
Your prized acoustic was likely built in a single shop and locale, but chances are your guitar is much more worldly than you might imagine.
Most modern guitars have a small label that notes where the instrument was made. Perhaps it was the U.S. or Japan or Mexico, or maybe Canada or China. These labels are placed on most objects to satisfy the laws governing the buying, selling, and shipping of things. While they do fulfill some regulatory obligations, these labels donāt really describe much in the world of guitars. Sure, they will tell a player where the workshop and builders who assembled the instrument are located, but the reality is that most instruments are far more well traveled.
Consider a typical, acoustic flattop guitar. Its ingredients will figuratively take you around the entire world. On our hypothetical guitar, weāll find a spruce top from a high-elevation alpine forest, perhaps from one of Europeās mountain ranges, or from Canada or Alaska. That top will be joined to sides and a back from conceivably anywhere: maple from either side of the U.S., rosewood from India or South America, or perhaps some tropical island. The neck might be made of mahogany from Central America or even Fiji. And our fingers might be playing on a fretboard made from ebony sourced from Africa. The truth is that our guitar has a passport with enough stamps to make the most ardent traveler envious.
Pointing out this cosmopolitan background isnāt meant to showcase the exoticism of the scarcest materials. Guitars have far more practical reasons for incorporating these materials. Each part of a guitar has a very particular job to do and must perform its task as well as all the other parts play their respective roles. In other words, there can be no weak links in an instrument.
The top must be made from a wood thatās both strong and resonant. It must be able to vibrate freely while retaining enough strength to resist deformation for generations. The back and sides must be a wood appropriate to amplify this vibrationāfiltering out unwanted frequencies while allowing all the good musical sounds to project. The neck needs to be structurally stable yet light enough to allow a physically comfortable weight balance. And that fretboard needs to withstand constant abrasion for decades without wearing away. If any of these parts fail to perform their task well, the others are not allowed to play their own role, and the guitar (as a whole) fails to serve the musician.
With these functional roles understood, players can appreciate the subtle variations different woods give a guitar. The variety of spruce used for a top will have a small impact on the way the guitar sounds, as will the back and sides. As guitar enthusiasts, itās important to recognize that these woods sound slightly different due to their physical properties, not the nationality of the region where they were cut. Iāve heard many players insist they like the sound of a German-spruce top more than any other European spruce, as if that wood spoke with the accent of its national language. It turns out that forests have little respect for the international borders governments establish. They grow where they prefer, and often started growing before borders were drawn on a map.
The physical characteristics of each wood are what musicians and makers concern themselves with: attributes driven by rainfall, elevation, soil conditions, and sunlight. Those are the parameters a tree will pay attention to. Occasionally, even two samples of different species can have nearly identical sonic qualities due to the similarity of their growing conditions. This is true not only for spruce, but for all woods. Take well-loved Honduras mahogany, for example. While it became known as mahogany from British Honduras (now Belize), the wood grows throughout the region, from Mexico and Belize, and south through Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Columbia, Venezuela, and Ecuador into Brazil and Peru. It might even be from Fiji, where British settlers planted the wood in vast quantities a century ago. Whatever language is spoken by the folks living near these trees, mahogany speaks in beautiful musical sounds not just as necks, but often as the back and sides of guitars as well.
Variations among woods do exist based on those natural factors, but even still, each component of a guitar is just one part. No musician ever hears only the back of a guitar, or only the top, or just the fretboard. We hear the completed instrumentāthe entire systemāmade of unique parts from around the globe. And they all contribute to the sound of your favorite guitar, regardless of what language it speaks or where its passport was issued.
Tom Bedell in the Relic Music acoustic room, holding a custom Seed to Song Parlor with a stunning ocean sinker redwood top and milagro Brazilian rosewood back and sides.
As head of Breedlove and Bedell Guitars, heās championed sustainability and environmental causesāand he wants to tell you about it.
As the owner of the Breedlove and Bedell guitar companies, Tom Bedell has been a passionate advocate for sustainable practices in acoustic guitar manufacturing. Listening to him talk, itās clear that the preservation of the Earthās forests are just as important to Bedell as the sound of his guitars. Youāll know just how big of a statement that is if youāve ever had the opportunity to spend time with one of his excellently crafted high-end acoustics, which are among the finest youāll find. Over the course of his career, Bedell has championed the use of alternative tonewoods and traveled the world to get a firsthand look at his wood sources and their harvesting practices. When you buy a Bedell, you can rest assured that no clear-cut woods were used.
A born storyteller, Bedell doesnāt keep his passion to himself. On Friday, May 12, at New Jersey boutique guitar outpost Relic Music, Bedell shared some of the stories heās collected during his life and travels as part of a three-city clinic trip. At Relicāand stops at Crossroads Guitar and Art in Gilbertsville, Pennsylvania, and Chuck Levinās Washington Music Center in Wheaton, Marylandāhe discussed his guitars and what makes them so special, why sustainability is such an important cause, and how heās putting it into practice.
