Venue, I applied some light compression using the L.R. Baggs Session Align Pedal, and finally through a Genzler Pro Array acoustic amp. I also have L.R. Baggs Delay and Reverb pedals in the signal chain but chose not to use them to keep the soundclip as natural as possible. The settings of the signal chain devices are such that the guitar sounds louder but matches, to the extent possible, the tonality of the C10-35 unplugged, and it comes pretty close. I recorded the clip with an iPhone 11, equipped with a Shure MV88 mic plugged into its jack, and did final processing in Apple’s iMovie. Probably best appreciated with decent headphones.

If you’d like to hear more samples from this guitar, I suggest you visit this blog entry and scroll down to the bottom:

On Building a Pedalboard for My Acoustic Guitars

Finally, thanks again to the Collings Guitars Enthusiasts Facebook page for their suggestions during my hunt for guitar tone transcendence!

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Open Mic Night at Cup of Joe; May 7, 2021

Cup of Joe, Cedar Falls, Iowa…

With mass vaccinations of Iowans occurring daily, by most visible measures life is slowly returning to pre-pandemic normal. Though masking is still a prevalent and required, people are involving themselves in old routine behaviors like eating at restaurants, visiting coffee shops, and in the case of this posting, attending musical events such as Open Mic Night! We had the great good fortune of access to a most excellent coffee shop, Cup of Joe in Cedar Falls, to host such an event.

The Conditts perform at Open Mic Night

My friend Grant Tracey and I hosted our first Open Mic Night together this past Friday evening, May 7, 2021. In a previous blog posting I wrote in some detail about the technical aspects of hosting an Open Mic scenario, particularly the use of a Bose L1 Pro 32 PA system.

To the left you can see the general set-up situated in the rear of the coffee shop. Between the two performers, on the floor, you will note the Bose subwoofer, the line array speaker tower and hidden behind the singer a T4s mixer that all comprise the PA system. The Bose 32 is spec’d for a larger space than the coffee shop so it easily performed admirably without stress and filled the room with a pleasant level of performance sound. Audio level adjustments of volume, bass, treble and reverb were easily executed. Audience members commented positively on the quality of the sound, which was a relief to me since I personally invested in all the PA hardware. You’ll also notice guitar and mic cables everywhere, stools, mic stands, guitar pedal boards, guitars, and guitar and music stands.

The fact is, there was a great deal of schlepping to get the performance space properly set up. Even though the Bose PA is valued for its portability, by the time you pack in the PA, cables, stools, mic stands, guitars, guitar stands, and guitar pedal boards, its quite an effort! You can see below, in the image of me performing, all the surrounding support hardware required to pull off the event. At first glance, it might not seem like a lot, but it was a lot to haul from home, and then get from the parking lot into the coffee shop. I am grateful that we planned to take 90 minutes to get set up for our first time, and we needed every minute, considering that Grant had to make an emergency run back to my home to fetch a music stand and my iPhone which contained a Bose app to remotely control PA sound quality.

Me and my Collings I-35 knocking out my first set…

I would make the following preliminary conclusions regarding the Open Mic set up to consider before Grant and I do it again:

  • Get to the Coffee Shop early, because set up takes time. I still think we need 90 minutes. Perhaps we will be able to streamline matters in the future, but we’re not there yet.
  • Contrary to my above assertion, as advertised, the Bose L1 Pro 32 snaps together very quickly and gives solid performance. Its the routing of mics, guitars and pedal boards that take extra time.
  • It seems to me easiest to use the 3 channels available on the Bose L1 power stand because the sound quality can be easily manipulated using the Bose app on my iPhone. The app allows me to wander anywhere in the coffee shop to check sound level and tonality and easily adjust it where I stand. With a variety of performers using different guitar types and styles, quick and easy adjustments of sound are of great value.
  • That first night we set up three mics, but I think two is enough. Dropping to two will save time, space, and reduce cables.
  • The two guitar channels and a mic will run off the power stand. An additional mic can be routed through the T4s. This set-up is not written in stone.
  • I do not think we need 2 stools and am thinking one is enough.
  • It is my understanding that there are music stands in the basement of the Coffee Shop, so we do not need to haul one in on Open Mic night.
Grant Tracey and his Les Paul playing his set…

