The one thing that I see in the evolution of the acoustic guitar today is its link with the past from Canada’s own, Glenn Gould.
He used a unique approach while playing in his later years, around 1983, when he took away part of the piano body to let the sound come out of the instrument in a unorthodox way.
First of all, the guy was way ahead of his time. What he did was to remove the wooden cover section that is used to cover the piano keys. He removed this part entirely. He would also close the piano lid on his concert piano, allowing the sound to be sent through the missing cover section of the piano.
This allowed him to hear the subtle tones while playing his music.
This was best shown in his 1980’s work of the gloomy nature of life. The slowness of some of his canon’s reflect the need for this type of sound exposure that the musician needs to fully understand what the audience hears, but as a very unique approach.
Second of all, the guy went to places that no one probably ever thought of venturing. I wonder if the person who thought of the guitar side ports ever watched Glenn Gould Hereafter? If he did, I bet this is where he may have got the idea, but then again I could be dead wrong.
I have been toying around with the idea of putting in a new state of the art pick up system in my Larrivee. The system is called the LR Baggs iMIX. It captures a lot of the character in my guitar with an active response to it. That means that the pickups pick up the aggressive or passive playing of the strings on the guitar.
Now in order to place it in there, I must have it installed inside the body above the sound hole, closest to my face. That’s fine with me. The next question is what in the world do I do with the hole that the factory installed system sat in? It would look mighty funny just viewing a rectangular opening right there in my face. Do I just leave it there or what should I do with it? Here is my best option, I think.
I have always wanted both of my acoustic guitars to have pick ups so I can have a back-up on stage. So why not put my old pick up from the Larrivee into my old Aspen acoustic guitar. Perfect, I think? Unfortunately if I do this I will have this opening on the side of the body near my chest where the old system was. It would look so odd and out of place that I would be reluctant to let anyone look at my guitar. So while talking about my problem with the guitar tech at the 12th fret, he gave me this fabulous idea of the side port!
They could change the look of the old hole and create a fancy looking design in it’s place!
This will allow a small portion of the sound to come up directly to me acting like another sound hole or a monitor if you will. This will not effect the tonal qualities of my baby I have been told. The tech had one in this part of the workshop that he made and let me try it out. Not only did it look very cool and original, but it was nice to have some sound coming from a part of the guitar that I have never heard it coming from in the past.
Now all I have to do is convince my wife about this one, wish me and my Larrivee luck will you all?
Keep on Jammin’
I saw Bobby Wiseman just about take a piano apart before playing it. He didn’t just use the keys when he played. He was strumming or hitting strings as well. It was an upright piano and Jack Sheriff, God rest his soul, looked a bit perturbed as volunteers dragged the piano to the front of the stage and took all the clutter off of it before the impromptu encore.
Standard ways of playing offer a great deal of possible sounds, but they are not enough for some people.
Martin, the last part of your post is fabulous! I’ve never heard of that phrase before. I must admit it is very insightful.
Keep on jammin’ Martin
Nice blog.
I’m interested in those guitars. I’ve never played one of those where the sound hole is located on the body.
I will see if I can find one within 1000 kilometers of where I live and give it a test run. The idea hurts my brain a little.
But really, the guitar is always in transit and it’s foolish to think that the guitar as it is, is an end result and won’t morph into something else.
It’s 30 years since I first sat in a room with three 7 string semi-acoustics.
it’s really quite exciting and our ears are wanting new experiences. I did a bit of guitar building about 10+ years ago, at that time I dreamt of a guitar that was half sarod and half guitar.
Recently, I was at a party and in walked a guy with an Oud and a percussionist, it was extremely swet.
I’ll be back to this blog.
Tony
Hey Tony, you will not be disappointed with this new system of sound dispersement.
I was in a dream like state while listening to the sound coming up to my face for the very first time while playing this guitar. While playing it, I listened with amazement in what I was hearing. I know the novelty would wear off after a while but it was a true joy to encounter this evolution of the guitar fir the first time!
As for your experience with the 7 string, I envy you for that.
How wide was the neck on it? I also wonder if the truss rod needed extra shoring up due to the tension? Any thoughts on that?
Keep on Jammin’
A friend of mine just got a Larrivee. What a sweet sounding instrument! I’m going to pass you blog info on to him coz I think he will be very interested in your pick-up configuration. Good luck with it.
Cheers
Thanx Jimmy! I hope that your fiend will tell me what he has experienced with his Larrivee.
Really looking forward to his input!
Keep on Jammin’
Hi Chris
apologies for not responding earlier, I’ve been snowed under and didn’t focus on that particular email account lately due to working on a new blog and DADGAD blues arrangements on my new guitar.
Re: the seven strings. The necks were a standard sort of ES175 width plus the extra width for the bottom B note. I realize now that only two of the guitars were semi-acoustics, the other was a nylon string. Don Andrews at that time had been playing for 44 years, he was telling me that he was sitting on his lounge chair one day and tapped on the side of the chair, and liked the sound of it. He had the chair chopped up and sent part of it to Maton, the Australian guitar company and they turned a piece of the lounge chair into the neck of the guitar. And wouldn’t you if it sounded good?
As for any other technical details about the guitars, I really don’t know, it was in about 1976.
TH
Hey Tony, that was a GREAT response! I loved the incite into the origins of his axe.
We’re sorry to hear about all the snow down under and hope that it all just melts away soon! Here in Toronto Canada, the weather was 25.1 C yesterday. Not that I’m trying to rub it in , but Canada is the first place that you would think about having snow so early!
In regards to your question, yes I would think about using the wood from that lounge chair! It’s also very eco friendly to do such a thing like that. Hats off to Dan Andrews for his forward thinking! Tell him we all say hi!
Keep on Jammin’