Do armrests and sound-ports ADD brightness or DECREASE it??

[Mandobart]

Originally Posted by LFL Steve

An F5 with sound port? Cool.
What is it?

It was built by Tom TJ Jensen of Cricket Fiddle. I love the look, feel and playability of his instruments. I've got 5 of his builds now.

This particular one was built in 1998, fell on some hard times then found its way back to TJ. And then to me.

[Br1ck]

The sound you are describing is exactly what I hear when I'm using my new hearing aids. It's why I have a program for playing music. It is still too bright so when I go in for my follow up appointment, I'll ask them to drop even more of the high frequencies. Too much treble is very unpleasant, but when I move the control on my app toward the soft (vs bright) setting, the guitar tone becomes more pleasing.

Are you using hearing aids for your mid loss? Sounds like you need a low pass filter in the worst way. But my all purpose setting needs the highs for speech recognition. I'm still retraining my brain so things are still recalibrating.

Do you have or know anyone with recording gear? You could play with a powerful EQ plugin to see if you could cut enough highs to get a decent tone you can live with. Right now things are really strange for my brain, but like I said, I'm in the adjustment phase, but I think I understand some of what you are hearing. Keys jangling are really annoying, so are squeaking doors, and a hundred other noises I wasn't hearing before. I have to tell my wife to quit raising her voice. It's an adjustment for her too.

[Moldstar]

They ADD to my ability to hide my weed quickly, and they DECREASE the chances my wife or kids will catch me. I didn't know they had anything to do with the sound.

That's a joke, folks. However, in the spirit of being relevant, the acoustic shoppe sells those guitar 'cages' (I call them because I can't remember the name for the product) that basically keep you from touching any part of the body while playing, so you don't kill your sound/optimize your sound. I'd be really interested to hear from somebody who has experience with one of these things.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by Carbonius

Now that is an interesting thought! I do already have a custom K&K installed. It's a 5 head rather than the traditional 3 head, the extra 2 heads helped to fill in some frequencies that were lacking.

Anyhow. I would have to get a good DI or a practice amp but that could work!! I have actually played sometimes with earplugs in to dampen the highs. However I also loose some mids, so that hasn't worked as well. But having control over the overall tone... can't believe I never thought of it!

I also appreciate your feedback about the soundport. Certainly the LAST thing I want is MORE treble. Thank you.

Hi Carbonious…

I play regularly on a Worship Team, and when I play acoustic and lead I tend to use the in-ears at rehearsals…it's the one time I get to hear it as the main PA board hears it.

When I play electric since I'm on the front line and can hear the mains which are slightly behind us (we're out on the front stage extension), I only use in-ears during sound checks or between services if there's something I need to adjust.

Our in-ears are a tied-to-cords system, and I love to wander further than the cable allows.

[Carbonius]

Originally Posted by Br1ck

The sound you are describing is exactly what I hear when I'm using my new hearing aids. It's why I have a program for playing music. It is still too bright so when I go in for my follow up appointment, I'll ask them to drop even more of the high frequencies. Too much treble is very unpleasant, but when I move the control on my app toward the soft (vs bright) setting, the guitar tone becomes more pleasing.

Are you using hearing aids for your mid loss? Sounds like you need a low pass filter in the worst way. But my all purpose setting needs the highs for speech recognition. I'm still retraining my brain so things are still recalibrating.

Do you have or know anyone with recording gear? You could play with a powerful EQ plugin to see if you could cut enough highs to get a decent tone you can live with. Right now things are really strange for my brain, but like I said, I'm in the adjustment phase, but I think I understand some of what you are hearing. Keys jangling are really annoying, so are squeaking doors, and a hundred other noises I wasn't hearing before. I have to tell my wife to quit raising her voice. It's an adjustment for her too.

Hi there. Sorry for the delayed reply, had a busy week. You should eventually find a happy medium over time. Like you say, it's your brain adjusting AND your specialist doing the adjusting. Hearing aids are SO MUCH about who puts them in, the gear they have and how good they are with it. Too many people try to cheap out on hearing aids. I get it, they are expensive, but it effects far to much of ones life to go cheap.

I'm going to give you the journey, read as much or as little as you like.

I've been to all the experts to see what can be done. It was a huge learning experience! It's been a very hard road. I was going crazy for a while when it all first started nearly 14 years ago. I actually found someone who tests beyond 8k. Most hearing tests only go to 8k, which I always felt was wrong for me. I get it, most people my age don't hear over that. I hear WAY over that.

