I just signed up so I thought I ought to say hello

[Jim Soloway]

Hi all,

My name's Jim Soloway. I'm a Canadian living in Portland Oregon. I've been playing since 1962 (which means that I'm getting old). I play squeaky clean finger style solo guitar.

I'm also the founder and owner of Soloway Guitars, a small builder of mostly semi-hollow/chambered electric guitar, all based on a 27 inch scale length. I call it a business. My wife calls it a money pit. My accountant calls it a good write-off.

And with that, I'll be off to explore what's going on around here.

 

[Blaze]

Welcome et Bienvennue Jim, i went visit your site on another forum ,nice lookin guitar you re buildin there ..

You ll like it , it is a firendly forum , people are nice to each other..


Blazes
Quebec , Canada..

 

[Gil Janus]

Welcome aboard TheFret.

Gil

 

[Robert]

Hi Jim, I kinda know you a little from TGP. I didn't know you are Canadian! Cool.

I have heard a lot of great feedback about your guitars, they seem to be very, very good. I ran Portland Marathon a few years ago by the way.

27 inch scale, eh? So they have more tension and give more spank and twang?

Welcome to the Fret!

 

[tunghaichuan]

Hi Jim,

Welcome to the Fret.

Your guitars are fantastic, I wish I had the funds to own one. :AOK:

tung

 

[duhvoodooman]

Sweet! An honest-to-God luthier! Welcome to The Fret, Jim! :AOK: :dude: :beer:

 

[sunvalleylaw]

Welcome! I am sure your experience will be enjoyed by all, and I hope you enjoy your experiences here!

 

[Spudman]

Hi Jim and welcome.:wave:
Search our past and you'll find some interesting material (hopefully you wont find us a boring bunch of old coots).

 

[Brian Krashpad]

Hi Jim, welcome!

Guys, I've known Jim from a couple other boards for quite awhile now. Real square-shooter and builds gorgeous guitars to boot.

 

[Jim Soloway]

Thanks all for the nice welcome. "Old Coots" doesn't sound so bad (especially since I am one) and friendly sounds pretty good compared to what I've seen elsewhere.

 

[mrmudcat]

Welcome:bravo:

 

[bigG]

Welcome aboard, Jim! Nice place, good people here! :beer:

I'm getting kinda old, myself (58). But like Neil Young said, you don't have to be young to be young!

 

[just strum]

Thanks all for the nice welcome. "Old Coots" doesn't sound so bad (especially since I am one) and friendly sounds pretty good compared to what I've seen elsewhere.

It is friendly here. Even when we fight, we put on dresses. Well, they do, but I choose not to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKRI10G-MAA

 

[tot_Ou_tard]

Man O man, Jim. I've slobbered over your guitars for a long time.

I love squeaky clean. Welcome!

I followed your TGP thread on your new hollowbody prototype with a Firebird.

Sounds like it'll be sweet!

 

[Jim Soloway]

Man O man, Jim. I've slobbered over your guitars for a long time.

I love squeaky clean. Welcome!

I followed your TGP thread on your new hollowbody prototype with a Firebird.

Sounds like it'll be sweet!

Thanks. To me that's probably the most exciting guitar we've built in a long time. After an incredible flurry of activity, we're not in the go slow stage whle the finish goes down, but I'm dying to hear what it sounds like and more than a little nervous about the balance issue. It's going to weigh in at around 5.5 lbs, maybe even less, so it's going to be a real test of the design.

 

[tot_Ou_tard]

Thanks. To me that's probably the most exciting guitar we've built in a long time. After an incredible flurry of activity, we're not in the go slow stage whle the finish goes down, but I'm dying to hear what it sounds like and more than a little nervous about the balance issue. It's going to weigh in at around 5.5 lbs, maybe even less, so it's going to be a real test of the design.

If I had the money, I'd be first in line. I'm a hollowbody fan.

I also really dig the way that you are innovating.

How easy is it to play the 27" scale? I have medium-smallish hands.

 

[tot_Ou_tard]

It is friendly here. Even when we fight, we put on dresses. Well, they do, but I choose not to.

You might at least put on SOMETHING. Who do you think you are? Warren?

 

[Jim Soloway]

If I had the money, I'd be first in line. I'm a hollowbody fan.

I also really dig the way that you are innovating.

How easy is it to play the 27" scale? I have medium-smallish hands.

It depends on who you ask and how you play. Some people don't notice it at all. Most people find it to be a bit of an extra stretch at the bottom of the fingerboard and they're able to adapt quickly. A few people find the stretch overwhelming but almost everybody likes the bit of extra space as you move to the top of the neck.

All of which explains why I have a demo guitar that is constantly traveling throughout the country for people to play for a few days. I can talk forever but there's really no substitute for playing one in person.

 

[Childbride]

Welcome! :beer:

 

[oldguy]

Welcome to TheFret Jim! Glad you joined us here.

 

[tot_Ou_tard]

It depends on who you ask and how you play. Some people don't notice it at all. Most people find it to be a bit of an extra stretch at the bottom of the fingerboard and they're able to adapt quickly. A few people find the stretch overwhelming but almost everybody likes the bit of extra space as you move to the top of the neck.

