Tommy Young - Steel Guitar Mod - Sound Clips - Listen!

[Rich Peterson]

I have audiophile quality amp and speakers on my computer (ARCAM/Rogers) and I certainly can hear a difference. I listened to "unmodded" first, and the "modded" clip definitely perked up my ears. I would personally be happy to sound as good as either, but the MaxTone would be my preference.

[Bo Legg]

If you can afford it mod everything. Your not going to be happy till you do.
Half the fun is posting how thrilled you are with your mods.
We then can feel happy for you as well as thankful that you were willing to share this valuable information with the rest of us.
We will feel inferior for awhile but we still love you and we'll get over it.

[Harold Dye]

Were any of you able to pick up the tuning he was using. Was it JI or what?

[Greg Cutshaw]

Don't shoot the messenger (that would be me). I have no skin in this game. I am just the pony that carried the letter along the trail.

Perhap this old thread should be closed and a new one should be opened with HQ recordings of the raw steel, no accompaniment, before and after. Open, 12th fret, 18th fret to show disinct differences in tone and sustain. Clearly this mod does SOMETHING and the format and quality control of these recording just confuse the issue.

Greg

[Bo Legg]

Were any of you able to pick up the tuning he was using. Was it JI or what?

what's JI ?

[Russ Wever]

what's JI ? Confused

Justabout Intoon

[Bo Legg]

Justabout Intoon, I think you are not grasping the concept of .333333 tones.

[Randy Gilliam]

I Bought a Fessenden With The Mod and have had a couple Without the Mod, With The Mod The Sustain Was Much better and It Had a Real clear sound! Keep up the Great work Tommy, A Lot Of Guitars I Have Heard Could Really use the Mod, I Wont Mention The Brands and Start WW111, Randy G.

[Brint Hannay]

what's JI ? Confused

Justabout Intoon

[tomsteel]

The backing tracks are too differant.Why all the secret about nobody knew about the...Test?Its like the bass player doesnt even know the song on the before mod but he does alot better on the mod one.The eq really on both of them is awful.Really bad.Way to much treble etc on the before mod and the second sounds like it was ran thru a compressor because everything fades in and out somewhat.But Im sorry......I dont like mods.No offense it just seems like to much mystery is involved in this. Thomas Malugin Columbia,TN

[Kevin Hatton]

Fessenden guitars need no mod. They are a superior sounding guitar just the way the are. One of the best sounding steels out there.

[Brad Malone]

Perhap this old thread should be closed and a new one should be opened with HQ recordings of the raw steel, no accompaniment, before and after.

Greg C. I agree, just play the Steel alone, no sense adding to the confusion. If some $3000 steels have to be modded, I would seek another brand...never had to mod my KAZOO...LOL.

[Mitch Adelman]

There is a bit of a subtle difference but I get the same "mod' sound, if not richer, when I plug in my Steel Guitar Black Box, IMHO

[J D Sauser]

I am neutral about the mod. as I am one more who does not yet know what it is.

I'd have to join whom said that both tracks sound different. The guitar seems to sound different too.
I'd be inclined to say that I like the first (pre-) TRACK better than the second one (post).
I however think that the steel, while sounding really nice and most of all very tastefully plaid, is OVER FX'ed for the purpose of a comparative "etude".

... J-D.

[Al Miller]

My personal opinon or 2 cents if you will is the first Clip is their so called Mod'ed Guitar not the second clip . i think these fellers are trying to Prove their point. I also think that there is Alot more reverb (FX) on the so called mod'ed clip. I have a 95 Pre Rp Mullen guitar with stock pickups Mod'ed by and to Del Mullen Ear when he built it. i would put that guitar up next to anybody's mod'ed guitar anytime any day in relation to tone & Sustain. if i wanted it to sound diffrent i would buy a differnt guitar plain and simple.. the playing on those clips is very nice and the player is great the song choice even better. however i just cant see for my taste it being a justified expense. Do you guys think that Buddy would let them MOD the blade. isnt that the tone that 97.9% of us have been chasing for 30 yrs. its in the hands & Heart fella's!!! sure the guitar, pickup ,the day,,the temp ect.. all play a part and im not saying these fellers are not knowlegeable in their endevours. i think if you boys wanna prove your point you need to ask Scotty to let you do a demonstration on the big stage where it can be done live. with the same player the same guitar the same amp setting plugged in from the voulme pedal to the amp No effects no reverb and even possibly the amp EQ set flat./ IE: Randy beavers, Mike Sweeny Maurice Anderson,Bobbe Seymore,Tommy White ect.. or even paul franklin playing the guitar. when you record something in todays world it can be manipulated to sound like anything (NOT THAT YOU DID THAT!!) but it would prove more to me and others im sure if we saw and heard it happen in front of our Eyes & Ears LIVE!! i hope i didnt offend anyone i have just been reading this for a while and i even played a mod'ed guitar of Tommy's with my father standing next to me and i or him heard no differnce . im not saying there wasnt im saying if there was i couldnt hear it.. thanks for letting me ramble
Boo Miller

[Pat Comeau]

They both sound good but...
i do alot of mixing and mastering...and i can tell you that the 2 songs doesn't sound the same, i have a pair of professional studio monitors that i paid close to 1000$ and you can easy tell the diffence between the 2, and even if you ripped a song from a CD it doesn't change the sound of it, to me it sounds like 2 different take and mix all together.