Before his talk, we sat in Relicās cozy, plush acoustic room, surrounded by a host of high-end instruments. We took a look at a few of the storeās house-specād Bedell parlors while we chatted.
āThe story of this guitar is the story of the world,ā Bedell explained to me, holding a Seed to Song Parlor. He painted a picture of a milagro tree growing on a hillside in northeastern Brazil some 500 years ago, deprived of water and growing in stressful conditions during its early life. That tree was eventually harvested, and in the 1950s, it was shipped to Spain by a company that specialized in church ornaments. They recognized this unique specimen and set it aside until it was imported to the U.S. and reached Oregon. Now, it makes the back and sides of this unique guitar.
A Bedell Fireside Parlor with a buckskin redwood top and cocobolo back and sides.
As for the ocean sinker redwood top, āIām gonna make up the story,ā Bedell said, as he approximated the life cycle of the tree, which floated in the ocean, soaking up minerals for years and years, and washed ashore on northern Oregonās Manzanita Beach. The two woods were paired and built into a small run of exquisitely outfitted guitars using the Bedell/Breedlove Sound Optimization processāin which the building team fine-tunes each instrumentās voice by hand-shaping individual braces to target resonant frequencies using acoustic analysisāand Bedell and his team fell in love.
Playing it while we spoke, I was smitten by this guitarās warm, responsive tone and even articulation and attack across the fretboard; it strikes a perfect tonal balance between a tight low-end and bright top, with a wide dynamic range that made it sympathetic to anything I offered. And as I swapped guitars, whether picking up a Fireside Parlor with a buckskin redwood top and cocobolo back and sides or one with an Adirondack spruce top and Brazilian rosewood back and sides, the character and the elements of each instrument changed, but that perfect balance remained. Each of these acousticsāand of any Bedell Iāve had the pleasure to playādelivers their own experiential thumbprint.
Rosette and inlay detail on an Adirondack spruce top.
Ultimately, thatās what brought Bedell out to the East Coast on this short tour. āWe have a totally different philosophy about how we approach guitar-building,ā Bedell effused. āThere are a lot of individuals who build maybe 12 guitars a year, who do some of the things that we do, but thereās nobody on a production level.ā And he wants to spread that gospel.
āWe want to reach people who really want something special,ā he continued, pointing out that for the Bedell line, the company specifically wants to work with shops like Relic and the other stores heās visited, āwho have a clientele that says I want the best guitar I can possibly have, and they carry enough variety that we can give them that.ā
A Fireside Parlor with a Western red cedar top and Brazilian rosewood back and sides.
ENGL, renowned for its high-performance amplifiers, proudly introduces the EP635 Fireball IR Pedal, a revolutionary 2-channel preamp pedal designed to deliver the legendary Fireball tone in a compact and feature-rich format.
The EP635 Fireball IR Pedal brings the raw power and precision of the ENGL Fireball amplifier into a pedalboard-friendly enclosure, offering unmatched flexibility and tonal control for guitarists of all styles. This cutting-edge pedal is equipped with advanced features, making it a must-have for players seeking high-gain perfection with modern digital convenience.
Key Features:
- Authentic Fireball Tone ā Designed after the renowned ENGL Fireball amplifier, the EP635 delivers the unmistakable high-gain aggression and clarity that ENGL fans love.
- Two Independent Channels ā Easily switch between two distinct channels, with each channelās knob settings saved independently, allowing for seamless transitions between tones.
- Built-in Midboost Function ā Enhance your tone with the integrated Midboost switch, perfect for cutting through the mix with extra punch.
- Advanced Noise Gate ā Eliminate unwanted noise and maintain articulate clarity, even with high-gain settings.
- IR (Impulse Response) Loading via USB-C ā Customize your sound with user-loadable IRs using the included software, bringing studio-quality cab simulations to your pedalboard.
- Headphone Output ā Silent practice has never been easier, with a dedicated headphone output for direct monitoring.
- Premium Build and Intuitive Controls ā Featuring a rugged chassis and responsive controls for Volume, Gain, Bass, Middle, Treble, and Presence, ensuring precise tonal shaping.
SPECS:
- Input 1/4ā (6,35mm) Jack
- Output 1/4ā (6,35mm) Jack
- Headphone Output 1/8ā(3,5mm) Jack
- 9V DC / 300mA (center negativ) / power supply, sold separately
- USB C
The Gibson EH-185, introduced in 1939, was one of the companyās first electric guitars.
Before the Les Pauls and SGs, this aluminum-reinforced instrument was one of the famous brandās first electric guitars.
