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Topic: MSA wood/mica.. tone differences?? |
Bob Carlucci
From:
Candor, New York, USA
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Posted 8 Feb 2005 6:17 am |
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I've had 3 of these great guitars and may get a 4th..Do you guys feel the tone/sustain is better on the all wood bodies??.Is it more a more typical "country twang"than the Mica bodies?? ..
I was able to get great hi end and "twang" out of my plywood mica MSA guitars,but it took a LOT of pickup tweaking. The Micas ARE dark..
My wood body guitar was not around long enough for me to even remember its tone,but I do seem to recall it was NO Bud or ZB..
The question I am asking I suppose is this... Will I get the nice bright typical country sound out of a MAPLE body MSA if the right [truetone}pickups are used?? also,do the wood bodies SUSTAIN better than the Mica MSA's??
I got a NICE tone out of my mica's but ALWAYS fought them for sustain.. all other brands I owned sustained better than those micas.. will the wood sustain better??? any thoughts??? bob |
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Brian Henry
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Posted 8 Feb 2005 9:52 am
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Bob
I replaced the ply wood cabinet of my S10 MSA classic. I got a wonderful piece of maple of ebay and a friend made me a cabinet. It was really easy and inexpensive. I also B lawrence pick up and an aluminum neck. Wow what a sound!! The cabinet was $40 and I gave my friend $25 for doing it. It took him less than 45 minutes tbh |
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Bob Carlucci
From:
Candor, New York, USA
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Posted 8 Feb 2005 10:15 am
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tbh.. I guess what I need to know is this,On your guitar,Did the new body "brighten up" the tone?.. lengthen the sustain?.. did it become more like a Bud sound?.. My "new" MSA is a NICE chunk of maple..I'm just wondering what the change will be from the MSA sound I am used to with Mica/plywood.. The maple should have a little more "ring" and Zing" ..
When I took my old MSA apart and knocked on the wood cabinet and neck,it sounded like I was knocking on a wet rolled up newspaper!.. The guitar STILL sounded great!!.. Just never had that real nice sustain!...I hope the maple body cures that lack of "ring " and sustain... bob |
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Brian Henry
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Posted 8 Feb 2005 1:22 pm
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Bob, The tone is much better and sustain is greater. However, I am not sure of the cause. I didn't just have a maple body added. I also added an aluminum neck and a Bill Lawrence xr16 pickup.
In retrospect I wish I had had the patience to add each of these one at a time and assess the tone and the sustain. Maybe when you do yours you could add one at a time. I would be very interested in your findings. All I know is I have a great sounding guitar, bright, with super sustain. It just does not sound like the same guitar. Let me know what you think Regards, tbh |
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Brian Henry
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Guest
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Posted 8 Feb 2005 2:08 pm
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| Bob- I've had about six MSA's. The only one that really had great sustain was the "Universal" that I still have (with a GL 10-1) had a beautiful Supersustain II D-10 in natural birdseye maple with GL's and it had poor sustain. None of the older mica jobs were very good. |
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David Higginbotham
From:
Lake Charles, Louisiana, USA
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Posted 8 Feb 2005 8:17 pm
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Bob, I have had MSA lacquered and mica D-10 classics. Of the two, I much prefered the the sound and sustain of the lacquered. This was a super sustain model with George L's 10-1's and the metal pickup housing. The mica was a classic with 705's that I modified to fit humbuckers. The mica was also brighter than the lacquered.
Dave |
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Bob Carlucci
From:
Candor, New York, USA
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Posted 8 Feb 2005 9:06 pm
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| I DID buy this guitar!! Too nice to pass up @ $925 shipped.. bob |
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Mike Perlowin
From:
Los Angeles CA
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Posted 8 Feb 2005 9:43 pm
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I have one of each. Now I have different pickups in them, so that must be taken into coinsideration, but the maple/lacquer body has a deeper and richer tone, but LESS "twang" than the laminate/mica.
I vastly prefer the tone of the maple/lacquer guitar. It is the one I use for recording most of the time*, and for important performances. The other one just doesn't have the same tone. However, it is less fragile, and so I usually take it rather than the other to rehearsals, jams sessions, and outdoor performances.
* I occasioanlly use the mica guitar for recording in order to get a different texture.
There are 2 examples of duets between the maple and mica steels on my West Side Story CD. The first is the song "The Jets Are Gonna Have Their Way Tonight." The maple steel is on the left channel, the mica one is on the right.
At one time I has 2 pickups in the mica steel, with an out of phase switch. I used this on the song "A Boy Like That" and the contrast between that sound and the one produced ny my maple body is very striking. It is very clearly 2 completely different instruments, representing a conversation between 2 different characters (Anita and Maria). I subsequetly removed the second pickup, so I can no longer achieve that particular sound.
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In my life, I have experienced both wealth and poverty, and after carefully comparing the two, I've come to the conclusion that wealth is better.
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Michael Brebes
From:
Northridge CA
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Posted 9 Feb 2005 10:29 am
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| I had a plywood/mica S10, which I replaced with a D10 maple/mica. I had L710's on both. The S10 had very little sustain and the tone was a bit pinched sounding. The D10 has bucketloads of sustain and has a nice open sound. Mica does probably affect the tone somewhat, but what's under the mica makes more of a difference than whether it's got mica on it. |
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