Why Don't More People Play Aluminum Guitars?
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- Опубліковано 14 кві 2024
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Aluminati Guitars builds unique guitars made of material like aluminum, carbon fiber and lucite. They have a different approach to the classing guitar design, but how do they feel to play?
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For all the angry British people in the comments, here in the States its Aluminum. There are two different spellings based on region, both are correct.
5:02 = 🔥👍
Angry Australians too 😅
Actually, it was a mistake made by Daniel Webster......after the discovery and name aluminum, the Brits decided they wanted the name more regal, you know like Uranium, or Plutonium (that good stuff..)
Webster never changed the spelling....the British pronunciation is correct.
What do you call sodium? sodum?
Edit: It is a chemical element so it should end in ium not um.
As someone from a non-english primary language living in the UK I find these arguments hilarious.. as if there are only 2 spellings for something in the world - English-English and English-American... completing forgetting/ignoring the existence of the other 100+ different languages in the world and their own spellings and quirks. It is really a self-centred, post- colonialist / 'superpower nation' ideal... really funny! (And a symptom of the us-vs-them problems humanity is suffering from)...
well,... that was a bit too deep... All I meant to say really was that the Al guitar sounded a bit stiffer on the video in comparison to the wood one... :P
I feel like the biggest difference is that you ARE playing differently on each guitar. Different brushes, different strokes. Great video!
Because they're way too expensive for most guitarists.
Btw, teddy bear nugant used a lucite guitar with an aluminum neck waaaaay back in the seventies. I know it for a fact, because my dad owned it for a while. He got rid of it because it was BADLY balanced. The neck was really heavy compared to the body so it wanted to dive on you. Probably why teddy sold it to begin with. Anyways, an aluminum neck lucite guitar isn't a modern idea at all. Just thought I'd share the story.
The general combo isn't new, but the Aluminati necks are so much more advanced than the early days of aluminum neck guitars like the Dan Armstrong guitars. They use a hollow core technology that really changes the aluminum neck game.
He literally says this (how it’s not a new idea)
I have played one of those guitars, a friend with a shop had one for a while. I think Brad Whitford played one in Aerosmith for a minute, as well. It was awful. The hollow core necks are much more sensible.
You can just counter-balance a guitar like that. Put a Bigsby on it for instance.
1931 Rickenbacker "Frying Pan" was the first electric guitar and had an aluminum neck and body.
I would love to see Rhett do a segment like this with a modern Rickenbacker, maybe a 330, 360 or 660. 6 or 12 string. The thing I hear all the time is that they are niche guitars, then I look at all the artists that played and recorded with them: The Beatles, The Who, The Byrds, CCR, Steppenwolf, Tom Petty/Mike Campbell, REM, and many others.
The frying pan was a steel guitar, that is to say that it was played with a steel bar and was not fretted. The main problem I had with aluminum guitars was that it would go out of tune easily due to expansion of the neck. Steel guitars are more forgiving because you can compensate for the neck expansion by slightly moving the steel while playing. You can't do that as easily with a fretted guitar.
BTW I owned the Rick frying pan and the B-6 (bakelite lap steel) and the tone was outstanding. Tone was not the issue on aluminum guitars, stable tuning was.
I don’t understand why UA-camrs get away with throwing information around like that - somebody on set must have had a smartphone. Leave it out or google it.
too light for heavy metal tones maybe. Sorry, that's such a bad joke.
😂
Light metal, really.
These are used quite a lot by doom and post-metal bands; AKA posers that can't handle solid steel guitars
Try depleted uranium.
@@JT96708Lead guitar
Rhett's playing is always musically minded and not showy or even noodly.
Reserved and thoughtful. Regardless of the guitar, the player is a keeper :)
Good Job man!
It’s so cold here in the U.K. I wouldn’t enjoy a cold metal neck, especially in winter.
I don't think it should make much of a difference considering the playing part of your fingers contacts almost solely the strings rather than the fretboard; the small area that would directly touch the neck is from the thumb to the base of the index finger.
And to nitpick a bit, isn't a lot of the UK relatively mild-wintered?
