The Chetboard

hey guys . i figure what better place to ask for advice on a guitar. I have a del vecchio which is basically unplayable, as many are because of the neck.and string buzz.
i have noticed some guys using other guitars that are similar in sound but still fall a little short of that sound of the del vecchio. such as the one tommy uses . his has a good sound but not the same .
is this a compromise in order to at least get close or should i consider finding someone to work on the guitar i already have /

You answered your own question...

Only a DelVechhio will sound like a DelVecchio therefore to get 'that sound' you'll need to have the neck on yours rebuilt which has always been the issue with those things.

I also have a Del Vecchio with issues. The neck on mine had a hump in the middle and was always fretting out. I sent mine to Kirk Sand who has his tech work on it. Apparently, Kirk is not an expert with the Del Vecchios but his luthier that he works with is. If Kirk says he will do great work - then I expect nothing less. Kirk told me they will try to avoid rebuilding the neck (taking off the fingerboard and putting a new ebony one one) because that would be over a thousand dollars after it's all said and done. So what he plans to do is do a refret and plane the neck flat while they are out. Should work well. I haven't got it back yet, but if your interested, I will post when I do.
I think the Del Vecchios are REALLY cool guitars. They have a very unique and fantastic sound. When I get done with school and can set up my workshop, I plan to try to build these for less than Paul McGill prices. But that will be a few years since school seems as if it's never ending... Haha... Take care
Alex

Yours is not the only one with issues, this one really "needs much work".

http://www.elderly.com/items/50U-1572.htm

Does anybody know what kind of guitar Grady Martin used on "Heartless Woman"? It was an instrumental that got substantial airtime in the late sixties in Los Angeles probably via KFOX in Long Beach. I really don't know my guitars very well but wondered if it was a Del Vecchio. I enjoyed that tune so much that I bought the album that it was on which I probably have somewhere around my place. Thanks.

Rich Irvine

Here´s Grady Martin from Youtube playing a resonator guitar. The one on the LP cover doesn´t look like Chet´s, but what he plays on the record may be a different one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TpijVo2 ... re=related

That's definitely a DV that Grady's holding on the cover. I've seen his name in a list of DV owners, so he may very well be using one on the LP. Some of the tracks on that clip sound more like a roundneck Dobro, but Cattle Call really has the DV sound. (And that last track sounds like Anita Carter on "oohs.")

Craig

When I started this I thought about once I post this someone is going to want to hear it but anyway...Guitar with 13 pin synth access(13 pin) into a Roland VG-99).

Can also make it sound like all kinds of other guitars.

thnx guys for all the response . what is considered to be the closest in sound to a dv ?

plus i have seen chet play different dv,s . what is the difference in them
as far as there sound . one has a v on it the other one looks like louvers?

Nothing really sounds like a Delvecchio- except a Delvecchio. A McGill is probably closest, but is very, very expensive. A Japanese company made a DV lookalike called a Conrad back in the 1970's. I've never heard one, though. Ihad an old Gretsch Dorado years ago, but it was more like around neck Dobro.

About Chet's guitars- the one with the V cutouts is a short scale with a classical width neck. Chet used it and another short scale DV (shown on the My Favorite Guitars cover) in the 60's and 70's. The other one you mentioned is long scale (about 25 1/2 inches) with about a 1 3/4 inch neck. Chet used it on his later recordings in the 80's and 90's. Doyle Dykes gave him this guitar. Incidentally, Chet used a wound 3rd on the short scales, and a plain 3rd on the long scale.

Craig