In most hearing tests I would look at the chart, see the curve going up and up as it reached 8k... then it ended. I asked them about it and they just said you can't hear that high at your age (45 at the time)... YES I can!!

I did my own tests and found I heard up to 13,500 in one ear and up to 12,000 in the other. My 9k range was actually pretty loud. Then I was at an expert who tested up to 16k. She did her tests, I pulled out my home made tests and they perfectly lined up.

I WASN'T CRAZY

However there was very little she could do. We looked at surgical options but they were high risk with very little chance of helping. We are talking about shoving my brain out of the way to get at the semi-circular canals. They said there was only a 5% chance of it helping but a higher chance of serious damage. No thanks!

My hearing is so bad that I actually hear some sounds right through my skull (conductive hearing). For instance cutlery on plates. We haven't eaten with regular plates since August of 2012. I can't take it. It's like a cymbal right next to my ear being hit with every TAP of the plate. So even if I press my hands into my ears as hard as I can, the sound gets through my skull to my ears.

Another expert told me I had to be very careful, not to expose myself to excessive noise as it is real pain. It's weird sometime people don't even notice a sound and it hurts me. I used to push through it to be social and all that.

Anyhow, due to the loud tinnitus (CRAZY LOUD) I can't have hearing aids that close off the canal. The ones I had were pretty expensive $6,000 USD. They could produce white noise, brown noise and all that. I could not tolerate it. I already hear 3600, 7200 & 8000 ALL the time for the last 14 years. Adding another frequency right in my ear was just too much. Hopefully my high range goes down more with age.

I do sleep with a brown noise machine set pretty loud and that helps. A really quite room is very bad for me, so are rooms with the wrong noises (which is a lot). I always carry ear plugs and high end noise cancelling earbuds that I can play music through. When ear plugs aren't enough, I listen to music.

You mentioned low pass filter, I would love to filter the world! I actually have fed albums through a low pass filter so that I could enjoy them again. With my ear buds and in my car I have the highs substantially rolled off with the bass boosted. Would sound muddy to anyone else, but it's clear and enjoyable to me.

Well that my longer story. Hang in there, they should be able to get you dialed in over time. One key thing I learned is too really focus on being positive during the retraining process. It's funny how the brain works. My expert advised me to get in a really good mood and then slowly expose myself to certain sounds for a short time, as long as I could stay positive. Not too loud of course, just a tiny bit louder then comfortable. That has helped me to do better in public settings.

[Carbonius]

Originally Posted by boneuphtoner

To the OP - Like you, I did not like the overly bright tone I was getting out of the unwound strings of my acoustics. Some guitars did a better job of hiding this than others (hardwood or cedar tops), but even if the open strings were fairly mellow, one or more of the fretted notes was brighter than I wanted. I told George Gruhn this, and he suggested that I try a larger bodied 12-fret instrument, like a 12-fret dread. Problem solved - much warmer tone on the unwound strings now!

That's interesting. I'll have to try one out some time. Nothing like that locally anymore for me. Jumbo's or Super Jumbo's might also help. the 12 fret version is what's hard to find. Thanks!

[Carbonius]

Originally Posted by ljguitar

Our in-ears are a tied-to-cords system, and I love to wander further than the cable allows.

I hear you there. Just this Sunday I started walking away without unplugging!! I got quite a YANK back. For me it's the only way I can play so I tolerate it. I was on a 6 string Dingwall bass, I love playing that! So rich but then I have full control.

What I REALLY love is that we all have a separate mix. I go back to our console and turn off everything over 6k for my mix. Everyone else gets the full spectrum, I get what works for me. I love the modern era for things like this!

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by Carbonius

I hear you there. Just this Sunday I started walking away without unplugging!! I got quite a YANK back. For me it's the only way I can play so I tolerate it. I was on a 6 string Dingwall bass, I love playing that! So rich but then I have full control.

What I REALLY love is that we all have a separate mix. I go back to our console and turn off everything over 6k for my mix. Everyone else gets the full spectrum, I get what works for me. I love the modern era for things like this!

Hi Carbons…
Watch that 'wandering'.

I've been playing 'modernized' worship music for the past 45 years, and really enjoy it too. And the modern equipment has made positive impact on musicians of all genres…

Had to look up the dingwall bass…wow nice stuff!

I have a mid-70s single pickup Aria ProII with active EQ which I'm playing through the same modeler as my electrics (Valeton GP-200). It has about a dozen decent bass patches in it. So I don't even have to move to a new place on stage.

The Aria has as narrow a neck as a Fender Jazz…and sometimes I just put it in Dropped D and keep it simple to fill the space that becomes 'empty' without it.