Guitar Flangdang 2014

Tuesday, September 23rd, 2014

Hard to believe two years have passed already, but we’ve circled the sun twice and it’s time for another Guitar Flangdang here in Walnut Creek. This is the ninth time we’ve hosted a get together for builders and fans of fine handmade guitars and as always it was a blast.

Here’s a sample of kind of instrument that was shared at the event, this is a Tony Yamamoto Talus model in Millennium redwood and maple:

We had a new and improved Flangdang Video Booth at this event. I rigged my Panasonic Lumix GH4 with the Lumix 20mm lens, connected to a large monitor using the HDMI out of the camera so people could see themselves, and used a WIFI connection and the Lumix Image App to connect to an iPad for remote camera control. For audio I used the Rode NT4 stereo mic straight into the camera and got excellent results, until the guys turned on the lights downstairs to play table tennis. Those fluorescents generate a nasty buzz in the studio just above the garage and that afflicted two of the videos we shot.

You can see all the clips at this playlist on the Homebrewed Music YouTube channel.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 23rd, 2014 at 9:32 am and is filed under Guitar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.


One Response to ' Guitar Flangdang 2014 '

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  1. Vincent said in post # 1,

    on December 11th, 2014 at 3:57 am

    what a nice guitar, a real beauty!

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About the Blog

    Howdy, my name is Fran Guidry and this is my Homebrewed Music blog.

    I play Hawaiian slack key guitar and recorded my solo acoustic CD at home. Most of the recording information I find on the internet seems focused on bands, drums, multitracking, and so on but my main focus is recording solo acoustic guitar. Lately I’ve been enjoying video recording along with audio, so that shows up in the blog as well.

    I’m also a guitar nut. I love big ones and little ones, handmades and factory guitars, cheap ones and expensive ones. So I’ll be sharing the fun of exploring guitars as well, along with the challenges of amplifying acoustic guitars for live performance.

    Welcome!

Philosophy

    My recording philosophy is pragmatic, skeptical, not super critical. After all, the performance is by far the most important component of a track, and every aspect of any recording is a matter of taste.

    But I do like to know “about stuff.” Back in hifi days I learned about double blind testing. I learned that we humans can easily hear differences that don’t really exist. The more I’ve learned about our human auditory system, the more I’m skeptical of what people say they hear, especially if they claim that a particular microphone or preamp or cable has some magical property.

    I’ve only been recording since 2001, and when I started I found the usual places on the internet. I sought advice and accepted it, thought I would improve my recordings by using more expensive equipment. It didn’t work.

    Two things that did seem to lead to better recordings were experience and room treatment. Getting an appealing sound is the combination of many small details, and learning those details only comes from experience. Amd the sound of the recording space is obviously a big factor.

    I’ve only recorded seriously using digital technology, but I remember trying to record rehearsals and gigs back in analog days. I don’t have any nostalgia for analog recording and playback systems at all. I think even low end digital systems can capture marvelous recordings. So when I look at gear, I look for good specs: low noise, broad flat frequency response, wide dynamic range, low distortion. I’m not interested in colorful components, mics and preamps with a sound, I want the sound to be the sound of my guitar.

    But the last word is that I’m just learning and I hope you find something useful in my posts.