1899 O-21 Sound real or a bit processed?

[John Link]

The Thomastic-Infeld strings are very interesting. .059 is a very large diameter low E string, but the silk presumably lowers the tension greatly. That and a lightly built git might blow a lot of ears. And minds.

[Dave Bagwill]

The total tension of the TI Plectrums is around 164 lbs, even with the .059.
With a lighter 6th string, some Plectrum sets are down to 120 lbs or so.

similarly, for a 13-56 set of D'Addario, the tension is about 198 lbs.
Quite a savings in tension.

That Yamaha above sounded good.

[ken cierp]

Bone tone -- in my view the player is definitely the key ingredient regarding how an instrument ultimately sounds.

Of course "tight and light" is what I strive for in a build, that is because to my ear guitars I've played that are on the verge of implosion seem to sound the best --- not sure if I agree with the idea that a finger style guitar can be over driven.

[John Link]

Regarding Ken's comment that the player is the big ingredient in how an instrument sounds: Here is Chapdelaine's two pages about "great tone". It is mostly about just one thing: How to pluck a string, one string at a time. He seems to place the primary responsibility for achieving great tone on the player, not the instrument.

He also introduces the topic with some inspiring comments about the strengths and weaknesses of the guitar.

http://www.michaelchapdelaine.com/great_tone.html

[Dave Bagwill]

Very good article, John!

[Tim Benware]

Listening with my headset I can hear some finger noise but it sounds like the strings are flat wound.