Heavy bridges and awesome sustain are the enemy of resonance. They directly defeat the purpose of the resonator, by immobilizing the bridge, making it unlikely to significantly affect the electric sound. Good sustain only happens because string vibration energy is reflected off of an almost immobile bridge and nut or fret. (If the bridge can't move much, little energy is transferred through it to the body, and most of the vibration energy is reflect off of it, right back into the string.) Resonance is the enemy of sustain. Any frequencies that are easily transmitted into the neck wood or the body wood quickly disappear from the electric sound. That's how you get dead spots on the neck. If your guitar actually resonates much at a particlar frequency, and you play a note with a fundamental close to that frequency, the energy at that frequency will be quickly absorbed into the wood, and lost from the electric sound. The note won't sustain as long (because the fundamental is usually the part that lasts longest), and the sound will be thinner. And if your guitar has two resonances an octave apart, it will be worse, because it will swallow the first two partials of that note and sound worse. By and large, a more resonant body will make your low frequencies disappear faster from the electric sound. (Low frequencies are easier to transmit into the wood than high ones, which tend to bounce right off bridge and nuts and even frets. It takes less mass and rigidity to reflect high frequencies back into the string, for the same reason bass frequencies tend to go through walls more than midrange and high frequencies.) That disappearance of bass frequencies may make the sound brighter, because it's losing bass. If that's the effect you want, it's probably better just to have a light body made of cheap, light wood, not a hollow body with particular weird resonances. That will decrease your low frequency sustain, typically in a more even way. But of course, people selling $3,000 guitars don't want you to actually understand what resonance is, and why you probably don't want it, much less that even if you do want it, a cheap light wood body probably sounds better.
Yeah. I was wondering the same thing. I think the whole thing is kinda gimmicky. I didnt hear much of a difference. And the resonance can be changed anyways by closing or opening the vents. But you're right. Its going to have a big effect on it with your belly smashed up against it.
That "resonator" feature is...well...just goofy. No difference in sound and, as for the "venting", unless the cavity is air-tight(and I'm sure it is not), not sure what use those vents actually are...other than goofy.
I've watched a couple of Jasper's videos and I'm VERY skeptical. They talk about resonance as if they don't understand resonance, or think you don't (which may be true). They say that a measure of how good an electric guitar sounds is how good it sounds uplugged. That's generally not true. Any sounds you hear acoustically are energy being lost from the strings, never to return, decreasing your sustain. (Once vibrations get into the body, they die rapidly because bending wood takes work and turns vibrations into heat due to internal friction in the wood.) That's why solid-body electric guitars are designed NOT to be very resonant, apparently including their guitars despite the rear cavity & resonator. The body is fairly heavy and rigid, with beams and a massive sustain block to keep the bridge from moving much, so that not much string energy is transmitted via the bridge. They talk about adjusting the carbon fiber plate on the back as a way of tuning the cavity volume and thus its resonant frequency. That seems pretty weird because the important resonances for an electric guitar are mainly the body-and-neck bending modes, not a resonant air cavity like a woodwind instrument. The body-and-neck bending modes determine which vibrations can be transmitted more easily into the wood at the bridge (a tiny bit) or at the fret or nut (rather more). Tuning the flexing mode of the resonator and the air cavity is not likely to accomplish much to alter the electric sound. They say they're hesitant to put up a demo video of the effects of adjusting the resonator because it may not come across on RUclips. That' probably because it does not significantly affect the electric sound.
Yeah, even if it's a cool idea in concept I'm not about it. Also what happens when the screw for the back going to the bridge strips out from constantly adjusting it or the carbon fiber wears out and cracks from that same constand adjusting.
Even though this probably wouldn’t be my cup of tea, I always love new ideas. Sometimes you have to stumble through a couple odd ideas before you hit genius. Great video Darrell.
A magnetic pickup only responds to changes in the magnetic field which occurs when the metal strings are vibrating over the pickups, I don’t see how changing the volume of that back cavity changes anything it isn’t an element that influences the pickups up front.
@@bluwngyes exactly, if they had a piezo mic then the tone could change with the back adjustment, but I'm a bit confused what this does on standard magnetic pickups.
There MIGHT be a small change in sound but by the time you put it through some effects and put it in a mix, it will %1000 no longer matter, if it ever even did in the first place. buy an equalizer or better yet, use your tone knob
The resonance is nice but I don't hear that much difference as it is. But always a pleasure to see awesome innovative luthery brought to test ! Still love this format over the years! Cheers Darrell 👍🏻😃
You shouldn’t magnet pickups only respond to changes in the magnetic field and the only thing doing that are the vibrating metal springs. The back cavity has zero influence on the pickups also the body is essentially a solid body and the back cavity does nothing to the top of the guitar.
@@bluwng That’s not completely true. How exactly a string vibrates gives it its tonal characteristics As an example, the tone of a string is different if you pick next to the bridge compared to picking next to the fingerboard. This is because doing so causes a difference in how the string wiggles. Different bodies can have same effect. Some of the string’s energy is transferred to the body making it vibrate. The vibrations in the body will cancel some overtone frequencies in the string and amplify others changing how it wiggles and thus changing what the pickups hear. But let’s be clear about this: the effect is subtle and I’m not sure that the small change in the cavity size on these guitars can really do much. I couldn’t hear anything significant. That said, the assertion that bodies have zero effect on tone is simply not true.
@@FossilFishy unfortunately this is not true... It has been proven multiple times that in electric guitars, the only thing that matters is the strings and the pickup. Look up jim lil's videos
@@FossilFishy physics goes a long way. Your first statement on vibration isn’t anything different from what I said and doesn’t apply as far as what energy goes to the body it is not applicable and negligible. We must base things on what we think but actual physical fact. The string vibration that influences the pickup is Transverse what goes into the body is longitudinal and has no influence on the strings transverse movement.
