A carbon guitar becoming a weissenborn

Jean-Paul Bataille · Post by **Jean-Paul Bataille** » 23 Mar 2020 12:01 am

https://youtu.be/RcTDC4voGwA

Larry Meyers · Post by **Larry Meyers** » 23 Mar 2020 5:24 am

What a great idea! The perfect sound for your minor key songs.
Thanks for sharing.

Larry

Eric Gross · Post by **Eric Gross** » 23 Mar 2020 3:49 pm

Cool!

Aaron Johnson · Post by **Aaron Johnson** » 29 Mar 2020 8:19 am

What a great idea! I really wish more companies built with carbon fiber.

Glenn Wilde · Post by **Glenn Wilde** » 31 Mar 2020 4:29 am

That's cool, sounds good. Got a nice midrange honk to it, like a Gypsy guitar, almost like a reso.
Nice playing too.

David Matzenik · Post by **David Matzenik** » 31 Mar 2020 5:04 am

Extremely nice listening. And what a great idea for a next generation of acoustic steel guitars. I am assuming the guitar is tolerant of atmospheric/ humidity changes?

admin · Post by **b0b** » 31 Mar 2020 7:05 am

Very nice instrument. Are we listening to the acoustic sound, the electric sound, or a combination of both?

Jerry Overstreet · Post by **Jerry Overstreet** » 31 Mar 2020 9:50 am

I like it too. Nice sound. Interested in the answer to b0b's query.

I'm sure most of it is your execution, but curious about the rest.

Jean-Paul Bataille · Post by **Jean-Paul Bataille** » 1 Apr 2020 12:27 am

The transformation went really smooth, and the result surprisingly interesting. This guitar, which was a very poor nylon guitar, came out as a very useful "weissenborn".
I use the name because the neck of the Blackbird Rider is hollow by design, so there is a relationship (of sort) with the real thing.
Since the headstock is "slotted", it was easy to reverse the tuners, I just used a bunch of bone for nut and bridge. The thing is not designed to stay on lap, so I had to think a bit and came with the thing under the body and the leather riser.

I already have a carbon guitar by Lukas Brunner, so I'm used to the advantages ; impervious to about anything, sturdy little beast. Result : you don't worry much about the instrument when you carry it. And that Blackbird guitar was designed to be a travel guitar, light and small. Very convenient. So I have a guitar *and* a weiss to travel with, now that I don't travel anymore !

Re : the recording itself : I use a somewhat complicated set-up with pedals and such. On this recording there was no microphone used, so the source is the magnetic pick-up only, which is a very cheap humbucking (like 25$) of unknown source, going thru preamp and reverbs (I put magnetic PU's on *all* my instruments, this is my favourite transducer). I tweak the buttons until it sounds good to me at the moment. I didn't use any amp, signal goes direct to the camera.
Now I believe that the music itself makes the sound, and of course this is my own way to play lap style, so... Here you have some waltzy tune which shows my french origin...

Acoustically it is very different from the only weissenborn I use, a deep body Twisted Wood, chinese made. (I don't have any experience with top of the line weissenborns).
The sound is more mediumish, strings separation is greater than on the weiss. The scale is longer, too. Extremely sensitive to dynamic, to the point you have to really take care about the consistency of your attack. It can go out of control fast. The wood weiss is more forgiving.

But all in all, a nice instrument.

Jean-Paul Bataille · Post by **Jean-Paul Bataille** » 1 Apr 2020 12:40 am

Oops, my bad : yes there was a microphone used in the recording, I forgot.
So this is a blend between the PU/effects chain and the mic. Something like 70/30.
I use the mic only for some air, the meat of the recording is direct electric signal.
Sorry for the mistake.