NGD Recording of Yunzhi Acoustic Archtop

[GuyBoden]

This thread has be hijacked for Musoo Guitars.

A Musoo guitar can be seen in the picture below, for clarity, I do not have a Musoo guitar.

[Blue J]

Nice job on the guitar’s set up work, finish, and recording. The blonde D’A Solo tribute should pair well with your D’A Blue Centura Deluxe tribute. Nice.

[Jimmy blue note]

I'd love to hear this in 6 months, as the break-in will be well underway. Nice to be able to have that transition documented.
Nice!

[Gustavo Eiriz]

Sounds very big considering you play with no nails. I heard it on ny phone , beautiful.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

Wonderful tone! You can be very proud of that guitar - it’ll hold its own against pretty much any other acoustic archtop.

[Gustavo Eiriz]

Probably the mic was pointed to the F, so it sounds a little too boomy, more than the real sound of the guitar, i guess that the mic pointed to some other part of the guitar would give us a more representative sound.
It shows clearly that is ounds great anyway.

[Jimmy blue note]

Probably the mic was pointed to the F, so it sounds a little too boomy, more than the real sound of the guitar, i guess that the mic pointed to some other part of the guitar would give us a more representative sound.
It shows clearly that is ounds great anyway.

Yeah that would do it. It's a common enough mistake, thinking that the sound comes out of the sound hole but it's actually the vibrating top plate that moves the sound waves, at least in an active well built and intentionally voiced guitar. It's the top that is tuned (tap tuned or by other methods) and the thickness of the carvings that brings out the overtones which contribute to the concerted partials and determine the tone and timbre of the top; that vibrating top creates the sound waves we hear. Like the cone of a speaker. The F hole tunes the helmholtz air resonance which certainly has an effect but it functions for a large part in the way a port on a speaker cabinet would.
All of those partials I referred to are created by the ways the top vibrates, on the partials above the fundamental especially. Much of this character can only be anticipated at this point and will become more prominent when the vibrations "teach" the top to "sing" as nodal lines are made compliant through constant play. Both the curing of the lacquer and the micro breakage of resins within the annular rings will be establishing the non uniform frequency characteristics of the top along certain notes. That's why guitars, especially ones built for acoustic projection, will mature over time.
Just as a note, the air resonance will not really change much but the resonances of the top and back will change in amplitude, especially in the upper partials so the notes coming off the top itself will become richer over time-interestingly enough, depending on the player if it's played a lot.

I've built guitars from the same billet of wood, as nearly uniform archings and thicknesses as possible, with a very similar sound (both from sound-albeit objective-and frequency profile generated from a fast fourier transform software) and gone to the different players with very different playing styles. Suffice it to say they remained brothers but they became very different individual instruments both in feel and ultimately, in sound.
Can't change the fact that these were once trees and now they're organic musical instrument sound generators beholden to the laws of physics.

Different mic: different sound. Different placement: different sound. Different player: different sound. Different playing style-fingers vs pick and gauge: different sound. Different point in time: different sound. Different room acoustics, string gauge, even time of the year, etc... you get the picture.

Sounds like a good nice green guitar. 's gonna get nicer. For sure!

[Doctor Jeff]

Sounds great!

I have always kept some “medium length” nails on me hands since college. They’re about 3 mm from the end of the flesh (the translucent part). My thumbnail is a bit longer.

I know some people play with the flesh, but I would have a hard time doing that. (If I break a nail it kills me!) I started out playing nylon with longer nails, but I prefer shorter ones now. I sort of “claw in” to pluck, not playing vertically, as with better classical technique.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

I’m sure you set the intonation well. Is the bridge angled for a slightly longer scale on E1 than on E6, or is that an illusion from the photo angle?

[2bornot2bop]

That guitar sounds like it cuts way above its pay grade. Loved that recording.

[mrwoland]

So this is a Yunzhi, not a Wu, correct?
Can I ask you how much did you pay for it?
Was it a custom order?
Thanks!
fabio

[Hammertone]

Please post a photo of the back of the headstock.

[Gustavo Eiriz]

So Yunzhi is as good as Mr Wu?