@@bluwng Fossil Fishy is right that neck and body vibrations (mostly due to the flexibility of the neck) can affect the electric sound, a little bit, and that's why the solid body electric guitar was invented, to minimize that effect. The effect is generally negative, in that any vibrations that get into the body (or neck) are lost from the string, never to return, so resonant frequencies fade faster than other frequencies. (Most guitarists seem to think that resonances make the guitar louder right off the bat, and it does acoustically, but not electrically... in the electric sound you only hear certain mostly low frequencies fading faster than they ought to.) That said, I don't think the resonators on these guitars do much. The main resonances that might matter a little to the electric sound are about flexing of the neck and body, and it looks like these guitars are effectively solid bodies, with enough rigidity and mass that the cavity in the back is probably irrelevant.
Yeah. An electric guitar sound is essentially a metal string vibrating across a magnetic pickup. The guitar materials matter somewhere between not at all and almost not at all. If you want to highlight your guitar's materials, resonance, or acoustics, you need a mic, acoustic, or piezo type pickup. So few manufacturers seem to understand this.
@@GenesisMuseum , Jasper has a model called the Elmore, that may be very close to what you are describing. There are reviews available on youtube from other content creators if you are interested.
I think an unamplified sound clip would be a better analysis. The fist thing I listen for with electric guitars is how they sound WITHOUT amplification.
I’m not a player just a listener and they both sounded awesome to my old ears. It does help when the someone playing knows what they are doing. I’m reading comments that the price is around the $3000.00 mark which would eliminate them from most people’s buying option.👍👍🇨🇦
While I always appreciate your exploration of the unusual and the different in this case I think this resonator system is a bit of a gimmick. Especially as the effects seem to be negligible particularly when considering that these guitars are $1000 more than a brand new Gibson Les Paul Standard. I'll pass.
I like the innovation but I didn't notice any really significant difference with the resonator adjustments. To me, this guitar has a harsh sound - it's lacking warmth and overly bright. not on my shopping list. Thanks Darrell for the great demo!
Seems like an expensive gimmick to me. Couldn’t tell much of a difference at all with the changes to the chamber tension. Electric and acoustic guitars are fundamentally different. Acoustics produce sound my directly amplifying the strings frequency via sound waves in a sound chamber while electrics just produce a variable voltage that’s converted to sound in an amplifier by exciting a magnetic field over the pickup with metal strings. Unless some aspect of the guitars fundamentally change the frequency of how the strings vibrate and retain energy between the nut and the bridge, you won’t see much of a change to tone if you’re using the exact same pickups. The guitar might “feel” different in the way it resonates against your body and might sustain longer (because energy is conserved) but it does little to change tone, which is why I believe the tonewood debate is largely snake-oil designed to rob you of money.
I don't understand the logic of this design. It seems like the enormous heavy sustain block is going to greatly reduce the effect of the resonator... immobilizing the bridge reduces energy transfer from the strings to body via the bridge. (If the bridge can't move at all, all the string vibration energy hitting bounces off, back into the string, giving you sustain. If it can't move much, almost all the energy reflects off and stays in the string. That's how any guitar gets sustain... most of the energy is reflected right back into the string at the bridge and the nut or fret.) I was expecting that the adjustment would increase or decrease coupling between the bridge and the resonator, while simultaneously doing the opposite to the firmness of the connection of the bridge to the mass/rigidity of the guitar body. (That is, it would let the bridge vibrate the resonator at one extreme or lock it down to the body & sustain block at the other.) Even the mass of the bridge itself (with no sustain block) will limit the amount of energy transmitted via the bridge, which is why acoustic guitars do not have heavy metal bridges.
Not a big difference between loosened and tightened, but the elements and specs makes this guitar a nice instrument for it's own and it's always nice to see innovative ideas.
The whole "resonator" idea is a bit pointless as we do not hear that much of it, same way the "vents"are pretty pointless....I mean how much air is moved when tightened? AND it vents through the re-string holes too....Seems plenty of ventilation for that tiny bit of air....
Man, you bring some of the coolest designs to light. I am curious though if it is sturdy enough for the road. The overall cost of these is quite surprising. I am a simple guy when it comes down to guitar. You are making a career of it. I don't think I personally need this guitar, that's just me. I think real world applications would tell the bigger story. Take that ax on the road and see how it performs after 10 gigs. I appreciate what you do man. It's really involved and informative. Thanks.
I think position 4 on the HSS is one of the nicest clean tones I have heard. The p-90 sounded like a p-90. The build looks fantastic and I’m sure it was a pleasure to play. As for the resonator feature i don’t really see how that would make any difference to tone and it didn’t. Particularly with that massive metal block even if the body vibrations were strong enough to effect the frequency of the strings on the rebound that block would stop them dead. It’s a cool idea and maybe placing a piezo on the carbon fiber with a preamp and a blend would actually make it “resonate” but it’s for people who will swear that they hear a difference based on how much it cost them.
Fair play to them for trying something new - but personally I couldn't tell the difference. Also I'm sure once you've set it once you'll never be bothered to change it.
I'm a little unclear how the resonator affects the sound going into the amp...? I have a better idea. I'll take that nice chunky mother of a bridge, just keep all the wood intact and forget the resonator element altogether.
That's awesome 😎 I can see tremolo possibilities with that massive bridge.....a tremolo within that honking chunk of bridge... maybe a piezo pickup in the cavity of the resonator... I like these.... guitar 😎
That's what I was thinking, a good quality Piezo to work with the resonator. That would be amazing, but I'm guessing one of us here will try it out just because we can!