@@TLguitar I mean there’s colder places in the world for sure, but it’s regularly at or below freezing throughout winter. I suffer with Raynaud’s syndrome where my fingers and toes loose circulation and go white/numb. A neck at or below freezing temperature is not ideal even for wood necks, but metal would be extra horrid.
@@adamalexanderray I read about that. Of course it could (detrimentally) contribute _something,_ especially if one has a specific condition of cold insensitivity, but the neck itself is mostly not touched directly so in effect I doubt it should make a serious difference. I personally feel (like many, I assume) my fingers do become less agile when it's cold.
Also, I've visited London a couple of times during summertime and I suffered. I live in Israel and in recent summers the daily highs are 30c or more practically throughout the entire season, yet the hour-long unventilated (let alone air-conditioned) train ride from the airport to London was an unexpected complementary sauna.
Aluminium has a fairly low thermal-conductance, it doesn't feel all that 'cold'. It's also much more stable than timber, thus less prone to deformation or going out of tune with temperature changes. I've played Ovation aluminium necks in summer and winter and you don't even notice it has one, once you're playing. Your hand warm's it up as you warm up, and it does not cool down quickly.
@@Ariel-om5fh Aluminium is actually quite a good thermal conductor - it conducts heat about 3 times as fast as iron. It also has double the specific heat of iron (meaning it takes twice the energy to change _m_ kilograms of material _K_ degrees of temperature), although for a given volume of material that is offset by aluminium's density being slightly over 1/3 of iron's.
Jerry Garcia played a Travis Bean TB500 from ‘76-‘77 and that guitar featured an aluminum neck. Some of his greatest tones and performances came out of that guitar.
Jerry Garcia from Kyuss?
💯
best Garcia tone era imo
Brian Robertson from Thin Lizzy had a wonderful Travis Bean too. I adored that guitar. Check out "Don't believe a word".
I had one of those guitars, wish I still had it!
All you have to do is watch Oh Sees guitarist/frontman John Dwyer.
Hell yeah. Beat me to it.
Didn't think I'd find any Thee Oh Sees fans in a Rhett Shull comment section!
@@xdoctorblindx I like them.
Keith Levine (of Public Image Ltd.) used to use guitars with Aluminum necks and his tone cuts through the mix like a saw
Keith’s tone on those early PIL albums was so awesome!
Dear Rhett just a note the nut doesn't affect the sound of fretted notes only the open strings. The saddle of the bridge are indeed very different thing
Oh, he knows 😂
I’m in a post metal band and I play all aluminum guitars. We also use aluminum drums. I play EGC’s and mine have a brushed neck which you don’t stick to. I will probably never go back. The clarity is awesome and the sustain is unreal. After they acclimate to the room they stay in tune super well. No trust rods in mine so set up is a breeze. Plus they are pretty hard to break obviously.
That neck pickup on the Aluminum guitar sounds like it would be perfect for jazz!
I actually genuinely like the sound
That's exactly what I thought.
Acrylic, aluminium, carbon-graphite and phenolic resin all project lovely strong clear tones from a solid body's strings. Personally I think those materials sound 'better' and make for better playing dynamics than my timber solid-body guitars. I've owned a few acoustics that were plastic or phenolic also and I really regret selling those ... why do we do that? You don't know what you've got until it's gone. I had this little plastic-backed Korean-made "Applause" guitar, I bought in the mid-1980s and nothing I've had since sounded or played sweeter than that very cheap Asian acoustic. I didn't respect or value it at the time because it was just a "plastic guitar". There was a lot of prejudice against them back then, but those were terrific little guitars with a lovely full clear tone.
Rhett! Love your videos!! Just this morning i was rewatching your older videos. We match our playing/recording style (and taste in music too) and i got immediately hooked up on your channel! Thank you!!
One of my favorite guitars is the Abel Axe. It’s the reverse of the Aluminati - this one has an aluminum body and a wood neck. Tone and playability on this is really nice.
Ready for endless tone metal discussions!
dude, please. 5.9% nickel titanium carbide composite is the only fretmetal that truly allows the strings to vibrate in true 440hz. you'll know your tonemetal has it when you hear that icey shimmery goodness on the tail end of your transients. anything else is trash
The body looks like a St Vincent copy. And aluminum necks were around since the 70s.
