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Joined: January 2006 Posts: 2120
Location: Chicago | As a "born again" Adamas-ite, I am intrigued by the passion inspired by the 47 RI and UTE in the recent "Last Guitar" post.l Two questions:
1) Besides the obvious "it rules as an acoustic", is there any story behind why it has no "plugged in" option (or have some custom ordered that)?
2) How does the "flavor" of the 47 RI compare to the UTE (unplugged, of course). |
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Joined: April 2004 Posts: 13303
Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | Greg, if you do a search through the archives you will find tons of information on both guitars that will answer most if not all of your questions.
Course, you can always call me! |
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Joined: March 2005 Posts: 12750
Location: Boise, Idaho | If it wasn't so quiet at work this afternoon, I'd tell you to do a search or refer you to one of the fortunate owners of a #47RI. I have the Adamas brochure. The Ute and 47 were part of an Adamas 30th Anniversary deal. The 47 was in honor of Charlie Kaman's favorite guitar, #47 of the original slotheads. The reissue didn't have electronics because the original didn't.
I just like them because they're red. I rarely plug in, but my wife likes blue and "gave" me the OFC guitar for my birthday and I knew better than to argue with her. I'm just a lawyer, but she's a woman, so you know who wins all the arguments. So just call me a loser because I have the OFC guitar. I'll just suffer along with my blue one.
Oops, your second question, although I can't compare a red #47 to the Ute, I can try to extrapolate from my OFC and let you make adjustments for the color and electronics. The Ute is a 12 fret with a more modern slothead and electronics and wider neck. It is kind of the Adamas Folklore. Both are very loud. The OFC is a little deeper because of the suspension ring, but the Ute has a larger area of the body under the vibrating strings. The Ute is easier for me to play fingerstyle but harder for barre chords. There is a difference in sound, but I can't describe it. They both sound like an Adamas, so it is nowhere near the difference between the Ute and Folklore, for example. Both boom on the bass end, but you don't notice how well they project across the mids and highs until you sit across from someone else playing either. At first I thought the Ute had too much bass until I let someone else play it.
They are both "crisp" or chime like, rather than woody. Come over and I'll show you or bring someone's 47 and I'll just listen. |
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Joined: January 2006 Posts: 2120
Location: Chicago | Mark in Boise wrote:
Come over and I'll show you or bring someone's 47 and I'll just listen.
Thanks for that Mark! I'm really looking forward to just that. If I get to the UK this summer, I'll surely see Clive. Also gotta do the factory tour or some other gathering.
And thanks for the nice breakdown! |
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Joined: March 2005 Posts: 12750
Location: Boise, Idaho | It is very difficult to get someone who knows how to play guitar to come over and show me, so the offer is always open. I thought it had something to do with Boise being a long way from anywhere, but there's even another OFC member in Boise and I can't seem to find him. |
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Joined: January 2006 Posts: 2120
Location: Chicago | Tell me about it. I got lucky in my "Global Search" here on the OFC for a partner. Got emails from Europe, Australia, etc. Jeff Burns happended to live less than 10 miles away!!!
QUESTION: I note that Dave's Mystical #47 RI acutally NUBER 47 (Kaman autograph) has been equipped with electronics. That is cool and I must have missed the story. |
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Joined: April 2006 Posts: 972
Location: PDX | I don't remember the story either, but it's probably so he could have the electronics taken out, or the knobs are just taped on (with Irish tape if i remember correctly) -- something like that anyway.
_____
gh1 |
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Joined: March 2002 Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | I believe Dave ordered his with a pre-amp (as he was in the process of acquiring an OrigSlot, and possibly didn't want redundancy), and I THINK he ordered his as a WideNeckas well, but I'm not sure . . . |
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Joined: January 2005 Posts: 4903
Location: Phoenix AZ | 47RI#47 is acoustic only. It temporarily had knobs mounted to pots that I drilled into the bowl in anticipation of installing a fishman direct out. Never got around to it.
OFC#Yogi has standard 2-knob electronics and is one of the three with standard width neck.
Slothead#42 has original 2-knob electronics and is a junior neck.
U681-TA is acoustic only and is a standard neckwidth. |
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Joined: March 2002 Posts: 15654
Location: SoCal | You never drilled holes in 47 of 47..... |
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Joined: January 2006 Posts: 2120
Location: Chicago | Wow, Dave, that IS uncharted territory. The standard electronics on the two-knobbers are well known, tried and tested. It stimulates the imagination to think of another pickup in there. My 1117 Legend has the Fishman Matrix and that sounds very good to me. At the same time, it IS different from the stock wiring available in 1974. Word has it that the period (early 70s FET) pickup-cum-preamp were VERY good... |
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Joined: April 2004 Posts: 13303
Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | His OFC doesn't have a standard width neck either.
I think he has been drinking the spiked eggnog while typing in his answers! |
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Joined: March 2006 Posts: 1634
Location: Chehalis, Washington | "Standard" to Dave is anything right around 2 inches. |
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Joined: January 2005 Posts: 4903
Location: Phoenix AZ | No. Moody is right. The fishman wouldn't need any holes. It must have been rubber cement. I never installed the fishman because the OFC guitar came along. OFC #8 and the U681 have standard neck widths (1-3/4), #42 and #47RI have junior neckwidths (1-11/16). Dave |
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Joined: February 2002 Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | I installed an Ovation Thinline pickup into my 47. This pickup came out of my 1597 when I swapped it out and routed the bridge for an OPP. The original non-compensated thinline is almost identical in size and appearance to a standard Ovation acoustic saddle. Just needed a tiny bit of material filed from the treble end of the pickup to be a perfect fit. Other than a hole for the wire in the saddle slot no other work was needed. Before I comitted to drilling a hole for the output I installed a temporary jack into one of the smaller treble-side soundholes.
The result was very impressive, but I have a ton of guitars with pickups, so I took it all out and left it as intended. Interesting experiment though. |
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