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2Bornot2bop and Big Mike, Both great guitars. Thanks for letting us all follow your progress. The end results,,,Wow!
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03-04-2016 01:15 PM
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2B - that is a stunning guitar. I don't think I've seen a better one, and 18" would be heaven for me. I'm very pleased for you, and hope you both spend many happy years together. It might take a year of playing before you get exactly what you want out of it, but you'll enjoy that journey, for sure. I'm happy with my D'Aquisto NYE, but I know now where my next guitar will come from.
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Originally Posted by 2bornot2bop
So I determined a more accurate weight. Actual weight of this guitar is 5.9 pounds...Okay, so I was only off by a little more than a pound! I think my 16" Loar LH650 weighs more
I'm pretty sure there's a rule requiring 18" guitars weigh more than that!
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Thank you Rob! Agreed, it will require time and lots of playing to open up. Just the encouragement I need to play more. Originally Posted by Rob MacKillop
Thanks GT! I'm curious too! In fact, right now I'll settle for a setup and string change, but I may as well wait for the tuners to arrive rather than blow through a set of TI's. Originally Posted by Greentone
That's just nuts huh! My second acoustic 18" under 6 pounds. Originally Posted by MaxTwang
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Abelljo,
Herman Melville was a Customs Agent. He held that day job so he would have adequate mental energy left over for writing his novels. (Read: the job didn't tax his brain.)
Sorry you are getting the run-around at Customs with your guitar. I suppose you could open the package in front of them and satisfy their curiosity...it IS a guitar.
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I stand by what I said before, Chicago Customs is more interested in catching bad guys trying to smuggle in explosive laden toner cartridges and Cuban Cigars. Sooner or later that guys supervisors gonna make him get busy catching bad guys instead of hassling you over your guitar. A real d-head if you ask me.
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A short story:
A natural question is, why this deep of a guitar?
Unlike most members here I was a very very late arrival to guitar world, much less archtops.
I never owned a guitar as a kid...trumpet was my thing - Even though, since about the age of 8 I was a big fan of Wes, in California where I grew up. Who cares it was all of the commercially successful stuff, in the 60's Wes was real popular on the west coast. You'd have thought there'd have been some influence to learn and study guitar?
There simply weren't any guitarists, or bands, anywhere near my neighborhood. In fact, it wasn't until high school that I saw a local band with a guitar in it. Of course they were playing everything out of the Motown sound book...4 Top's 'still waters' and the usual stuff of the late 60's.
I finally bought my first guitar at 40. A 70's model ES175 w/a CC pickup, out of the local paper advertised at $1200. I didn't know what I was buying! The guy sold me on that guitar as being a good investment. Well, regrettably I never put any effort into learning to play it. I'd just taken up piano 5 years earlier and that's where all my extra time went. I sold the '175 several years later, getting every cent back. Of course now I'd rather own that guitar!
But since coming here nearly 6 years ago and finally developing a serious interest in guitar I've always wondered, what would it be like to marry the near depth of say like a Guild JF65 arched back Jumbo with an actual arched top? I'd never seen such an acoustic. The closest I'd come was the acquisition of a Super 400, and even it isn't 4" deep.
Enter this guitar. For nearly the past 3 years I'd been on the fence about placing an order. Why, I had questions...lots of questions...like
What if the fretboard inlays looked cheap, or worse, like those phony stick on inlays common to some guitars from the Far East?
What if the plastic binding, which was a necessity to the design I desired, wasn't up to the standard I've come to know in American archtops?
What if the neck profile wasn't to my liking, or worse, at a bad angle and unplayable much like has plagued Loar guitars?
What if the finish didn't meet the standard I've come accustomed to?
It's questions like these that kept me from pulling that trigger...for 3 years.
I share this story because I can imagine there are some here with your own set of "questions."
At the end of the day I pulled the trigger because I convinced myself that for a minimal investment I could answer a burning question about that deeper bodied archtop in my mind, that couldn't reasonably be answered in the marketplace...at least not affordably.
But there was one final question I had...What if all my questions were answered? Every one of them, without any real issues?
I'm grading tough on this guitar...as a means to assist Mr. Wu in building a better guitar, and for those who may yet be on their own fence. Other than a few very minor small cosmetic blems in certain areas of the binding, I can't find a single real "issue" with this guitar at this point. You can see the areas I refer to in photos...it's why I've submitted so many section photos, so you can see the whole guitar...distant glamour shots don't show you a guitar.
But...I'm trying to find something that isn't up to an American standard...and at this point, I'm just not finding it.
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This is why I was so happy that you, in particular, ordered the guitar. Over the years I have lusted after the guitars that you have shown and I knew that you would give it a proper test. Not that others wouldn't.
The nicest guitar that I own is a Guild Benedetto Stuart. I am now in the very long process of saving for an L5 WesMo. I don't expect the Yolanda to be up to that level.... but what if it is close? I think you've answered that for now.
Now my only worry is that everyone will jump on board and it will take a year or two to get my guitars built!
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Me too! As in, I know where your next guitar will come from…. Originally Posted by Rob MacKillop
Last edited by Hammertone; 03-04-2016 at 10:29 PM.
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Thank you djelley! Originally Posted by djelley
But we both know there's only one L5WesMo, don't we! Until we own an L5 we don't know what we don't know. Personally, I much preferred the L5CES to the L5WesMo. The CES', the 2 I've owned, possessed more of that smokey Gibson tonality. I searched for every reason to want to keep my WesMo, as it was Sunburst, and had the James Hutchins stamp of approval on it. But I could not bond with the brightness of the guitars tone, in comparison to the L5CES model. For me personally, the WesMo was a disappointment if only because I'd always wanted to own a 'Wes' model.