That aluminum guitar actually sounds better than expected. It's not bad!!
Saw Climax Blues Band in concert in July of 1977 opening for Bad Company. Lead guitarist was playing a Veleno aluminum guitar. I distinctly remember seeing that headstock and wondering "what the ...".
Love the honest review. You made sure to separate your personal preferences from the technical aspects, and I respect that. (It's why I keep coming back to your channel)
I have Greg Lake’s (Emerson, Lake and Palmer) Travis Bean from 1977. It sounds superb and is an amazing guitar, but… it is very heavy and the neck does feel cold at first. I actually had problems with light strings in that when it was really cold there wasn’t enough tension to pull the neck into some level of relief. The body is solid koa, so doesn’t feel neck heavy.
One of the great but currently obscure "concept albums" of the past decade was recorded with a Rick Toone Spearfish with aluminum neck: 2018's "Queen Of The Murder Scene" by The Warning. While the quote-unquote "libretto" follows a conventional operatic narrative of obsessive love leading to murder, madness, and suicide, the songwriting and execution far exceed the ages (13, 16, 18) of the Villarreal sisters who wrote and recorded it.
The aluminum neck on those guitars is just scratching the surface, but them in combination with the Orange custom shop 50 and Dany’s superb playing really is the perfect vibe for that album. Ugh, so great!
You gotta do A/B blind tests with guitars like this
I think you nailed it with saying that it would look good on stage . The way the light is reflecting off the neck in the video is cool as hell . I bet it would be pretty amazing under some colored stage lighting.
As a guitar builder hobbyist i have been working on aluminum designs. Its a fun idea but i haven't moved on it yet due to cost and amount of work involved.
Why not Titanium?!?
They make steel guitars, don’t they? 😄
Titanium is insanely hard to work with, also really expensive obviously
That's the same reasons people won't buy them . honestly i stick to maple . can't beat it
Nice to see some aluminium featured on here Rhett! I ordered an EGC in 2012 which is all aluminium and hollow construction, I now have 2 more aluminium neck guitars, one SG shape with a wood body and one Tele shape with an acrylic body and I love the sound of all of them. Still dig my wood necks but I generally reach for the aluminium ones first, they're very versatile. They have an extra clarity across the frequency range without muddiness or harshness which I really enjoy, it's sort of like having a clean boost pedal always on. I like the feel of an aluminium neck, I don't get that sticky feeling you describe, possibly because mine are all brushed rather than polished. Also as you say these things are of course subjective, I personally always prefer really heavy guitars so certainly in the case of my acrylic one it's definitely that! I get no neck dive either due to the weight of the body, I don't think my other two have that issue either though to be honest. Anyway, ramble over! Just interesting to see something I'm personally very into on your channel so thought I would drop a comment, great stuff man!
Aluminati seems like a tool for a specific purpose. It made me draw a danelectro comp. I really liked it's smooth, silky sound.
The other guitarist in my old band had an EGC. It was a very sharp/bright sounding guitar - it did that whole abrasive Albini/Levene thing perfectly (and it also made it difficult for me to find a good frequency range since he owned the highs). He'd let me play it occasionally and I hated the way that neck felt - and yeah, always cold. Personally, I respect wood.
i had 2 kramer 450Gs from the 70's. both were great guitars
I have an old 70s Applause with an aluminum neck. It originally has some sort of hard foam rubber around the back. The headstock was broken off and I grafted in a wooden one and replaced the foam with wood. It's mostly a conversation piece but will play. Doesn't sound horrible but the frets are well worn and molded onto the aluminum. Not much room to dress them more.
Just wanna say your awesome rhett I learn so much from you!
My cousin had a Kramer DMZ 3000. That was such a cool guitar. I'm pretty sure the Kramer's and the Travis Bean's were the one's that were from the 1970s.
Hey, Rhett. Just wanted to tell you that your note choice and “feel” has really improved since I started watching you several years ago. Not to say it was ever bad at all, but you’re really top notch these days! Keep it up man!
I wanted to hear you play glass and metal slide on that metal fretboard.
I thought that - try a brass (or glass) slide! It might be quite bright but may add to the already 'metallic' sound of the guitar.
