In article , Jay Kadis
writes:

Is that the one that loads strings from the top instead of through the body?
I
play an '84 American Standard and found that filing and polishing the metal
saddle blocks cut way down on the breakage.

Thats the exact guitar I have! An '84. I've never even heard of anyone who had
one of these. It sure did break strings till I had some new saddles made. The
orig saddles were too soft and the strings dug channels in them which then
would saw the string in half.
Garth~


"I think the fact that music can come up a wire is a miracle."
Ed Cherney

In article , Les Cargill
writes:

"Yuri T." wrote:

what guitar are you playing? I have a Start with the American Standard
bridge. I would break 1 - 3 strings a night until I replaced the metal
bridge saddles with graphite ones. Now I almost never break a string
at all.

I actually went to a machine shop years ago and had saddles made for one of my
Strats out of hardened steel. It cut the incidence of string breakage to less
than half.

Garth~


"I think the fact that music can come up a wire is a miracle."
Ed Cherney

Are you talking about acoustic gtr? Does Elixer make stings for electrics?
Garth~

Yeah, I was referring to acoustic. I play Ernie Ball on electric. But I think
Elixir (misspelled it earlier) does make strings for electric now. Lemme
check...
Yep, Musician's Fiend (sic) carries them for electric. 10-46, that's just your
size, right? I think it'd be worth it to you to try them out at least once.
Speaking as one guitar player to another. Most people who try them never go
back to anything else, but occasionally they just don't work out for some
players.


-John Vice
www.summertimestudios.com

In article ,
(John) writes:

Yeah, I was referring to acoustic. I play Ernie Ball on electric. But I
think
Elixir (misspelled it earlier) does make strings for electric now. Lemme
check...
Yep, Musician's Fiend (sic) carries them for electric. 10-46, that's just
your
size, right? I think it'd be worth it to you to try them out at least once.
Speaking as one guitar player to another. Most people who try them never go
back to anything else, but occasionally they just don't work out for some
players.

Actually, I really like GHS (electric) strings. I have endorsed them for more
than 12 years. They seem to hold their tone well and they are bright, but in
reality I have been using them for some 20 years or more and havent really
tried anything else during that time. For all I know there are other brands I
might like better. Dean Markely gave me an endorsement before GHS and I liked
the "Blue Steel" but their regular strings were just awful IMO. Ernie Ball
strings always seemed too dead to me. I have always liked D'Addario but could
never get an endorsement and since I have gone through more than 100 sets of
strings in some years I really appreciate the "bro deal".
Garth~


"I think the fact that music can come up a wire is a miracle."
Ed Cherney

(Andrew Mayo) wrote:

getting latency underneath 5ms is damn difficult... But a lot of good players
are going to feel that latency,

And those who can "feel" that latency, wouldn't touch the real piano
either, as it takes some 6ms from the moment you strike a key on the piano,
until you hear the sound of a hammer hitting the string(s).

Branislav Tchaikovsky

I'm looking for

1) great sound

Aren't we all?

2) great keyboard action

That's highly subjective and since you are not buying for (just) yourself,
but for your clients, it'll be a tough decision. I personally like a fast
and rather light action, but most of the "real" pianists prefer a harder
action.

What sounds better - a digital piano, or a keyboard driving a soft synth?

That's easy, a keyboard with a nice action (with your budget you can even
get two keyboards, one with a lighter and the other with a heavier action)
and some Virtual Instrument / Sampler. Software synths/samplers have so
much more memory available in the computer, so the libraries are measured
in GB (The Grand, by Steinberg is on 3 CDs) and hardware el. pianos have to
make some compromises to squeeze samples in a restricted memory. Larger
samples should result in a better sound quality. One more plus for the soft
versions is that you can buy new, better/different, libraries in the future
and you wouldn't have to sell the keyboard, to be able to use them.

Branislav Tchaikovsky

If I recall correctly there are really only a few string manufacturers
with a lot of different companies putting their names on them.

Garthrr wrote:

Actually, I really like GHS (electric) strings. I have endorsed them for more
than 12 years. They seem to hold their tone well and they are bright, but in
reality I have been using them for some 20 years or more and havent really
tried anything else during that time. For all I know there are other brands I
might like better. Dean Markely gave me an endorsement before GHS and I liked
the "Blue Steel" but their regular strings were just awful IMO. Ernie Ball
strings always seemed too dead to me. I have always liked D'Addario but could
never get an endorsement and since I have gone through more than 100 sets of
strings in some years I really appreciate the "bro deal".
Garth~


"I think the fact that music can come up a wire is a miracle."
Ed Cherney

"Jay Kadis" wrote in message
...
Is that the one that loads strings from the top instead of through the
body? I
play an '84 American Standard and found that filing and polishing the
metal
saddle blocks cut way down on the breakage.

