ES article in Wood & Steel

Guitar Dad · #1 01-31-2003, 07:49 AM

Last night, I carefully read the article in the current Wood & Steel on the ES system. I must say that I am thoroughly impressed with the way the folks at Taylor went about developing the ES. They started by challenging the fundamental assumption that "everyone" knows how a guitar generates sound. From the images in the article, it's very clear that the soundboard is doing more than just vibrating up and down. This discovery (really, the process they undertook to analyze guitars) is critical to the entire ES, both in terms of the pick ups themselves, and their seemingly unusual placement. Who would have thought, for example, that the neck plays such an important role in generating a guitar's tone?

Impressive. Very impressive.

It will be interesting to see how other guitar manufacturers respond to this. It's clear that if the ES really takes off, a lot of guitar and pickup makers are going to think long and hard about how their guitars are amplified. Clearly, simply dropping an undersaddle pickup into an otherwise fine acoustic guitar may no longer be satisfactory.

meridian · #2 01-31-2003, 08:28 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Guitar Dad
Clearly, simply dropping an undersaddle pickup into an otherwise fine acoustic guitar may no longer be satisfactory.

Yup. The bar has been raised, the gaunlet thrown!

Hos · #3 01-31-2003, 09:24 AM

Thanks for the compliment Guitardad. It was a team effort. Mark French brought a lot to the reasearch table. We are very grateful to him.

Guitar Dad · #4 01-31-2003, 10:15 AM

You're very welcome. As a Ph.D.-level scientist, the entire process resonated

with me.

So, meridian, after you ES your current stash, how many more are you going to buy this year??

Boogie · #5 01-31-2003, 10:46 AM

All true, but for the part about "who would have thought how much the neck plays a part of the entire sound?" It should be obvious to any seasoned guitar player that the neck plays a major roll. I may be in the minority with this belief but have you ever played a Les Paul with a maple or a Mahogany neck or even one with a one-piece neck vs. a laminated neck? You can feel the difference. Try it. There is a difference. I prefer a one-piece mahogany neck when possible. This being said, my Strat is maple (one piece), my Starfire is mahogany (with maple laminate down the center) and my 514 is mahogany with two joints (though not exactly a laminate). These are different guitars but I have owned and played many guitars that were identical except for the neck construction. I believe this is a phenomenon that goes against conventional wisdom.

Just an observation.

worshipvertical · #6 01-31-2003, 10:51 AM

Actually Jim Olson attributes alot of the sound of his guitars to the stregnth of the neck.

One would be lead to believe that a strong neck would better transmit the vibration of the strings back to the top, and to the back and sides. The better the joint and stronger the neck the more tranfer one would have.

One of the plus' of the NT's tightly fitting joint.

meridian · #7 01-31-2003, 11:25 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Guitar Dad
So, meridian, after you ES your current stash, how many more are you going to buy this year??

Well, I will prolly ES my 810-LTD and leave it at that. I'm still selling my W65 and probably my Gibson J-50.

How many full moons will there be this year?

Hos · #8 01-31-2003, 07:14 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Boogie
All true, but for the part about "who would have thought how much the neck plays a part of the entire sound?" It should be obvious to any seasoned guitar player that the neck plays a major roll. I may be in the minority with this belief but have you ever played a Les Paul with a maple or a Mahogany neck or even one with a one-piece neck vs. a laminated neck? You can feel the difference.
Just an observation.

You are very right Boogie. Good Point!
Unfortunately the whole of the issue could not be explained in a single quote. What we were referring to was not the known transfer of vibration through the neck but rather the mechanical bending contributions of the neck at various frequencies. There are clearly identifiable bending patterns and positions that are mechanically contributing to the spring action of the strings and modal actions of the body. While we have been focusing on the transfer function of the neck joint as important (and it is) we have been not clearly identifying the bending motions and how they affect certain frequencies.
We are still studying the information we gathered and hope to talk more about it in the future.

Thanks for pointing this out.