I don't understand this principle on an electric guitar. An electric guitar responds to the generator effect of a wire in a magnetic field. Sure the wood density and the contact points (nut, bridge) are important for sustain. The only effect this will have is the overall resonance which will affect sustain. But that is all. The pickups, the strings and the electronics will have far more impact on the overall tone than the amount of air passing through the body. Now if it was an acoustic guitar, sure. But for an electric guitar, not so much.
I really don't like the esthetics in these, particularly the white one. As for the "resonant differences" I think they are pretty subtle, and could easily be achieved with the signal chain instead if this method.
Interesting idea, but I think it may be better suited for acoustic guitars. Imagine being able to change the pitch, or tonality of an acoustic instrument. Guitar sounds a little dead? Tighten up and hear it ring like a vintage Martin.
Love those guitars !! Made by a phenomenal luthier and friend of mine glad you got a chance to review them. Tony’s new take on guitar design is one of a kind
new innovations in electric guitar are always welcome! like the guitar with those floating pickups that you hold in your hand. not every idea is going to be perfect. but we have to keep evolving the instrument.
I'd take a bender from China before buying that. Sounding better comes from daily practice, not gimmicks. Who wanna place a bet that comments get turned off from all the negative feedback here? I'm good for whatever.
Have you seen the Riversong acoustics? That's the kind of thing I though this was going to be. It's basically an acoustic guitar with a through neck and a floating top. The top doesn't have to be strong enough to resist the string tension in the usual way, so it can be lighter.
Excellent sounding guitars (heard through a good quality Bluetooth speaker). With that said, having the ability to tighten the resonator, in order to achieve different tones, seems to be a gimmick.
Man, I heard a world of difference between the two resonator settings! Might just be how I'm listening, totally raw on my phone's speakers, but it jumped right out to me. I come from a bit of a unique musical background, though...I'm actually a trumpet player, so tone for me is a whole different entity. Either way, cool stuff!
Loosened seemed to ring out a little more, but it’s subtle. As some commenters are saying, maybe have an acoustic sensor, or even a microphone in the body to better pick up the difference since it’s got that grill, but there’s no pickup for it.
There's definitely a difference in the tight vs loose tone, subtle but it's there. Parker put piezos in their bridge in the 90's alongside magnetic pickups, I'm surprised there's not something like that here, if you're going for new sounds, why not more. At least they're nice guitars to begin with. I think a test against a solidbody would have been good to hear, since that would be the most unique difference it brings to the table, moreso that the resonator adjustment.
Did you try the resonator with the strings through the back plate. It feels like that would have a different (possibly more dramatic) effect on the sound than simply running the strings through the bridge
I think those holes are for feeding strings through without having to remove cover but they don't actually lock into that cover, holes look too oversize to actually hold the strings like ferrules on say a string through Tele.
dunxy is right; the holes in the pick-shaped backplate are oversized to allow the string balls to pass through. At 3:30 you can see the colored D'Addario ball ends nestled in the bridge block, so, this was demo'ed as 'string through'.
Interesting concept but i would like to see it on an acoustic guitar. That could make a big difference. Electric guitars doesn't really pickup the sound that way... But gotta say both guitars looks and sounds amazing even without that carbonfiber thing.
Its a cool shop. I jam with my bass alongside a friend of mine that owns two different style Jasper guitars and they work great for blues music. These guys are top shelf. Not only do they build awesome guitars, they also provide us with the best luthier services in the Green Bay area.
I'd like to see that tension test done acoustically,that may well have an effect.Electrically I couldn't hear a difference.....................................
Nice to see unique Jasper designs in the days of so many traditional shapes. They both look good sound good, though I'm partial to the Olam. The loosened back plate on the Jasper had a bit more sustain and airiness I felt, I'd leave it loose for sure.
Gimmick lol. And not a good one. But, they do sound great. Looks wise, no thank you. But they do sound great. Whoever’s making these will be working at a regular job before too long. This ain’t gonna sell, unless they’re $500 or less. Wow I just looked at the prices. These guys are literally insane. $3000 to $4000? Bawhahahahaha.
You had a shitload of reverb set on your amp, and any resonance in the guitar will only make a minute difference. (also; I don't know exactly what they were going for, but I suspect such resonator would have a "sweet-spot" so it may be that which setting sounds best relates more to the actual frequency you tune the guitar to; Such as traditional orchestra which tend to be 425-435 Hz A; Traditional tuning of 440, or more modern music where it tent to be around 450.. but that is just my engineer heart thinking of what the word "resonance" is really about)
Nice sound but way too much money . Want a good sensible rig ? Squier Classic Vibe strat and fender Champion 100. All you need to make music . Under a Grand . Duh 🙄
At $3k a piece? yea nah I am good, look nice though! Also just the design of the "Resonator" chamber is makes no sense and I doubt it would really affect tone. If you want a real resonator guitar just get a resonator guitar.....Also gonna be frank here its really annoying how often you review super high end instruments, where's all the sub $1500 work horses that everyone actually wants/uses?
I do like the look of the vent, but it's already got 6 air hole from the string through design. And I almost bought into the whole resonator thing but it's only useful unplugged. Besides, with out an f hole, the only sound hole IS the tiny vent at the bottom which Isn't the best placement, even for the players ears. Really, the vent/sound hole should be on the left side, somewhere on the waist/top horn (IF the adjustment IS that noticeable). Basically, £3000+ for a gimmick.
Yeah, that back is too gimmicky with *almost no difference. You couldn't have gotten the sa,same, result putting diff block of acoustic foam in there. That bridge i think is really something. Maybe they'll make a model without the "resonator."