I wonder why they did a headstock with string trees rather than just having a pitched headstock... not like that is going to snap off if it falls backwards.
When you say you're only hearing the pickups... I think it's more that the aluminium isn't robbing any frequencies out of the strings. You're hearing everything, much like what you do with a carbon fibre guitar.
Likely because it would require a much larger billet, since it's machined from a single billet of aluminium.
I really like the shapes of the body and headstock. Might try to copy those in the shop.
Baum wingman is a great option if you want something quirky but more traditional.
when is the studio update coming???i cant wait for it!!!
I put car seat belt pads around a few of my guitar straps that I use for my heavier guitars and position them so they are on top on my shoulder. It helps quit a bit.
Carbon fiber hollow body and neck
Tuned to 44 cycles. With those pickups and tilt pitch bend.
The “ping” and treble of the aluminum guitar definitely comes through in the video
Yeah, it's got what I would call a "nail-ish" sound...musically nail-ish...but nail-ish...a bright attack...
Acrylic guitars sound amazing too, it's a pity they deform if they get heated up (in a closed up black car in summer). Their clarity and projection is incredible. 1970s Ovation brand acoustic guitars used an aluminium neck and phenolic plastic dished backs. And those were loud, smoothly resonant and projected very well.
Imagine playing an outdoor gig in some dry winter day lol even a fall season evening would be a no go for me
Never had the chance to play one. Seems like a great guitar.
I'm a LP player too. But the aluminum seems to have an interesting bright clarity to it.
Wow, what a coincidence! The shiny thing sounds shiny! And let me guess, the heavy wood sounds “deep,” amirite?
I owned an Ovarion made acoustic guitar with a graphite neck and aluminum fretboard. Got it for cheap at a pawn shop. Found the cold fretboard to be distracting and the Ovation style rounded back to be awkward playing sitting down.
I would describe the sound of the Aluminati as cold or clinical. I listened to the video while walking the dog. It was clear which guitar you were playing at all times.
Wood for the Win.
Stainless steel frets alone make a guitar have more attack and a metallic sound. I've noticed an aluminum pickguard ads some bright reflections as well. This particular guitar is the perfect storm of brightness. Sounds like playing guitar in a glass room.
By brother Has an aluminum neck Kramer We love the guitar but it likes a stable ambient temps. We love playing out doors but not the guitar to use on cool days . It is a straight fast neck for sure though..
There is one creator that has shown just how cool the tone of a FULLY aluminum guitar is. Not just the neck.
It ACTUALLY makes an effect on the actual tone.
That person is Aaron Rash.
Get there and watch a bunch of his videos. Really shows how much the tone changes. It's all about getting the tone of In-Utero. One of the best channels on YT imo. Aaron Rash. Jim Lill. Living Room Gear Demos. The Pedal Zone. Cyberattack.
I got an Aluminati neck at the start of the pandemic and then found the world's lightest Peavey T-60 - with the aluminum neck mounted it was about 7.5 pounds. I had so many doom metal fantasies.
Tragically, I absolutely hated the ergonomics of the T-60, I could never get used to it after playing nothing but Fender offsets for several years. Wound up selling it for enough to break even, one day I'd really like to try an Aluminati neck on a Jazzmaster body.
I remember my college tutor telling me of the days he toured in a British prog band in the 70's. They played at a student union in Norway in the middle of winter, and the heating wasn't playing nice that night. They make to make do. He had an aluminium neck guitar which he was fond of, but during playing the show, he near ripped off all the skin on his fretting hand. I think that put him off ever using one ever again. Puts me off too 😅
I remember as a kid my dad was friends with Bob Hiel. (Bob Hiel of Hiel sound) back in the 1960s and early 70s we use to go down to his music store, Ye Ole Music store in Marissa Illinois. Bob gave me my first guitar when I was 7. Anyway. Bob had acrylic guitars with aluminum necks in his store. I have no idea what brand they were, but I wanted one. Bob also had Pete Townshends broken SG along with various other instruments from bands he built and ran sound for back then.
Acrylic body sounds like Dan Armstrong,
I live in Saint Louis. I listened to Mr. Heil many times on KMOX. He was a wealth of knowledge, and knew so many people. Famously, he made Peter Frampton’s gadget for the mouth sounds with his guitar.
