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| What's your opinion on the Kaman Bar? Advantages and disadvantages. I have some of each type neck, and I know the KB adds a little weight, but I like the looks of the clean peghead, and prefer to adjust the neck from inside the soundhole. Anyone noticed a difference in volume/tone between the two systems? |
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Location: Warren,Pa. | No. The differences that matter to me are the "V" shape of the K Bar necks and the extra weight of the K Bar guitars.
John <>{ |
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Location: Budd Lake, NJ | Well, since this is only an opinion.....I strongly dislike them because the neck feels so thick and clunky to me. Keep in mind, though, that I have spent 30+ years playing one of the early necks, which are thinner and much easier for me to play--they don't cut into my hand.
--Karen |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | They work great. They weigh too much. The new systems-the double acting truss rods- are much better. |
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Location: NJ | The chips are stale, and the peanuts aren't salty enough.
The drinks are good, and the FridayNight entertainment is usually worth catching . . . |
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| My '92 1767 plays much easier than the '86 1612. I haven't really noticed the weight difference. |
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Location: CT | '92 and '86 will both have a K-bar. |
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Posts: 1900
| The '92 1767 I have has no truss rod cover, the neck is adjusted inside the bowl. The 1612 has a cover and is adjusted at the headstock. So, is that the only difference? |
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Location: Phoenix AZ | I think the k-bar had some advantages. It was functionally very stable and I would guess pretty easy and repeatable to manufacture and attach the necks.
The downside (for me) is definately the weight. But also I wonder if there is any sonic issue due to the minimal amount of wood in the neck. Look at a cross section of the neck and you will see that it is mostly k-bar wrapped in a thin cover of wood. It may mean nothing.
I haven't looked, but weren't the original 34 adamas slotheads traditional TRC necks and the production adamas 1's were k-bar?
The other thing I've aleways been curious about, all during the k-bar days, why is that that slotted headstock guitars (classical, folklore, cuntry artist) continued to use traditional truss rod necks?
Dave |
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Location: NJ | I don't think that you can get a more stable gigging 12-string than with a K-Bar . . . |
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Location: Scotland | Originally posted by Tupperware:
The other thing I've aleways been curious about, all during the k-bar days, why is that that slotted headstock guitars (classical, folklore, cuntry artist) continued to use traditional truss rod necks?
Dave I'd guess 2 reasons. The K-bar seems to produce quite a deep "V" neck profile, which personally I get on with just fine. I don't think the wide shallow "D" of the slothead guitars would be able to accomodate a K-bar and still retain that profile. Secondly, the factory probably only tooled-up for a 14-fret K-bar, which made up the bulk of the production. |
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Location: enid, ok | Was this an option on the K-car? |
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November 2003
Posts: 231
| Both versions sound really good to me. Any opinions there? I do have a Anniversary that is extremely light, no K-bar, and it is a monster sounding guitar. Just wonder if it would sound as good with the K-bar. I would think that the K-bar would affect the tone to some extent, but I could be wrong. I've got some with the K-bar that sound great. |
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Location: SoCal | My Adamas I 12 string, 1537, and 87C all have K-bars and all sound great (well, I'm waiting for the 87C to come back from the factory and hope it will sound great again.
But when I have a 1117 built, it will have the new neck bracing system. I'm going to go for acoustic only, and very light weight. I find that I really like the light weight of my GC RI, FD14 and others that don't have the K-bar.
So I guess my stand on this is that I don't mind the K-bar, love the stability of it, but would opt out of it if I could.... |
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Location: Nashville TN. | I love it.
Infact took me a while to warm up to the new LX neck |
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Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | K-bar, never thought about it. Too heavy? ... not for me. Kind of a non-issue. |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | K-bar is only 14 frets.
Nylons don't need the extra strength
all 12 strings then were 14 frets
12 fret steel strings were less than 100 per year. |
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Location: south east Michigan | After lugging around the AD-II my old Balladeer feels light as a feather. |
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Location: Boise, Idaho | Beal writes like he's composing lyrics to another song. |
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Location: NJ | yeh, but he pretty much Talks that way, too . . . |
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Location: Eaton, Indiana | I find the K Bar to be very stable; much easier to maintain adjustment. It is a bit heavy but the trade off is worth it.
Scott |
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| Well if its open to opinions I have always thought the heavy K-bar design was one of the resons these guitars transfered the vibrations between the nut and the bridge so well.
Randy |
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Location: 6 String Ranch | you are right but you need a good joint between the neck and body, lots of surface touching, to transfer vibrations. At least it sounds good as a theory...... |
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| Well what ever you guys did was pretty dam amazing. The whole package of Carbon Fiber sound boards, completely new top designs and epi's & colors, Carved Walnut headstocks and bridges! Not to mention the inteligent design of the bowl! What a concept! The Kaman Bar was just a small part.
No Instrument company has ever made a complete design change on this order before or since, not even close.
Anyone who is doubtfull of the great sound of their guitars when your in a group of traditional guitar nuts...Just hand your guitar to someone and stand back and listen to it while standing in front of it. They are alive!
There's an opinion dammit.
Randy |
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Opinions On The Kaman Bar