As any guitar tech would tell you. Burrs on the saddle or nut (assuming a
brass nut) or even worn frets will take a toll on the strings, but breaking
strings often is an indication of the problem, not the problem itself. It's
easy to forget that instruments that seemingly play correctly can still get
out of whack, which is why it's necessary to touch up one's frets, do a
little maintenance on the bridge saddles, etc. I find lots of musicians
that don't even know about how to maintain their instruments, and finding a
consistent case of breaking strings makes them think about changing strings
rather than looking for a physical problem with the instrument. Same thing
with understanding that humidity, temperature changes, etc., are all going
to change something. Or even knowing what the heck intonation is and how to
get it set. Even if you're just about to go live, with 5 minutes you can
guarantee that your instrument isn't going to be giving you that problem.

--


Roger W. Norman
SirMusic Studio
RAP FAQ and Purchase your copy of the Fifth of RAP CD set at
www.recaudiopro.net.
See how far $20 really goes.

I still have a set of Elixir strings on my acoustic from maybe 8 months ago.
Still bright enough not to sound dead, still hold tune for an entire night,
if not until the next time I pick it up to play. I didn't know that they
made electric strings, so I'll have to give them a try, but I've been using
Fender Bullets for about 18 years now and they seat so well and stay in tune
well enough that I've never really given consideration to changing to
another brand. There for a while, the Bullets kinda went away, but I've
been glad to see that they've become somewhat ubiquitious in the past 8
years or so.

--


Roger W. Norman
SirMusic Studio
RAP FAQ and Purchase your copy of the Fifth of RAP CD set at
www.recaudiopro.net.
See how far $20 really goes.





"John" wrote in message
...
Are you talking about acoustic gtr? Does Elixer make stings for
electrics?
Garth~

Yeah, I was referring to acoustic. I play Ernie Ball on electric. But I
think
Elixir (misspelled it earlier) does make strings for electric now. Lemme
check...
Yep, Musician's Fiend (sic) carries them for electric. 10-46, that's just
your
size, right? I think it'd be worth it to you to try them out at least
once.
Speaking as one guitar player to another. Most people who try them never
go
back to anything else, but occasionally they just don't work out for some
players.


-John Vice
www.summertimestudios.com

In article ,
Inter Media wrote:
(Andrew Mayo) wrote:

getting latency underneath 5ms is damn difficult... But a lot of good players
are going to feel that latency,

And those who can "feel" that latency, wouldn't touch the real piano
either, as it takes some 6ms from the moment you strike a key on the piano,
until you hear the sound of a hammer hitting the string(s).

On a real piano, that latency, as well as the dead band and hysteresis of
the mechanism, can be adjusted by a good piano tech. You can get a piano
that really reacts fast, or you can get one that is slow. Then you can
adjust the attack and decay on the notes themselves by changing the felts
and the damping. It's all adjustable.

If you want to hear latency, try playing an antiphonal organ in a big hall.
I can't figure out how anyone can do it without going insane.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

In article writes:

Well, I buy the high E .010s in bulk, sometimes 100 at a time and so they can
oxidize over time and get brittle.

You could have saved a lot of virtual trees if you had only said "I
sometimes put known defective strings on my guitar and sometimes they
don't break."




--
I'm really Mike Rivers - )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

In article ,
(Garthrr) wrote:

In article , Jay Kadis
writes:

Is that the one that loads strings from the top instead of through the body?
I
play an '84 American Standard and found that filing and polishing the metal
saddle blocks cut way down on the breakage.

Thats the exact guitar I have! An '84. I've never even heard of anyone who had
one of these. It sure did break strings till I had some new saddles made. The
orig saddles were too soft and the strings dug channels in them which then
would saw the string in half.
Garth~


"I think the fact that music can come up a wire is a miracle."
Ed Cherney


I love that guitar. With the top-loading strings, I can get a new .010 on and
tuned before the song is over unless I'm singing at the time. Lately I haven't
had to do it, though.

-Jay
--
x------- Jay Kadis ------- x---- Jay's Attic Studio ------x
x Lecturer, Audio Engineer x Dexter Records x
x CCRMA, Stanford University x http://www.offbeats.com/ x
x-------- http://ccrma-www.stanford.edu/~jay/ ----------x

To those who praised some of the Technics keyboards for their action,
I concur. I have had an old P30 for many years, and it has a fantastic
action. The other advantage is that it is only about 10" deep, and so
at about 30 lbs. it weighs at least 10 lb. less than any other decent
88 note weighted action keyboard I've ever seen. I've used it on many
gigs where a basic piano and electric piano was all I needed.