All in all, it was a good night. I’ve seen the coffee shop more crowded on previous Open Mic nights, but there are still some residual pandemic fears keeping people away, and there was an outdoor music venue in operation around the corner, down the street, which was drawing people in. Nevertheless, we had a respectable audience for our initial First Friday Open Mic night.

To the right, you can see fellow host Grant Tracey playing through his set. One of the perks of hosting Open Mic is the chance to play your self and depending on the number of performers who sign up, you may get to play even more.

Playing my National Reso_Lectric in a second set…

In the end, both Grant and I squeezed in two sets each. Anticipating that I might have the opportunity to play more than the standard 15 minute open mic set, I brought along two guitars, both of which made their first public appearances: my Collings I-35 Semi-Hollow bodied electric and my National Reso-Lectric, as seen with me on the left. In addition to the guitars, making a first public appearance, I, for the first time sang publicly. Ever since, Mrs. Silliman, in the 3rd grade, tossed me onto the “inadequate singer” refuse heap when sorting students for participation in grade school chorus, I’ve believed my singing voice somewhat suspect; however, with the encouragement of my wife, Annette, and others I decided to give it a go. Playing finger-style Travis picking technique is also a challenge when trying to sing simultaneously; however, after 5 years of concentrated dedication to guitar playing, I finally broke through this Spring and was able to play and sing simultaneously, which is no mean feat for me!

Here was my playlist:

Set One

  • If I Needed You – Townes Van Zandt
  • Long Distance Call – Muddy Waters
  • Pancho and Lefty – Muddy Waters
  • Vigilante Man – Woody Guthrie (arranged by Ry Cooder)

Set Two

  • Paris, Texas – Ry Cooder
  • You Got to Move – Mississippi Fred McDowell
  • Railroad Bill – traditional (arranged by Tom Feldmann)
  • Corrina, Corrina – traditional (arranged by Stephen Grossman)
  • Baby, Please Don’t Go – Big Joe Williams

Annette was kind enough to film a couple of my tunes… you can view one below, warts and all… I dropped a few notes along the way. This was my rendition of Muddy Waters’ “Long Distance Call.” A bottleneck tune played in standard tuning… You will note that the Coffee Shop was quite noisy and I found it a bit of a distraction, but powered through…

Steve Surles, waiting his turn to play at the Open Mic

If all goes as planned, I will be hosting First Friday Open Mic in June on the 4th. My regular co-host Grant, to my chagrin, is tied up with a local theater engagement, so Steve Surles, who also played the open mic with us on the first night, has volunteered to guest co-host in June. Hopefully too, my son Parker will come back from college in Iowa City to help haul equipment and listen-in which will be a great delight for me! See you then!

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Hosting Open Mic Night with the Bose L1 Pro 32…

Introduction

What to do? What to do with yourself in retirement that continues personal development? What do I like to do? I love the road and photography… Seeing live music is always fun too, but it’s even more fun to make music. Nevertheless, I’m not ready, nor interested in solo gigging at this time nor playing in a band… what is realistic for me is 15 minutes behind the open mic… I’ve missed the open mic as much as anything during the pandemic “lockdowns.”

Cup of Joe on Main in Cedar Falls, IA

Now consider this… What could be more fun than playing at an open mic night? Not only playing open mic night, but also hosting it! You get to play, organize the event, and operate the sound tech, and I’ve always loved tech. For example, I had a ball building a proper pedal board.

In my experience, the best existing open mic night in the Cedar Falls/Waterloo area is hosted by Rick Vanderwall and Bill Guernsey at the excellent coffee shop, Cup of Joe on Main Street. Yet it only happened (pre-pandemic) once per month on the third Friday.

