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Howdy Toobusi,

  Sorry you haven't had a lot of "strikes" on this post so far.  My God-daughter's Hubby (would that be God-Son-in-Law?) plays a strat, and bought a "loaded" pick-guard from Stewart MacDonald that seemed to work out fine.  IMO though, if you are looking for a different sound, you might consider just reworking the one you got by installing different pickups.  Dan's showed up in the customary S S S configuration, and he changed the middle to a Seymour Duncan.  Sounds pretty good, but I think that they tend to load the replacements with "average" pickups anyway to keep the cost down.  It is a cost effective way to go from a two to three configuration without going broke though.

  Have no experience with Dragonfire though, so do your research and Good Luck.

Take Care;
Doug

Hi Joeninho,

  Sorry I don't have a Marshall at my disposal at the moment, but it all boils down to a matter of taste anyway.  My Behringer will emulate a Marshall and I try to keep things fairly "dry" for the most part with just a hint of reverb to get a little more "presence".
I'd give the gains about a 3, and leave the treble around 2, as well as the bass. Granted my guitar is a bit weak in the bass range being fairly shallow bodied.  Master volume controls how much you want to rattle the neighbor's windows so use your own discretion on that one, but a 1 or 2 on reverb will give the sense of a larger room with some echo to fill out the sound.

  Lots of reverb will get you that "surf" sound and the rest is an experimental thing.  There is another post around here that had a fairly good guide to amp settings that I will try to find for you and link you to.  Well so much for that notion... failed to bookmark it.
But I think it was in the accessories and effects section?  Like two catagories above this one in the index.  Sorry I'm not more helpful.... been a long day.

Take Care;
Doug

Hello George, Welcome Aboard!

Only 58 huh? It is never, never, never......NEVER too late to pick up a musical instrument.  Sadly now you are "hooked" and if you are like many of us, they'll have to pry our cold dead fingers off the thing.  I'm seriously thinking about putting in my will that my ashes be dumped into the body of my guitar and placed in it's case, buried together..... would save a ton on funeral expense and don't have to dig as big a hole! 

Take Care;
Doug

Sorry Matt,

  I tried to get to the tune you inquired about, and there seems to be something amiss with the link you provided.... gives an error about an invalid video pointer or somesuch.  You might check it out and make any corrections, and then folks can try to assist you better.  At this point I see about 21 folks have viewed your question but no responses, so I'm assuming that the same situation is effecting all of us.

Thanks and Take Care;
Doug

Have a good one Russell!

  Just hope I'm still "Pickin' & A-grinnin' or A-KICKIN' for that matter when I catch up with ya!

Take Care;
Doug

Greetings Sandman77,

  On finishes I'm with you, for pretty much the same reasons as you.  Almost everything these days is spray applied, and flattening agents are mixed into the finish to get that semi-gloss result (usually something like Oystershell).  Nobody in production wants to spend the hours it takes to do a proper hand rubbed finish with shellac or nitrocellulose, so your finish will mostly be sitting on the surface of the wood and not have penetrated too deeply into the pores of the wood.  Hand built high-line guitars might be treated to that very special treatment..... but you will have to pay the ferryman to get it.

  A gloss finish will get scratches in it which generally can be polished out, satin finishes that get polished can be "scratched" with something like 4/0 steel wool to reduce the shine but eventually you are going to wear through whatever there is that is on the wood and be forced to refinish.  Blending a shiny finish is a whole lot easier than blending a satin as you don't have the option of wet sanding and buffing it in. 

  As to sound....?  Yes and yes!  The trick is to get enough finish on the wood to protect it and seal without building up enough of a film thickness to dampen the resonance of the wood itself.  Traditionally nitrocellulose was used because it penetrated well and along with shellac is fairly stiff when dry,  urethanes and acrylics stay pretty flexible and rubbery for a real long time and tend to dampen the wood's ability to vibrate (mostly in the higher frequencies).

  Hope that helps.

Take Care;
Doug

Hey Sandman77, and Welcome to Chordie!

  Seen that you have been a member awhile, just not particularly vocal, but it is nice to see you posting.  Now on to your question....

  Tone woods are like people, different and different in subtle ways.  For the most part I look for uniform density and fairly tight grain when choosing tone woods for Acoustic instruments..... species is not as important to the sound as one would think.  Spruce has been a regular "best" in Lutherie almost since Stradavari carved his first viola, probably because it has a nice resonance throughout the range of tones that strings impart on it.  Cedar is OK and very similar to spruce even though it is classified as a "soft" wood.  Cedar guitars that I have run into seem to be a little soft in sound also as opposed to the "brighter" sound of Spruce.  But I would think that carefully chosen wood could be difficult to discern.

