"My main contribution is pure analog design of a unique mag pickup. Turns a
'cheap' $1100 guitar into sounding like a $10k acoustic guitar. Absolutely
the first time I've ever heard great sounding E-A string harmonics. Maybe
been around too many cheap guitars, but usually I HATE when those two
strings are strummed. Always sounds a bit sour, but NOT with my pickup. "

I was going to tell him to just use a damn guitar. That's what I do. Want 0..1 distortion in a guitar amp ? ****, the more distortion one of them things has the more people like it.

The E and A played together makes an A chord, but it is sorta inverted. You couild think of it as you want the fundamental of the chord to be the lowest note in the chord. If you play the E open and the A at the second fret you get an E chord. If you play the A open and the D at the second fret you also get an A chord but it is with the A as the lowest note in the chord, which some seem to find sounds better. At this point the chords are undefined, meaning there is no major or minor or any of that other stuff.

But everything is a chord. You can play all the strings on a guyitar open and it is some form of A or E chord. Like a seventh fifth with and augmented 13th and a diminishe 15th or some such ****. Seriously. Very rarely used but is definable. There is a site online that will tell what it is and I used it a few times but don't remember what it said. Also, I along with quite a few people can simply strum oll the strings open and immediately tell if it is in tune. Not that I have perfect pitch, the whole thing could be flat or sharp but it is at least in tune with itself. When you get that good you should be making some money somehow off of it.

Some chords just sound like **** on an electric. Take the regular G for example. The first string is played at G and the A is played at the second fret which makes it a B. That is not what makes it a chord, that is what makes it a major chord. If the B is an octave up, the fuzzy will sound good, but the way it is played conventionall that B is too close in frequency and the distortion inherent in regular magnetic guitar picks can make it sound like ****. Same with the C when you play it by the book.

I play a couple of little ditties on guitar which absolutely MUST be pl;ayed on an aacoustic because of the chords. I think I invented a bunch of the chords but of course that is not true. I DISCOVERED a bunch of unconventional chords. Everything is a chord no matter what as long as all the notes are on the standard scale. Twelve steps to an octave is what makes the math work.

I have an acoustic floating around here with a pickup added to it. Truthfully I would rather put a microphne in front of it than to use the pickup. However I have heard the new special pickups they put in acustic guitars now and have been properly inpressed. They sound real if they are going through an amp clean. Listen to Treetop Flyer by Steven Stills for an idea. They sound like that. I'm not sure if he used those type of pickup or a mic, but that ****ing guitar is reproduced faithfully. High fidelity.

And that's the difference. In fact talk to guitar players and alot of them will agree that playing an acoustic is a different ballgame than an electric, and some say the electric is not really a guitar. Les Paul disagreed a few decades ago and may have won the argument in light of all the rock and roll in the world. (my Uncle took guitar lessons from Les Paul)

But Les Paul in a way effectively invented a new instrument. You could say it is like the difference between a piano and a harpsichord. Seriously different but sdo alike.

You could almost say though that the electric guitar is limiting. There are so many chords that simply sound like **** on it, but when played on a nice big bodied acoustic sound not only good, but could be described as rich. In the last few days at work, the guitar guy has been in and just when he tunes them up and tests them, the chord prgression he goes through is IMPRESSIVE. He is also a master of appregriation. (sp?) I guess if you are going to build guitars you should be able to play them eh ?

In fact I am a witness to what happens otherwise. Friend of mine has a surrrogate Grandfather. Lives with him on occasion, lkeeps in touch and when he was young they did everyrhing. The Man things like fishing, welding and scrapping. That old Man built his own guitar. Of course he bought the neck, but the body was made out of the wood from a box for a casket. ot the casket, but the box it came in.

He was off. He did not realize that the twelfth fret has to be in the middle of the strings. I adjusted it but it put the bridge in a place that seems awkward. Doesn't sound bad though as long as that is where it needs to be.

So this pickup, is that your claim to fame ? These pickups I have heard, I consider them fantastic. Inside the ghuitar they pickup less feedback and they really do sound good. Friand of mine (hmm, about time to call him) bought a new Ibanez with those pickups in it. Not the kind mounted to the hole which work like electric pickups, this is those good ones inside that sound like it is miced. Well that electronic preamp in there went bad.

He paid $300 for it and when the electronics went bad under warranty they said it could not be fixed and gave him a full refund. I found out why because I gave him $100 for it. So he made a hundred on the deal but it is a good damn playing acoustic. I thought I could fix it but the way they made it, they are right, it can't be fixed.

Well it could be but the body of it would have to be taken apart. They must ount one of those peize things or whatever in there before the wood is glued together. On a manufacturain level you can do that.

But the fact is that on that guitar the action is almost good as an electric and the intonation is perfect. (that is from my ears and comparing to a digital piano, not by any laboratory testing or freq counter, which would actually be LESS accurate IMO)

Wish I oculd play the ****en things. Yeah, I can pick out a few chords and **** but really, that is not really playing. I had a buddy who said Jimi Hendrix was nothing but a second rate blues guitarist. When he plays you know he is damn qualified to say that. He'll sit there and play and sing Stairway To Heaven no problem. Playing a song like that alone rather than just part of it in a band is a whole different thing. You have one instrument and you must play all the parts. I've tried it. It's a bitch. I can BARELY manage to play and sing at the same time.

OK this is probably already a TLDR so, later.