[thelostMIDrange]

tiger maple with linsed vs mahog with shelac
 
 
neither of these sound good, but totally different.
 
the linseed seems to make hi hats sound like a bag of nickels being rapped on a desk and the shelac mutes most of the treble i can't even tell it's a hi hat. both of these have very poor instrument truness. nothing sounds like it should. more waste of time.

 

[thelostMIDrange]

limba with oil and poly top vs limba with poly only
 
poly only does not sound goood. oil and poly much nicer. will test against strait oil next.

 

[thelostMIDrange]

limba with oil vs limba with oil and poly top
 
limba with oil sounds much nicer. poly top really does sound like a plastic cup to me. the oil underneath helps it as seen in the previous post, but i just don't hear any redeeming value in using poly, even as just a thin top coat. and i did not apply much. Maybe I need to wait days or weeks for these to harden to get accurate results but my paitence with poly is too short. can't keep on trying to get it to work. note to self,never use it again

 

[thelostMIDrange]

mahogany with shelcac vs mahogany with poly
 
poly sounds horrible, ruins mahogany. shelac is not far behind to my ears. will try shelac vs oil mahog next

 

[thelostMIDrange]

maho with tru oil vs mahog with shelac
 
tru oil is still my favorite for every wood i've tried with it, note to self, try it with tiger maple and comare tolinseed oil. I suspected all oils are similar, as truoil is a blend of linseed and other types of natural oils, they should be the same, but mabye not.look forward to that test. maybe it will save tiger.
 
shelac sounds quite invasive. it really takes over the mahog and i feel i am hearing predominantly the finish. I don't have a limba with shelac to compare but my guess is they will sound similar. meaning the shelac would negate the two woods uniqeness and i'd hear a similar sound, a shelac sound. Should i ruin another limba cup to find out? or just stop using shelac like i dediced to do with poly?  note to self, stick with tru oil for now and see what happens. if it turns out oils are different from each other, spend time finding out about the nuance of the different oils and woods. if the oils turn out to sound similar to each other, searvh for a different finish entirely before returning to investigating shelac.

 

[thelostMIDrange]

mahog with truoil vs limba with linsee oil
 
there are two big variables here so not very informative,but interesting in that it may give some insight into why tiger sounded the way it did with linseed.
 
much prefer the mahog here. which is odd, because i ususally would prefer limba. I do not is supect because of the linseed. This hints that linseed is a dog and that it was responsible for tiger's demise. even looking forward more now to tiger in trupoil. especially a week later with the inner wall mod, may be nice. note to self,if not, go back to limba and see about fine tuning the finish to help with clarity in lows and trebles.
 
Limba in oil was the perfect combo for magnums at 100-200 hours, but once the driver 'dropped' and settled into it's darker low mid state. the limba proved to be a little too much of a good thing. It matched the driver's natural burned in sound too much and became a little too murky and undefined.

 

[thelostMIDrange]

raw limba vs limba in linseed, no other variable
 
interesting but nothing new here for me.
 
oils, as all finishes do, they reduce dryness and increase high end. even linseed does this here but it doesn't do it well. while the raw sound is surely not refined and ready for use, it has qualities which are very nice and were ruined by the linseed. It takes a finish to refine, but only the right one obviousy.

 

[thelostMIDrange]

limba with truoil vs limba with tuoil and very light poly top coat
no other variables, blind test. i do not know which is which when i listen
 
 
this is intersting
the poly top coat does help to lift up limbas presence and slight darkness. it doesn't do it well of course, but maybe this tells me a light top coat over oil with limba might be nice to make it work with a burned in magnum.
 
in contrast the oil only limba sound more natural and musical but a little too much low mid center and not enough clarity on top. as I've known while now. note to self, look into a light top coat of something for limba in truoil, maybe a varnish? what other finishes are there that serve as top coats?
 

 

[liamstrain]

Are these cups you had pre-prepared? I know some of these finishes take quite a long time to cure... 