It occurred to me a couple of months ago, as the pandemic began to wane somewhat, and I finished out my two Pfizer vaccinations, that it might be possible to add another open mic night at Cup of Joe on the first Friday of the month. I believed the interest would be there for an additional open mic session. This is especially true when you consider the sizable increase in guitar sales during the “lockdown.” My guess is there is now a more-than-modest increase in the number of live-performance aspirants with new guitars and open mic night is the place to start!

So… I asked Dawn, the proprietor of the coffee shop, if she would be interested in providing the space for an additional open mic night. Along with the request, I promised her that I would provide a “world-class” PA system to support the event… and, to my great, good fortune she said YES! Her only request was that I apply energy to make it a success by marketing the event in the community… fair enough!

A World-Class PA for Open Mic Night

Grant (left) and me (right) checking out axes at Bob’s Guitars in the days before COVID. I love the optical illusion in this photo. In real life Grant towers over me, but in this shot he looks like my little buddy…

I should note that before I embarked on this project, I enlisted my longtime-Iowa-best-friend and guitar playing partner in crime, Grant Tracey, as a cohost for open mic night with me. Running one of those events is really at least a two person operation. Without reservation he agreed to participate. Like me, he saw this as a routine way of getting to play publicly in an easily manageable way.

With Grant on the team, the next step was to acquire a sound system. Cup of Joe does not own a sound system, so a portable one is required to schlep in on the night of the event. A functional small venue sound system would offer multiple channels permitting a few microphones and two to three instruments, which are almost always guitars. Gigging performers at Cup of Joe often use multiple amplifiers; however, a multi-channel portable PA (short for public address system) is also commonly used. In fact, Rick Vanderwall, who hosts the third Friday open mic night has used a Bose portable PA system successfully for several years.

Rick Vanderwall (center) and his PA (seen arrayed behind him)

To the right, you can see Rick’s Cup of Joe open mic set up, with his early model, Bose portable line array in the background. Note in this image that he has three microphones and two instruments “plugged-in.” The Bose system is referred to as a “line array” because it uses a narrow vertical tower containing multiple two inch speakers alternatively angled left and right. In addition to the tower, which handles the mid and high ranges, there is a sub woofer to provide coverage for the lower sound frequencies. Sitting on a chair behind Rick you can just see a section of a mixer used to add extra channels to the PA and to manage tonal balances. I’m not sure about Rick’s, but some mixers, like Bose’s T4s also provide effects such as delay and reverb.

As I said earlier, I promised Dawn (of Cup of Joe) that Grant and I would deliver a quality sound system for our open mic nights. I did not want to beg or borrow a system, nor did I want to chase anyone around for funds. This project was initially my idea… I wanted to make it happen quickly and without complication, so I made the personal commitment to invest in a good PA. In the event that I ever do a solo gig, I would also be set up with a personal PA. These systems can be pricey, but I saw it as an investment in my primary retirement avocation. My retirement counselor at TIAA stated bluntly that if you want to do something that’s important for yourself, then do it now if it’s within reason and resources… don’t wait! So there it is… I went shopping for a PA.

I did some initial shopping at the local guitar shop and googled around on the internet, but I must admit I was predisposed towards Bose primarily because Rick Vanderwall’s system worked so well and reliably during the many open mics I played at Cup of Joe. Further, I’ve owned several Bose products, including floor standing speakers, bluetooth speakers, Wave radios and earphones. They were all solid products. In the end, if Bose was good enough for Rick, it was good enough for me!

Selecting a Bose PA for Purchase

Bose L1 Pro line of portable array PA’s. From left to right: Models 8, 16 & 32 (with two choices of subwoofer)

It so happened that Bose just introduced a whole new line of vertical array portable PA’s in late 2020, so I had available to me the latest Bose technology to select from. Referred to as the L1 Pro Systems, they came in with three different models. The diminutive Pro 8, the middle size Pro 16 and the full sized Pro 32. The numeral refers to the number of speakers in the vertical array.

