F4c Floating-neck aluminium guitar.

[andy]

Anyone come across this yet?



The website states...

"Crafted of lightweight aluminum tube with an aluminum fretboard, backed with wood. Weighs less than a standard guitar.
Stainless steel frets.
Resonant overtones ideal for driving today's powerful signal processors.
Flexible pivot joints at the nut and bridge absorb all warping forces, so the neck stays straight for the lowest possible action.
Feels like you're playing strings a gauge lighter! Use 10's and get the feel of 9's, with improved tone.
Fits a standard gig bag.
Brushed aluminum subtly reflects the colors of stage lights -- ideal for live performances and videos.
Even response at all playing positions from fret 1 to 24 on the two-octave neck. Dead spots common to conventional necks are a thing of the past.
Produces incredible attack and overtones impossible to achieve with a wood-body guitar, because wood absorbs sound. Run it through an overdrive and get the sound you have been looking for, at any volume level."

The guitarist from Voivod played one, but they don't crop up too often- I'm sure the design has plenty to interest though.

The rest of the site is at borntorock.com/f4c.html and borntorock.com/works.html. I think this is quite a cool looking instrument, but the lower horn could dissappear quite easily- covering it with my finger reveals a much sleeker looking guitar, which would only be for playing standing up, of course! I can't verify any of the weight/action/string tension claims though. Apparently the string tension holds the neck on too!

*EDIT* I have now added the correct link which explains how the design is supposed to work, which will make this whole post make a bit more sense... DUH.

[ChrisK]

I like the "guard rail" along the neck.

Is it to prevent eye injuries during particularly violently solos?

(One wouldn't want to barre one's eye out after all.) ;D ;D


BTW, in the rest of the world, "aluminium" is NOT a real word.

[andy]

Jul 31, 2008 19:35:16 GMT -5 ChrisK said:

I like the "guard rail" along the neck.

Is it to prevent eye injuries during particularly violently solos?

(One wouldn't want to barre one's eye out after all.) ;D ;D >:

Well aside from, apparently, transfering the string tension away from the neck, it also makes the guitar effective as both a club and a knuckleduster in a fight!

May I also re-order your other thoughts?

BTW,

"aluminium"

is

a

word

in the

real

world

Your words, not mine!

[newey]

Andy-

This thing looks suspiciously like a Dynachord Cora, a West German (back when there was an East and a West . . .) maker.

I'm having 'puter troubles and can't seem to load a photo of one, but I'm working on it . .

And-

Looks like ChrisK got the Fox News treatment. ;D

[newey]

Ok, hopefully I got it . . .



Dynacord Cora

[andy]

I see what you mean! Now you mention it, the Aria Sinsonido has a similar 'frame' type construction, but with with detachable sides for travel purposes. I'm on someone elses computer at the moment, but I'll post a pic when I'm back at mine in a day or two.

I've cut and pasted the real krux of the matter here though...

"Suspending the neck on pivots allows the strings to position the neck. A string under tension defines a straight line. Since the strings are straight, so is the neck.

The neck, bridge and pickups are a floating unit suspended from the headstock and body by pivoting joints. String tension is conveyed from the headstock to the body by a lightweight, hollow aluminum tube. This tube does not have to be heavy or tremendously rigid, because it is designed to bend as it takes up the string tension.

In a conventional guitar, rigidity of the neck is assumed to be the solution to neck warping. The design of the F4 realizes that some deflection is unavoidable, and so makes sure that the neck is isolated from the warping forces. Pivoting joints between the neck unit and the headstock and body prevent the headstock tube’s deflection from affecting the neck."

Not only did I link to the wrong pages initially, I cut and pasted from the wrong one too.

[ChrisK]

Sorry, not my words anyway.

Most come from Webster's (our dictionary, not yours), 'cept for that there aluminium thingy.

Just my sequence (and then yours).


That's the beauty of words (they're just an "API" anyway), they can be distorted by anyone!


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminum

[ChrisK]

BTW, I have a Kramer XL9 aluminum neck bass which weighs a metric tonne.

[andy]

Do you reckon it's the Ali (lets just call it that from now on??) which makes it so heavy, or just a heavy body? I always think of Ali as light, but then at work (I often end up building stages or catwalks) it's usually a choice between that and steel! I suppose compared to wood it may come off a little worse!

Here is the Sinsonido I was on about...



It too has that frame type design, but also has a fairly unusual thing going on with the pickup- another cut and paste...

"The secret behind Sinsonido's natural acoustic sound is in the innovative pickup developed by Wright Guitar Technology in U.S. Two condenser microphones inside the pick up sense the string vibrations in stereo and thus are able to produce more natural, 3-dimensional sounds of a real acoustic guitar, unlike the usual flat-sounding piezo pickups."

It looks as though the nut itself is a tube, containing the two condensers with the 'stereo' being a greater balance of the higher strings on one side, and the lower on the other. Reveiws seem to be quite good for the Sinsonido, but I haven't seen any for the F4c. I'd love to know if it really does what it says!

[ChrisK]

Do you reckon it's the Ali which makes it so heavy,

Well, it depends on how much aluminum is involved, which goes to the alloy in use.

I was always put off by the possible resonances of a metal structure, the stiffer the structure, the more focused the resonance.

Wood, for all of its porosity, tends to have broad "tendencies" (middy, bright, etc) rather than resonances.

The XL9 has a substantial aluminum neck with the back sides filled in with walnut. The body is walnut. So it's either solid aluminum or solid walnut.

Did I mention that it was heavy?

It looks as though the nut itself is a tube,

Well, even tho it's near the tuners I'm going to call it the bridge.

Intonation might be "interesting".

[andy]

Aug 4, 2008 15:11:26 GMT -5 ChrisK said:

Well, even tho it's near the tuners I'm going to call it the bridge.

DUH! I knew that...

Intonation might be "interesting".

The intonation had mixed opinions in the reviews I read. Perhaps its down to the individual tuning of each instrument, or each individuals ear for tuning???