Sound in winter old tune old guitar

[deacon Mark]

Nothing special but seems to me that in the middle of the winter is when the guitars sound the best. Crisp and yet in all register's rings nicely. So just on the iphone picking up the guitar completely acoustic it captures the sound of the D'angelico. I Hear A Rapsody is a tune not played huge amount, but I like it. Can be slow or fast. In fact, Joe Cohn plays an incredible bebop rendition of the tune. I leave that stuff him in his much more capable hands. Might note too the strings I have are the Monel Wound that I really like.

[FourOnSix]

The video is private. Can you enable access?

[deacon Mark]

The video is private. Can you enable access?

Details, details, details..............yes fixed

[wintermoon]

there's no mistaking the sound of an old DA, even through a phone.
good job Mark, and great guitar!

[213Cobra]

Nothing special but seems to me that in the middle of the winter is when the guitars sound the best. Crisp and yet in all register's rings nicely. So just on the iphone picking up the guitar completely acoustic it captures the sound of the D'angelico. I Hear A Rapsody is a tune not played huge amount, but I like it. Can be slow or fast. In fact, Joe Cohn plays an incredible bebop rendition of the tune. I leave that stuff him in his much more capable hands. Might note too the strings I have are the Monel Wound that I really like.

I found the "winter sound" a real thing when I lived in the northeast. Humid summers sometimes absent A/C, forced-hot-air or radiant heating in the winter. But the effect was made really stark for me when I moved to Los Angeles from Boston in 1989. For our first 18 months in L.A. we lived 1 block off PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) and Santa Monica beach. For much of the year, fog rolled in about 4pm, and took till about 11am to burn off the next day, and even on fog-free days, you could feel how comparably wet the air was. But a different, fresher feel from east coast humidity. Then I moved over the hill into the San Fernando Valley, which has a semi-arid to arid microclimate. It took about three weeks, but in that time all my guitars dried out from their beach existence, opened up tonally, became more responsive, the acoustics projected crisply -- they were in all ways better. Been here since and don't have the winter/summer sound cycle, for 35 years and counting. Even my guitar amps sounded better as the speaker cones lost moisture mass acquired on the coastal side of the Santa Monica Mountains.

Splendid sound, Mark.

Phil

[wintermoon]

makes total sense and anyone that lives in an environment that turns cold in the winter has probably experienced the dry = better thing, wood w a higher moisture content naturally sounds more muted.
when you build a stringed instrument, especially an acoustic one you want the oldest most seasoned wood you can find, which typically has a lower moisture content than more recent cut timber. kiln drying will reduce the moisture content but can't duplicate the structure of seasoned old wood that enhances it's sound. plus kiln dried wood can sometimes result in damage causing movement later on.

[2bornot2bop]

All I can say is, Mark needs to post more recordings!

[2bornot2bop]

I found the "winter sound" a real thing when I lived in the northeast. Humid summers sometimes absent A/C, forced-hot-air or radiant heating in the winter. But the effect was made really stark for me when I moved to Los Angeles from Boston in 1989. For our first 18 months in L.A. we lived 1 block off PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) and Santa Monica beach. For much of the year, fog rolled in about 4pm, and took till about 11am to burn off the next day, and even on fog-free days, you could feel how comparably wet the air was. But a different, fresher feel from east coast humidity. Then I moved over the hill into the San Fernando Valley, which has a semi-arid to arid microclimate. It took about three weeks, but in that time all my guitars dried out from their beach existence, opened up tonally, became more responsive, the acoustics projected crisply -- they were in all ways better. Been here since and don't have the winter/summer sound cycle, for 35 years and counting. Even my guitar amps sounded better as the speaker cones lost moisture mass acquired on the coastal side of the Santa Monica Mountains.

Splendid sound, Mark.

Phil

The valley! Lived there for 8 months. It was too hot for me in the summer months. And I grew up in California. But I returned to the rainy (sometime) NW.

[deacon Mark]

The thing about this guitar is that I never need to fool with the action. It remains stable year around and I have it pretty low by acoustic standards, but I don't want to put a fight. It is a bit less than 5/64 on the bass side E at the 12 and a bit less than 4/64 on the treble E 12th fret. If I would move it to the real rhythm players action of 5/64 and 6/64 it would rattle some windows. It is one of the earlies ones with a truss rod even ones made after this did not always have truss rods. I have never adjusted the truss rod in the 40 years I have owned it. Not even once given I dressed the frets a number of years ago. When I dress them, I put a straight edge on the fingerboard and frets was basically dead straight, so I did a light dressing without using the truss rod. "if it does not need to be moved, don't induce any change"

Normally when dressing frets on a guitar with a truss rod you remove the strings and then use truss rod to make the neck straight. Normally a bit of back bow but not always. This allows frets to level and then when setting back up you make another adjustment. This guitar needed nothing pulled up just a very minor hair hardly any relief. Reminded me of doing fret dressing on Dangelico's without adjustable truss rods. That is a bit more complex but not horrible. These days it is easier you have dress at full tension with under-the-string leveling. fd