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I got this guitar a couple of weeks ago and have been loving it. Finally I had some time to record a bit of music with it. Hope you don't mind some rough spots in the take, but you get the idea. Hope you enjoy
This guitar was made by Bryant Trenier in 2018. The back and the top are laminated maple, but the guitar was itself conceived as a warm acoustic laminate. And what a success. For those curious, Bryant has a video of this model set up with acoustic strings and played by Perry Beekman.
EastOfTheSun from Craig Snyder on Vimeo
I have not set it up for acoustic playing because the one I got came with a DeArmond FHC, which is very happy with nickel strings. If anyone follows my occasional posts here, you probably know that I consider this to be one of the best pickups for jazz. I tend to prefer it over the later Rhythm Chief models, although they each do their own thing extremely well. Before getting onto notes and impressions of the guitar, here are some images.
As I already mentioned, this thing has a really nice acoustic sound. Even though it's a laminate, it sounds *nothing* like an ES-175 acoustically. Whereas 175 (and I'm referring to the single pickup 40s-50s models) has a tone characterized by a snappy attack, quick decay, strong bass with not much acoustic volume, the Trenier clearly has different aims. It doesn't have the characteristic 'thunk' of a Gibson archtop. I think Steve tends to describe these guitars as "creamy", which I now understand. The attack is very smooth, the sustain is much longer, and the frequency response is much more even - single notes high up on the treble strings ring out as loudly as the bass register, without being harsh in the slightest. The evenness gives chords a rich complexity as the lower harmonics project clearly. Acoustically, I was impressed, but not surprised, that it is louder that my Eastman AR680CE, which is a very lightly built carved archtop.
As far as playability goes, I have never even touched a guitar that is more comfortable. I can't remember how this compares to his fully acoustic guitars, but this one is as optimized for playability as you can get. It looks like Bryant designed this with a relatively shallow neck angle, and he cuts the nut slots almost dangerously low to maximize comfort and playability and the fretwork is perfect. The neck tension was set up (whether by Bryant, the previous owner, or Larry W.) to be dead straight. I might adjust this if I wanted to strike the guitar harder for rhythm, but as it stands it's so comfortable I don't want to mess with it.
When Steve (QAman) posted a PSA about this guitar, I called the dealer (Larry Wexer) on the spot. We made a deal over the weekend and the guitar was on its way to me the very next day, with as careful a packing job as I've ever seen. I mention this because, at the moment, he has two other Trenier guitars for sale. If have some cash you're dying to get rid of in exchange for some of the best guitars produced in the last century, give him a ring. Index | Gbase.com > Guitars Amps & More
Recording notes: Nothing fancy going on here. I used a Shure SM57 to record the amp (Headstrong Lil King with a Weber 12a150a) and a Neumann TLM102 to mic the guitar (blended very lightly). It took me a few hours (not exaggerating) to remember my workaround for the fact that Quicktime can only record one channel of audio when making a video recording. For you youtubers, I would love to hear more about how you record. Feel free to share any notes with me.Last edited by omphalopsychos; 04-07-2019 at 02:23 PM.
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04-07-2019 01:21 PM
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Nice going Omph.
You can hear the immediate attack and clarity in ever note. This guitar is very “upfront”.
i have a feeling these Treniers are going to be the DAngelicos of the future.
Thank you for posting this. It’s a lot of work to do what you did. And you did it all for us. Thanks man.
JD
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Thank you Joe. Given the quality of the videos you post, I appreciate your comment. I haven't recorded videos in over a year and it is quite a hurdle for me to get motivated to do it. Between troubleshooting recording setups and playing guitar, I would always choose the latter. Maybe I ought to explore direct input recordings the way you do - it seems like you have really optimized the process. The mic in the room is the grail, but getting a good sound out of it is lots of work, as you mentioned.
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Years ago I was a carved snob. Now I think I am the opposite. Great tone, playing, and of course what a beautiful guitar. Sweet !