  In my opinion, the move off of Spruce has been a result more of the scarcity of good wood stocks domestically (most having been cut off and slow growing species anyway).  We are seeing some very good Spruce coming out of Alaska lately, and a lot more Cedar, with some of the "exotics" as tone woods.  Composites are up and coming into their own as well, to which I have nothing but good things to say about.  It has been difficult to find suitable preferred woods over the past few years, and I fear that it will be a long time before there will be a plentiful supply available for harvest.... so more plentiful woods will be experimented with although there are a lot more rejected than actually used.  Only the best get to be made into "fine" instruments, and the rest into furniture.... or shingles.

  Just a matter of personal preference I suppose... if it has the sound you like, it's good!

Take Care;
Doug

Alternate or "Atkins" style Hybrid for the most part, but I rarely find myself with a pick in hand anyway.... that's why the Lord made Fingernails!

  Guess for me that answer would have to be any and all of the above.... the more tools in the kit, the easier the job gets done.  Learn everything you can, and when the time comes it will all fall into place as to what you need to do almost without thinking.
Russsell's got a couple years on me.... but we tend to agree on most things.  Something about experience revealing basic truths, another one of those universal constants.

Take Care;
Doug

Hi Mekidsmom,

  Noticed your post about Nylon strings and have a thought to share.  I also have a "classical" guitar in the arsenal, and would get about three months on a set of strings (when I was playing it regularly) at about three hours a day.  You didn't say if you are using a pick though, and some picks are tougher than the strings and can wear them out early.  Always using fingers myself, fraying was never a problem.  As to your high E going out of tune...  is it possible that the knot at the bridge is slipping?  Getting the unwound strings to hold firmly at the bridge can be a problem on some instruments, and the same holds true up at the tuners.  I found it helpful to add another twist to the knot on the G B E strings after I had some slippage troubles.  Once again there is a good tutorial on the Taylor website and their method seems to work well for me the last couple of times I restrung.

  Don't play the old thing as much anymore, but do really like the mellow tone for some tunes, it spends most of it's life hanging on the wall of the music room in a gig-bag waiting it's turn.  Now I'm feeling guilty and simply MUST give it a little attention.

Take Care;
Doug

Hey Wayne,

  You done good there!  Really can't beat the audio capture capabilities of a Shur Mic.  Glad you took that foray into the recording wilderness, and looking forward to more from ya.

Keep on &
Take Care;
Doug

Hello Micky,

  Good question and I'm sure that there are lots of options about short term storage, but really it should depend more about where on the planet you are.  Wood generally doesn't like radical changes in temperature or humidity.  The more constant and stable the environment is the better your instrument will fare in the long run.  50% humidity and constant temperature (or slow changes) will keep things from expanding or contracting and tearing the joints apart or splitting panels.

  In my part of the world, humidity is not a big issue, but temperature is, so into a well insulated case they go and when it's time to make music.... open case for about 20 minutes and a full hour on a stand then tune and it's "showtime"!  Usually only have to give all that time if they have been transported in the boot for a time in transit.  If it's freezing, or really hot.... they get the rear seat space and passengers get the boot! LOL

Take Care;
Doug

Welcome to Chordie Jollywally!

  Please heed Russell's comment about copyrighted material.... similar sites to Chordie have been accosted by the MPA for violating conventions.  One that comes to mind is OLGA.net  which I think is down for the count as we write this.

  You  will find that everyone here on Chordie are committed to encouraging scholarship of music, promoting the artists, and assisting the new generation of aspiring composers and performers in achieving their personal goals.  All are welcome here, and there are a few guidelines that we have to adhere to in order to protect this valuable asset, and the community of which it is made.

  In each of the forum areas, you will see at the top of the section bits of informational postings labeled "sticky".  Those postings are presented by the moderators and always remain at the head of the topic listings to serve as general guidelines as to the content of each respective section.  If you have questions or comments to present to the membership, you will get the best and quickest response by choosing the section that best reflects the area of your topic.  Not that you might not be noticed elsewhere, it is just that many of us have expertise in some areas and less to contribute in others, and may not notice your query and get a response to you in a timely manner.

  Once again Welcome aboard, visit often, and don't be shy about sharing your thoughts with us.  We all have common interests, and Chordie is making the world a smaller, closer knit society of humanity, one note at a time!

Take Care;
Doug