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AGP #371 - ''New York''

AGP #371 - “New York” -(3 String Licence Plate Guitar)
Scale:25½” Strings:.046NW/.030NW/.022NW/ Tuned:GDg
The 13¾” x 7½” x 3¾” Box is a thin Pine Ply Ebay Wine Carrier, the Neck is solid clear Pine, the Fretboard is Vine Patterned White Oak, the Neck was torched and then along with the Box was given a coat of Golden Teak Stain and 3 coats of a brush on French Polish Lacquer, a 4.5k Delta Type Pickup is hardwired to the Output Jack.
In the search for a different Acoustic sound I get from my usual style of heavier framed LPG’s, this time I went for a Lightweight Box Build, BUT!, when finished and strung up, it sounded like Shite!, no Acoustic quality, Resonance or Sustain etc, just sounded Flat and Dull, changed string gauges but made no differece, thought it may have needed more or bigger Sounds Holes, but when played with the lid opened, still no change, then thought it may have been the Aluminium Plate, but have successfully used them in the past with no problems, so ruled that out, the only other cause I could come with, was that it was the 3 Coats of Lacquer on the Box, so stripped all that off and wouldn’t ya know it!, “PROBLEM FIXED”, now has a light coat of “Orange Oil Furniture Polish”, and smells good enough to eat, goes to show that even after #370 odd builds there’s still something new to learn each day. :-)

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Comment by AGP # on October 29, 2019 at 9:53am: "Thanks UJ", Seen something similar on the Gitty site, and done it this way to see what sound difference it would make to my usual style of LPG construction, am currently working on another LPG, this one is virtually a solid body build, so will be interesting to compare them both when finished! :-)

Comment by AGP # on October 29, 2019 at 9:47am: "Thanks Bob & Denbo", Yep!, I too was aware of the theory that the tone of Vintage Strats' improved with age, but always thought it had something to do with the molecular structure of the Wood changing after years of playing, could be a combination of both, the characteristic of the Wood changing and the loss of the Lacquer finish, I'm no expert, so best I leave those theories to the scientific boffin's, BUT!, I will add, that I have used the same brush on French Polish Lacquer used on the New York LPG, on many other builds in the past, both solid body and box type builds, with know noticeable problems. :-)

Comment by Uncle John on October 29, 2019 at 3:04am: Gees. That is a great setup top for an LPG. Puts the one I have started to shame.

Comment by Bob "Ambrose" Negus on October 29, 2019 at 12:58am: You've given me food for thought AGP, you too Denbo. I must admit that in my ignorance of having goofed around with solid body electric gits, I hadn't given much deep thought into acoustics, resonance and sustain qualities. I know that my old Hofner Congress knocks out a decent wave of sound, but never have I looked into the finish coating or possibly even veneer? layer factors when building my gits.