News And Updates

Many players have contacted me and been curious about how the EGS guitars sound with “normal” pickups. Johan Lundgren of Lundgren Guitar Pickups kindly lent me a pair of Heaven ’57 humbuckers for a test.

Getting this done was not as straight-forward as I had hoped. The Alumitones are a few millimeters smaller (36 x 65 mm) than a regular humbucker (38 x 68 mm), and for aesthetical purposes I had cut the pickup cavities as close to the original Alumitones as possible. This meant that I actually had to get the router out to enlarge the holes for the test. Another interesting fact is that the two Lundgren pickups weigh 250 grams and the two Lace pickups weigh 90 grams. With the EGS#1 guitar weighing in at about 2kg, it still results in a fairly light instrument, but the increase in weight is quite large percentage-wise.

You will have to judge the results for yourself. The larger frequency response of the Lace pickups allow them to be equalized into any type of sound using tone controls and effects, but the clips are recorded with the same settings on the amp.

Some comments from Jonas – his personal views and reflections:

• The Alumitones have a “sparkle” on the high end and the “punch” is high in the tonal register.
• The Lundgren pickups have their “punch” much more in the mid-range.
• The Lundgren pickups have a warmer and muddier sound.
• When playing the Alumitones, he feels he has to hold back a little – they have a tendency to “break” when picking hard. With Lundgren pickups, he feels more “relaxed” and un-inhibited.
• The EGS guitar still responds very quickly with the Lundgren pickups, but the attack is slightly less intimidating than with the Alumitone.
• Jonas’ verdict: “the EGS guitar really comes together with the Lundgren Heaven 57 pickups. Having said that, in something like the sound clip featuring Joe Pesce from FUZZ Guitar Show, the Alumitones beat the Lundgrens hands down.”
• My verdict: “As with anything on an instrument, the choice of pickups is very subjective. Material choices, design features, and electronics all have to blend together to form a complete instrument that resonates with its player. Both of the tested pickups have their merits. I am offering my customers a choice of whatever pickup type suits their playing style and genre the best. The Lundgren pickups turned out awesome in this particular instance, so I am definitely keeping them on. In the niche of ergonomic guitars, design and innovation, Lace Alumitones will continue to be my first choice.”

Clean sample:

Slightly distorted sample:

I have added three more clips featuring Jonas Isaksson. They all go through each of the pickup positions first clean and then distorted. The settings are the same on the signal chain across all the guitars.

#1

#2

#3

Here are a few sound/video clips of the EGS guitars. They are recorded with the video camera built-in microphone so not particularly high quality, but should provide some comparison between the different guitars.

The clips are all recorded with identical settings of all controls, with very neutral settings. No reverb or effects, except for a bit of overdrive in the first clip.

More clips will follow.

Demo #1 – Mats Lundberg

Demo #2 – Joe Pesce

Demo #3 – Niclas Höglind

I have been planning to upload some sound samples for some time. I have also been planning to get some more videos, but was dreading it simply because the effort required was nightmarish and still, after hours of messing around and downloading different programs, came out not wide screen but squeezed together. But I got a new computer the other day that had the latest version of the operating system and suddenly everything worked as expected – smoothly. But now I had not made an effort when lighting the recording properly. But next time…

So, I met up with Peter Hansson, who helped me test tremolos before, and we recorded some sound samples. Rather than just putting up mp3s, I used the new software to put them up on YouTube witha single click! Sound has been lined from a Mesa Boogie Rectoverb through a Palmer speaker simulator. No effects boxes except on the distorted sample where we added a Boss Flanger and some echo.

Go to http://www.youtube.com/user/olastrandberg to see all the clips.

Here is one sample, showing the action of the tuners.

Expect more videos soon.

I have put the EGS demo up on YouTube.

Here are some of the vital statistics about the participants:

• Jonas Isaksson – main instrument is the clarinet, believe it or not. Although he prefers the violin… I, for one, am pretty impressed with his guitar skills.
• Nisse Blomster – jazz improvization and musical theory student from Uppsala, often appearing with the band Blue Stripe.
• Daniel Palmqvist – solo artist and guitarist of The Murder of My Sweet.

And some vital stats about the guitar itself:

• Weight: 1850 grams/4 lbs
• Swamp ash back, stained “Ebony Black”, treated with Watco Danish Oil. Large tone cavities cut both top and bottom.
• Curly maple top (5 mm thickness), finished with Watch Danish Oil. Black veneer strip in centre.
• Three-piece wenge neck with cherry veneer strips.
• Ebony fretboard.
• Carbon fiber truss rod.
• Super wide/high frets
• 25.5″ scale length on low E, 25″ scale on high E string
• Strandberg EGS fixed bridges
• Lace Alumitone humbucker pickups
• 5-position pickup selector (front HB, front SC + rear SC out of phase, front HB + rear HB series, front SC + rear SC in series, rear HB.