I'm commenting before finishing the video, maybe this is mentioned, but I believe Kurt Cobain played an aluminum guitar on in Utero, in fact I just Googled it, It was Steve Alibini's Valeno aluminum guitar. From Music Radar: "Buying one now is difficult. John Veleno was a pioneer of aluminum guitars and only produced around 195-200 'original run' examples in the second half of the '70s with prices that can go far north of $20,000 on the vintage market. Why aluminum? It was the material he understood the best. Veleno’s day job in the late '60s was in St. Petersburg, Florida building aluminum electrical housings for NASA space shuttles. Veleno was also a guitarist who gave lessons and brought an engineer and player mindset to his designs."
Surprised this wasn't sponsored.. I'm sure they'd be thrilled to hear their guitar is cold, sticky and tinny sounding
Marketing gold 🤑
I would buy that guitar. Love the clean tone of it. I would possibly change the pickups and tailor it to my taste, but that does not sound bad to me.
You’re correct in saying that the use of aluminum for guitar necks did come about in the 1970s. Gary Kramer of Kramer Guitars was one of the first who had the idea, and even made a bass for Gene Simmons that had an aluminum neck. Steel has also been used for making guitar bodies, like the James Trussart guitars Ron Wood plays with The Rolling Stones.
Wandre was doing metal necked guitars in the mid 50s to late 60s even
@@roberthenry6910 on a mass-market level?
@@StarQueenEstrella I believe on some level. Just take a look at any Wandre, but specifically the Cobra. Really neat guitars!
It's like a touch of tremelo and spring reverb in the guitar
To me, the big thing about aluminum is the stability that comes with not being made of wood.
As for the feel, there's a reason Kramer put wood veneers along the back of their aluminum necks for a while.
One of my favorite artist John Dwyer plays an acrylic body with aluminum neck from the guitar company. I think its incase a stage hand gets a little too rowdy and he needs to smack them around
kurt cobain used an aluminum guitar on in utero!
I had a Travis Bean for 14 years. I was never able to gig with it effectively because of the speed that aluminum exchanges heat. It would warm up while I was tuning and playing. When I was on break (especially if the AC was on) the neck cooled and contracted enough to make the strings more slack and so very flat, so I re tuned it. As it warmed it expanded and became sharp and had to be tuned again. Tuning on stage over and over was too much to put up with and there was nothing spectacular about the sound so it had to go. Telecaster works for me now and I know that getting a certain special guitar will never make me to play any better.
Kurt Cobain used an aluminium guitar for some parts of recording In Utero. There is a channel on here where the guy proper chases all those tones in a lot of detail and ended up producing some of these guitars to buy. The originals are super rare and worth a fortune.
aluminum neck guitars are interesting beasts... there's a quote from John Dwyer (from Oh Sees) saying that he needed to leave his aluminum neck ECG on stage for half an hour before playing so the metal could acclimate to the venue's temperature
Back in the 70's and 80's I had an aluminum neck guitar, a Travis Bean. My good friend has it now. wish I would have kept it, they are online for sale really pricey!
Played a Modulus graphite bass. It feels kinda funky at first but you get used to it. According to the owner he's never touched yhe truss rod and the frets never sprout no matter how cold or dry it gets.
"I feel like I'm only hearing the pickups"
Yeah, thats the same with every guitar. The rest is just merchandising.
Doesn't the aluminium (unlike wood) have an influence on the pickups because of Eddy currents, effect of Lenz's law, etc?
@@athmaid AFAIK Aluminium is paramagnetic, meaning that you'd need a much stronger magnet than the ones in the pickups to affect it. On the other hand Lenz's law only specifies the direction of the current but not magnitude. I believe such quirks would be ironed in the R&D phase of the guitar, but im just guessing.
I mean even if the aluminum doesn't have a huge effect on sound it probably affects the way it plays which is enough for some people. I do agree that the pickups are probably the most important part of the sound of any guitar though.
@@Fubbernuttpickups transfers the vibrations of the strings to the amp you are using so the most important part of the sound you get from an electric guitar is the speakers inside whatever amp you are using has you could literally wire up a stick with pickups and put strings on it and get the same sounds of any electric guitar
Another note. Danelectros typically have aluminum nuts. I had an aluminum nut blank made for my main Tele in my pic.