All of which explains why I have a demo guitar that is constantly traveling throughout the country for people to play for a few days. I can talk forever but there's really no substitute for playing one in person.

At some point I'd like to give it a try, but for now I'll leave it to those who are in more of a position to purchase it.

Still :AOK::AOK: for your work.

I've often wondered why your 27"-scale guitars typically have humbuckers rather than some sort of single-coils. Have you ever made one with P90s? If so, how did it turn out?

What other pups have you tried? Any Charlie Christians?

 

[Jim Soloway]

At some point I'd like to give it a try, but for now I'll leave it to those who are in more of a position to purchase it.

Still :AOK::AOK: for your work.

I've often wondered why your 27"-scale guitars typically have humbuckers rather than some sort of single-coils. Have you ever made one with P90s? If so, how did it turn out?

What other pups have you tried? Any Charlie Christians?

We've actually used a lot of different pickups, but we did use mostly humbuckers on our early guitars. The reason for that is a little long winded.

In more conventional guitars, there's almost always a trade off between warmth and clarity. Most guitars that are built around warmth tend to get muddy in the low end. Most guitars that are built around clarity tend to get a bit thin and shrill in the high end. The 27" scale length eliminates that trade off. The clarity is always there. So with the right selection of woods and a pair of relatively low output humbuckers, it becomes really easy to get both clarity and warmth in the same guitar. Once I realized I could achieve that, it became the primary focus for the first couple years. Later we started to branch out and experiment with Strat pickups, Tele pickups, P90's and single coil blades. For a while we were even doing S-type and T-type configurations using our scale length and body shape. (I was never entirely comfortable with that, so I eventually discontinued those).

As for your P90 question, we did a short lived model based on P90's with a chambered Korina body called the Fledgling. It was nice but I always felt the pickups were a bit too aggressive for our guitars. I tried replacing them with Lollar Firebird mini-humbuckers and instantly fell in love. Those really bring the best of all worlds to the part. They're not at all like a standard mini-hum. They have the shimmer and clarity of a great single coil, no hum, and when you wire them in series they just sound as fat as can be.

We've also used a lot of hum canceling single coils from DiMarzio and some of those have worked out great. We have a model that we rolled out last year called the NYA (Not Yet Another) that has and Area-T neck pickups (their hum canceling Tele pickup) in both the neck and middle positions and a Virtual Solo (basically a fatter warmer Strat pickup) in the bridge position. The NYA is my vision of the ideal single coil guitar. It has all of the clarity of the Tele with none of the spikiness and the flexability (plus some) of the Strat with none of the thinness.

 

[tot_Ou_tard]

Ah yes, I guess I did read something about NYA, but did not know what that meant.

What you describe makes sense. I suppose that I am used to the Fender Scale/Single Coil Gibson Scale/Humbucker equation.

Except that I have 3 Godins 5th Ave, Radiator, SD all Gibson scale with singles.

The 5th ave has a P90, the Radiator two low output toaster/DeArmond type Godin pups. The SD is an HSS guitar.

I'm sorry to keep bothering you, but why 27" & not 26.5" or 27.75" or some other number? Trial & error?

 

[Jim Soloway]

Ah yes, I guess I did read something about NYA, but did not know what that meant.

What you describe makes sense. I suppose that I am used to the Fender Scale/Single Coil Gibson Scale/Humbucker equation.

Except that I have 3 Godins 5th Ave, Radiator, SD all Gibson scale with singles.

The 5th ave has a P90, the Radiator two low output toaster/DeArmond type Godin pups. The SD is an HSS guitar.

I'm sorry to keep bothering you, but why 27" & not 26.5" or 27.75" or some other number? Trial & error?

The 27" scale length came from the days when I was playing 7 string.

Like all 7-string players, I was struggling with the tension, thickness and volume of the low string. Like most jazz players, I was tuned to a low A with the rest of the guitar in standard pitch. This made the problem even more serious. I either had to put up with a floppy low A string or I had to use an absurdly heavy string (most jazz guys use a minimum of an 80). With a lighter string there was no definition and intonation was iffy. With a heavy string, the low A was much louder than the other strings and would go sharp at the bottom of the fingerboard. I spoke to Ralph Novak about it and he convinced me that the only solution was the change the scale length. There was a couple builders experimenting with 26 3/16, so I tied those and they were on the right path but not quite there. I did like the way the rest of the guitar responded though. Then Ibanez came out with a couple of 7-strings with a 27" inch scale. They weren't great guitars but they did solve the low A string problem. Next, I simply set about transferring the scale length to a guitar of my own design that represented my tonal ideals a lot better.

Our first three instruments were built as a set and were all 7-strings. As 7-strings, they worked really well, but the real surprise was how the rest of the guitar sounded. Everything had much better clarity and definition. Playing them, it was pretty obvious to me that the concept would transfer beautifully to 6-strings as well. Now it's 7 years and 185 guitars later and I feel like we're just finally unlocking the last of the puzzles about this design. It's making this a really exciting time for me.

 

[tot_Ou_tard]

Thanks Jim! Its really nice to hear the story behind it.

 

[just strum]

You might at least put on SOMETHING. Who do you think you are? Warren?

Actually they are holding auditions for a northern tractor guy.