• Ernie Ball
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  • Sterling by MusicMan

Mincer

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Mar 11, 2003
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Tampa Bay area, FL USA
What I found interesting is the last sentence:

“I think it’d be nice if the guitar and the bass could move forward a little bit,” he says. “There’s a lot of technology out there that could be applied. The challenge is to come up with better ways of making new, more flexible instruments that are intuitive.”

The world of guitar perpetuates a conservative outlook on design, furthered by guitar magazines and fetishized by guitarists (amateur to pro) from watching rock icons with their vintage gear.

What technology or designs were so 'out there' that absolutely brilliant from a playing standpoint that were deemed either impractical or unsellable?

If a guitar were designed without the 'ghost of designs past', I am guessing bringing it to market and selling it would be the biggest hurdle. My guess is that younger people have less ties to the past, and current rock stars are using newer designs than the stars of the 60s and 70s.
 

PeteDuBaldo

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Jul 16, 2004
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A new guitar at the beginning of 2011? Is the GameChanger getting its own guitar, instead of being an option on existing guitars? Maybe it's a 25th Silo with the game changer? Oh the questions NAMM will answer!!

The necks are bent then sanded down? That's very interesting! It's nice hearing more about how these wonderful guitars are made!

If you have a rosewood fretboard and take a very close look you can see that the rosewood has a greater thickness at the nut than in the middle of the neck. This is from when EB builds in the backbow as mentioned in the article. Kinda neat for sure!
 

GoKart Mozart

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Nov 21, 2002
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The Shoals, AL
Awesome read. I wish they would post some of the video from the tour.

I'm amazed at the backbow thing as well. Never have heard about that before! I'd like to hear some more of this...curious as to why it's done.
 

dfrady

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Aug 24, 2003
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West Virginia
Yes, I would love to see the video from the tour. I wonder when they will post them? Awesome read as well!
 

jmmp

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Aug 7, 2010
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If you have a rosewood fretboard and take a very close look you can see that the rosewood has a greater thickness at the nut than in the middle of the neck. This is from when EB builds in the backbow as mentioned in the article. Kinda neat for sure!

I will look as soon as my jp comes in! Hopefully that is really soon. :)
My question is how does that affect the feel of the neck?
 

GoKart Mozart

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The Shoals, AL
If you have a rosewood fretboard and take a very close look you can see that the rosewood has a greater thickness at the nut than in the middle of the neck. This is from when EB builds in the backbow as mentioned in the article. Kinda neat for sure!

Sure enough! I just checked my Luke and at the nut the rosewood is about 7/32 of an inch; at the 12th fret it goes down to 6/32; at the heel end it's between 6-7/32.

I'm trying to figure out why this is done...here's a pic of it being done at the factory:

GALLERY: Ernie Ball Music Man Factory Tour - Premier Guitar
 
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