another introduction (and bonus tonewood question)

[MBP]

I never said bunya was a crap wood. I said the guitars I have heard sounded crap.

Tommy has indeed started to play one of his models, his main guitar is still not one of his models however.

There are a lot of people new to guitar they go into the shop and ask what is the best guitar shop says "maton, thats what tommy emmanuel plays" person buys it. You cant compare a maton to a luthier made guitar if the luthier is any good.

And spending $3000 on a factory made guitar is crazy when theres so many good luthiers around. People buy for the brand name most dont care about quality or woods.- of course the people on this website do though but Im referring to the general population.

[willcall]

Hi, I have a Maton Performer (808BG) with the Bunya top. It is a nice sounding guitar but does not have the sweet tones of other tops. I bought it as I like Blue Grass music and Maton markets the Bunya top 000 as the 808BG, BG meaning Blue Grass.

Hope it helps.

Will

[Nick]

There are a lot of people new to guitar they go into the shop and ask what is the best guitar shop says "maton, thats what tommy emmanuel plays" person buys it.

Geez! can you send them my way? Most newbies I've met don't want to spend anymore than a few hundred on their first guitar! (refer to my signature )

[kiwigeo]

There are a lot of people new to guitar they go into the shop and ask what is the best guitar shop says "maton, thats what tommy emmanuel plays" person buys it.

Geez! can you send them my way? Most newbies I've met don't want to spend anymore than a few hundred on their first guitar! (refer to my signature )

I love it when someone asks me what sort of guitar I play:

"What sort of guitar do you play?"

"A Martin Turner"

"Oh a Martin? What sort of Martin?

"A Turner...a Martin Turner".

" I didn't know Martin made a Turner model?"

"No a MARTIN TURNER!!"

"Oh, you mean a Maton?"

[Kim]

I know of one guitarist who was payed to play a certain brand but used something else for recording as he thought it sounded better.

I should be said that this would be true for just about every player who has the chops to be invited to 'records' a track. No guitar can be all things. A guitar with heaps of punch that everyone loves live and unplugged is the last thing you want in a studio. As I understand a standard for most acoustic recording studios is a mahogany body acoustic guitar sitting in the corner and waiting for the player who "knows exactly the sound he's after" to finally wake up to himself and listen to the advice of sound engineer so they can stop wasting money on checked out takes and get something down that ticks all the boxes so they can all go home for dinner.

Cheers

Kim

[woodrat]

There are a lot of people new to guitar they go into the shop and ask what is the best guitar shop says "maton, thats what tommy emmanuel plays" person buys it.

Geez! can you send them my way? Most newbies I've met don't want to spend anymore than a few hundred on their first guitar! (refer to my signature )

I love it when someone asks me what sort of guitar I play:

"What sort of guitar do you play?"

"A Martin Turner"

"Oh a Martin? What sort of Martin?

"A Turner...a Martin Turner".

" I didn't know Martin made a Turner model?"

"No a MARTIN TURNER!!"

"Oh, you mean a Maton?"

Dont you just love that Martin? People hear what they think you said!

John the WoodRat

[DarwinStrings]

"Oh, you mean a Maton?"

I have not picked up a factory made with a bunya top that I really liked but I got a couple of tops off Tim and am looking forward to using it when I get the chance.

A novice approached me asking for some advice. He has no guitar yet and wanted my opinion on a Taylor 3/4 scale (a little dreadie with about a inch more scale than a average terz). The best advice I could give him was to go buy a $60 - $70 nylon thing and go from there. If he keeps it up, spend on a good one later and have a reserve for when the drunks arrive to jam. Maybe buy the Taylor later or even better just stretch the wallet a bit more and buy a good guitar.

Jim

Life is good when you are amongst the wood

[Tod Gilding]

I have to agree with Jim, Finding a bunya top factory jobby with a nice tone can be hard,years ago I found a cole clark with bunya that I did like,but no volume or projection,and I havnt been able to find one since,maybe I just got lucky(so to speak),but I have noticed that the Maton or Cole Clark Bunya appears very thick,Im guessing 3mm around the soundhole,I know CC internally carve, but they still seem heavy to me,as though they havn't made allowance for the density.

Anyway I'm just starting a Blackwood B&S with Bunya Top and struggling to get it to my likeing, I have it( the Bunya) at 2.5mm and have taken the braces down a fair bit and it still seems as though you could park a truck on it.

Tod

[kiwigeo]

I have it( the Bunya) at 2.5mm and have taken the braces down a fair bit and it still seems as though you could park a truck on it.

Tod

2.5mm (0.098") is a bit thin isn't it? It's the thickness I take spruce down to on some of my steel strings and classicals.

[kiwigeo]

Perhaps it isnt. See this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=941&start=0

[Tod Gilding]

Thanks for pointing me to other thread Martin,I feel a bit better about it now, I thought I was going crazy as well, at 2.5 unbraced it still doesn't like to flex very much,but I didn't want to go any further with it so I have just braced it ended up taking my braces down a bit more than I did with my last build that was WR Cedar , It stills feels very stiff though,but I will just follow the advice on the other thread and see what happens.

I"m sorry I feel like I have hijacked the thread

Tod

[Clancy]

There's a lot of Cole Clark's around Alice.
Don't know if it's true, but I've had more than one person say that they're the only manufacturer that will give a guarantee on they're product out here.
Read into that what you will.