I must admit that I was a bit astonished when I first saw Rick Vanderwall’s Bose with the narrow vertical tower. The vertical array of smallish speakers accompanied with a sub woofer is relatively new technology, but it’s been widely accepted (and copied) since its introduction some years ago. Following is a Bose PA introduction from Youtube:

I spent a good deal of time studying reviews of the various Bose L1 Pros. Many of the reviews were simply regurgitations of Bose marketing literature; however, out in YouTube world were several independent reviews which helped clarify my final decision as to which model to purchase.

Interior layout of Cup of Joe

First a word on the space in which the PA must perform for open mic night. As you can see in the image of Cup of Joe, it is a long, relatively narrow space. The performers are located way down at the far end of the facility, so a PA system would have to possess the power to project along the entire length and width of the space. The music should project evenly so that sitting and standing people get roughly the same sound level, as well as from front to back of the room. Fortunately, Bose claims a properly spec’d and set-up L1 system meets those requirements.

The disassembled L1 Pro 16, with small plastic spacer (center) that locates between the subwoofer and the speaker array.

In sum, my conclusion was the Pro 8 was underpowered for the venue in which Cup of Joe is located. The Pro 16 appeared to be a logical choice as it had the power to cover the space adequately, was reasonably priced and did not appear to be particularly cumbersome to move around. As you can see on the right, the Pro 16 comes in three pieces: the subwoofer, the longer array of sixteen two inch speakers and a 8 inch blank spacer that resides between the woofer and the speaker array. The purpose of the spacer is to raise the height of the sixteen two inch speakers to get a proper sound distribution. Unfortunately, the decision by Bose designers to use a “plastic” spacer has raised some criticism. Some reviewers claimed the spacer was insubstantially engineered resulting in wobbling of the tower. Other reviewers complained of a high pitched hiss emanating from the speakers. As I understand it, PA’s do come with a built in “noise floor” that varies by speaker design and system wattage; however, a high-pitched hiss is not what I wanted to contend with… period. I contacted Bose technical staff, but they were either evasive or oblivious to the critiques of the Pro 16. No help there…

Though it was more money than I initially wanted to spend, I decided to acquire the L1 Pro 32 because of the issues raised about the Pro 16. Bose offers either a very large Sub 2 or a smaller, (but big enough) Sub 1 woofer to pair with a two part vertical, floor standing tower. I chose the smaller Sub 1 because of its more manageable size and the low frequency sound profile was more in tune with live music, rather than DJ bass thumping that the Sub 2 is best designed for. Because both sections of the vertical array are substantial metal columns that lock into each other and because the column sinks several inches into the floor power stand, there is very little, if any, wobble.

L1 Pro 32 power stand into which vertical array is mounted.

The power stand offers a chunky, substantial, and stable base from which the vertical array arises. The stand connects to and powers the subwoofer with a proprietary cable, which is nice as only one 120 volt AC receptacle is required to power the entire rig. The stand also contains jack access to three channels. Two are 1/4″/XLR combo jacks, and the other is a 1/4″ jack with various other auxiliary possibilities, including bluetooth access. Lots of flexibility with channel tonal controls are available. The tonal controls are also remotely adjustable through an iPhone/Android app, which is super convenient. Finally, Bose has a baked-in library of tone profiles for various instruments and brands that can be deployed to fine tune the mix.

Here’s a Bose summary review of the L1 Pro 32:

Bose T4s

Because the L1 Pro 32 power stand offers only 3 channels, I decided to acquire the Bose Tonematch T4s mixer to provide an additional 4 channels. The mixer attaches to the power stand with a ruggedized LAN cable, which transmits digital instruction to the L1 and receives power from the L1, thus keeping power needs simple. The T4s offers deep functionality in terms of sculpting sound profiles and will take me some time to master to its best advantage.

