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Today's Birthday
My new guitar by Shelley Park
Shelley is sending off my new guitar today and just sent me a pile of photos. What a beauty!!!
This is one of her Encore models with Sitka Spruce top, solid East Indian Rosewood back and sides, Honduras Mahogany Neck, and curly Koa bindings and trimmings. The body thickness is reduced by a bit for ergonomics. The guitar uses a slightly shorter 660mm scale and narrower neck profile for my small hands, with the distance between the high E string to the edge sightly increased as I have a tendency to drag that string over the side when playing. The soundport is a great feature to have on her great sounding guitars. Shelley;'s guitars feature curvature on the top (Pliage) in both the long and wide dimensions which no doubt cotributes to the sound. And of course, this guitar features a "secret sauce" which we are testing.
and 2 others.
Comments
Beautiful!
FYI parkguitars.com
I'll be curious whether the slightly shallower body depth affects the sound, since even a small reduction in depth can make these guitars much more comfortable.
pdg, Shelley reports that this guitar is sounding at a "great starting spot" compared with her guitars of normal depth. And to me, the soundport itself will have a huge difference.
Fedex tracking said earlier that it should arrive by Friday evening. It would be awesome to have it before the weekend!
Casey
Darn! I could have had her make it even thinner!
congratulations, cbwim and may I be the first (and perhaps only) person to recommend that whenever your brand new new guitar is not actually being played… because playing is clearly best… here’s a nice easy way to fully open up that gorgeous tone…
Edgar Degas: "Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things.... To draw, you must close your eyes and sing."
Georges Braque: "In art there is only one thing that counts: the bit that can’t be explained."
I was thinking about this - but I will check with Shelley first! (later) I looked up reviews on the Tonerites. As a maker I am a little skeptical in terms of the kinds of processes people attribute to an instrument "breaking in". With flutes, one is vibrating a column of air, not the wood itself. Yet all wooden flutes undergo an evolution of tone, sometimes without playing the instrument. What is happening is a directly measurable change in the dimensions of the air column, starting with a circular bore profile to one that is ever so slightly oval. I don't know why but this has a positive effect on how the flute feels. Its well documented enough that some of the makers of silver flutes actually ovalize their tubing just a tiny bit as the instrument is being built.
One looks at the more dynamic aspects of a guitar. The most obvious one are the strings used. It may be that the vibrations applied are simply breaking the strings in quicker, and not the guitar itself. There are certainly some aspects to the guitar as the varnish ages, the wood oxidizes, glue joints settle and the wood, if under any tension, relaxes somewhat. I don;t think these aspects can be sped up with a vibrating machine.
It would be interesting to see if the Acoustical Society of America, which just held their annual convention in Seattle last week, has studied the benefits or lack thereof of these devices and more specifically, what part of the instrument it is breaking in and improving.
Also, this instrument definitely has a secret sauce element to it and for this experiment it would be best to eliminate that variable. I would like to see how this naturally plays in. So I will probably skip the Tonerite.
Congratulations, that is gorgeous! I also have a Park Encore (#151), and I love it.
Shelley was ambiguous about the use of a Tonerite. I'll probably skip it. But thanks for the suggestion!
Ah - now to see how fast Fedex can deliver this. Standards from Vancouver are usually 2 days. But with the flooding and the Holidays, most likely next week. So far it hasn't passed through Customs yet.
I thought I might mention a Shelley Park Montmarte on Craigslist SF Bay area, and it has been there a while. Priced at $3250, currently. Pics are very nice. So far, I have resisted calling about it.