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Omphalopsychos,
Thanks for providing the detailed insight on your Trenier Jazz Electric. You can now understand what ive been saying for quite some time. There is a smooth "creamy" round texture to each note with a warm richness unlike any laminate on the market. On top of that, these guitar plays effortlessly due to the flatter neck angle, precise set up with low cut nut - and slightly shorter scale length. Additionaly, they have this immediate responsiveness which facilitates less fretting effort - along with more unplugged volume than most laminates ive ever played.
Bryant has studied enough of Jim D'Aquistos golden period guitars to capture that unique tone like no one else. In fact, Ive played many Treniers that are every bit on par with some of Jimmy's guitars - and Bryants sustain is exceptional.
Some builders just have what it takes to create masterpiece instruments - and Bryant Trenier has certainly entered the realm of the best.
Congrats with your purchase.....smart buy.
Sent from my GT-N5110 using Tapatalk
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Wow! I've always imagined what a great laminate would sound like with a DeArmond FHC. Now, I need imagine no more.
Seriously, I used to wonder what everyone would have thought if, say, Barney Kessel had put a DeArmond on his ES-350 instead of a cobalt magnet, single-coil Gibson (CC) pickup? I have always had a soft spot for the FHC.
Well, your Trenier sounds exactly like what I imagined the combination would be. Joe hit the nail on the head. The guitar has that single-coil, FHC "forwardness" that made it my go-to pickup for 30 years on my acoustic archtops. On the Trenier it sounds (and looks) great.
Enjoy your new guitar!
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Thank you guys! Yes it's pretty amazing. I once had a Gibson L-4C that I played with a guitar mike. I loved the tone but that guitar would feedback like crazy. A floater on a laminate is a genius idea, not crazy in the least.
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Groan this is making me second-guess my decision to spec my 2020 Trenier Jazz Special with a mounted HB rather than a floater.
Congrats on the guitar!
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Lovely
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Wow! That sounds special!
The youtube-link didn’t work in Tapatalk (well, not in mine anyway,had to quote your post to see the url) so I’ll post it here for those who can’t see it either:
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Yeah, that's the danger of ever committing to anything. There's always some other choice you could've made. In your case, either way you will be getting a spectacular instrument.
Originally Posted by coolvinny
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Beautiful looking and sounding guitar. Congrats.
As far audio is concerned ... If I'm looking to get better-than-phone quality audio, I have two methods:
1. Capture audio and video separately and then synch them in video editing software -- I use either PhotoBooth (I haven't tried recording video with Quicktime), or my phone to capture video (I could in theory use a better camera, but I'm lazy). I record audio separately into my DAW (I use GarageBand), with either a mic'ed guitar/amp or by taking the guitar direct and using one of GB's amp sim plug-ins. I then mix the audio down to stereo, import the video and audio into iMovie, synch them, and then publish to youtube. Synching can be tricky, but I have some tricks for that.
2. Use a decent quality stereo mic with my phone. Specifically, I have an Android phone and a Zoom H3 stereo recorder, which can plug into my phone's USB/charger port. I then use Open Camera to capture video (because the native camera app doesn't support external mics). I have an app called Cute Cut for editing/trimming the video. Apple supports external mics and interfaces natively, and there are a bunch of different ones.
My stuff looks and sounds pretty crappy, but that's not the equipment's fault.
John
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John thank you for the tips. What’s your trick for synchronization? If I had an easy way to sync then my life would be much easier. I use QuickTime because it allows me to record high quality video and audio simultaneously, so I have fewer parameters to mess with. The problem is that it only allows for a single channel of audio to get recorded. My “workaround” involves using a separate DAW simply as a digital mixer and is the monitor of the mixed source as input to QuickTime. Terrifically convoluted, I know. Originally Posted by John A.
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One of our members uses an iPhone with a Zoom IQ5 stereo plug-in mic. Simple and sounds great. The mic is directional and can be pointed behind the phone at the amp, forward at the guitar, etc.
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