Came across this Sandberg the other day that meets the criteria for two off-topic discussions in two different threads. I kid, I kid - when everything’s off-topic nothing is.
The other topic was @terb and @howard talking about Indian Laurel instead of rosewood. Reminded me that I’ve never really liked Pau Ferro, but apparently builders other than Fender must be doing something quite different with it? I don’t care for Pau Ferro on Fenders at all, but on this Sandberg it looks stunning.
Speaking about Fender, Pau Ferro has been an alternative to Rosewood since the Stevie Ray Vaughan signature Stratocaster I think. I’m not the biggest fan of Stratocaster’s and I really don’t like SRV, but I played a few SRV signature Strats and the fretboards has never been a problem to me. The Pau Ferro looked, felt and sounded good. Rosewood is a really fat and bass-heavy wood, Pau Ferro is a bit more “direct”, but less than maple/ebony/laurel. Interesting. Actually at the time I liked the idea of using a slighlty different wood than the traditionnal Rosewood on a Strat.
But I guess there are different grades of Pau Ferro, and the SRV signature is an expensive Strat already so they probably choose good Pau Ferro planks.
Love the look and feel of strats, dislike the pickup combos and overall sound, greatly prefer much heavier sounding superstrats and as much as I hate to admit it, I am closer to the Gibson side for sound. Definitely not for feel though. If I want a Fender with single coils it’s a Telecaster all the way.
He was a very good guitar player, but man, his music was boring AF. But well, he has a lot of fans. Good for them
I’m not a big fan of the feel because it’s … too perfectly ergonomic. I know it’s strange but I kinda lack some feel with a Strat because there is no battle really it fits so perfectly that I almost don’t feel I have a guitar with me. Also not a big fan of the Strat sound but what I like is the middle pickup alone (unpopular opinion, I know) which has really a special sound.
The funny thing is that a Strat and a Precision bass are basically the same shape. But the P is bigger and had a serious neck dive, it makes me feel the instrument better. Yeah, I am this only guy on earth who embraces the neck dive.
The biggest problem with the Strat in my opinion is the tremolo. I wish there were more hardtail Strats, because a lot of people just never use the trem, and it seriously sucks vibrations and tone.
Also a Strat with 3 mini humbuckers is just something else. Worth trying really.
Sure. Also the Jaguar is really cool, soundwise. Pure violence.
Well, Gibson have their problems but nobody can say that a good LP or SG sounds bad !
Pau Ferro, like all woods, comes in various grades - from cheap crap to mastergrade.
Acoustic steel string guitar luthiers have long created fantastic instruments with gorgeous Pau Ferro back and sides. Sonically, PF shares many similar characteristics with bona fide Brazilian Rosewood, the Barolo of tonewoods.
I have one bass (very soon to be two) with beautiful Pau Ferro fretboards.
Yeah that’s not entirely different but speaking about an acoustic guitar, Pau Ferro will be fuller in the midrange and less bass heavy than Rosewood. Somewhat in between Rosewood and Mahogany, but still closer to Rosewood indeed. That’s a very good wood, with an excellent rich and balanced tone.
I commissioned a Brazilian Rosewood 00 steel string guitar custom built for me by master luthier John Greven. I asked him to build it according to specs of a 1920s Gibson Nick Lucas Special 00. It’s a small-body that is ideal for playing blues. And, yep, I play SRV and tons of other blues on it.
On acoustics, Brazilian Rosewood has sparking treble notes, with a less woody, more metallic tone.
Bass notes on. Brazilian Rosewood acoustic share that metallic tone response, but lows are not boosted or accentuated. The body size/depth, the type of topwood and its top bracing of an acoustic guitar determine its low-end responsiveness and voice.
I was like 12 at the time SRV was big and I was way in to metal, and I just simply did NOT get why people liked him, and assumed I disliked the blues in general.
I was also a trumpet player at the time and was getting introduced to real blues in band, eventually discovered BB King, etc… so the latter part got fixed, but still find SRV boring as all get out. But like Laurent said, he has lots of fans and much respect from guitarists, so I’ve always just kept that to myself.
Yeah not doubting it, like I said I assumed this was all me. I just don’t like the guy’s work with Double Trouble at all. However, I later came to like the blues just fine, especially the R&B side.
Not a problem at all. Music is a vast thing. We evolve into that, we meet people from different musical horizons and that’s perfect as is. I like diversity.
Respectfully, I disagree. I had an acoustic guitar magazine and I did interviews with many of America’s top luthiers. They each stated that the wood species, density and age of a guitar’s back and sides have a great effect on the instrument’s final voice.
Definitely, the topwood species, thickness, sculpturing and bracing determine the guitar’s responsiveness, but the back and sides collectively comprise the chamber in which plucked string tones bounce around and reverberate.
I own five guitars that were custom-built to my specs and different woods. They each sound and respond distinctly different from one another.
I also a 120-year-old Washburn Parlor guitar in Adirondack/Brazilian Rosewood. Of course, truss rods hadn’t been invented quite yet, so it has a serious V neck.
It is so old that the woods dried out decades ago, so it’s light as a feather.
It’s called a neck reset, the idea is to de-glue the neck, correct the angle and re-glue it. Expensive but worth it for collectible guitars. One of my best friend just did it on a '73 Martin.
I kid, I kid - when everything’s off-topic nothing is.
but nobody can say that a good LP or SG sounds bad !