Thank you Darell, that was different. Really didn't think much on the back part or carbon fiber, but it’s a new idea tried! That's what it is all about, sorry I don't know if when it's ever possible to tease, but like the guitar, you never know, until you try. Cheers.
Love the overall design of both of these guitars. They are absolutely beautiful. I also always love seeing beautifully machined parts like those. Being a fairly experienced speaker builder though, im not exactly sure of the point of the technology though. Thinking it through using my adjacent knowledge, i dont think itll make enough difference to pay any more for the "technology". Maybe they can use this model as just a waypoint on their way to coming up with something that would make a difference noticable enough to warrant using this amount of modification and added cost. I love to see experimentation. I dont like seeing added "features" with very little benefit. I feel like they pushed form too far out ahead of function because they thought the form just looked so cool. And it really does... but...
Interesting, but VERY expensive, and I didn't hear any difference in the resonator positions. So much for anyone who wants to bash Gibsons as "too expensive"!
They should just make it chambered. I don’t think carbon fiber which is a lot like glass, really “resonates” especially if it’s in contact with the body of the player. The guitar sounds great . This video has me thinking about putting those pickups in one of my guitars.
They both sound incredible! & I love the tech and workmanship on them,but I can not over state how ugly I think they both are! Big non description headstocks are totally lackluster! And don't even get me started on the ugly body shapes. They both look like some punk was trying to send the industry a big middle finger and failed!
4:35 Why woukd we need the vents?? It has got the re-stringing holes....They vent too....And not that much air is moved that quick that we "need" vents for it....
Of course nobody can hear the difference when all the transduction is done by the magnetic pickups. And even if you got a piezo pickup in there wouldn't be much difference because the resonator would be dampened by your own body while playing. Terrible idea just to suck some extra bucks out of you.
I love creativity and uniqueness I bet Kieth Richards would appreciate one if these kind of sounds like my 72 thinline Telecaster Its got nice clean tome be interesting cranked to the gills on a stack. I think we will see much much more from this company, awesome👍👍👍
These are made in Green Bay, WI Close to where I live! I work at another music store in Green Bay as a repair tech, we do business with them occasionally. I was just there a few weeks ago, if you visit their store chances are they will give you a shop tour! The staff is super friendly. They make pretty rad guitars too!
This seems like an extremely complex gimmick with no effect. I could not hear any difference with it loosened or tightened. Seems like a way for them to charge a lot of money, and avoid putting one sheet of plastic on the back to hide the hollowed out chamber of the other-wise heavy body.
Nice looking guitars. I think the screw thing is a bit of gimmick. A tiny tweak of the tone knob would change the tone much more. With the solid center block and braces, it's essentially a solid body guitar. If they did it with a true hollow body, it might be interesting. It would probably do a lot to control how much feedback you get.
The guitar sounds great, but I’ve gotta say, even thru very good headphones, I can’t hear any difference. They are also frankly as ugly as a mud fence. So, not for me, but interesting idea.
This is without a doubt the heaviest duty bridge setup I've ever seen!
Sustain and chime are really awesome on these guitars!
Enjoy :)
Definitely a wide body! A little too wide for me...😲
I absolutely love the sound! I can't even describe the tones I'm hearing but they are full, sharp and lots of depth.
Heavy bridges and awesome sustain are the enemy of resonance. They directly defeat the purpose of the resonator, by immobilizing the bridge, making it unlikely to significantly affect the electric sound.
Good sustain only happens because string vibration energy is reflected off of an almost immobile bridge and nut or fret. (If the bridge can't move much, little energy is transferred through it to the body, and most of the vibration energy is reflect off of it, right back into the string.)
Resonance is the enemy of sustain. Any frequencies that are easily transmitted into the neck wood or the body wood quickly disappear from the electric sound.
That's how you get dead spots on the neck. If your guitar actually resonates much at a particlar frequency, and you play a note with a fundamental close to that frequency, the energy at that frequency will be quickly absorbed into the wood, and lost from the electric sound. The note won't sustain as long (because the fundamental is usually the part that lasts longest), and the sound will be thinner. And if your guitar has two resonances an octave apart, it will be worse, because it will swallow the first two partials of that note and sound worse.
By and large, a more resonant body will make your low frequencies disappear faster from the electric sound. (Low frequencies are easier to transmit into the wood than high ones, which tend to bounce right off bridge and nuts and even frets. It takes less mass and rigidity to reflect high frequencies back into the string, for the same reason bass frequencies tend to go through walls more than midrange and high frequencies.)
That disappearance of bass frequencies may make the sound brighter, because it's losing bass.
If that's the effect you want, it's probably better just to have a light body made of cheap, light wood, not a hollow body with particular weird resonances. That will decrease your low frequency sustain, typically in a more even way.
But of course, people selling $3,000 guitars don't want you to actually understand what resonance is, and why you probably don't want it, much less that even if you do want it, a cheap light wood body probably sounds better.
Sustain like Nigel's guitar. You can go and get a bite and, waaaaahhh, you'd still be hearing that one.
@@lukegoffkat I know you can't describe the tones, but would you perhaps describe them as "full, sharp and lots of depth"?
With the resonator in the back, how does one's body not negate the effect? I have a lot of cushioning in my belly.
I was wondering the same thing
I think just long as your belly is not made up of metal or steel, the effect is negligible… I don’t know
Yeah. I was wondering the same thing. I think the whole thing is kinda gimmicky. I didnt hear much of a difference. And the resonance can be changed anyways by closing or opening the vents. But you're right. Its going to have a big effect on it with your belly smashed up against it.
Get rid of the cushioning!
@@jasoncdebussy even a skinny player would still muffle the resonance.
That "resonator" feature is...well...just goofy. No difference in sound and, as for the "venting", unless the cavity is air-tight(and I'm sure it is not), not sure what use those vents actually are...other than goofy.