I would really like to see a proper "What is the Two Rock Sound" video or some sort of demo!
I’d love to see you check out a Strandberg salen and see how you find something like that with your back pain and it’s modern approach to classic sounds
Steve Albini uses Travis Bean guitars for Shellac. Pretty rare
One of my luthier buddies noted that the coefficient of thermal expansion of an aluminum neck vs a wooden guitar neck is significantly higher and can lead to a guitar’s set up getting very inconsistent with changes in temperature. Probably not an ideal gigging guitar if it had no reinforcement in that regard.
Lucite body, not wood.
Aaron Rash has a bunch of videos about aluminium guitars in his series chasing Kurt Cobain’s guitar tones. Cobain used an aluminium guitar for several songs on In Utero
I feel like the higher density the material of the guitar is, the less 'frequencies get absorbed'. Like you said that it sounds like you're just hearing the pickups? Wood might kinda act like a sponge in comparison te metal and other denser materials. If you really want to hear the difference you've got to try an Obstructures, EGC or Travis bean. Those guitars have the bridges mount on the same piece of metal as the neck (kind of neck through, but with a body bolt on). I feel like such instruments highlight the resonance of an aluminium guitar. If I would be describing the sound. It's like a jazzmaster on steroids. Presence and highs for days. I really like how you can start with such an instrument, use thick fuzz and have the guitar still cut through the gains.
The only “aluminum guitar” I can recall hearing was Jerry Garcia’s Travis Bean. He played some amazing solos on that guitar, but if I recall, it was only the neck that was aluminum. The body and the finger board were mahogany and rosewood respectively.
In the past I've played a Travis Bean guitar, which had an aluminium neck, but TBH it didn't 'grab' me. I guess I'd have try one of these 'Aluminati Orion' guitars for myself to know for sure whether it could be an inspiring instrument to play. Actually the impression I have of acoustic guitars made from Carbon Fibre is quite positive, though again, I haven't actually played one to know for sure if they might 'speak' to me.
I presume Lucite is similar to Carbon Fibre, with similar acoustic properties - so I'd certainly keep a very open mind as to how desirable this guitar might or might not turn out to be.
But the thing is, any kind of metal will be at a similar temperature to the ambient temperature. So if the guitar has been outside on a freezing cold day, the neck be be just as cold - not nice. Equally, if the guitar were to be left in, say, a hot car on a baking hot Summer's day, the neck could burn your hand.
Neither scenario is desirable...
As a UK citizen, and a speaker of the King's English, I would say the correct spelling is as follows: A-L-U-M-I-N-I-U-M. Note that there are two 'I's. But hey, this is just a bit of fun - we all now what this is. To quote from Shakespear - 'A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.'
Great sound
A ton of players do lol I come here for more bluesy stuff but i love metal and stoner doom stuff too, and stoner doom is where you see aluminum necks everywhere
The aluminum and composite based guitars I've played have all sounded more harsh at the start of the note.
Perhaps from hearing the video through smartphone speakers, but the aluminum-necked guitar didn't sound warm at all despite its humbuckers. Its metal/composite construction may cause its pups to sound closer to P90s, but without hum.
Contrasted with a LP Special or even a Strat may have been a closer A-B comparison.
Conjecture: A big chunk of any difference sound is the different guitars making Rhett play differently because of the different psychophysical feedback loops Rhett forms with them.
I'll plead guilty now - I haven't tried an aluminium guitar (or aluminium neck, at least) since the '70s. Our local music shop had a Kramer - huge credit to the owner for even getting one in a small shop on the Isle of Wight! - but none of us could "warm" to it. Warm being the operative word - despite all the talk about "all the session players in America use these", that neck was horribly cold. That Kramer sat on the wall unloved for years. I wish I'd bought it now - it would have been a good investment. 😉
To me...at least on clean, it is like I am hearing two separate things, the pickups, and the neck, and those sounds converge, like arpeggiating a chord on guitar with a set of pickups with extreme clarity and then letting it ring.