[Curt Langston]

Do you guys think that Buddy would let them MOD the blade. isnt that the tone that 97.9% of us have been chasing for 30 yrs. its in the hands & Heart fella's!!!

Indeed Al..

In-freakin-deed!

Mod..............huh.

Yeah right.

Call it a set-up, or adjustment.
That's what it is!

Many forumites will do this, (or help someone do this, for free.) For the love of the instrument.

To "charge" someone for adjusting their guitar, (under the guise of a "mod"), is just not right.

No smiley....................

[Jerry Roller]

I would be very reluctant to question the talents of a man who can listen to an electric motor running and identify the frequencies he is hearing. Tommy has some uncanny hearing senses that allows him to do just that and he applies these senses to listening to a guitar, identify annoying frequencies and then work on whatever part of the guitar that is producing these frequencies as well as enhancing the good qualities he hears. Tommy is much sharper than some give him credit for. Not understanding does not make it not so. Why not just live and let live? Buy it if you believe and pass if you don't.
Jerry

[Brint Hannay]

Call it a set-up, or adjustment.
That's what it is!

Many forumites will do this, (or help someone do this, for free.) For the love of the instrument.

To "charge" someone for adjusting their guitar, (under the guise of a "mod"), is just not right.

No smiley....................

Right on, Curt! If you love what you're doing, you shouldn't expect to get paid for it! Hey, musicians, the music belongs to the people, man!

Would you believe it, my mechanic had the audacity to charge me for "adjusting" my car today!!!

[Curt Langston]

Brint wrote:

Would you believe it, my mechanic had the audacity to charge me for "adjusting" my car today!!!

You bet! But he did not have the audacity to call, or market it as a "mod"!



Back at 'cha!

[Rich Peterson]

Curt, Tommy can call his service a "mod" if he wants to. You have no say about that unless you have trademarked the term. It is a marketing term, and Tommy might have saved himself a lot of grief by using a different, less confusing term.

But the complements to his skill in these several threads suggest that he is much better with ears and tools than with a dictionary.

Old joke: Furnace stops working. Repairman called. Examines the furnace. Picks hammer from toolbox. Hits furnace. Furnace starts working fine. Repairman writes out bill for $100. Homeowner thinks that's a lot for hitting the furnace with a hammer, demands itemized bill.

Hitting furnace with hammer: $5.00
Knowing where to hit it: $95.00

Need any further explanation?

[Curt Langston]

Curt, Tommy can call his service a "mod" if he wants to.

Sure. And you can call me the President of the U.S. if you want to. Doesn't make it so.

BTW, Bobby Bowman, Bobbe Seymore, Billy Cooper and many other seasoned pros will fine adjust a guitar for a shop fee. That is just good business.They call it a set-up, or adjustment. They do not stoop to the level of trying to market it as a so-called "MOD"

Adjusting a guitar and trying to market it as a "mod" is misleading and IMHO unethical.

So, yeah, Tommy can call his adjustments a "mod" if he chooses. He can even place those gigantic "Maxi-Tone" stickers on a guitar if he chooses.

But, the bottom line is this: He sets up guitars for those who are not able to do so.

But a "MOD"............. No way.

Need any further explanation?

No thank you. I understand all too well!

[Rich Peterson]

Setup and adjustment means, to me anyway, working on the pedals, levers, rods, changer, etc. The mechanical, moving parts. I doubt that any of those other than the changer and roller will affect the tone. No one has reported seeing any replacement parts on a MaxTone guitar.

Are you "Modifying" a guitar if you put in a different pickup? A different brand of strings, or different string guages? Change a pull? A collectable Les Paul or Strat loses a lot of value if you replace a scratchy tone pot or get it refretted. Back in the 70's, some people were shaving the braces of old Martin guitars to make them more resonant; that certainly would qualify as a "mod."

But Tommy has written that he discovered his procedure while adjusting his own guitar and finding a very noticeable improvement in tone. So he undid what he had just done and the guitar sounded the way it did before. He couldn't have undone anything that removed wood or metal, so most of us would not call it a mod.

Apparently Tommy has the ears and talents of a fine luthier, and that enables him to bring out the full potential of an instrument. For not much more than the cost of a different pickup. And he'll tell you if he doesn't think a guitar needs his treatment.

You object to his use of the word, "mod." Fine. It confuses you and a lot of other people. But I fail to see it as unethical, because it certainly does not benefit Tommy. Instead, it scares a lot of people away, for fear of voiding a warranty or destroying the "originality" of a classic instrument.

