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Posts: 9301
Location: south east Michigan | Why do “Bluegrass” guitars require a high setup to be “Bluegrass”? What is the advantage of cheese grader type action?? |
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March 2002
Posts: 15664
Location: SoCal | Volume and tone.... |
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November 2003
Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | As usual, Paul's got it wrong...
Tone and volume. |
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April 2004
Posts: 13303
Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Paul & Jeff are both correct....which is downright scary! |
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May 2003
Posts: 4389
Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | (Though if you get right up next to the mic you don't need your action so high ... or ... you could just plug in your ovation into a nice amp and forget about it). |
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March 2002
Posts: 15664
Location: SoCal | Plugging a guitar will give it volume, but raising action will often (plugged in or not) increase tone. According to his sideman, Paul Yandell, the first thing Chet Atkins would do with a new guitar would be to raise the action for better tone.... |
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March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | Having low action also increases the chance of fret-buzzing when you really "dig-in" to your runs (not that I ever DO that . . . ) |
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August 2005
Posts: 3736
Location: Sunshine State, Australia | If it ain't hurtin', it ain't bluegrass. |
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October 2006
Posts: 5575
Location: big island | it's more than just the setup on the guitar that makes it "bluegrass". there's a certain sound and attitude that goes with it. with few exceptions, ya pretty much gotta play bluegrass guitar on a wooden dreadnaught. |
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January 2006
Posts: 1478
Location: Michigan | Thanks Lananki for the info,
Maybe thats why when Im playing Purple Haze by Jimmi Hendrix I cant quite catch that sound of his when I play it on my Mellissa Etheridge 12 string , its plastic and I need wood . GWB |
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October 2005
Posts: 5330
Location: Cicero, NY | It's not bluegrass but I've read that SRV always played with very high action for the tone as well (which kinda makes his playing all the more impressive). Along with that, he supposedly played with extra heavy guage strings to get the sound he wanted. Apparently he could run on and bend anything smaller than hanger wire.
That's somewhat relevant, ain't it...? |
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May 2003
Posts: 4389
Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | Ah fret buzz ... one of the signatures of my sound. |
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November 2007
Posts: 37
Location: Detroit Mi | I have wondered why bluegrassers DON'T use Ovation. Some O's, such as my old Balladeer, have several characteristics that could work well for bluegrass: An extremely strong fundamental, excellent intonation all up the neck, hard, crisp trebles and VOLUME which makes them true "banjo killers" as much or even more so than Brian Sutton's Bourgeois Slope D. |
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January 2005
Posts: 4903
Location: Phoenix AZ | Originally posted by auchencrow:
I have wondered why bluegrassers DON'T use Ovation. There's probably exceptions, but in general they don't have the volume of a good dread. The other thing is the looks. I love the looks of Ovations, but for some reason in a BG band a gay fig leafed elite just looks totally wrong, at least to me. I saw a good BG band last summer in Flagstaff and the mando player used an MM-68. Even that seemed oddly out of place.
Dave |
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Bluegrass set up question.