The Story of the Silhouette and the Silo Spec?

[roburado]

Hey, folks. I know there's a page somewhere with the story of the Bongo. (http://www.bovinehost.com/bongo/bongoinfo.html) Is there a similar page about the origins of the Silhouette and the Silhouette Special?

 

[robelinda2]

there was a nice multi-page feature in Guitarist magazine a few months ago on the Silo and Silo Special, it was great.

 

[Big Poppa]

There are numerous threads regarding the development of the Silhouette. Basically the Sil is Dudley and My first design. WE sat around and thought about everything that was a problem with existing guitars starting with the truss rod adjustment then went to weight and then the ability to change your pickups with out ruining your guitar by routing, we talked about balance, and noise and lack of sheilding, straight string pull, versitility and on \and on.

The funny thing is that whe we showed it there was a combinartion of disinterest to laughter. Comments like thats the ugleist headstock Ive ever seen, to why is it so smalll to you guys dont have a chance. WE talked about the flexability to being abole to fit in an overhead compartment of an airplane to the smooth truss rod and nobody gave a damn. (That has happened to me alot in this business) Then Keith Richards started playing it and we were "temporary genius"

The Special came about later because there were guys that really needed to get the neck single coil mor towards the nut and with the twenty four fret neck that wasnt possible.

 

[Jimi D]

there was a nice multi-page feature in Guitarist magazine a few months ago on the Silo and Silo Special, it was great.

Besides the "Shadow Boxing" article that Guitarist had in their April 2006 issue for the Silhouette's 20th Anniversary, they also published an "Oldies" feature on the Silhouette in thier June 2003 issue. There was also a very interesting review of the Silhouette, Silhouette Special and Sterling in the May 2001 issue that included a number of quotes from Dudley regarding their development, and a really cool 7-page "Factory Tour" in the March 2001 issue. I have scans of these but they're BIG PDF files (5 megs and up). If you have highspeed Internet and want to read them, drop me a PM with your email address...

 

[candid_x]

The Special came about later because there were guys that really needed to get the neck single coil mor towards the nut and with the twenty four fret neck that wasnt possible.

I wonder if BP or someone else who understands this would comment more on it. Was this a tone factor for the neck pickup? Why was this important?

 

[fbecir]

I wonder if BP or someone else who understands this would comment more on it. Was this a tone factor for the neck pickup? Why was this important?

If you have 24 frets, your neck pickup cannot be just under the harmonic. That's the reason why Steve Morse wanted to have a 22 frets neck. The sound you have exactly under the harmonic is richer.

 

[Jimi D]

If you have 24 frets, your neck pickup cannot be just under the harmonic. That's the reason why Steve Morse wanted to have a 22 frets neck. The sound you have exactly under the harmonic is richer.

Since the pickup is under the harmonic only when you're playing the string is played OPEN, I've always thought this was pretty much bunk... There is a difference in sound, but I think the 22-fret advocates make way too much of it, personally...

 

[candid_x]

Thanks! I never even thought about that.

 

[Philip]

well the 24 fret guitar with bucker in the neck is going to sound a lot different than 22 frets. on 22 there is some degree of "twang" to it while on 24 frets the sound is a lot warmer

 

[Music Man]

If you pluck a string you will noticed that the further you go from the bridge the more it vibrates. Obviously string vibration is translated to sound through the magnets in your pickups. The further the pickup is placed from the bridge, or closer to the nut, the more vibration it will capture and more sound it will send out. That is why neck pickups are usually weaker and eq'd different than a bridge pickup. This is why I like 22 fret necks better. Of course scale length can also affect your overall sound to. Anyway this is just my opinion.

 

[candid_x]

well the 24 fret guitar with bucker in the neck is going to sound a lot different than 22 frets. on 22 there is some degree of "twang" to it while on 24 frets the sound is a lot warmer

I notice some crazy harmonics when double stopping an E chord bend from the 9nth fret, from the neck pickup on my specials. Wondering if the 22 fret has anything to do with that.