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Post by bonzo on May 23, 2017 17:04:53 GMT
Advice please, what is it?! Just picked this up (it is so pretty!)as a tenor reso. Having never even having seen one before I am now the proud owner of this guitar. Any one seen one like this? It's 22 1/2 inches from nut to bridge. The biscuit saddle and bridge are all one piece. I think I can make out a cone in there but it must almost be touching the back of the guitar. It's got stereo output jacks and everything seems to work. Sounds good! Let me have your thoughts please and I'd like to know what the stereo setup is supposed to do. Best wishes to you all, John _
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Post by Jinder on May 23, 2017 19:50:53 GMT
It's very reminiscent of the Sollophonic Tele conversions from a few years back...I wonder if it's one of his creations?
Either way it's very cool and I bet it sounds great.
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Post by creolian on May 23, 2017 20:03:06 GMT
Hello Bonzo, That stereo output might be just two parallel mono outputs or the pickups are wired or switchable out of phase al la a Gibson es345... All depends on the mad scientist who designed it I've never seen one like you have but it looks like a cool tool. Cheers ! j
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Post by bonzo on May 23, 2017 21:06:08 GMT
Thanks guys, good spotting jinder, I think you're right about it being a solophonic. Just looked at the website and there's lots like it although no tenors. Hi Creolian, I think each pickup is wired independently, each jack gives a different sound . I wondered how they would be used in conjunction with each other. I've seen stereo leads online so might look into that. Any suggestions? Does sound good, I'm enjoying it, bit banjo sounding (bite my tongue). Thanks for the info,any more would be welcome. Best wishes to you all, John
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Post by waffle on May 24, 2017 6:32:15 GMT
Hi Bonzo, Your tenor guitar is made by a guy called Hugh Scullion from the scunthorpe area.Hope that helps.
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Post by bonzo on May 24, 2017 7:17:12 GMT
Thanks Waffle, I think you're correct. I googled the name, limited information but one of the pictures I found had the same logo on the headstock as mine. I like unusual/unique guitars and seem to have found one here! Do you know the maker? Have you one of his instruments? Anyone else know about these? Thanks again for the input, Best wishes to you all, John
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Post by waffle on May 24, 2017 7:41:57 GMT
Hi again, Yes i know Hugh although not been in touch for a long while.Yes i used to have a reso-tele guitar.I still have a Scullion 'Strummer' a four stringed instrument with Dulcimer scale neck.If you search 'hugh scullion strummer' you might find more info on him.He is on facebook i think.Enjoy your new acquisition.
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Post by bonzo on May 24, 2017 8:42:06 GMT
Thanks Waffle, I think I have found a little gem here. Different sound to anything I've heard, loud enough unplugged nice and resoey through an amp! Best wishes to you all, John
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Post by creolian on May 24, 2017 12:13:57 GMT
Thanks guys, good spotting jinder, I think you're right about it being a solophonic. Just looked at the website and there's lots like it although no tenors. Hi Creolian, I think each pickup is wired independently, each jack gives a different sound . I wondered how they would be used in conjunction with each other. I've seen stereo leads online so might look into that. Any suggestions? Does sound good, I'm enjoying it, bit banjo sounding (bite my tongue). Thanks for the info,any more would be welcome. Best wishes to you all, John google the Gibson ES345 "varitone"... If the pups are wired out of phase, you should get some type comb filtering. This can sound like anything from bad to Mark Knopfler. Years ago I had a 345 and occasionally ran one output clean and the other through effects. if nothing else it gave a big fat sound. You may want to try running one output through a delay. Fwiw, as well as the ES345, BB King's ES355 Lucille is also a stereo output guitar. The chicken head knob on the brass circle plate changes the phase relationship between the pups on these. I worked on a few dozen festival shows of his and don't recall what he did with the stereo outputs. Have Fun ! J
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Post by pete1951 on May 24, 2017 14:15:16 GMT
Stereo can be fun, but 2amps and 2leads (or a stereo lead,) means twice as much to go wrong!I have several 'stereo' guitars wired in my own strange way , I call it Stereomonic. It's 40 years since I did the wiring, and most of the time I use a mono chord, which gives a standard mono output, a stereo plug give both pickups into one amp in the mid position, but you have a choice as to which pickup goes to which amp/input with the other 2 positions. PT I also have an old Gibson stereo, the varitone on the old ones was a bass filter, so unlike the tone knob it removes bass. I think the more modern Stereo guitars have a treble filter,(this is much cheaper to make, the bass filter needed 2choke coils)
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Post by bonzo on May 24, 2017 14:49:15 GMT
Hi Pete, I was hoping you would join in! Sounds like one of those ideas that should have stopped at the drawing board. The way you describe it is how I imagined it. My question now is:why? As I said earlier in the post, by switching between the two jacks I do get different sounds, as you would normally get switching between the two pickups. I didn't buy the guitar because of the stereo channels but didn't want to miss out on anything good! Hope all is well with you, best wishes to you all, John
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Post by pete1951 on May 24, 2017 16:12:45 GMT
The idea that you can get an other (or a selection) tone from a guitar is very seductive, I have done some stupidly complicated wiring jobs. Simple 1, 1+2, 2 pickup selection should be enough but the we all try to get that little bit more. The place when stereo should be used is when 2 types of pickups are used. Unless you have an on-board mixer, a piezo and a magnetic pickup are best given different inputs for the best tone from each. PT
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Post by bonzo on May 24, 2017 16:40:26 GMT
Thanks Pete, think I've grasped the idea, but my old mums expression of 'fart arsing around' comes to mind! I did wonder at first if the guitar was one of your concoctions (I mean that in a nice way) but it is a nice one. Bit of a worry though, when I played for my grandson after school today his comment was 'grandad that sounds like cowboy music'. HELP!! Best wishes to you all, John
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Post by Deleted on May 24, 2017 18:06:13 GMT
The stereophonic pickup idea may have started in the 1950's with Sano electric accordions and amplifiers. The Sano electric accirdion has a built-in pickup that is split into a bass and a treble winding/segment. The amplifier has a bass input and a treble input that each preamp is designed to accentuate the bass or treble band of frequencies. Then they are either mixed at a single power amp, or fed to a bass and treble power amp. Actually a good idea that works. I have the Sano amplifier and use one channel for bass or baritone guitar, and other fir standard guitar. Built right here in New Jersey...the cradle of guitar technology.
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Post by Stevie on May 25, 2017 7:01:31 GMT
The "Varitone" is a variable notch filter. It relies upon the low impedance of a series tuned LC (inductor (coil) : capacitor) circuit to shunt a band of frequencies to "ground". This allows both the high and the low end of the instrument's frequencies through, cutting the mid frequencies. You select which frequencies to cut by choosing which LC combination you dial up. The bandwidth of the frequencies notched out is dependent on the "Q" of the circuit which is in turn dependent on the values of the components chosen relative to one another (you can increase the value of one but you then have to decrease the other to maintain the same centre resonant frequency.) The Varitone is a beguiling beast understood by few and unjustly removed by many over the decades. There is anecdotal evidence to suggest that Gibson misled folks over the years by stating a wholly inaccurate value for the coil which tends to suggest that it is more effective to use a much higher value of inductance- notwithstanding the physical size of such a beast! ("Q" again!) with a correspondingly smaller value of capacitor . Except for my last comment, this is all just my understanding based largely from work done on parallel tuned circuits for radio aerials but the principles are the same, just vastly different frequencies (and of course parallel means high Z network.) It is not lifted from the internet (ie, not from Wikipedia for a start), but I'm perfectly ready to be corrected.
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