I was bummed to part with it because the guitar looked like a keeper!
Having not owned a Stuart, but being in possession of 2 different GBJSA's, I found them in their own way to have set an acoustic bar, a sort of standard in my own mind, of what properties the ideal acoustic would possess...pure precision note clarity...harmonically off the charts...resonance and chordal overtones for days...akin to a miniature lap piano.
The new arrival hasn't yet had the benefit of time nor playing to open up...but I can both sense and hear the possibilities that exist in this guitar...it's resonance, harmonic overtones, many of the same acoustic qualities that drew me to the GBJSA, are apparent in this guitar...but then there's that bass, and pure acoustic volume, not as obvious in the smaller GBJSA. I'm going to have another bridge made...something with a wider base to establish a slightly different footprint, more in the D'Aquisto style, if only out of curiosity. One can't have too many custom bridges right
Last edited by 2bornot2bop; 03-04-2016 at 06:20 PM.
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C'mon 2B - everyone know more $ = more tone and mojo Originally Posted by 2bornot2bop
Dude, your guitar is SICK!
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So, any update? Really looking forward to some update and some clips!
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I've been contemplating ordering from Wu for a couple of years now ....
Once I've sold a couple of guitars I may finally pull the trigger on my dream of an 18" mando guitar
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Dang, that's pretty!
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I understood you only have to sell one guitar to get a couple of Mr Wu's guitars Originally Posted by Bluedawg
I've been contemplating ordering from Wu for a couple of years now ....
Once I've sold a couple of guitars I may finally pull the trigger on my dream of an 18" mando guitar
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But first I have to pay off the Campellone 18 inch I bought recently with my zero interest credit .... which runs out this May Originally Posted by 339 in june
I understood you only have to sell one guitar to get a couple of Mr Wu's guitars
LOL
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Are you planning to place a pick up or only use it as an acoustic instrument? And in case you are having a pick up, what kind are you considering?
You have a beauty! congratulations.
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Thanks Albertos1! Originally Posted by Albertos1
I'm having a reissue DeArmond 1100 installed. Once I find a luthier!
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Dear 2b
that is a good idea! The RC 1100 sounds really nice with an archtop that is primarily acoustic. I don't think it is hard to install. Just that little rod that is attached to the neck is a bit delicate.
I am happy for you brother! Nothing more reassuring than having your dream archtop built :-)
Cheers,
frank
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Can you specify? I'm looking for my first archtop but hearing you say "require a set up." Is one thing. I'm reading they need a 'lot' of work maybe? Since shops are all closed I need to better understand what I'd be getting in to. Also it says 21% tax is included. Does that mean already included? I was looking at this as one possibility https://www.dejawuguitars.com/available-now/jazz Originally Posted by 2bornot2bop
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Those produced by Mr. Wu require minimal work by a competent luthier. I had a plek job done on mine and afterwords the guitar played like a dream. But these commonly require some fretwork after receiving them. Originally Posted by JMoto
That 21% tax appears to be applied by the importer.
So some European brought a few of these in from China and then outfitted them with electronics? These guitars cost about $800 in 2016 dollars. So if equipped with modern western electronics I suppose the price would be appropriate. Just verify that in fact the electronics were installed after the guitar was originally produced and imported.
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I see, I thought that was Mr Wu's website. Can you link me to his actual website then? I can't find it.
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All work to create one of these beauties is handled by the importer's liaison. Originally Posted by JMoto
Here name is Ms Lora, and she maintains a web presence here. Her English is pretty good considering she's reliant on a translator tool. Be careful not to order these with electronics. Chinese electronics are the weakness of these guitars. Install the electronics once they've arrived. The guitar will be cheaper but you'll have to account for installing electronics, which should be minimal charge.
Contact her by sending a PM to her username, yolandteam
her website is: 410 Gone
and btw, there is no tax on these, IF they're being imported to the USA. Europe has a VAT cost I believe.
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My last Wu needed no fret work at all. It's all perfectly level. It did need some minor nut work, but other than that, nothing at all, except for a pickup and setup. It arrived with the strings loose, the bridge in the case, and the truss rod completely loose, as it should have. So obviously it required setting the bridge, adjusting it for intonation, and tightening the truss rod to straighten the neck when under string tension. All that is to be expected if the guitar is properly packed for shipment. But after tweaking slowly over an extended period of time, I got the action down to under a millimeter at the 12th fret, with no buzzing unless the strings are plucked very strongly. I didn't think that was possible. YolandaTeam packs the case in styrofoam, then puts yards of packing tape around that, and all that should survive a fall from ten feet or so. Mr Wu knows how to carve a top, and how to shoot a sunburst, without question, and his binding, especially wood, is also excellent. His fretwork has made huge strides, and mine is as good as I've seen on any guitar. The first Wu I got, barely used, was a total mess electrically, and I simply junked all of it. For my second, which I just told them to make me an acoustic guitar with an endpin jack installed and nothing else, then installed my own electronics. I really believe that's the best way to go.
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My Mr.Wu was a great and beatiful guitar, it needed some luthier work. I am glad he is improving. Hes sunburst is truly amazing.
I sold it to buy an Wesmo.
MrWu, after a good luthiers works as playable as the wesmo, even better because it was 3/4 nud width.
I putted an Classic 57 pickup and it sounded amazing.. But the gibson due to thicker top and less acoustic response had a fatter sound. I believe that if MrWu mimocs the exact woods specs of the gibson you can have a nice Wesmo for 2000$.
Enviado desde mi LG-H870 mediante Tapatalk
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