Three Somogyi guitars compared

[John Parchem]

I am with Ken I thought the bass resonance at least in the first two guitars muddies the mid range and made it tough for the melody to pop through. I thought the 2009 OM was more balance overall and I liked it better at least on the song that was being played. I also think that sort of finger style Celtic music sound better on an OM or at least a smaller guitar than a D.

[ken cierp]

This is one of my all time favorite forum threads -- to me it demonstrates how we can respect each others subjective evaluations and still add valuable insight to the conversion --- way to go!!!! Bagwill you must have more? Daniel P? Bob Mathews? I know there are lots of others who have strong feeling regarding what they expect hear. I for one will find all comments interesting.

[Herman]

Muddy or well bassed?
I reheared the file and it is difficult to say if this is how the player hears these guitars.
In then past I made several recordings. And in my expirience moving the mike 2 inches further, the bass sounds completely different. So here it is the question: Do you judge the recordings or the guitars?

I for me like this deep bass. In a performance it could get in the way. But hey, I play most of the time on the couch.
Herman

[John Link]

Herman - good points.

I think the player always hears something a little different than those who listen to the front side. Exception might be a ported instrument, but none of these has a port. Depending on the characteristics of your living room, that difference might be very small. Likewise, someone playing into a mike and then hearing the amplified sound coming back into the room probably hears the same thing everyone else does.

As far as these respective recordings go, I presumed a lot, namely, that since the point of the video was a comparison of guitars owned by the same agent and since the same player played the same song and since Dream Guitars does fairly high level media production, then I could trust that the differences would be real rather than created by sound editing. But it remains a presumption.

As far as the absolute characteristics of the sound in this video goes, generally speaking, it sounds like other Somogyi videos I have listened to (and collected). The exception being when a Somogyi guitar is equipped with a pickup and sent through a processor to an amplifier. I put those into a separate category, though I find them of interest because they start with a resonant, responsive air pump instead of a solid piece of wood to which is fastened a metal saddle.

[John Link]

John P - I agree the melody is more dominate on the OM. That comes across as a fact to me. The aesthetic question, of course, is do my ears require that much dominance? Turns out they don't, and they still prefer including the richer bass of the 1999 MD, and are not bothered by the intrusion this makes on the melody.

Although it is a 15.75" OM, almost the same sized lower bout as the dreads and slightly wider than a Martin dread, the pinching at the waist reduces some of the area of the triangles formed by the braces and certainly brings the upper legs of the X closer to the sides, which would seem to stabilize them more than in a looser waisted design. Tighter top usually results in less bass emphasis.

[John Link]

Ken, yes it is a good discussion. While the video doesn't eliminate every possible variable that could lead the ear astray, it is exceptional in the consistency it does provide, especially the way the music continues from one clip right into the next. I also like the visual continuity in the lighting, distance from the lens, temperature of the color, and so on.

[Dave Bagwill]

Yes, it was a well-done comparison, and in fact all 3 guitars sounded pretty good to me.
I did not want to comment much more because the $25K figure just got me mad. So does a $10K figure. None of the guitars there imo is worth more than $5K, but I realize that 'worth' depends on a person's ear and wallet. Rant over.