The LP sounds warmer and more even in tone - the Aluminati sounds spikey and maybe a tad harsher. The frets are stainless steel as confirmed from website. I wonder how it will fair with hand sweat on the aluminium and (stainless) steel frets for corrosion. Stainless steel is not infallible.
Wow, the guitars are expensive $$$$$$$. Good video Rhett. I think the Aluminati might be good for slide(?) like a resonator (metal) acoustic(?)
Art is always evolving. Some people still paint with horse hair brushes, while others paint using cutting edge technology.
The keys with a musical instrument is 1. will it play the same note consistently over time. 2. does it help or harm the creative process.
Everything else is just bonus stuff that doesn't really matter.
I would make it out of stainless steel - it would be less thermally conductive, smoother feeling, and you could make it out of like 20ga welded construction so it could be quite light I think. I also think it would have less expansion/contraction as temp changes.
They sound very different, but I wouldn't say that the Orion sounds metallic. To me, it just sounds like a modern guitar with bright pickups that are designed for high gain. Although, I think it sounds great clean too. I'm glad that you pointed out the similarity to the EBMM St. Vincent model. I'm sure that the Orion's shape is legally distinct, but it's clear what they were going for.
There can be a substantial difference in tone from a normal guitar. An aluminum guitar like a Veleno, such as the one Steve Albini just sold for a fortune from the In Utero sessions, actually has a quite unique and cool sound - as heard on songs like Very Ape.
Also, kudos to Shull for saying "aesthetic" properly, with a soft "th," rather than uh-STET-ic (as though spoken with a Brooklyn accent), as has become a common error due to the UA-cam Feedback Loop.
Jerry Garcia said his aluminum neck on his Travis Bean would heat up under the stage lights. Not a big issue for me ha ha - but maybe someone could test it.
Brutally honest review but that’s how you operate and the company knew the risk. I’m sure there’ll be people interested in the design. Not my cuppa tea though.
I want one of those!
Rhett, I am mostly an acoustic player and recently bought a carbon fiber guitar made by Emerald. Great sound and feel -- but completely different than my good wood guitars. I don't like it as much, per se, but it fits a niche -- namely playing outdoors or in extreme weather conditions (hot, cold, wet, dry, any altitude, etc.). You can appreciate different guitars for what they are. Comparing the Aluminati to a Les Paul is silly -- apples and oranges (apples and Chevrolets?). I am curious about one thing though -- I bet it stays in really good tune as does my Emerald. Aluminum and Lucite will not expand and contract like wood will. Probably great for playing outdoor venues. Just a thought.
Aluminum has about double the coefficient of thermal expansion of carbon steel. So you could still expect the tune to change over large temperature swings, but it's going to be really predictable since humidity won't come into play.
I reckon I get what you said about the sound being all about the pickups and not the body of the guitar. To me it almost sounded like it had active pickups, that are trying to sound like Alnico PAFs like a Fishman or something
I owned one (not that one, a custom fully alumiinium body and neck) and yes, they detune as you play them.
Bummer because I loved the tone.
That guitar is so Metal. Like, literally.
Oh, I can really hear the wood coming through on the Les Paul and the metal coming through on that other thing.
Back in the 80s the other guitar player in our band had an aluminum neck Armstrong. We played a gig in the winter and there was a glass exterior door on the side of the stage. He had his guitar stand next to that door. Going back up after taking a break, he went to pick his guitar up and found the neck covered in frost!!😮
Just beginning to watch the video. I am predicting noticeably big sustain!
The les paul is a lot warmer but it may be your settings.
I think the metal one plays more to Metal music, i could see Richie Blackmore playing Smoke on the water with it or Man on a Silver mountain. However i can't see
GILMORE playing Wish you were here on it.
My buddy has one of the Strat and Tele bodies (one of each) that Fender actually had made - they look like they were hydroformed or something and I don't know any of the story on why/when/where they were commissioned by Fender. I own a CNC manufacturing shop so one of these days we are going to cut necks for them out of 6061 just to see how a hollow-body all-aluminum electric sounds LOL.
2:15 Hollow aluminum probably cuts down substantially on cost, too. Solid CNC aluminum is a lot more expensive the a few welded molds.
It's still forged aluminum, not cast.