Why is there no aluminum neck guitar thread? INCUMMING NGD

[AlumNeck]

Hi Matt! Which one do you like the best?

Its like flavors of ice cream depends on the song or the tune.
That said if I had to pick one it would be the Travis Bean Designs Panback. This is the best guitar I have ever played.
The entire back body, neck and headstock is one piece of aluminum. All together the guitar is only 7lbs and sounds and feels incredible.

7lbs is ludicrously light for anything Travis Bean related, I have a wood body EGC 500 and it's crazy light too. I had an Aluminium body Tyranny for a while and it was HEAVY. Having played quite a few of both I prefer wood body + aluminium necks rather than all aluminium constructions.

What's the EGC baritone like? Nearly bought that one myself when it was on Reverb for a while.

Also what on earth do you do to afford so many aluminium guitars?

The tyranny in the photo is almost 12lbs great guitar but feels like a boat anchor. The Bass6 is only 9lbs which is reasonable for a bass. The only Baritone is the hollow body Strat and that’s about 8lbs. I trade and sell them to offset the costs but yeah I spend too much on guitars it’s like collecting art the way I see it!

[X-Ray Spex]

Its like flavors of ice cream depends on the song or the tune.
That said if I had to pick one it would be the Travis Bean Designs Panback. This is the best guitar I have ever played.
The entire back body, neck and headstock is one piece of aluminum. All together the guitar is only 7lbs and sounds and feels incredible.

7lbs is ludicrously light for anything Travis Bean related, I have a wood body EGC 500 and it's crazy light too. I had an Aluminium body Tyranny for a while and it was HEAVY. Having played quite a few of both I prefer wood body + aluminium necks rather than all aluminium constructions.

What's the EGC baritone like? Nearly bought that one myself when it was on Reverb for a while.

Also what on earth do you do to afford so many aluminium guitars?

The tyranny in the photo is almost 12lbs great guitar but feels like a boat anchor. The Bass6 is only 9lbs which is reasonable for a bass. The only Baritone is the hollow body Strat and that’s about 8lbs. I trade and sell them to offset the costs but yeah I spend too much on guitars it’s like collecting art the way I see it!

At least it's playable art Are you in a band or just a home player?

[AlumNeck]

7lbs is ludicrously light for anything Travis Bean related, I have a wood body EGC 500 and it's crazy light too. I had an Aluminium body Tyranny for a while and it was HEAVY. Having played quite a few of both I prefer wood body + aluminium necks rather than all aluminium constructions.

What's the EGC baritone like? Nearly bought that one myself when it was on Reverb for a while.

Also what on earth do you do to afford so many aluminium guitars?

The tyranny in the photo is almost 12lbs great guitar but feels like a boat anchor. The Bass6 is only 9lbs which is reasonable for a bass. The only Baritone is the hollow body Strat and that’s about 8lbs. I trade and sell them to offset the costs but yeah I spend too much on guitars it’s like collecting art the way I see it!

At least it's playable art Are you in a band or just a home player?

Totally playable art, great way to put it! Just a home player mostly with a looper. I do jam with friends on occasion but nothing formal. It’s definitely my happy place though:)

[X-Ray Spex]

The tyranny in the photo is almost 12lbs great guitar but feels like a boat anchor. The Bass6 is only 9lbs which is reasonable for a bass. The only Baritone is the hollow body Strat and that’s about 8lbs. I trade and sell them to offset the costs but yeah I spend too much on guitars it’s like collecting art the way I see it!

At least it's playable art Are you in a band or just a home player?

Totally playable art, great way to put it! Just a home player mostly with a looper. I do jam with friends on occasion but nothing formal. It’s definitely my happy place though:)

I'm pretty sure it's all our happy places

I play mostly live and it can be odd showing up with aluminium instruments, mostly you get the positive ''what is that?!?'' reaction from people.

Sometimes though you can get the weirdo who takes it upon themselves to tell you how inferior aluminium is to wood as a guitar building material and it'll never hold tune etc etc because they played a banjaxed Kramer once in 1983.

I just smile and nod

[AlumNeck]

At least it's playable art Are you in a band or just a home player?

Totally playable art, great way to put it! Just a home player mostly with a looper. I do jam with friends on occasion but nothing formal. It’s definitely my happy place though:)

I'm pretty sure it's all our happy places

I play mostly live and it can be odd showing up with aluminium instruments, mostly you get the positive ''what is that?!?'' reaction from people.

Sometimes though you can get the weirdo who takes it upon themselves to tell you how inferior aluminium is to wood as a guitar building material and it'll never hold tune etc etc because they played a banjaxed Kramer once in 1983.

I just smile and nod

Just smile and nod is the correct response.
It’s about the sound and how it feels to play. I just prefer aluminum and I still like wood guitars all my favorite musicians play them!

[X-Ray Spex]

Totally playable art, great way to put it! Just a home player mostly with a looper. I do jam with friends on occasion but nothing formal. It’s definitely my happy place though:)

I'm pretty sure it's all our happy places

I play mostly live and it can be odd showing up with aluminium instruments, mostly you get the positive ''what is that?!?'' reaction from people.

Sometimes though you can get the weirdo who takes it upon themselves to tell you how inferior aluminium is to wood as a guitar building material and it'll never hold tune etc etc because they played a banjaxed Kramer once in 1983.

I just smile and nod

Just smile and nod is the correct response.
It’s about the sound and how it feels to play. I just prefer aluminum and I still like wood guitars all my favorite musicians play them!