Itās hard to overstate the importance of electric guitar in shaping American popular music over the last half-century. Its introduction was a revolution, changing the course of modern musical styles. Today, when we think of the guitars that started the revolution, we think of the Stratocaster and the Les Paul, guitars held against the body and fretted with the fingertips. But the real spark of this musical mutiny was the lap-steel guitar.
In the early 20th century, guitar music was moving out of the parlors of homes and into public spaces where folks could gather together and dance. Guitarists needed to project their sound far beyond where their wimpy little acoustic instruments could reach. Instrument manufacturers began experimenting with larger body sizes, metal construction, and resonators to increase volume.
Around this time, George Beauchamp began experimenting with electric guitar amplification. He settled on a design using two U-shaped magnets and a single coil of wire. Beauchamp was in business with Adolph Rickenbacker, and they decided to stick this new invention into a lap steel.
If we put on our 1930s glasses, this decision makes perfect sense. The most popular music at the time was a blend of Hawaiian and jazz styles made famous by virtuosos like Solomon āSolā HoŹ»opiŹ»i. Photos of HoŹ»opiŹ»i with a metal-body resonator aboundāone can imagine his relief at being handed an instrument that projected sound toward the audience via an amplifier, rather than back at his own head via resonator cones. Beauchamp and Rickenbacker were simply following the market.
As it turned out, the popularity of Hawaiian music gave way to swing, and electric lap steels didnāt exactly take the world by storm. But Beauchamp and Rickenbacker had proven the viability of this new technology, and other manufacturers followed suit. In 1937, Gibson created a pickup with magnets under the strings, rather than above like Beauchampās.
āWhen I plugged in the EH-185 I expected to hear something reminiscent of Charlie Christianās smooth, clean tone. But what I got was meatierācloser to what I associate with P-90s: warm and midrange-y.ā
The first page of Gibsonās āElectrical Instrumentsā section in the 1939 catalog features a glowing, full-page write-up of their top-of-the-line lap steel: the EH-185. āEverything about this new electric Hawaiian Guitar smacks of good showmanship,ā effuses the copy. āIt has smoothness, great sustaining power, and an easy flow of tone that builds up strongly and does not die out.ā
Picking up the 1940 EH-185 at Fannyās House of Music is about as close as one can get to traveling back in time to try a new one. It is just so clean, with barely any dings or even finish checking. Overall, this is a 9/10 piece, and itās a joy to behold. Speaking of picking it up, the first thing you notice when you lift the EH-185 out of the case is its weight. This is a much heavier instrument than other similar-sized lap steels, owing to a length of thick metal between the body and the fretboard. The catalog calls it āHyblum metal,ā which may be a flowery trade name for an early aluminum alloy.
This 1940 EH-185 is heavier than other lap steels in its class, thanks to a length of metal between its fretboard and body.
Photo by Madison Thorn
There are numerous other fancy appointments on the EH-185 that Gibson didnāt offer on their lesser models. Itās made of highly figured maple, with diamond-shaped decorations on the back of the body and neck. The double binding is nearly a centimeter thick and gives the instrument a luxurious, expensive look.
Behind all these high-end attributes is a great-sounding guitar, thanks to that old pickup. Itās got three blades protruding through the bobbin for the unwound strings and one longer blade for the wound strings. When I plugged in the EH-185 I expected to hear something reminiscent of Charlie Christianās smooth, clean tone. But what I got was meatierācloser to what I associate with P-90s: warm and midrange-y. It was just crying out for a little crunch and a bluesy touch. Itās kind of cool how such a pristine, high-end vintage instrument can be so well-suited for a sound thatās rough around the edges.
As far as electric guitars go, it doesnāt get much more vintage than this 1940 Gibson EH-185 Lap Steel. It reminds us of where the story of the electric guitar truly began. This EH-185 isnāt just a relicāitās a testament to when the future of music was unfolding in real time. Plug it in, and you become part of the revolution.
Sources: Smithsonian, Vintage Guitar, Mozart Project, Gibson Pre-War, WIRED, Steel Guitar Forum, Vintaxe
J Mascis is well known for his legendary feats of volume.
J Mascis is well known for his legendary feats of volume. Just check out a photo of his rig to see an intimidating wall of amps pointed directly at the Dinosaur Jr. leaderās head. And though his loudness permeates all that he does and has helped cement his reputation, thereās a lot more to his playing.
On this episode of 100 Guitarists, weāre looking at each phase of the trioās long career. How many pedals does J use to get his sound? Whatās his best documented use of a flanger? How does his version of āMaggot Brainā (recorded with bassist Mike Watt) compare to Eddie Hazelās? And were you as surprised as we were when Fender released a J Mascis signature Tele?