The vents would give it more of an acoustic sound.
I've watched a couple of Jasper's videos and I'm VERY skeptical. They talk about resonance as if they don't understand resonance, or think you don't (which may be true).
They say that a measure of how good an electric guitar sounds is how good it sounds uplugged. That's generally not true. Any sounds you hear acoustically are energy being lost from the strings, never to return, decreasing your sustain. (Once vibrations get into the body, they die rapidly because bending wood takes work and turns vibrations into heat due to internal friction in the wood.) That's why solid-body electric guitars are designed NOT to be very resonant, apparently including their guitars despite the rear cavity & resonator. The body is fairly heavy and rigid, with beams and a massive sustain block to keep the bridge from moving much, so that not much string energy is transmitted via the bridge.
They talk about adjusting the carbon fiber plate on the back as a way of tuning the cavity volume and thus its resonant frequency. That seems pretty weird because the important resonances for an electric guitar are mainly the body-and-neck bending modes, not a resonant air cavity like a woodwind instrument. The body-and-neck bending modes determine which vibrations can be transmitted more easily into the wood at the bridge (a tiny bit) or at the fret or nut (rather more). Tuning the flexing mode of the resonator and the air cavity is not likely to accomplish much to alter the electric sound.
They say they're hesitant to put up a demo video of the effects of adjusting the resonator because it may not come across on RUclips. That' probably because it does not significantly affect the electric sound.
Yeah, even if it's a cool idea in concept I'm not about it. Also what happens when the screw for the back going to the bridge strips out from constantly adjusting it or the carbon fiber wears out and cracks from that same constand adjusting.
Even though this probably wouldn’t be my cup of tea, I always love new ideas. Sometimes you have to stumble through a couple odd ideas before you hit genius. Great video Darrell.
Your right, not my cup of tea either but I love the way Darrell brings these new ideas to the channel.Very cool 😎
I thought I’d see Andre here lol
A magnetic pickup only responds to changes in the magnetic field which occurs when the metal strings are vibrating over the pickups, I don’t see how changing the volume of that back cavity changes anything it isn’t an element that influences the pickups up front.
@@bluwngyes exactly, if they had a piezo mic then the tone could change with the back adjustment, but I'm a bit confused what this does on standard magnetic pickups.
@@panmo2110 they are either dishonest and try to market a gimmick or ignorant and wasting energy and money in a technology that isn’t a thing.
There MIGHT be a small change in sound but by the time you put it through some effects and put it in a mix, it will %1000 no longer matter, if it ever even did in the first place. buy an equalizer or better yet, use your tone knob
The resonance is nice but I don't hear that much difference as it is.
But always a pleasure to see awesome innovative luthery brought to test ! Still love this format over the years! Cheers Darrell 👍🏻😃
You shouldn’t magnet pickups only respond to changes in the magnetic field and the only thing doing that are the vibrating metal springs. The back cavity has zero influence on the pickups also the body is essentially a solid body and the back cavity does nothing to the top of the guitar.
@@bluwng That’s not completely true. How exactly a string vibrates gives it its tonal characteristics As an example, the tone of a string is different if you pick next to the bridge compared to picking next to the fingerboard. This is because doing so causes a difference in how the string wiggles.
Different bodies can have same effect. Some of the string’s energy is transferred to the body making it vibrate. The vibrations in the body will cancel some overtone frequencies in the string and amplify others changing how it wiggles and thus changing what the pickups hear.
But let’s be clear about this: the effect is subtle and I’m not sure that the small change in the cavity size on these guitars can really do much. I couldn’t hear anything significant.
That said, the assertion that bodies have zero effect on tone is simply not true.
@@FossilFishy unfortunately this is not true... It has been proven multiple times that in electric guitars, the only thing that matters is the strings and the pickup. Look up jim lil's videos
@@FossilFishy physics goes a long way. Your first statement on vibration isn’t anything different from what I said and doesn’t apply as far as what energy goes to the body it is not applicable and negligible. We must base things on what we think but actual physical fact. The string vibration that influences the pickup is Transverse what goes into the body is longitudinal and has no influence on the strings transverse movement.
@@bluwng Fossil Fishy is right that neck and body vibrations (mostly due to the flexibility of the neck) can affect the electric sound, a little bit, and that's why the solid body electric guitar was invented, to minimize that effect. The effect is generally negative, in that any vibrations that get into the body (or neck) are lost from the string, never to return, so resonant frequencies fade faster than other frequencies. (Most guitarists seem to think that resonances make the guitar louder right off the bat, and it does acoustically, but not electrically... in the electric sound you only hear certain mostly low frequencies fading faster than they ought to.)
That said, I don't think the resonators on these guitars do much. The main resonances that might matter a little to the electric sound are about flexing of the neck and body, and it looks like these guitars are effectively solid bodies, with enough rigidity and mass that the cavity in the back is probably irrelevant.
That P90 with distortion sounds awful! It's ice picky as hell.
Seems like it would be great to have an acoustic sensor inside the resonator to pick up the actual resonance. Bet that could sound awesome!
They have a model called the Elmore that does exactly what you describe, and it sounds better than you can imagine.
Yeah. An electric guitar sound is essentially a metal string vibrating across a magnetic pickup. The guitar materials matter somewhere between not at all and almost not at all. If you want to highlight your guitar's materials, resonance, or acoustics, you need a mic, acoustic, or piezo type pickup. So few manufacturers seem to understand this.
@@GenesisMuseum , Jasper has a model called the Elmore, that may be very close to what you are describing. There are reviews available on youtube from other content creators if you are interested.
