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  #46  
Old 09-11-2014, 05:24 AM
ukejon ukejon is offline
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Originally Posted by rmyAddison View Post
Since the OP asked for "opinions", here's mine.

I think they are outstanding guitars, every bit the match of Bourgeois/Collings/Santa Cruz/H&D but....................

for me, as a flatpicker, they have too much going on. I can completely understand fingerstyle players loving them with the very lush overtones/harmonics, they do have a wall of sound. But for me I want more fundamental and a bit less of what I consider overdone harmonics/overtones.

Obviously this is about personal preference and not the quality of the instruments. Goodalls do have a reputation for heavy harmonics/overtones, if that suits the player they are heaven, for bluegrass and flatpicking I want a little less going on than I've found with the Goodalls I have auditioned.

By the same token I could see a Goodall fan finding Martins too dry with not enough going on, to each their own.............
This sums it all up nicely. As a fingerstyle player, Goodalls typically do exactly what I want. Never have owned one but have been hugely impressed by most that I play. Lush is the word.
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  #47  
Old 09-11-2014, 05:54 AM
buddyhu buddyhu is offline
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Originally Posted by guitararmy View Post
What strings do you Goodall owners use on your guitars? The Goodall website still says that he ships with Elixir nano's.....

Still looking for the "right" string set for my rosewood/spruce jumbo. I've had good results with DR Sunbeams 13-56...
On my RGCC, I have mostly stuck with Elixir 80/20 nanowebs. On my primavera GC I have REALLY been liking the sound of DR Sunbeams. With both guitars, I go with lights, as recommended.
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  #48  
Old 09-11-2014, 06:29 AM
Goodallboy Goodallboy is offline
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I've never played a guitar "with too much going on" and "too many harmonic overtones".

Additionally, I've never heard those terms used by other than a few people connected with this forum.

I suspect it's some kind of code language for, I like what I'm playing/able to afford/just want to stay loyal to my_____.

Other than those reasons it's the nuttiest reason for not liking a guitar I've ever heard.
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  #49  
Old 09-11-2014, 07:26 AM
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devellis devellis is offline
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Originally Posted by Goodallboy View Post
I've never played a guitar "with too much going on" and "too many harmonic overtones".

Additionally, I've never heard those terms used by other than a few people connected with this forum.

I suspect it's some kind of code language for, I like what I'm playing/able to afford/just want to stay loyal to my_____.

Other than those reasons it's the nuttiest reason for not liking a guitar I've ever heard.
Maybe you need to get out more.

I'm a huge fan of Goodalls but I know exactly what people mean when they say those things. Some guitars have lots of overtones and long sustain. Consequently, the fundamental note has to compete with those overtones and successive notes have to rise above the sustaining sound of previous notes. this can all lead to a sort of muddiness or indistinctness. If you're playing lots of notes at a brisk clip, the individual noes can get lost in a sort of "sound soup."

Actually, one of the things I really like about Goodall guitars is that they seem to avoid those problems despite having lots of rich overtones. I think the overtones are loud enough to give warmth and color to the tone but quiet enough not to compete with the fundamental. Also, the sustain isn't super long, so successive notes don't run together and get lost.

But I can imagine someone wanting an even cleaner fundamental tone for certain types of playing and some Goodall guitars may not suit their taste.

If this all sounds like overly precious forum-speak to you, I should explain that I had those perceptions before I was an active forum member. I went and played some guitars, looking to upgrade from a Seagull. Someone handed me a Goodall and I heard something that was completely different from what I was hearing in other guitars I'd tried up until that point. I think any good set of ears would hear it if pointed out. I really liked what I heard.

Some years later, I heard a particular Santa Cruz guitar that had some of the warmth and complexity of a Goodall but had really long sustain. The notes all ran together and that particular guitar drove me crazy, although other players in other styles really liked it. So, for me, at any given moment, the Santa Cruz had too many different prominent sounds (the current fundamental, the decaying remnant of the previous fundamental, and all their associated overtones). For someone else, that mix was ideal. I find the Goodall mix very pleasant. For someone else, it's too much going on, just as the Santa Cruz was for me.

