Folkcafe
Active member
Just tell it to sit down.
2008 Martin D28 - horrible resonances
- Thread starter Monkey Allen
- Start date
Monkey Allen
Fork and spoon operator
Yeah I'm not playing 6 strings on the Am. Short burst chords is something I've done in the past and it takes the issue out of the picture. But I like to try doing songs with strummed acoustics. I'm not the greatest strummer in the world but I think I should be able to strum an acoustic guitar without the wacky overtones. I'm attaching an example to this post. The clip is completely dry. The only trickery done to it was to increase its volume. Apart from the mediocre strumming, can you hear what I hear? Can you hear the underpinning resonance/ overtone/ drone thing going on? I'm playing Am...G...C...E...Am etc. The overtone thing is most prominent when the Am in on deck. But it is still there for the whole clip more or less.
60's guy
Well-known member
Monkey Allen
Fork and spoon operator
Well 60's guy...when you hear it...you'll hear it. Where do I hear it...audio clip or when playing? Both.
Hey Bird Garden...thanks...but I got to say...if someone asked me to listen to that clip and they asked me to write down 1000 possible causes of the issue...I reckon it sounds like the top E string is louder than the others which is producing a drone...would not even be in my top 950. But hey...I'm the nut with the overtones. Saddle and nut and all that, yeah I can check. Thanks
Hey Bird Garden...thanks...but I got to say...if someone asked me to listen to that clip and they asked me to write down 1000 possible causes of the issue...I reckon it sounds like the top E string is louder than the others which is producing a drone...would not even be in my top 950. But hey...I'm the nut with the overtones. Saddle and nut and all that, yeah I can check. Thanks
Gtoboy
Well-known member
Capo it. You will be surprised at the difference. That's what I have to do with my Taylor. For non capo I went to my local guitar shop and played every single acoustic, no matter what the cost. I found a Yamaha that's perfect for recording. Then I messed it up by changing strings. Different strings will REALLY change the tone.
Monkey Allen
Fork and spoon operator
Capo raises the pitch obviously. Back when I bought this Martin I wouldn't have been able to tell one dud guitar from the next. I do recall the bloke at the shop chortling to himself as I handed over the cash.
markmann
Active member
The solution sounds simple to me: Sell it and find one you like. When anyone asks me for advice on buying an acoustic I always say to play a bunch because they all play and sound different. Years ago I had an acoustic made by a well known builder and after paying a lot and waiting for 8 months I only kept it a short time because I didn't like the sound.
Monkey Allen
Fork and spoon operator
Yeah. I was even stupider than I am now back when I bought this guitar. I will probably go buy, well yeah I mentioned that a bit ago...a Yamaha or Epiphone or something. Thanks everyone.
No overtones, some lows that could be easily tamed. Otherwise very clear.
Monkey Allen
Fork and spoon operator
To paraphrase Jimi Hendrix...maybe now you can't hear it...but you will...
There's absolutely a resonance/ drone/ overtone...thing going on particularly evidently when the Am chord is played.
There's absolutely a resonance/ drone/ overtone...thing going on particularly evidently when the Am chord is played.
Papanate
Well-known member
I wouldn’t call it resonace - I would say your B & G strings are slightly louder than the other 4 - I balanced the Guitar in my DAW - tell me what you think
and what you now hear -<edit> I added a second one (#2) to see what you think of that.
Last edited:
Monkey Allen
Fork and spoon operator
I can hear the problem plain as day in both those clips. The issue I'm talking about hasn't been addressed at all from what I can hear. Resonance/ drone/ sympathetic overtone/ ugly noise/ unwanted noise...I mean whatever we wanna call it or not call it. Another analogy might be that it's kind of like the sound you might get from running a wet finger over the rim of a glass with some water in it. Regardless of what the precise way of describing it is, it deadset it comes right from the guitar and it is not good. It's not a quirk of the room, the microphone or the recording etc. I can eq it to tame it quite a lot...but that has an equal and opposite reaction to the midrange of the guitar as you could imagine. For this particular clip, I found that judicious cutting around (from memory) 880hz reduced the problem. But doing so eats right into the higher body of the tone. And it makes a mockery of that old recording principle...get it right at the source.
