Topic: John How Guitars - Ladder Braced Roadtrip

[John How]

Hello, My name is John How. You may have seen my ad on the top of this forum recently.
I build guitars in Cool (yes that is really the name of my town), California.
I make conventional X-braced as well as contemporary X-braced guitars. I also build a series of ladder braced guitars based on the work of Oscar Schmidt.
I build these guitars in three different sizes, Parlor - 12.5", Concert - 13.5" and Grand Concert 14.75".
Now to the point of this post:
I am pleased to announce with the support of this forums management, an experiment in community cooperation and Blatant self promotion.
I am looking for about 10-15 volunteers to road test one of my guitars in your home for about a week and give feedback or a review, to be posted here on this forum. If you have the equipment and the chops it would be great to hear some recordings as well.
Here are the criteria for participating:
1. A Weenie Campbell forum member since before the start of 2007.
2. Members should have at least 50 posts to their credit.
3. Interested in this style of ladder braced guitar (they are not to everyones taste).
4. Willing to spend some time (a week or so) with the guitar and post your thoughts to this forum.
5. Willing to pay the cost of shipping to the next participant (I will try to arrange the flow for minimum shipping distances).

And that's really all there is to it. Remember I have to limit this to 10 to 15 players because it gets really long term otherwise.

Here are a couple shots of my demo Ladder braced concert guitar.
Thanks for your consideration and please check out my website for more info.



Thank you, John How
http://www.johnhowguitars.com/

[Slack]

John, this is a great idea -- and I know you've done it with success in another forum -- so I'm sure it can be a success here as well.

The only suggestion I would make, since you are looking for 10-15 participants, is not to limit the participants to 1000 posts or more.  For one thing -- there are only 6 members that have 1000 or more posts and I know one of those does not play.  the other limitation is that it will skew your participants to long time steering committee members only... which seems a bit unfair.  You might want to review member stats here:

http://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/index.php?amp;Itemid=114&action=stats

Cheers and thanks for the very interesting idea!

[Slack]

Actually, I'd be willing to email you a more detailed stat list or help in any other way. Or sort your own list by post here:

http://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/index.php?amp;Itemid=114&action=mlist;sort=posts;start=0

[Slack]

One question comes to mind.  We have a strong weenie contingent outside the continental 48 - many active members in Canada and the UK.  Can these folks participate and if so, how does that work?

[John How]

OK I see that, should have looked a little more before making the rules huh. Well, I can change the rules too so.....
Let us just say, Participants should have been a member since before the start of 2007 and have made at least 50 posts to the forum.
I will edit the above post to reflect this.

I am willing to let the guitar go out of the US but I think I will wait for a while and see how this goes first. So stay tuned and hopefully we can get this thing to Canada or maybe across the pond as well.

[markm]

Hey John

I will roadtest one of your guitars.  Actually I already have.  I met you at the Healdbsburg festival.  I love your guitars AND I am close. I am very familiar with ladder braced guitars. I currently have a KG-14.  I don't know if I have 50 posts but I have been around WC for a long time.

Let me know.

Mark
http://www.myspace.com/markmcdonaldblues

[SteveMcBill]

Hey John

If the guitar does make it across the 'pond' to the UK I would love to give it a road test. Would be very interested to see how it differed from my Dindsdales (2 x 00, parlour, and jazz cut-away) and to determine how the ladder-bracing affected the overall sound palette.

Cheers

Steve   

[Blue in VT]

John,

I would love to give one of your guitars a try.  I'm actually shopping for a ladder braced guitar for playing blues and rags.  I have the "modern" tone captured with a Larrivee and had a second but sold it to help fund my ladder braced quest.  I'm not the most frequent poster but have been around for awhile...Most of the folks around here know WAY more than me so I spend alot of time reading and not writting.   I would be glad to pay for shipping if it is kept at a reasonable rate.  I do have the ability to record as well...nothing fancy but enough to post some opinions and sound clips.

This sounds like a fun little experiement....I look fwd to seeing what you decide.

Cheers,
Blue

[John How]

Thanks for signing up guys, hopefully we'll get a few more around the country to shorten up the shipping distances. I'll let this run for a while to see what happens and then get started.

[GhostRider]

John:

Count me in, I'd love to give yours a try

And add Canadian content.

Alex

[eagle rockin daddy]

Hey,

I live in Vermont too, Blue and I could share it and save shipping costs.  I would love to try it,

Mike

[Dave in Tejas]

John,
I would love to try out your blues box, but not to give a testimony, but to feel around inside and steal your secrets<g>. But I don't qualify for the trip, so I won't.
Great idea, if yours works out, maybe I'll try it with one of mine.

[chipmonk doug]

I'd love to try it but living on the road in an RV makes the getting it to me difficult.  Maybe after you get it set up I could be a link between two people and save the shipping.  Who knows.

Just looked up Cool.  I may even be buy that way in the spring on the way to WA.

doug

[John How]

Ok, this is a good start but I'm hoping for a few more so that the distances between players can be reduced a little.
I'll give a little more time before it gets started.
Here is who I have on the list so far.

MarkM in Santa Rosa, California
Steve Mcbill in the UK
Blue in VT
Ghost Rider Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Eagle rockin daddy - VT
Dave in Tejas
Chipmunk Doug in an RV

The guitar in question, is the one pictured above and here are some of it's specs.
Top - Red Spruce
Back and sides Honduras mahogany (the back is flamed)
Neck Hond Mahog
Fingerboard, bridge & headplate are Madagascar Rosewood.
lower bout is 13.5"
Scale is 24.9"
Finish - Hand stained & aged, Nitrocellulose lacquer.
Headstock Slotted with Gotoh, 3 on a plate tuners.
Thanks for looking

[Michael Kuehn]

I don't qualify on number of posts and only been a member since early this year, but I've just been visiting your site in the endless quest for yet another parlor guitar to add to my collection. I'd love to give your guitar a road test, but it looks like you have your group.

Looks like a beautiful guitar -- I look forward to hearing some mp3 files from the lucky Weenies!

Mike
Wisconsin