Experience to date with the L1 Pro 32

The Bose system arrived a day later than expected because of a freak snow storm that prevented UPS from getting to my home, so I was delighted when it finally arrived. I set up the L1 tower first, which went together easily and quickly. The connection to the Sub 1 also was rapidly accomplished. Sadly, I could not use the T4s because Bose recommended a firmware update and I had to order a cable from Amazon to connect my computer to the mixer.

Sub 1 with race track speaker (left) and section of vertical array of two inch speakers (right)

Without the T4s attached, I still had three channels and was able to test my Collings I 35 electric, my Taylor 812ce, my National Resolectric and a Shure SM 58 microphone all in my living room. In fact, via Bose software, I saved individual tonal setting in the system’s memory for each guitar. The system played clean as country water and interacted nicely with my pedalboard. The combination of the racetrack subwoofer and the 32 neodymium 2 inch drivers offered a consistent ear pleasing sound.

32 speaker vertical array

According to Bose literature, the speaker tower offers a floor to 7 foot high vertical sound spread outwards that also arrays itself 180 degrees, side to side. My experience was that you could sit anywhere in the living room of my house as long as you were not behind the tower and hear the music perfectly well. I made this test by bluetoothing my iPhone to the system and then playing the Beatles’ Revolver. When I disassembled the system and moved it up to my garage, the sound produced by the L1 could be heard across my yard quite easily when either Grant or I played guitar and sang.

Initial Disappointment and Concerns with the PA/Tonematch Combination

LAN cable to Connect T4s to L1 Pro

I will cut to the chase. After I updated the firmware on the T4s Tonematch mixer, I had intermittant success connecting it to the L1 Pro 32. In short, the instruments or mics channeled into the T4s received the signal as evidenced by a green flashing light, but failed to make it to the L1. It actually worked for a while in my living room, but when I disassembled the L1 and moved it to the garage, the T4s was a total fail! No matter what I tried, I could not get it to work.

Bose L1, T4s, my pedal board, an SM 58 mic and my Collings in my garage.

The fail was on a Saturday, and on Monday Bose frontline technical help in the Philippines had no suggestions to remediate my problem of connectivity, but agreed to replace the entire system including the L1 and the T4s. The new L1 came the next day, but the T4s took almost two weeks to arrive. Even then, after replacement I had some initial difficulty making the connection between the two devices. I concluded that the weak link is the LAN cable and unless it is solidly connected, signal failure will occur. When queried about this shortcoming the Bose people were evasive. This time around though I was able to get the device to work in my living room, and after disassembly and reassembly up in my garage. So we’re good to go, but I do have some remaining qualms about connectivity issues between the two devices.

To be prudent, I plan to run another garage set-up to calm my nerves and make sure the system is functional.

We are Good to Go!

My son Parker who is a dual major at the University of Iowa, including Graphic Design put this poster together for us, so in a month we will be at Cup of Joe!

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Flip your tablature/music page with a smirk!

Piles of paper charts replaced by tech…

A year or so ago, I posted a blog article about replacing paper with electronic charts using an Apple iPad, combined with the forScore app bluetoothed to a PageFlip DragonFly foot pedal. The pedal enabled page flipping for a multi-page tune. I use all this tech because I play a lot of country blues tunes, but simply cannot memorize them. While I develop finger-muscle memory for the tunes, it is necessary for me to have the chart as a cue when playing.

Smallish iPad Air in my practice zone…

In sum, with an iPad Air, a mic stand, a Hercules tablet holder, and finally, a DragonFly foot pedal, I replaced an ungainly, non portable music stand and sloppy, wrinkly, taped together hard paper music charts that flopped all over the place. How did it work out over time? Good, but after a while, I wished I’d purchased the larger, more expensive iPad Pro to make reading the music easier (the Pro screen actually projects a size equivalent to single standard 8×10″ page in a paper chart). Still, I made the investment in the smallish iPad Air and was initially loath to waste money by trading it in, much as I wanted to.