 

[thelostMIDrange]

most of them have been sitting, some are recent. you are right, cure time is a variable, but i have heard cured poly and shelac so when i heard it again, i knew what was what. true they may get better with age, ( ihavent found that to be true though)  but if you heard them you would not be waiting around for it either. I waste enough time as it is.

 

[thelostMIDrange]

and these are of course jus tmy own personal findings, to my ears with my tastes as to what a hi hat sounds like or a snare drum. I have a half dozen pressings of led zeppelin II and am familiar with bonham's drum kit. I know when it sounds right to me. But i am very particular. I am not out to diparage shelac of poly. Maybe it can be made to sound right. If so I don't know the trick. There is so much variation with even how these finishes are applied. I suppose there is a way to make them work. I just don't want to invest time there. I'd rather start further down the road with a finish that sound decent no matter how it's applied and further tweek from there.

 

[dgcrane]

I am reading and noted. Thanks Mark. I did apply linseed to the Limba inners you sent me the other day. I am happy with what I am hearing on these.
 
Darren 
 
Quote:

listening to  tiger maple cups with linseed oil. the oil pretty much ruined these. quite frustrated......magic is gone and some new oddities have taken it's place. 6 hours waysted.
 
 
 
darren, are you reading this....may not want to use that linseed on zebra either.....

 

 

[thelostMIDrange]

more potential casualties for the finish lottery. these will all get tung oil. If anyone knows that tung oil sounds like garbage, pleaese stop me. Tung oil was the first oil I had planned on trying months ago. Had it in my hand and then remembered a guitar i built years ago that i put tung oil on and it ruined it. Sounded dead. So i put it back on thelf. But the more i listen to this stuff, the more i seem to find that what is good for guitars is opposite sound chambers. Up is down black is white. So maybe tung oil will be just the ticket for these? will see soon enough.
 

 

[thelostMIDrange]

raw limba and tiger maple.
 
these are easily the most natural and musical sounding woods out there imo. The limba is still king for me. Fuller throughout the mids. i have come to believe limba likes to be at 1.25" long. Longer and the sound becomes too full and bloated. Mahogany on the other hand seems to like 1.5" to fill it out and gives it a little more body.
 
Have to find a complementary finish for both of these.
The soft tiger maple has an air to it like mahogany but none of the odd midrange. very even. great bass, fantastic detail. The emotional conncection with vocals best i've ever heard from a raw wood. Also the most spacious and clear sound i've ever heard from a raw wood. It sounds like a summer breeze blowing through fresh set of laundry on the line. Limba sounds like an old favorite pair of jeans. very comfortable. Not as much detail or space, but in raw wood just as nice bass. My last two finishes seemed to ruin the bass. I need to find one that doesn't. It's raw wood sound is almost perfect. I might go super light on the next oil. tung, and will also try a light coat of truoil because I have been laying that on pretty thick.......Neither of these woods has any defect in it's raw wood listening. Somtehing like rosewoodd and cocobolo for example has 2 or 3 characteristics that stood out as being just not right, too hard, or unatural. Mahogany same thing, but different problems. Even walnut and koa did not sound as natural and musical as these two. I don't know why, as they are not that different in characteristics....but overall from all my listening I can absolutely confirm and say that the light medium to medium dense woods have what it takes to make these drivers shine. Pick one and dial in a finish specifically to it and I think we are there. But i will stick with these two.

 

[thelostMIDrange]

raw limba vs hond mahog
 
the only issue i have with mahog is the upper mids, they are harsh and unatural somehow. more harsh than unatural. a comparison to limba really shows this. limba does almost everything mahog does but smoother and more natural. no strident quality anywhere. A touch less upper end detail with limba but worth the price of admission to see the limba show. you guys should start turning this stuff asap.If you choose your boards you can even get the two color thing happening to impress the general public. look see it's exotic !  but unlike the other exotics, this one sounds good.