UNPLANNED DOWNTIME: 12th Oct 23:45
What's your favourite acoustic guitar tone on record?
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We all like a bit of acoustic guitar don't we? What's your favourite acoustic tone on record?
I like these:
The Who - Overture, the end acoustic section
The Who - Going Mobile
I know Pete Townsend used the late 60s Gibson J-200 with the tune-o-matic tone robbing adjustable bridge but I still like the tone!
John Williams - Cavatina. A frustratingly quiet recording but lovely tone
Bauhaus - The Passion Of Lovers (Live) A (Washburn?) 12 string plugged into a HH amp and played loud and ragged. Frustratingly this song isn't on the 'Press The Eject...' live album featuring songs from the same gig
Any my absolute favourite of all...
Eric Roche - With These Hands played on his Benjamin OM model:
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John Martyn - Solid Air:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UikPQOaJpfU
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson
Peter Buck on his Guild F412 all over 80s REM
Whilst a bit over compressed I love the Teenage Fanclub acoustic sounds on Grand Prix
Oh look it's a D28...
Dave Rawlings - Epiphone Olympic & Sony C37
Gillian - J45 & Neumann m582
Ray Lamontagne - D35 and a Neumann U67
As for tone, I love Be. Howard zen of an Affair - you can’t hear the top light up each time he hits those harmonics.
https://youtu.be/3_ojOSHowRA
Also love the understated organic acoustic sound that Rick Ruben gets on Neil Diamonds 12 Songs album.
This is a great example.
https://youtu.be/cQRLuA-EUFg
The Acoustic sound on Gillian Welch's "Harrow and the Harvest" (J50 & Epi)
Bert Jansch on the Black Swan album (Yamaha)
and best of all Pierre Bensusan on the Intuite album (Lowden)
Generally, a Martin Dread, strung heavy. Single mic into a slightly on the verge of overloading analog desk.
Much as I appreciate the more modern lighter built 'breathy' acoustics, miced up for a more sensitive, harmonically complex sound, I do like the more old school fundamental weight of a Martin.
To be completely perverse, I also love Lloyd Cole's 90s acoustic sounds on albums like Bad Vibes and Love Story, and those are his Taylors. It's not a sound that works as well for me when I play them, either.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson
Those opening chords of Bigmouth Strikes Again, though. Marr is God.
I need to play a good Dove, the only I've played in recent memory had strings on it that Moses must have put on.
Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself
Wizz Jones
Isaac Guillory
Jonathan Kelly on Twice Around the Houses
Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself
I stuck a strat pickup in my acoustic in tribute.
Or Nick Jones on Penguin Eggs. The whole damn album
https://youtu.be/ffL4YfkAi_8
Also have to agree about Johnny Marr; the acoustics on Queen is Dead are pretty much perfection.
David Crosby and Graham Nash great sound, it was hearing the first Crosby Sill and Nash album that made me want to get a guitar, in fact I still listen to it regularly.
So it must be the sound of a dread Martin for me that ticks the boxes, have never played one though but have 2 Taylors!?
Yep, A D28 is the acoustic tone of choice for me. It's quieter and a has less low end /high end than a HD28 but records all the better for it. The woodier and more mid-rangey on an old 70s recording it is, the more I like it!
However, that tone that Eric Roche gets with his Benjamin OM is very special, have you listened to it?
My D28 is 2 years old and the top is starting to yellow slightly, losing the anaemic look of new wood and the satin neck is now polished glossy smooth from playing. It's hard to tell if it sounds better than when new as the changes are gradual but to my ears it does.
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