Thanks to everyone who has been voting on the sound samples for the different bridges! I will keep the poll open, but since I happen to agree with the results at the time of writing, and since I have new findings, I will reveal the results.

• Bridge 1 = Ball bearing
• Bridge 2 = Original Floyd Rose
• Bridge 3 = Stainless steel knife

First of all, I am not disappointed. Why, you might ask? Read on… Secondly, this is for one guitar, and a pretty unique one at that. The material, for instance, is jeluton, which is not commonly regarded a tone-wood. Other guitars will render different results. Furthermore, I selected two tones more or less at random, but other tones will give different results. The distorted tone is the one that decided for me, and for most other voters that have commented on or off-line. It was just more complex and “tight” with the F-R.

Anyway, I got my hardened steel knives back and discovered that they made quite a (positive, I think) difference to the sound as well. So, I went on and made three new tremolo spring blocks to examine all avenues and see what might have tipped things in the F-R’s favor. So, here are three new sound samples. All use the hardened knife and one is with an aluminum block, one is with a brass block and one is with a steel block. I also made a stainless steel block, but have not had time to test it yet.

• Block 1: clean11 / dist11
• Block 2: clean12 / dist12
• Block 3: clean13 / dist13

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To make things more interesting, I will raffle off a black fixed bridge (i.e. a set of 6 tuners) to the voter who can identify correctly which is aluminium, brass and steel respectively. I will announce the results on Feb 1, 2009. If more than one has a correct answer, the coolest project will win, so please let me know how you plan to use the bridge if you win it. Submit your entries via e-mail only please.

And one more thing: obviously, some of the ergonomic aspects are lessened with the other spring blocks. Here are the weights:

• Aluminium = 43 grams
• Steel = 124 grams
• Brass = 132 grams

Please help me decide which bridge sounds the best. The samples below are recorded using a Line6 GuitarPort using Windows Vista Sound Recorder. The tones used are “Mr. Clean” with Gate and Compressor turned off and Drive turned all the way down, and “80′s Metal Rythm”. Again, the bridges have been mounted on “Red Devil” (see Gallery). One of the samples is the original Floyd-Rose, one is the EGS tremolo with a stainless knife and one is with ball bearings. One of the clean samples has a volume increase that I cannot explain – try to just listen to the sound qualities.

• Bridge 1: clean1 / dist1
• Bridge 2: clean2 / dist2
• Bridge 3: clean3 / dist3

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I am thrilled to have some comparative sound samples of the Floyd-Rose(tm) drop-in replacement tremolo. First off: I put it on a guitar that is not the greatest instrument the world has seen, but the objective of the exercise was to note the differences in sound after replacing the tremolo unit. Secondly: the recordings were made through a Line6 TonePort(tm) using Cubase 4 software that was graciously provided by 4Sound Uppsala. The guitarist’s name is Peter Hansson – thanks Peter!

So, what were the results? Actually, the difference was more noticeable than what I would have guessed. It is not more than the difference from listening through your speakers and mine, the difference between an EMG and a Seymor Duncan pickup, or even a difference that could be compensated for by equalization. But the tone of the Floyd-Rose had more lows and highs and the “Strandberger” (had to name it that…) had a more pronounced mid range. But, I’m digressing. Here are the sound samples:

.neckSingle Coil Clean, Floyd-Rose*

.neckSingle Coil Clean, Strandberger*

.bridgeHumbucker Crunch, Floyd-Rose*

.bridgeHumbucker Crunch, Strandberger*

.neckSingle Coil Chorus, Floyd-Rose*

.neckSingle Coil Chorus, Strandberger*

Acoustically, Peter found that the sound was more pleasing with the Strandberger tremolo compared to the Floyd-Rose! Being that many think that Floyds sound “bad”, the difference in sound might be a good thing, but I will leave that up to you. It should be noted that the Floyd-Rose in question is the original, circa 1980, all weapon-grade metal version.

Other learnings:

• The edges of the base plate had been slightly deformed, i.e. the hard anodization, which is harder than hardened steel, had broken. This means that I will look into using hardened steel inserts like the ones on the Floyds themselves nowadays. It also means that I don’t have to use this surface treatment, which opens up for many more color choices.
• The height of the unit, the measurement between the tremolo edge and the string support, is higher on the Strandberger. This means that one will have to lower the posts to allow for the same neck setting. I will look into reducing this height. The difference was drastic enough that I had to insert an extra spring to resist the pull from the extra leverage.
• The string supports that I hand ground with my Dremel would sometimes twist and affect the sustain negatively. Will look into making the geometry a little bit different to counteract this possibility.

But all in all, a huge success. I am very pleased that it worked out as well as it did. My advice is: Watch this space for more sound samples when I have addressed the above issues.