Those perceptions weren't cultivated in forum discussions. They were pretty obvious tonal differences that struck me immediately when I heard those particular guitars. It wasn't until considerably later that I read discussions indicating that others had had similar reactions to similar guitars. When they described their reactions, they were pretty much what I'd experienced and made perfect sense to me. Had I not experienced those various guitars that way, I might have not understood what they meant.

So maybe your never having encountered any mention of guitars having "too much going on" is more a reflection of limitations in your experience than others' blind devotion to a certain brand or just some "nuttiest reason for not liking a guitar."
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  #50  
Old 09-11-2014, 08:01 AM
wcap wcap is offline
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Originally Posted by Goodallboy View Post
I suspect it's some kind of code language for, I like what I'm playing/able to afford/just want to stay loyal to my_____.
I know of at least one member here (who has posted in this thread) who has this very legitimate view who plays Martins much more expensive than most Goodalls. This is not some sort of rationalization on his part to justify not playing guitars that he can't afford. It is simply a very honest and valid statement of his personal preferences.

I adore Goodalls, but I completely understand how the overtones can be too much for some people or for some styles of playing, or some playing contexts.
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  #51  
Old 09-11-2014, 08:13 AM
jaymarsch jaymarsch is offline
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I have pretty much liked most of the Goodall guitars that I have had the pleasure of playing. Some better than others. I think that it is true that James Goodall has a signature sound that makes good use of overtones and sustain. I find this to be true of other makers as well, such as Wingert, Olson, Sheppard, and Ryan (to name a few that I am familiar with). That said, any of these fine luthiers can make a guitar that does not have as much sustain and brings out more of the fundamental, if that is what the customer wants.

One of the things that I love about guitar making is that there are so many variations out there and an experienced luthier may have a signature tone but can coax so many different nuances and still stay true to their ear and what they are after sonically.

Best,
Jayne
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  #52  
Old 09-11-2014, 09:13 AM
buddyhu buddyhu is offline
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Originally Posted by jaymarsch View Post
I have pretty much liked most of the Goodall guitars that I have had the pleasure of playing. Some better than others. I think that it is true that James Goodall has a signature sound that makes good use of overtones and sustain. I find this to be true of other makers as well, such as Wingert, Olson, Sheppard, and Ryan (to name a few that I am familiar with). That said, any of these fine luthiers can make a guitar that does not have as much sustain and brings out more of the fundamental, if that is what the customer wants.

One of the things that I love about guitar making is that there are so many variations out there and an experienced luthier may have a signature tone but can coax so many different nuances and still stay true to their ear and what they are after sonically.

Best,
Jayne
This is a good observation. My Primavera/Port Orford Cedar Goodall sounds VERY different from my EIR/Italian Spruce Goodall (and both of these sound very different from my teacher's Koa Goodall). I could imagine some folks objecting to the EIR version as having "too much going on". A bit harder to imagine (but not completely impossible) hearing the same complaint about the Primavera Goodall.

Clearly, one isn't going to encounter Goodalls that sound like the "focused" bluesy, old mahogany Gibsons...
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  #53  
Old 09-28-2014, 09:18 PM
247hoopsfan 247hoopsfan is offline
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I have had my Goodall Rosewood Standard for about a week now. The label inside has the "birth" date of 5/15/1990. So it's almost 25 years old, and looks almost like new. Some pretty amazing sounds come out of this big body. When flat picked, it sounds similar to some vintage Brazilian D28 guitars I have played.
Yet it also responds well when fingerpicked. It has a few very faint impressions on the top, but the frets and fretboard show almost no wear. The rosewood is about the deepest color I have ever seen, and the Koa binding is beautiful. Everything about the guitar speaks to incredible craftsmanship .

I may have to make the 2 hour drive to Ft Bragg to tour the shop and meet James and Luke.
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  #54  
Old 09-29-2014, 12:52 AM
jseth jseth is offline
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Hoopsfan;

Definitely call ahead and make sure it's a good time to visit, but absolutely... make that drive! If nothing else, it's a gorgeous trek through some amazingly beautiful country... time it right and you can stop at Libby's, in Philo (just past Boonville on 128 west...), one of the very best Mexican restaurants I've ever had the pleasure of encountering!