The only musicians I can think of that I enjoy that play aluminium instruments are Yannis from Foals, Steve Albini (mainly in Big Black) and Mark Bowen from Idles.

I've never been one to play any kind of guitar because someone I like plays them, but I did go for the aluminium necks after playing a Kramer in my local guitar store as a child for months until it sold (not to me sadly ) and then seeing Yannis play Travis Beans as a teen.

I don't actually own any wood guitars anymore (unless you count bass which I don't ).

[AlumNeck]

I'm pretty sure it's all our happy places

I play mostly live and it can be odd showing up with aluminium instruments, mostly you get the positive ''what is that?!?'' reaction from people.

Sometimes though you can get the weirdo who takes it upon themselves to tell you how inferior aluminium is to wood as a guitar building material and it'll never hold tune etc etc because they played a banjaxed Kramer once in 1983.

I just smile and nod

Just smile and nod is the correct response.
It’s about the sound and how it feels to play. I just prefer aluminum and I still like wood guitars all my favorite musicians play them!

The only musicians I can think of that I enjoy that play aluminium instruments are Yannis from Foals, Steve Albini (mainly in Big Black) and Mark Bowen from Idles.

I've never been one to play any kind of guitar because someone I like plays them, but I did go for the aluminium necks after playing a Kramer in my local guitar store as a child for months until it sold (not to me sadly ) and then seeing Yannis play Travis Beans as a teen.

I don't actually own any wood guitars anymore (unless you count bass which I don't ).

I played a Bean in my local store back in the day too. So bummed I did not buy that one but always stuck with me. I do think that aluminum guitars would be more popular if folks could play them, still rare to see one in a store.

[X-Ray Spex]

Just smile and nod is the correct response.
It’s about the sound and how it feels to play. I just prefer aluminum and I still like wood guitars all my favorite musicians play them!

The only musicians I can think of that I enjoy that play aluminium instruments are Yannis from Foals, Steve Albini (mainly in Big Black) and Mark Bowen from Idles.

I've never been one to play any kind of guitar because someone I like plays them, but I did go for the aluminium necks after playing a Kramer in my local guitar store as a child for months until it sold (not to me sadly ) and then seeing Yannis play Travis Beans as a teen.

I don't actually own any wood guitars anymore (unless you count bass which I don't ).

I played a Bean in my local store back in the day too. So bummed I did not buy that one but always stuck with me. I do think that aluminum guitars would be more popular if folks could play them, still rare to see one in a store.

There was a TB1000 Standard for sale locally in about 2014 for €3500, I was in a less than minimum wage job and didn't have the money at the time and I deeply regret not saving up for a few months and grabbing it.

If they were as ubiquitous as Strats or Teles everyone would play them.

At the moment I think they put people off for a couple of reasons

1/ Expensive
2/ No ability to try before you buy
3/ Unclear gateway into the brands as they're not well advertised in the same way as Gibson and Fender et al.
4/ Rumours about not staying in tune

[AlumNeck]

The only musicians I can think of that I enjoy that play aluminium instruments are Yannis from Foals, Steve Albini (mainly in Big Black) and Mark Bowen from Idles.

I've never been one to play any kind of guitar because someone I like plays them, but I did go for the aluminium necks after playing a Kramer in my local guitar store as a child for months until it sold (not to me sadly ) and then seeing Yannis play Travis Beans as a teen.

I don't actually own any wood guitars anymore (unless you count bass which I don't ).

I played a Bean in my local store back in the day too. So bummed I did not buy that one but always stuck with me. I do think that aluminum guitars would be more popular if folks could play them, still rare to see one in a store.

There was a TB1000 Standard for sale locally in about 2014 for €3500, I was in a less than minimum wage job and didn't have the money at the time and I deeply regret not saving up for a few months and grabbing it.

If they were as ubiquitous as Strats or Teles everyone would play them.

At the moment I think they put people off for a couple of reasons

1/ Expensive
2/ No ability to try before you buy
3/ Unclear gateway into the brands as they're not well advertised in the same way as Gibson and Fender et al.
4/ Rumours about not staying in tune

Good points!
1/ True
2/ Also true and good point as it makes a bigger difference to the player than the listener... they feel interestingly different to wood.
3/ Yes Gateway more affordable models would help
4/ They have different tuning issues than wood and are quite stable once you get used to the difference.

[X-Ray Spex]

I have no idea how to see what they are either so ordering replacements is kind of a fuck. Kinda debating springing for the Mastery Tele bridge but idk if it’ll work or not

Did you ever get to the bottom of this one?

[Mechanical Birds]

I did not but admittedly haven’t put much work into it. Really need to get off my ass and do something with it, though.

[X-Ray Spex]

I did not but admittedly haven’t put much work into it. Really need to get off my ass and do something with it, though.

Is it playable at the moment? What do the pickups sound like?

[Mechanical Birds]

Yeah sorta but doesn’t feel great so hard to play for any length of time. I haven’t plugged it in yet, ridiculously.

[X-Ray Spex]

Yeah sorta but doesn’t feel great so hard to play for any length of time. I haven’t plugged it in yet, ridiculously.

The neck on mine was real chunky which I would normally struggle with but mine played great. Let me know what the pickups do sound like when they're plugged in, I remember them being kind've Telecaster-esque but it was a really long time ago so my memory might be off.

[Mechanical Birds]

The few videos I’ve seen (how is there not a single video, that I’ve been able to find, comparing Kramers to Travis Beans directly by the way) sound like they’re full of treble. Excited to check that out myself.