Posted: Fri Feb 11, 2005 3:19 pm
Howard: You need some SSR (Samick Special Resin) glue. It's secreted by puffins on the Nova Zemyla peninsula
It must be mixed with equal portions of left-handed elbow grease and applied hot.
John: Particle board is weird stuff. It does not propagate waves as well as plywood, which in turn is no comparison to nice clear pine. So amp makers are selling premium amps once again with pine board cases for that nice resonance. Still, unless the pine boards are 50 years old, they still will sound "green".
Pine tends to have several resonant frequencies which because of its natural structure (empty cellulose cells aligned along the long axes of the wooden board; lots of air), leads to lots of nice "live" resonance. Plywood is muddier because the wood layers used as filler, are generally lower quality wood with much variation in density and even some sap pockets, and these layers or laminations are oriented at angles to each other and to the long face of the cut panel.
MDF or its coarser form, particle board, is very heavy per unit size, because it's the wood product equivalent of ground beef: tiny particles (sawdust) held together with an inexpensive, usually water-based, glue. There are few, if any, completely intact cellulose cells with their nice springy walls and contained air. Resonances tend toward higher frequencies and are quite likely to be harsh and dissonant.
MDF or particle-board for an instrument? Yikes! Although we've all seen by now the acrylic instruments everybody seems to be flogging at around the $200.00 mark, and of course some Chicago manufacturers experimented with fiberglass some decades ago, hardwood still rules the roost as a good material for both necks and bodies.
And as the tube amp vs. IC debate goes into its third decade of raging like an underground fire on high-end audio forums, there's no denying to me that analog=warmth.
Wood (to extend this metaphor) is ana-log. Some pun, huh?
Friday and time to go home. G'night, Chet.
It must be mixed with equal portions of left-handed elbow grease and applied hot.
John: Particle board is weird stuff. It does not propagate waves as well as plywood, which in turn is no comparison to nice clear pine. So amp makers are selling premium amps once again with pine board cases for that nice resonance. Still, unless the pine boards are 50 years old, they still will sound "green".
Pine tends to have several resonant frequencies which because of its natural structure (empty cellulose cells aligned along the long axes of the wooden board; lots of air), leads to lots of nice "live" resonance. Plywood is muddier because the wood layers used as filler, are generally lower quality wood with much variation in density and even some sap pockets, and these layers or laminations are oriented at angles to each other and to the long face of the cut panel.
MDF or its coarser form, particle board, is very heavy per unit size, because it's the wood product equivalent of ground beef: tiny particles (sawdust) held together with an inexpensive, usually water-based, glue. There are few, if any, completely intact cellulose cells with their nice springy walls and contained air. Resonances tend toward higher frequencies and are quite likely to be harsh and dissonant.
MDF or particle-board for an instrument? Yikes! Although we've all seen by now the acrylic instruments everybody seems to be flogging at around the $200.00 mark, and of course some Chicago manufacturers experimented with fiberglass some decades ago, hardwood still rules the roost as a good material for both necks and bodies.
And as the tube amp vs. IC debate goes into its third decade of raging like an underground fire on high-end audio forums, there's no denying to me that analog=warmth.
Wood (to extend this metaphor) is ana-log. Some pun, huh?
Friday and time to go home. G'night, Chet.