Funny, all the talk about Goodalls and overtones/harmonics... and I don't really get it. To my ears, Goodalls sound like a whole lot of the best guitars I have ever played; incredibly responsive, lively, lightly built, tone that rings seemingly forever... you get the idea.

One of (possibly THE) the loudest guitars I've ever played was a 1936 Martin D-18; my little Goodall Grand Concert has a lot of similarities to that guitar; mostly the light build, the "directness" of the tone from the mahogany, the fast response. Of course, the D-18 was in horrendous playing shape, needing frets, a neck reset and probably more to make it a truly playable instrument, but I'm just talking about the tone. Both guitars have a LOT going on, other than the note played...

I've had the pleasure of playing a good number of older Brazilian rosewood Martins, mostly D-28's but a couple of the 40 series guitars, too... and rosewood Goodalls have that same sort of richness and quality of tone as those old Martins. Rosewood has a WHOLE LOT going on, along with the note played...

Although older Gibson acoustics don't tend to be nearly as "complex" of tone, I have even played a few old Gibsons that had these same qualities.

Of course, I have played a fair number of luthier-built instruments that had similar sounds...

Never have seen the sort of consistency that James achieves regularly... and the purity of the sound he gets from his guitars. He definitely has his own ideas of how a guitar should sound, and he produces that sound without scalloping braces or building guitars that won't withstand the ravages of time and play....

When I had James build me my GC, I specifically did NOT want a guitar that had a pronounced higher register... I wanted the guitar to have an overall mid-range-centric tonal quality, and James gave me what I asked for... so I know he CAN build a guitar however someone wants it... whether he WILL do it your way is up to you and him to work out!
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  #55  
Old 09-29-2014, 05:52 AM
Goodallboy Goodallboy is offline
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Originally Posted by devellis View Post
Maybe you need to get out more.

I'm a huge fan of Goodalls but I know exactly what people mean when they say those things. Some guitars have lots of overtones and long sustain. Consequently, the fundamental note has to compete with those overtones and successive notes have to rise above the sustaining sound of previous notes. this can all lead to a sort of muddiness or indistinctness. If you're playing lots of notes at a brisk clip, the individual noes can get lost in a sort of "sound soup."

Actually, one of the things I really like about Goodall guitars is that they seem to avoid those problems despite having lots of rich overtones. I think the overtones are loud enough to give warmth and color to the tone but quiet enough not to compete with the fundamental. Also, the sustain isn't super long, so successive notes don't run together and get lost.

But I can imagine someone wanting an even cleaner fundamental tone for certain types of playing and some Goodall guitars may not suit their taste.

If this all sounds like overly precious forum-speak to you, I should explain that I had those perceptions before I was an active forum member. I went and played some guitars, looking to upgrade from a Seagull. Someone handed me a Goodall and I heard something that was completely different from what I was hearing in other guitars I'd tried up until that point. I think any good set of ears would hear it if pointed out. I really liked what I heard.

Some years later, I heard a particular Santa Cruz guitar that had some of the warmth and complexity of a Goodall but had really long sustain. The notes all ran together and that particular guitar drove me crazy, although other players in other styles really liked it. So, for me, at any given moment, the Santa Cruz had too many different prominent sounds (the current fundamental, the decaying remnant of the previous fundamental, and all their associated overtones). For someone else, that mix was ideal. I find the Goodall mix very pleasant. For someone else, it's too much going on, just as the Santa Cruz was for me.

Those perceptions weren't cultivated in forum discussions. They were pretty obvious tonal differences that struck me immediately when I heard those particular guitars. It wasn't until considerably later that I read discussions indicating that others had had similar reactions to similar guitars. When they described their reactions, they were pretty much what I'd experienced and made perfect sense to me. Had I not experienced those various guitars that way, I might have not understood what they meant.

So maybe your never having encountered any mention of guitars having "too much going on" is more a reflection of limitations in your experience than others' blind devotion to a certain brand or just some "nuttiest reason for not liking a guitar."


I get out quite a lot and have been doing so for quite awhile, but thank you for the suggestion.

You need to remember, as I do, that whatever you or espouse is an opinion and not a fact. And for as many who hold your view there are others that think the opposite.

I will state that honky-tonk piano sounds more authentic on an out of tune beater piano than on a Steinway. I think that's getting closer to your point.
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