I think an unamplified sound clip would be a better analysis. The fist thing I listen for with electric guitars is how they sound WITHOUT amplification.
@@youropionmattersnot Probably right. Which is why an acoustic device on an electric-only guitar is misplaced.
I’m not a player just a listener and they both sounded awesome to my old ears. It does help when the someone playing knows what they are doing. I’m reading comments that the price is around the $3000.00 mark which would eliminate them from most people’s buying option.👍👍🇨🇦
While I always appreciate your exploration of the unusual and the different in this case I think this resonator system is a bit of a gimmick. Especially as the effects seem to be negligible particularly when considering that these guitars are $1000 more than a brand new Gibson Les Paul Standard. I'll pass.
Yep
OMG, $3K That's way out of my price range for sure, but I sure love the sound of this guitar.
I like the innovation but I didn't notice any really significant difference with the resonator adjustments. To me, this guitar has a harsh sound - it's lacking warmth and overly bright. not on my shopping list. Thanks Darrell for the great demo!
Yep
Seems like an expensive gimmick to me. Couldn’t tell much of a difference at all with the changes to the chamber tension. Electric and acoustic guitars are fundamentally different. Acoustics produce sound my directly amplifying the strings frequency via sound waves in a sound chamber while electrics just produce a variable voltage that’s converted to sound in an amplifier by exciting a magnetic field over the pickup with metal strings. Unless some aspect of the guitars fundamentally change the frequency of how the strings vibrate and retain energy between the nut and the bridge, you won’t see much of a change to tone if you’re using the exact same pickups. The guitar might “feel” different in the way it resonates against your body and might sustain longer (because energy is conserved) but it does little to change tone, which is why I believe the tonewood debate is largely snake-oil designed to rob you of money.
I don't understand the logic of this design. It seems like the enormous heavy sustain block is going to greatly reduce the effect of the resonator... immobilizing the bridge reduces energy transfer from the strings to body via the bridge. (If the bridge can't move at all, all the string vibration energy hitting bounces off, back into the string, giving you sustain. If it can't move much, almost all the energy reflects off and stays in the string. That's how any guitar gets sustain... most of the energy is reflected right back into the string at the bridge and the nut or fret.)
I was expecting that the adjustment would increase or decrease coupling between the bridge and the resonator, while simultaneously doing the opposite to the firmness of the connection of the bridge to the mass/rigidity of the guitar body. (That is, it would let the bridge vibrate the resonator at one extreme or lock it down to the body & sustain block at the other.)
Even the mass of the bridge itself (with no sustain block) will limit the amount of energy transmitted via the bridge, which is why acoustic guitars do not have heavy metal bridges.
Do agree with you!
Wow, that is unbelievably chimy. Not sure “Uncomfortably Numb” would be improved with this amount of resonance.
The high mids and the highs really have room to breath on the white one.
Not a big difference between loosened and tightened, but the elements and specs makes this guitar a nice instrument for it's own and it's always nice to see innovative ideas.
Yeah the difference between the two when strummed was about the same as the difference when you pick half an inch closer to the bridge
The whole "resonator" idea is a bit pointless as we do not hear that much of it, same way the "vents"are pretty pointless....I mean how much air is moved when tightened? AND it vents through the re-string holes too....Seems plenty of ventilation for that tiny bit of air....
Man, you bring some of the coolest designs to light. I am curious though if it is sturdy enough for the road. The overall cost of these is quite surprising. I am a simple guy when it comes down to guitar. You are making a career of it. I don't think I personally need this guitar, that's just me. I think real world applications would tell the bigger story. Take that ax on the road and see how it performs after 10 gigs. I appreciate what you do man. It's really involved and informative. Thanks.
I think position 4 on the HSS is one of the nicest clean tones I have heard. The p-90 sounded like a p-90. The build looks fantastic and I’m sure it was a pleasure to play.
As for the resonator feature i don’t really see how that would make any difference to tone and it didn’t. Particularly with that massive metal block even if the body vibrations were strong enough to effect the frequency of the strings on the rebound that block would stop them dead. It’s a cool idea and maybe placing a piezo on the carbon fiber with a preamp and a blend would actually make it “resonate” but it’s for people who will swear that they hear a difference based on how much it cost them.
Fair play to them for trying something new - but personally I couldn't tell the difference. Also I'm sure once you've set it once you'll never be bothered to change it.
I'm a little unclear how the resonator affects the sound going into the amp...? I have a better idea. I'll take that nice chunky mother of a bridge, just keep all the wood intact and forget the resonator element altogether.
Very expensive, over $3k, for such an ugly guitar. They may be great, but they look like First Act Walmart guitars.
Guitar flatearthers will not hear a difference. Only pickups shape the sound 😱🤦♂️
That's awesome 😎 I can see tremolo possibilities with that massive bridge.....a tremolo within that honking chunk of bridge... maybe a piezo pickup in the cavity of the resonator... I like these.... guitar 😎
That's what I was thinking, a good quality Piezo to work with the resonator. That would be amazing, but I'm guessing one of us here will try it out just because we can!
Yes, the trem design is on my bench. That will be out later this year. And for the acoustic guitar people, the 1841 model is for you.
I don't hear a difference tbh
I don't understand this principle on an electric guitar. An electric guitar responds to the generator effect of a wire in a magnetic field. Sure the wood density and the contact points (nut, bridge) are important for sustain. The only effect this will have is the overall resonance which will affect sustain. But that is all. The pickups, the strings and the electronics will have far more impact on the overall tone than the amount of air passing through the body. Now if it was an acoustic guitar, sure. But for an electric guitar, not so much.
I would have to play one to get excited about it. The proof is in the pudding. I know the chances of me getting my hands on one is slim to none.
