Bob McCarthy

Alignment and Design of Professional Sound Systems

Gibson Johnny Smith

Sound System: Design & Optimization hits 10,000

By 13 Comments

Thanks for your support

I am grateful to announce that Sound Systems: Design & Optimization has reached the milestone of 10,000 copies sold. Around half of these are the English language editions and the remaining half split equally between the Spanish and Chinese language editions. Work is currently underway to translate the 2nd edition into Chinese. I want to extend my thanks to everyone that has supported this project, either by buying the book, promoting it to others, or helping me write it. Thanks especially to my editor Catharine Steers at Elsevier, all of my peer reviewers and those that contributed photographs and perspective pieces for the book. Thanks also to John and Helen Meyer, Gavin Canaan, Mac Johnson and all the staff there that continue to support my educational efforts through their sponsorship of my seminars and to all who have taken their valuable time to attend them. Thanks also to everyone at LiveDesign, Rational Acoustics, TC Furlong, and others that have helped promote this book.  Also to Ana Lorentz for translation of the Spanish Edition and to Magu for his help in that effort. Finally my highest gratitude goes to my wife Merridith who negotiated the deal and was one of just two people (along with Thorny) to read the whole book during its development.

When this was written I felt that less than 1250 books would be a failure, and anything more than 2500 would be a success. Reaching 10,000 in less than 4 years is far beyond my wildest dreams.

So thanks a million, I mean a ten thousand.

Sincerely,

 6o6

 In case you are interested: Here is what I did with the proceeds from the book: I crossed back over the art/science line to a 1978 Gibson Johnny Smith, and a 2009 Breedlove Bossa Nova.

1978 Gibson Johnny Smith
Breedlove Bossa Nova

Guitars

By Leave a Comment

I started playing guitar at about age 7 or 8. Nobody thought about the fact that I am a lefty. That came up years later. Too late. That’s always been my excuse for why I can’t play – and I am sticking with it.

Ancient history time. So here I am at 16 years old with my wannabe Les Paul custom. When I bought this “les paul” I thought it was the real deal. Instead of a Gibson Les Paul Custom, it was a Custom ( the japanese brand) Les Paul. This was actually a big upgrade AFTER my clear plexiglass guitar.

This is my 1970 Gibson SG Standard. Poor old thing I have had it since 1973 (I was 17). ($235.00) It has been pretty much the only electric solid-body I ever played. Very thin neck the thinnest you will ever find. I replaced the standard tail-piece and tuners – otherwise it would never stay in tune for a second. No need for a whammy bar anyway. The neck is so thin so get vibrato by squeezing your hand.  

This poor old thing needs an extreme makeover. I gutted the electronics ages ago and installed an active preamp inside. That is long gone. Now it is a digital guitar 1or 0. Just an on-off switch.

This is my Taylor G-4. It is a great acoustic guitar. The pickup sound does not thrill me but its pure acoustic tone is warm and full. I did not have a quality acoustic guitar until my wife Merridith said this needed to happen for my 50th b-day. I had played a starter Alvarez with a laminate top. This thing had a warped top that look like a wave pool. Bridge was lifted, neck was bent. Intonation? huh?  I figured it just sounded bad because I can’t play. My wife thought it was the guitar. Now with the Taylor we know the guitar sounds good so it proves I was right.

So here is the real Gibson Les Paul Studio. Got this about 5 years ago. Someday I will find the right thing to do with this guy. I have it set up with George Benson Flat-wound strings right now – 013 or 014 at the top. Strings are stiff as an aircraft cable with 200kg of speakers under it.  Feels like playing a piano (from the inside). Pretty nice for a Benson or Wes kind of sound – and it doesn’t feed back.

If you have bought a copy of my book, you have contributed to this guitar. This was the reward for pushing and pushing to finish the book. This is my SERIOUS guitar, a 1978 vintage Gibson Johnny Smith. This was made during the last years of the Kalamazoo custom shop and is a very pretty piece of work. It is an L-5 body and an ES-400 neck. The pickups are suspended over the body – even the electronics float on the pick guard. The guitar has lots of natural sound – which gives a great tone but is prone to feedback. Someday I will learn how to play well enough to do this guitar justice.

This is the new kid. Just two months old. A Breedlove “Bossa Nova”. This is a nylon string with an internal pickup/mic combination. It has a great acoustic sound but its electronic knock me out. Plug this guy in and its is fat and big. One note never sounded so good. I barely ever played a nylon string before but this has really caught on for me. 

The last one is my Traveler guitar. This is very funny instrument. The tuners are mounted in the middle of the body so that the overall length is reduced. This also protects the tuners so the thing can be stuffed in the overhead of the airplane. Works well enough to take on the road. Hardly ever plug it in but it does the job for drills etc.