The drawbacks are that the control implementation is very difficult to
use, and there are only three possible sounds (one acoustic piano and
two electric). All sliders and swtiches are out of sight on the side,
and to do things like change midi channels you need to power on and
off while holding down certain keys. It would be of very limited use
as a master controller. No control wheels or sliders, no pitch bend,
no midi-assignable pedal jacks, etc.

The piano sound is actually, in my opinion (and others who have tried
it here) better than the Kurzweil, but not nearly as good as the
Yamaha S90. (It gets a liitle too harsh and metallic in the midrange)
However, the two electric piano sounds are very playable and useful.

On a real piano, that latency, as well as the dead band and hysteresis of
the mechanism, can be adjusted by a good piano tech. You can get a piano
that really reacts fast, or you can get one that is slow. Then you can
adjust the attack and decay on the notes themselves by changing the felts
and the damping. It's all adjustable. BRBR

In addition I would think that the harder you hit a not the less latency you'll
have. Try matching that with a sampler.

-R

In article , Jay Kadis
writes:

I love that guitar. With the top-loading strings, I can get a new .010 on
and
tuned before the song is over unless I'm singing at the time. Lately I
haven't
had to do it, though.


I like it a lot too. I played that guitar with Miles Davis in 86. I was much
afraid that I would break strings while playing with him but strangely I never
broke even one onstage. This was shortly after I had the custom saddles built.
I did break strings after that in other bands even with the new saddles but not
nearly as often as with the stock saddles.
You can change strings so fast on that guitar. I much prefer that bridge at
least in that regard. Seems to sound good too.

Garth~


"I think the fact that music can come up a wire is a miracle."
Ed Cherney

"Inter Media" wrote in message ...
(Andrew Mayo) wrote:

getting latency underneath 5ms is damn difficult... But a lot of good players
are going to feel that latency,

And those who can "feel" that latency, wouldn't touch the real piano
either, as it takes some 6ms from the moment you strike a key on the piano,
until you hear the sound of a hammer hitting the string(s).

Branislav Tchaikovsky

The problem here is that an electronic piano keyboard will not trigger
the sample until the key is almost fully depressed (this differs from
an organ keyboard, where the design should be optimised so that the
note triggers early, when the key is only partially pressed - this is
to allow organ techniques like glissando).

Now the real piano latency certainly is at least 6ms from the point I
start to depress the key. I agree with you there. The latency I am
referring to, however, occurs after the key contacts close. This
translates to 11ms, if you have 6ms to depress the key. This extra
latency will not occur with a real piano.

A 1ms latency corresponds to around 1 metre, so a total latency of
11ms is similar to playing the piano with 10 metre long arms!.

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Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2003 01:16:02 GMT
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On 2003-12-14 ospam(Leoaw3) said:
Oh, I understand Usenet. Roger Norman is not just a poster on this
thread, but has proven himself over and over throught the years.
He easily has enough credibility with me to have me check out the
Kurzweil line. I wish Scott liked digital pianos.... but oh well
;). Roger, have you played the p250? Perhaps Yammie has caught up
or even passed Kurzweil. Jimmy - have you played the Kurzweil?
Thanks folks, for your opinions. I'm actively looking for
someplace I can see/touch/hear both keyboards in the southern
california area. I'd love it to be in the same place next to each
other for the best comparison. Thanks again,
Narrow it down to a couple of candidates in the showroom then see
about renting each for a short period of time, try them in your
environment on some of your recordings. A friend of mine had a
Kurzweil which I played at his studio every time I recorded there.
Another local studio where I used to live was adjunct to a music
store, he had all sorts of things and you could try what you thought
might work; move it in the studio then cut your tracks. I brought
artists to both studios to work with but almost never brought them
keyboard based projects that I could do at my place with midi modules
etc.

Both studio operators asked me about this. I commented that I'd have
to go almost 200 miles to find a studio with a decent acoustic piano.
One was a Yamaha in a smallish room but not bad. NOT sure what the
other one was at the moment, but both were a good overnighter to go
cut tracks and return.


I'd like to put a good acoustic piano in here, but I still need some
living room/dining room space in this townhouse and I intend to find a
small drum kit in the next year or so for occasional rehearsals and
some tracking as well. tHe back room upstairs is already control room
and ham shack, crammed with three desks a bookcase and a LEslie and
Hammond xb2 as well as a braille embosser on a stand. NO space for
one so a decent digital is in my future.

When the money's there that means I"ll send the wife shopping while I
play the heck out of a candidate in the showroom for an hour or so.

Regards,




Richard Webb
Electric Spider Productions
REplace anything before the @ symbol with elspider for real email

--