[xavierbarcelo]

GuyBoden, I’m blaming you for pushing me over the edge! I bought a 17 inch Melo copy from Musoo (EDIT: I thought it was by Yunzhi, but Jimmy explained). Very nice. Well made, good sound. But the electronics just don’t work. Over the top and simply non-functional, so there’s this.








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[Rob MacKillop]

I’m impressed with both the guitar and the player. Nice comping!

[Rob MacKillop]

Xavi, I understand that most people choose these Chinese guitars knowing that they will have to install new pickups and wiring themselves, or through a local guitar tech. Do you plan to do that? And how professional is the guitar in other respects?

[xavierbarcelo]

Hi, Rob,

I was half-expecting that the electronics wouldn’t be very good, but being non-functional was surprising, because otherwise it’s a lovely instrument. Very high standards on everything (well, except, obviously, the electronics, not to beat up a dead horse)


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[Jimmy blue note]

That's not a Yunzhi, it looks like the work of Li Dan, who works under the name of Musoo/Batking guitars. Very fine Chinese handbuilt archtops in every way the peer of Wu, Yunzhi but distinguished by his use of higher archings and designs that follow closer to late Jimmy D'Aquisto than the main line of Yunzhi.
They tend to be louder because of his designs, and a really nice acoustic sound rich in overtones once they're broken in.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/13404748348...Bk9SR9CQjruvZg

One big tell is the lack of traditional binding. That has a purfling inlay more reminiscent of violin build and no edge bound binding. Yunzhi doesn't build them this way.

[xavierbarcelo]

Thanks for the clarification. It is really well done.

Here are some videos to give you an idea of its sound. Please don’t mind the playing. It was some quick and dirty improv to showcase single line, comping and strumming (of course, all acoustic, because the pickup doesn't work).

[Max405]

Guy,
Very nice playing and the guitar sounds VERY SMOOTH. I really love that sound. That’s how my old 165 sounded. In fact, I’ve adjusted my picking attack so all my other guitars sound just like that.
Love it!
Joe D

[SOLR]

Hi, Rob,

I was half-expecting that the electronics wouldn’t be very good, but being non-functional was surprising, because otherwise it’s a lovely instrument. Very high standards on everything (well, except, obviously, the electronics, not to beat up a dead horse)


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There's a battery in there, have you tried replacing /checking it or is there a protective band over the battery that prevents contact?

S

[xavierbarcelo]

Thanks for suggesting. The battery box holds two button replaceable batteries, which I put on after realising. No effect. I have tried turning the battery pack on and off.

I really don’t know what else to check.


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[SOLR]

Thanks for suggesting. The battery box holds two button replaceable batteries, which I put on after realising. No effect. I have tried turning the battery pack on and off.

I really don’t know what else to check.


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I see, what noise, if any, when you plug it in?
If you have a continuity tester, you could check ,at different stages, to see if there is current reaching the pickup, if not I would suggest a quick trip to a guitar shop or any electronics shop.

S

[Cunamara]

Sounds great!

I have always kept some “medium length” nails on me hands since college. They’re about 3 mm from the end of the flesh (the translucent part). My thumbnail is a bit longer.

I know some people play with the flesh, but I would have a hard time doing that. (If I break a nail it kills me!) I started out playing nylon with longer nails, but I prefer shorter ones now. I sort of “claw in” to pluck, not playing vertically, as with better classical technique.

Playing the vast majority of the time with steel string instruments, I have gone to very short nails because the risk of damaging longer nails is just too high. I have thin, fragile nails which hook. After much unsatisfactory experimentation with artificial nails, decided I didn't like those and was just going to go with short nails- almost but not quite no nails. Rob MacKillop's videos on this topic were quite helpful, even though he was generally focusing on nylon string playing.

I file my nails to taper from <.5mm on the thumb side to about 1.5mm on the pinky side on i and m, about 1.5-2 mm on a. P is about 2mm but filed very carefully to avoid hooking on the bass strings. The good news is short nails wear much less than long nails on the strings, are less likely to be inadvertently broken during normal life, and sound fatter and darker to boot.

[Cunamara]

Very nice sound for a new guitar. New archtop guitars often have a rather pinched, nasal, hard sort of sound which this doesn't seem to have. I look forward to hearing a followup comparison in six months to a year. Congratulations!