I really don't like the esthetics in these, particularly the white one. As for the "resonant differences" I think they are pretty subtle, and could easily be achieved with the signal chain instead if this method.
Interesting idea, but I think it may be better suited for acoustic guitars. Imagine being able to change the pitch, or tonality of an acoustic instrument. Guitar sounds a little dead? Tighten up and hear it ring like a vintage Martin.
$3K
lol
nahhhh
nice try, but I can not hear enough difference, at least not $3k worth.
Very Cool, Thankyou. Stunning Guitars and Playing. Cheers
They sound great, and the sustain is amazing, but I can't tell the difference between loose and tight.
Sounds good, but I don’t think that resonator adjustment is doing anything.
Love those guitars !! Made by a phenomenal luthier and friend of mine glad you got a chance to review them. Tony’s new take on guitar design is one of a kind
new innovations in electric guitar are always welcome! like the guitar with those floating pickups that you hold in your hand. not every idea is going to be perfect. but we have to keep evolving the instrument.
Really good family of people at Jasper Guitars. They're all about the player. I highly suggest checking them out further!!
Thanks for the introduction of these guitars. Not my cup of tea, but I'm shure they have a place in modern music.. thanks.
That p90 is outfreakinrageous..
I'd take a bender from China before buying that. Sounding better comes from daily practice, not gimmicks. Who wanna place a bet that comments get turned off from all the negative feedback here? I'm good for whatever.
Exactly.
They sound fantastic 👌🏾
It's innovations like this that make me want to study to be a luthier.
This is an interesting concept for an acoustic guitar where it would make a big difference.
Have you seen the Riversong acoustics? That's the kind of thing I though this was going to be. It's basically an acoustic guitar with a through neck and a floating top. The top doesn't have to be strong enough to resist the string tension in the usual way, so it can be lighter.
I have played one at their shop and these are fantastic guitars.
No
Excellent sounding guitars (heard through a good quality Bluetooth speaker). With that said, having the ability to tighten the resonator, in order to achieve different tones, seems to be a gimmick.
I NEED that Body shape-but on Bass!
You can stash your weed in there.
I just love that headstock…..honest😏
These are the Tesla of electric guitar
Hi Darrell, Very interesting concept. Loved the tones, quite unique in their own right. Thanks for a great review. Cheers ✌️🎸
That’s a big chunk of brass
Would be neat to hear it played unplugged
Me: "Cool I want one of these!"
*Checks price ($3000+)*
$3k+ 😂 FTN!
Man, I heard a world of difference between the two resonator settings!
Might just be how I'm listening, totally raw on my phone's speakers, but it jumped right out to me.
I come from a bit of a unique musical background, though...I'm actually a trumpet player, so tone for me is a whole different entity.
Either way, cool stuff!
Not sure I heard much of a difference.. but I can appreciate the creativity, quality and uniqueness.
Loosened seemed to ring out a little more, but it’s subtle. As some commenters are saying, maybe have an acoustic sensor, or even a microphone in the body to better pick up the difference since it’s got that grill, but there’s no pickup for it.
There's definitely a difference in the tight vs loose tone, subtle but it's there. Parker put piezos in their bridge in the 90's alongside magnetic pickups, I'm surprised there's not something like that here, if you're going for new sounds, why not more. At least they're nice guitars to begin with. I think a test against a solidbody would have been good to hear, since that would be the most unique difference it brings to the table, moreso that the resonator adjustment.
Really enjoyed the deep rich tones of both guitars.
How do you know we love guitars? When we're checking out it's back side.
Definitely a cool guitar with a cool concept.
God Sounding and a strong sustain !
First impression was that it looks like a Gibson Theodore
Did you try the resonator with the strings through the back plate. It feels like that would have a different (possibly more dramatic) effect on the sound than simply running the strings through the bridge
I think those holes are for feeding strings through without having to remove cover but they don't actually lock into that cover, holes look too oversize to actually hold the strings like ferrules on say a string through Tele.
That would not work as the tension of the strings is too much to handle for the backplate.
dunxy is right; the holes in the pick-shaped backplate are oversized to allow the string balls to pass through. At 3:30 you can see the colored D'Addario ball ends nestled in the bridge block, so, this was demo'ed as 'string through'.
Is it designed to be any louder when you're just and playing it unplugged?... also does it behave differently in overdrive and feedback?
Interesting concept but i would like to see it on an acoustic guitar. That could make a big difference. Electric guitars doesn't really pickup the sound that way... But gotta say both guitars looks and sounds amazing even without that carbonfiber thing.
Its a cool shop. I jam with my bass alongside a friend of mine that owns two different style Jasper guitars and they work great for blues music.
These guys are top shelf. Not only do they build awesome guitars, they also provide us with the best luthier services in the Green Bay area.
Did anyone else notice zero frequency change with that back plate adjustment?? Strange to call it a resonator when it does absolutely nothing.
Putting a resonator chamber on an electric guitar is like putting a magnetic pickup on a nylon string classical guitar.
Okay boomer
@@Lovell93 Not sure how you got Boomer out of my comment, but OK.
100% agree. This is over-engineered novelty at its finest.
@@xdoctorblindx It's like somebody had an idea in the middle of the night and without any evidence just decided to incorporate it into their design.
I'd like to see that tension test done acoustically,that may well have an effect.Electrically I couldn't hear a difference.....................................
Great bunch of guys at Jasper. They make wonderful guitars.
you have to admire all the time and effort obviously put into that headstock design...
Nice to see unique Jasper designs in the days of so many traditional shapes. They both look good sound good, though I'm partial to the Olam. The loosened back plate on the Jasper had a bit more sustain and airiness I felt, I'd leave it loose for sure.