Perhaps all the doubters could go together to send a guitar to Tommy for his treatment so you could whine about something you know something about. Only cost each of you about $25. Then you could dismanle the instrument to discover what he did, and then find out if it still sounded good after you put it back together.

BTW, one forum member kept bringing up a repair Tommy had done on a guitar in which the wood had given way and the changer become loose. Tommy insists that the screws shown in the picture were not his. Seems obvious to me that the wood had continued to split, and someone later put in a larger screw, because they were too cheap to have a new body built.

[Curt Langston]

But Tommy has written that he discovered his procedure while adjusting his own guitar and finding a very noticeable improvement in tone.

You just proved my point! while adjusting his own guitar

Rich says:

BTW, one forum member kept bringing up a repair Tommy had done on a guitar in which the wood had given way and the changer become loose. Tommy insists that the screws shown in the picture were not his.

Hmmmm, seems that you do not have all the facts.
This, per someone who actually had this "mod" done. Tommy admits that he bore those wood screws down into the cabinet.

Quote:
James Sission



From:
Sugar Land,Texas USA Posted 1 Oct 2009 5:55 pm

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tommy Young wrote:
CHRIS ON THE THREAD WHERE THE PICTURE WAS I TOLD ALL OF THE STORY,,,, AS ALL CAN SEE THE SCREWS THAT I PUT ON IT WERE REPLACED AND ALL CAN SEE THAT SOMEONE HAS BEEN REMOVING THEM AND REPLACED THEM WITH LARGER ONES IN AND OUT SEVERAL TIMES LOOK CLEARLY AT THE LEFT SCREW THE EVEIDENCE IS CLEAR. I'VE BEEN THRU THIS WITH YOU ON OTHER OCCASIONS THANKS..


Sorry, but I am calling BS on this big time. You guys ran me off last time, but I am back and this aint going to fly AT ALL. That was my Mullen Guitar and this statement is not true at all. I guess since I stopped posting here and stopped buying things through this forum, you all think I disappeared and now the story can change you guys decided no one can have a bad experience here.

Tommy, you put those screw in that guitar and here is your first response to my email when I got the guitar and discovered them because of a potential buyer pointing them out. ...

1) JAMES THOSE ARE PUT THERE FOR TONE ADDITION TO THIS MULLEN GUITAR. YES I KNOW ABOUT THEM THANKS AS I KNOW THEM VERY WELL SOME OF THE OLDER AND NEWER ONES NEED THESE TO GET THE UTMOST QUALITY TONE THANKS IF THEY DONT WANT THEM , DON'T SELL IT TOO THEM HAHAHA AS THEY DON'T LIKE TONE TOMMY

Then after futher discussion, you decided they were not part of your mod and you sent me this email:


2) James sorry that you bought this particular guitar, but this isn't part of my tone modification it was to prevent this changer from rising in the back and letting the pedals go out of tune


Whatever it is, its crappy work in my opinion and I know I am going to get slammed on here and I really don’t care as I am in the right and I WILL tell the truth here. Then you sent me a third email after I told you I would take it Bobby Bowman and have it repaired.

3)JAMES THOSE SCREWS ARE ON THE CHANGER THEY ARE NOT ON THE NECK SORRY MY FRIEND, THAT IS WHY I HAD TO SCREW IT DOWN BUT IF YOU WANT 2300 SHIPPED TO ME THEN LET ME KNOW AS THESE GUY'S KNOW THIS PROBLEM SORRY YOU DON'T WANT TO TELL THOSE GUY'S I HAVE NEVER HAD A PROBLEM SELLING ANY OF THESE THAT I HAVE FIXED THIS WAY PROBABLY 25 OR SO NOW, THAT WAS WHY MULLEN HAD SOME PEDAL STAYING IN TUNE PROBLEMS THEY COULD NOT RESOLVE AND THEY CHANGED TO ROYAL PRECISION WITH THE SCREWS IN BEHIND.THE CHANGER THANKS


I declined the offer and you then you told me that you did this to 25 or so guitars, and that said it DOES assist with the tone. Here is that email to refresh your memory.

4) From: "TOMMY YOUNG" <tyoung52>
James those 2 screws does help to improve the TONE and SUSTAIN on these guitars as they keep the back of the changer from lifting also. please explain the putty stuff you talked about and where it was, as that was added by someone else, thanks TOMMY

And NOW someone else replaced your screws? Bull S….At what point in this correspondence over a year ago did you tell me you didn’t do that ??? This is dishonest and I am not going to let this go with your placing blame for that debacle on someone else. If you were young and just getting started and did that, ok, but own up to it and stop lying about it because you assumed I was gone and you could distort the facts without being called out. That is the exact picture I took in my home and sent to you a year or so ago and NEVER did you say that was not your work back then. Now all of a sudden someone else did it ?? I assure that had you not done that, that would have been the FIRST thing you told me when I contacted you….I never delete an email my friend….….James

The changer in question:


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