The Cellar » Guitars and Climate Change

xoxoxoBruce · 11/03/2020 3:32 pm

From Scientific American https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/climate-change-hits-rock-and-roll-as-prized-guitar-wood-shortage-looms1/

"Every winter and spring, rains across the central U.S. combine with snowmelt along the northern reaches of the Mississippi River to inundate the hardwood-dominated bottomlands of the lower Mississippi. When the floodwaters recede and soils dry up in summer, logging crews harvest species of trees that include green ash. Being partly submerged for months encourages these trees to produce thin-walled cells with large gaps between them, creating a low-density wood prized by musical instrument makers. Since the 1950s, American guitar giant Fender Musical Instruments has used this kind of ash to create its iconic electric guitars. Countless music legends, from bluesman Muddy Waters to rockers Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones and Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders, have loved their Fenders, and many say this wood gives the instruments a warm but crystal-clear twang. This niche has earned it colloquial labels such as “swamp ash,” “music ash” or “punky ash” in the lumber and music industries (although the names are used for a couple of others species of ash as well).

Once cheap and readily available, swamp ash became an integral part of Fender’s DNA over the decades, says Mike Born, former director of wood technology at the company. But earlier this year an acute shortage forced Fender to announce it would move away from using swamp ash in its famous line of Stratocasters and Telecasters—reserving the wood for vintage models only. Fender blamed the dwindling supply on longer periods of climate-fueled flooding along the lower Mississippi—which is endangering saplings and making it harder for lumber companies to reach standing trees—as well as the looming threat of an invasive tree-boring beetle. Another renowned U.S. manufacturer called Music Man raised similar sourcing concerns in 2019, which the company described as having “one of the worst harvests in recent history.”"

So if you have one hang on to it, or if you see one at a reasonable price in may be a good investment.

Last edited by xoxoxoBruce (11/03/2020 3:33 pm)

xoxoxoBruce · 11/04/2020 3:10 am

Speaking of guitar investments...

But that's nothing, just wait till one of LJ's builds comes up for auction.

lumberjim · 11/04/2020 9:03 am

Personally, I don't think the species of wood in an electric guitar has that much impact on the tone. More to do with the scale length and type /location of the pick ups.

Acoustic is another matter.

Flint · 11/04/2020 1:29 pm

There's a debate in the drumming community about how much impact the type of wood used in a drum shell has, versus other factors like depth/diameter, hardware, and bearing edges. Some say the drum is just a resonating chamber of air volume, and the bearing edges/heads create the whole sound. Others swear by the resonance and frequencies of certain woods.

I can't imagine the wood resonance of an electric guitar would translate into much difference at the pickups, but I do think the MASS of the wood and where the mass is in relation to the neck is a factor-- like those weights you can attach to your head stock and instantly get more sustain.

Last edited by Flint (11/04/2020 1:29 pm)

xoxoxoBruce · 11/08/2020 5:32 am

You can be weird with an Italian 9 string...

However if you really want to make an impression build this infinity...
[url=https://postimages.org/]

Like this...

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lumberjim · 11/08/2020 8:02 pm

Ben at Crimson had the same noise issue with a lighted guitar. Can't remember how he solved that.

xoxoxoBruce · 11/13/2020 5:23 pm

Heavy metal...

xoxoxoBruce · 11/27/2020 10:34 pm

Damn, I'm tired just watching these two...

BigV · 11/27/2020 10:52 pm

holy mackerel!

that was AWESOME!

**************************************

1 -- wtf are those giant picks or are those tiny women with tiny instruments.... wtf.

2 -- I like how they're still tuning up at the start of the performance

3 -- standing ovation, daaaaaaayum that was impressive!!

lumberjim · 12/15/2020 8:29 pm

Bluegrass

xoxoxoBruce · 12/16/2020 3:34 am

BigV wrote:
holy mackerel!

1 -- wtf are those giant picks or are those tiny women with tiny instruments.... wtf.

Both, the instruments are small and the picks are large with a flat blade they put their thumb on and a handle for their hand. You can see the handle sticking out the back of the hand.

xoxoxoBruce · 12/26/2020 3:46 pm

100 guitar riffs in one take, wow...

xoxoxoBruce · 1/14/2021 12:29 am

Hear Ye Hear Ye please bow for Royalty...

BigV · 1/15/2021 6:54 pm

xoxoxoBruce wrote:
100 guitar riffs in one take, wow...

Thanks xoB! That was mighty tasty, the man's got skillz. I'm reminded how much I love rock and roll.

xoxoxoBruce · 3/20/2021 2:21 am

This ain't a guitar but Rock Music for sure...

Clodfobble · 3/21/2021 8:41 am

"Based on drawings by Stradivarius"

All violins are based on drawings of Stradivarius. Whose drawings were based on earlier makers'. He didn't have some radically different design than anyone else, he was just making them more precisely and with better materials.

Last edited by Clodfobble (3/21/2021 8:41 am)

griff · 3/21/2021 12:40 pm

Now it's guitars, Climate Change, hillbilly music
Lonely, lonely streets that I call home
Yeah my guitars, Climate Change, hillbilly music
Is the only thing that keeps me hanging on

Flint · 3/21/2021 11:48 pm

clickable video, I typed it in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9fnixE550g

footfootfoot · 3/23/2021 8:28 am

lumberjim wrote:
Ben at Crimson had the same noise issue with a lighted guitar. Can't remember how he solved that.

LEDs can casue RF interference. One solution is to use ferrite cores around the power-to-light wiring.

3/23/2021 1:08 pm

griff wrote:
Now it's guitars, Climate Change, hillbilly music
Lonely, lonely streets that I call home
Yeah my guitars, Climate Change, hillbilly music
Is the only thing that keeps me hanging on

What you did there, I see it.

xoxoxoBruce · 4/10/2021 4:31 pm

Ray Dietrich was a great automobile designer, co-founder of LeBaron Inc., a favored coachbuilt body designer for Packard and Lincoln. He also served as the first styling chief at Chrysler from 1932 to 1938.
After he retired in 1960, Gibson president Ted McCarty asked him if he could design an electric guitar.
Viola, the 1963 Firebird.
Offset to the right (down) instead of left. Neck-through, of 7 laminated strips for a solid neck heel to headstock, with the bridge, wound bar-magnet pickups, and banjo-style tuning machines mounted to it.
Firebird I = fixed bridge and a single pickup up to Firebird VII = triple pickups, bridge vibrato, and gold-plated hardware. Two Bass guitars called Thunderbirds followed.

They had a unique sound and didn't sell well, probably because every garage band wanted to sound like the big groups when the record company agent discovers them, They were expensive and difficult to build so Gibson dropped the line in 1970. But the seventies were different from the sixties, groups were looking for a unique sound to set them apart from the hoards. So Gibson made a special run of them, and another, and another. They still make them.

xoxoxoBruce · 4/14/2021 1:02 am

Some guitars you can't have...

You may be able to get one like some of these, but these belong to the Smithsonian.

tw · 4/14/2021 4:00 pm

footfootfoot wrote:
LEDs can casue RF interference. One solution is to use ferrite cores around the power-to-light wiring.

LEDs that need a power supply means something that created RF noise. So many ways to solve it. Including the power supply that is far away. Or linear (ie resistive) devices to convert a voltage source into a current source.

xoxoxoBruce · 4/15/2021 3:27 am

All your Bass...

xoxoxoBruce · 6/09/2021 8:46 pm

18 string? Yes 18 string!