PageFlip Dragonfly foot pedal…

It’s important to note too that while the foot pedal functioned properly most of the time, I found it a challenge sometimes to stay focused on the music and simultaneously stab my foot out to find the proper forward shift pedal and avoid going accidentally backwards. Furthermore, the pedal would go to sleep when not in use for an extended period of time, and required multiple stomps to wake it back up, which was frustrating when immersed in the middle of a tune. Finally, the “in-screen” keyboard on the iPad was disabled by the pedal when active, which made typing annotations onto the music chart impossible.

Then, one day I was annotating a country blues chart and did a web search to see if it was possible to cut and paste lyrics or move a music bar to another location while using forScore. After finding online instructions for how to execute that capability and then fumbling around for an extended period of time trying to accomplish a simple cut and paste, I finally discovered that you had to be a member of forScore Pro to access that feature!

forScore Pro is similar to one of those patreon accounts that are so popular now for financially supporting online activities. For an additional small annual fee, you get added features like cut and paste and also support future improvements for the app. I joined because cut and paste is a very, very useful feature to arrange and annotate a chart. You also get occasional new update notes from forScore as a Pro member.

Apple True Depth Camera tech…

What I soon discovered after joining forScore Pro was that the 2020 iPad Pro equipped with their True Depth Camera technology, combined with the latest iOS 14 operating system would allow page changing within forScore with facial gestures! This is the same highly sophisticated technology that allows a person to log into an iPhone or iPad with facial recognition.

12.9 inch iPad Pro

The enhancements offered by the new iPad Pro were enough to push me over the edge. I wanted a larger surface area to see the charts and I was really interested in using facial gestures to replace the foot pedal! So, easy as pie, I arranged a trade-in for my year-old iPad Air and ordered a 12.9 inch iPad Pro. When the new iPad arrived, I transferred forScore and my music library over to it in short order.

I found out right away that my existing iPad mic stand holder no longer worked with the 12.9″ iPad. I owned a Hercules holder (lower right) and really liked it as it was very stable and easy to get the iPad in and out of the holder, but sadly it does not open wide enough to easily get the larger iPad Pro into the grips. So, after searching around I found a “decent” holder manufactured by Caddy Buddy (lower left). It’s good enough, but I still would prefer the Hercules device for ease of getting the iPad in and out of it and it’s more robust in construction. It would be a relatively easy design change to fix the Hercules device, but I see no evidence that the manufacturer is planning to do so.

  • Caddy Buddy iPad Holder
  • Hercules iPad Holder

Once the iPad is mounted in the mic stand at roughly the same level as your face, it can then be set-up via forScore to activate facial gestures to turn pages in a musical chart. As a reminder, you cannot access this feature in the settings menu unless you are a Pro subscription member (lower left). Inside the Pro settings (lower center) you can access Face Gestures and activate a calibration procedure for facial recognition purposes.

  • Settings Menu
  • Facial Gesture Calibration
  • Fine tune Facial Gesture

You have two face gesture choices, which are “turning your head” or “moving your mouth” in a kind of smirk to the left or right. I hoped that one of the gestures would have been a head tilt, but that was not available, and when I queried the forScore people about adding that feature they demurred. Head turning made little sense to me because you have to take your eyes off the music, and to be frank, I could never get it to work reliably.

Lip movement to change page

On the other hand, lip/mouth movement does work! After calibrating the iPad to recognize you with 1) a relaxed face, 2) lips moved right, and 3) lips moved left the device will flip pages on command. In the upper right image you can see that there are sliders also available to fine tune sensitivity. There’s also a test protocol to see how well you’ve tuned sensitivity by ease of moving small blue dots on the screen by shifting your lips.

So… How does it work???