You guys have been great and have tried to be helpful. Many of you have made arguably the best suggestion...take it to a luthier. Just to settle the damn thing and find out exactly what's going on I just might have to do that. Dunno. But, and with all due respect to those of you who have suggested such things...'slightly louder e strings' or 'slightly louder b and g strings' these kinds of diagnoses are a quite a stretch.
You guys have been great and have tried to be helpful. Many of you have made arguably the best suggestion...take it to a luthier. Just to settle the damn thing and find out exactly what's going on I just might have to do that. Dunno. But, and with all due respect to those of you who have suggested such things...'slightly louder e strings' or 'slightly louder b and g strings' these kinds of diagnoses are a quite a stretch.
Monkey Allen
Fork and spoon operator
Yep, a strong option. I have no probs in selling it.
Papanate
Well-known member
Well it is quite a stretch . because I’m not hearing the overtones - I’m listening on Barefoot Monitors - in a very clean signal path - and if you are hearing overtones then perhaps your monitors or headphones are resonating at a frequency with your guitar.
Steenamaroo
...
For your sanity I hear it too or, at least, I hear something I don't like.
It's most obvious to me from from about 11 seconds when you switch to the G chord.
What I'm hearing's more offensive around 1900hz, which I've boosted to make more obvious for those who aren't hearing it.
Pretty much any frequency tight-q boost is going to sound offensive, of course, but I hear this particular area ringing out in the raw clip.
How to fix it? I don't know, but if it was my guitar I'd be doing a restring and working on the nut and saddle to make sure the strings all have a nice clean break and aren't rubbing where they shouldn't be.
I made an acoustic for my niece a couple of years ago from scratch, and neck-reset my own acoustic guitar too, and was pretty shocked to find that getting the nut and saddle right without weird pinched-like noises and buzzes were the hard bits.
View attachment 1900boost.mp3
It's most obvious to me from from about 11 seconds when you switch to the G chord.
What I'm hearing's more offensive around 1900hz, which I've boosted to make more obvious for those who aren't hearing it.
Pretty much any frequency tight-q boost is going to sound offensive, of course, but I hear this particular area ringing out in the raw clip.
How to fix it? I don't know, but if it was my guitar I'd be doing a restring and working on the nut and saddle to make sure the strings all have a nice clean break and aren't rubbing where they shouldn't be.
I made an acoustic for my niece a couple of years ago from scratch, and neck-reset my own acoustic guitar too, and was pretty shocked to find that getting the nut and saddle right without weird pinched-like noises and buzzes were the hard bits.
View attachment 1900boost.mp3
CoolCat
Well-known member
its magnified but its there.
for that kind of cash Id expect a lot of perfect.... changing strings is cheap,but spending a bunch of money to make a "namebrand expensive guitar" sound good always seemed odd to me. I think due to name brand and cost most of us would expect, assume the guitar is not needing a bunch of work $$ done to make it sound good?
I dont doubt if its a sentimental guitar, a luthier could probably fix it....just my opinion, on gear and fixing it. How much are you willing to spend on it? is the next question.
To sell it or fix it?
for that kind of cash Id expect a lot of perfect.... changing strings is cheap,but spending a bunch of money to make a "namebrand expensive guitar" sound good always seemed odd to me. I think due to name brand and cost most of us would expect, assume the guitar is not needing a bunch of work $$ done to make it sound good?
I dont doubt if its a sentimental guitar, a luthier could probably fix it....just my opinion, on gear and fixing it. How much are you willing to spend on it? is the next question.
To sell it or fix it?
Monkey Allen
Fork and spoon operator
What I'll do is mixdown the same clip but I'll automate an eq bell to raise the frequency range where the problem is then I'll back the bell back down and so on. This should make it obvious. And once you tune in to it and hear it you'll wonder how you didn't hear it before. I think. Stand by. Or go about your business, I might be a while.