Thanks Darrell! Keep em coming!. Btw. Have you tried the Hyper switch from Seymour Duncan? I just got one and love it!
Led Zeppelin anytime
Don't know about all the 'book knowledge' (It'll never work) 'Actual Vibe' _ haters out there? This Guitar Sounds Magical!🎼🎸 Great video' Thank you!
Gimmick lol. And not a good one. But, they do sound great. Looks wise, no thank you. But they do sound great. Whoever’s making these will be working at a regular job before too long. This ain’t gonna sell, unless they’re $500 or less. Wow I just looked at the prices. These guys are literally insane. $3000 to $4000? Bawhahahahaha.
You had a shitload of reverb set on your amp, and any resonance in the guitar will only make a minute difference.
(also; I don't know exactly what they were going for, but I suspect such resonator would have a "sweet-spot" so it may be that which setting sounds best relates more to the actual frequency you tune the guitar to; Such as traditional orchestra which tend to be 425-435 Hz A; Traditional tuning of 440, or more modern music where it tent to be around 450.. but that is just my engineer heart thinking of what the word "resonance" is really about)
Nice sound but way too much money . Want a good sensible rig ? Squier Classic Vibe strat and fender Champion 100. All you need to make music . Under a Grand . Duh 🙄
At $3k a piece? yea nah I am good, look nice though! Also just the design of the "Resonator" chamber is makes no sense and I doubt it would really affect tone. If you want a real resonator guitar just get a resonator guitar.....Also gonna be frank here its really annoying how often you review super high end instruments, where's all the sub $1500 work horses that everyone actually wants/uses?
I do like the look of the vent, but it's already got 6 air hole from the string through design. And I almost bought into the whole resonator thing but it's only useful unplugged. Besides, with out an f hole, the only sound hole IS the tiny vent at the bottom which Isn't the best placement, even for the players ears. Really, the vent/sound hole should be on the left side, somewhere on the waist/top horn (IF the adjustment IS that noticeable). Basically, £3000+ for a gimmick.
Yeah, that back is too gimmicky with *almost no difference. You couldn't have gotten the sa,same, result putting diff block of acoustic foam in there. That bridge i think is really something. Maybe they'll make a model without the "resonator."
gimmicky
Thank you Darell, that was different. Really didn't think much on the back part or carbon fiber, but it’s a new idea tried! That's what it is all about, sorry I don't know if when it's ever possible to tease, but like the guitar, you never know, until you try. Cheers.
Love the overall design of both of these guitars. They are absolutely beautiful. I also always love seeing beautifully machined parts like those.
Being a fairly experienced speaker builder though, im not exactly sure of the point of the technology though. Thinking it through using my adjacent knowledge, i dont think itll make enough difference to pay any more for the "technology".
Maybe they can use this model as just a waypoint on their way to coming up with something that would make a difference noticable enough to warrant using this amount of modification and added cost.
I love to see experimentation. I dont like seeing added "features" with very little benefit. I feel like they pushed form too far out ahead of function because they thought the form just looked so cool. And it really does... but...
Interesting, but VERY expensive, and I didn't hear any difference in the resonator positions. So much for anyone who wants to bash Gibsons as "too expensive"!
They should just make it chambered. I don’t think carbon fiber which is a lot like glass, really “resonates” especially if it’s in contact with the body of the player. The guitar sounds great . This video has me thinking about putting those pickups in one of my guitars.
They both sound incredible! & I love the tech and workmanship on them,but I can not over state how ugly I think they both are! Big non description headstocks are totally lackluster! And don't even get me started on the ugly body shapes. They both look like some punk was trying to send the industry a big middle finger and failed!
4:35 Why woukd we need the vents?? It has got the re-stringing holes....They vent too....And not that much air is moved that quick that we "need" vents for it....
Of course nobody can hear the difference when all the transduction is done by the magnetic pickups.
And even if you got a piezo pickup in there wouldn't be much difference because the resonator would be dampened by your own body while playing.
Terrible idea just to suck some extra bucks out of you.
I love creativity and uniqueness I bet Kieth Richards would appreciate one if these kind of sounds like my 72 thinline Telecaster Its got nice clean tome be interesting cranked to the gills on a stack. I think we will see much much more from this company, awesome👍👍👍
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏 great tones, the resonator makes a lot of difference.......awesome guitars!
These are made in Green Bay, WI Close to where I live! I work at another music store in Green Bay as a repair tech, we do business with them occasionally. I was just there a few weeks ago, if you visit their store chances are they will give you a shop tour! The staff is super friendly. They make pretty rad guitars too!
Check out "Cream" Guitars, Made un México top Notch quality.
Hey Darrell, how about some B.T.O." Lowland Fling" on that fancy git fiddle!
This seems like an extremely complex gimmick with no effect. I could not hear any difference with it loosened or tightened. Seems like a way for them to charge a lot of money, and avoid putting one sheet of plastic on the back to hide the hollowed out chamber of the other-wise heavy body.
Nice looking guitars. I think the screw thing is a bit of gimmick. A tiny tweak of the tone knob would change the tone much more. With the solid center block and braces, it's essentially a solid body guitar. If they did it with a true hollow body, it might be interesting. It would probably do a lot to control how much feedback you get.
The guitar sounds great, but I’ve gotta say, even thru very good headphones, I can’t hear any difference. They are also frankly as ugly as a mud fence. So, not for me, but interesting idea.
I’d love it if RUclipsrs stopped saying “let’s get into it”
Pretty much forever.
New viewer: Tell me you have a review on any of Aspire’s fanned fret 6/7/8/9/10 string models.
All it sounded like was switching pickup positions. Just another gimmick.
hey man, love your content. could you please review a brand called newen guitas, theyre made in Argetina, budget price and high quality guitars.