For the most part it works pretty well; however, I do have some concerns with over sensitivity of the device. Sometimes, for reasons unknown to me, the page will flip without command. If you reduce sensitivity with the calibration slider to much to avoid phantom page flips, then you must really wrench your face to flip a page, which is distracting to you and an audience. Consequently, it takes time to fine tune the system’s sensitivity to your facial movements. I have some concern that changes in ambient lighting may also affect the reliability of the page flip. Also, I play sitting down and am concerned about seat height variation from home to perhaps a coffee shop open mic stage seat also affecting page flip accuracy. Finally, on occasion when I am playing for someone I will miss a note, then grimace at the pain of musical failure, and at that moment the device will sometimes respond to my dismay by flipping the page on its own, which makes matters all the worse.

Cut and paste option for moving lyrics to the chart…

In conclusion, the iPad Pro combined with forScore Pro is a keeper… I really like the larger surface area for viewing a musical chart and the cut and paste option for annotation is a great addition to the app. As far as page flipping goes, I am intent on working with the facial gesture feature, but will probably keep the foot pedal on standby to reverse unwanted spontaneously flips. There you have it…

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In the stack… current reading about blues, guitars, pedals, etc.

Grant and me at the local guitar shop…

I have the great, good fortune now in my retirement to spend as much time as I wish focused on all things guitars. After a harrowing visit to the Mayo Clinic for an annual physical, I was eventually declared good to go, so when I returned home I felt even more fortunate to have time to develop my musical sensibilities and skills.

To that end, I scheduled my first “gig” at the local coffee shop for early April. Along with my friend Grant, we will perform for a couple of hours on a Friday night. Cup of Joe is a pleasant, low pressure venue to perform… the coffee, tea and snacks are great and the people are kind…

Cup of Joe in Cedar Fall, IA

Grant and I will take turns alternating at the mic during the evening. He plays his original Folk-Punk-Americana on acoustic guitar, while I play finger-style and bottleneck country blues on a couple of resonators and a Taylor hybrid acoustic/electric guitar. So we are both feverishly sharpening our chops for the performance next month.

I am not particularly anxious about this gig, as I’ve performed at Cup of Joe numerous times at Open Mic Night… This time it should be more pleasant for me, as I won’t feel the time pressure that you do when all you have is fifteen minutes at the mic and there are people lined up to play after you…

In addition to working on my chops, I also have the freedom to read as much as I can abut all things guitars and blues… Here are some the books, on my short stack that I am either reading, have read, or intend to get to in the short term:

I just finished reading this wonderful book. Compiled by Jas Obrecht a lifelong musical journalist for journals like Guitar Player Magazine. Of the dozens and dozens of guitarists he’s interviewed over the years, he offers in this book some of the very best. It was fascinating to read what some of the best players think about their music and how they approach the instrument. Included are interviews with Neil Young, Jerry Garcia, Tom Petty, Carlos Santana, Ben Harper and Johnny Winter. Highly recommended if you love all things guitars! Published by the University of North Carolina Press, so it’s a classy binding.

I was so pleased with Obrecht’s Talking Guitar, I went ahead and picked up two of his other books that fall right into my wheelhouse of interest. Both new books are about blues players. The first about the early pre-electric country blues players and the second about the players who led the transition to Chicago/Detroit style electric blues. Reading these books should add to my knowledge base when I banter with an audience about the music I play…

Pedal Crush is a monumental tome about anything you could possibly want to know about the pedals that are used to augment and enhance the sound of a guitar. Published by Bjooks, I had to order this one out of Denmark. It’s coffee table book big and pricey, and I am just about 1/4 of the way into it. Including interviews with various pedal builders and guitar players who use pedals, it is a comprehensive and wonderful journey through this particular world of technology.

If you’re wondering why I am so fascinated by pedals, here’s my latest board iteration. It’s great fun to sculpt sound with a pedal board. For more details about most of my pedals, check here…

Until later…