Although I've been playing 12s mostly lately, I broke out my F50R yesterday wondering what @Yura was talking about. I certainly heard no "scoop" out of the mids, but I was a little surprised at -- Where did my big bass go? Likely it was a little lacking due to the age of the strings -- I don't even remember when was the last time I changed the strings, so that gives you an indication of how old they are, lol.
That rosewood scooped mids becomes most noticeable if you play a mahogany guitar and rosewood guitar back-to-back - mids spring out on the mahogany guitar. I've found the flattest, most even balance with maple jumbo guitars.
Even different brands of strings can have a big difference. For example my dad has a D-55 which isn’t too dissimilar and we had DR Veritas 13s on it which are sort of like Martin Phosphor Bronze strings with richer mids. I put Daddario XT phosphor bronze 13s on it the other day which are very bright. There was an even bigger difference between the same strings in 12s on my G37.
Maple is full and well balanced and Guild generally does theirs right.
Thanks for the reply, Christofer. I'll definitely keep looking for that balanced unicorn. Selling an hd-28 to fund the hunt ))Hello Yura.
I also have a well-balanced F-512, from 1976. The secret to this guitar is I added a new soundboard.
However, my particular 1976 F-50R (now missing) did not have the common midrange scoop you have identified (it was used on several professional recordings, as a result). It was extremely well-balanced. It was definitely a Rosewood and Spruce guitar, not Mahogany and Spruce, but the mids were very present. In my experience, there are exceptions out there, though I cannot provide an authoritative list of years/models.
I encourage you to continue your quest.
Thank you for the reply, chazmo. Will keep those strings in mind
Thank you for the reply, Stagefright. I'm on a fence currently for JF-55 and I too prefer RSW hands down (tried to substitute it for maple, since it is more balanced, but was missing those magic rsw overtones). I know that per specs JF-55 has 5" depth at the lower bout ( vs. 4.8" in F-55/ F-50). Have you by any chance had an opportunity to compare both ? Iow, can you feel the depth difference ?
First of, thanks for the reply and also for the repost. Eventually I realized that I prefer RSW hands down, tried to substitute it for maple, since it is more balanced, but was missing those magic rsw overtones. And I tried about 8 F-50 mpl (many j-200's) and even one custom Boucher SG-63-G. Apparently mpl is not my thing. So gonna keep looking ))
Once I had chance to A-B f-55 maple vs f-55 rsw : you could clearly hear "shy" mids of rsw comparing to mpl.
Agree, I hear the same thing (have F-40 Trad, hog back/sides). Would just add that the same trick works matching mpl vs rsw too, imo.
Martin's are typically very mid scooped (even the D-18 has a lot of low mids but a sharp dropoff in upper mids). A D-55 or F-50R/FF-55R in comparison is much better balanced, but still has the traditional rosewood dropoff in the midrange but better than most.
My arthritic hip knows when I’m playing the JF-55 if that’s what you mean by feeling it. I do have an F-50 maple as well and due to the contoured back it’s an apple vs oranges comparison.
Yes, I hear what you're saying. And since I never had a chance to play JF-55, I'm wondering how big of a difference it might have since we're dealing with jumbos (while JF-55 is 0.2" deeper). Also, I never could find an info on why this depth change was initially made to essentially the flagship F-50R classic, and then "reverted" back to 4.8" when JF-55 was replaced back with F-55 mid '00
