BOSS TU3

April 2010 Guitarist 131
QUICKTEST
MISCELLANEOUS
CONTACT: JHS PHONE: [phone] WEB: www.jhs.co.uk
CONTACT: Bill Lewington PHONE: [phone] WEB: www.bill-lewington.com
The Bottom Line
We like: Sounds
We dislike: Neck width; nut;
six-saddle bridge
DMG O-Port £20
Vintage VSA535-12 £449
Enhance the performance of your cheapy acoustic?
A Gibson-styled 12-string semi-acoustic at an affordable price
really that simple and doesn’t
cause any damage to the
wood whatsoever.
In Use
The curved design
resembles a traditional
speaker chassis and is the
result of research into how
sound moves about inside an
acoustic, and it indeed improves
string clarity and projection of a
cheapo acoustic. We undertook
a before-and-after test with a
truly battered old Nashville
cutaway dread. Despite some
initial scepticism, we are
surprised to report a
discernible – if not radical –
improvement in sound.
Verdict
We don’t believe it’s worth
fitting an O-Port into a
The bound rosewood
fingerboard features 22
medium gauge frets and a
628mm (24.75-inch) scale,
while the ‘C’-profile neck is the
same as on the six-string
Vintage version, so quarters are
somewhat cramped for
GUITARIST RATING
We review
some great acoustics
here at Guitarist, but we know
most player’s initial investment
isn’t a Collings D2H. Most of us
take our first steps on the guitar
road grasping a laminated
acoustic bearing a name we’d
never heard of before or since.
Enter the O-Port, an
ingenious device that’s claimed
to improve the tone and
performance of just such an
instrument. Comprising a soft
plastic funnel that fits easily
into your guitar’s soundhole,
it’s available in two sizes and
colours and works with steel-
or nylon-stringers.
Simply loosen the strings,
squash the O-Port to get it
though the soundhole and
manipulate the rim around the
smaller circumference over the
top of the hole. Installation is
The Bottom Line
We like: Easy to fit; does
exactly what it boasts
We dislike: Not worth using
on an acoustic of any quality
GUITARIST RATING
This guitar’s
twin-cutaway
slim-depth body is clearly
influenced by the ES-335 and
construction is equally similar
– a glued-in mahogany neck
and maple laminate body, the
latter incorporating an internal
solid centre section.
high-end guitar (we fitted one
to this issue’s Takamine LTD
2010 with no improvement), or
anything with a solid top for
that matter, but for breathing
new life into that neglected
acoustic that lives under the
bed, never has spending £20
been so worthwhile. [SB]
12-string fingering. The nut
slots have been left a little high
too, and some string sticking is
apparent, which makes smooth
tuning tricky.
Plastic-buttoned, vintage-
style tuners help keep
headstock weight down, while
twin humbuckers (and controls
for each) maintains the Gibson
vibe. The bridge is a standard
tune-o-matic type and each
string pair shares a single
saddle, which compromises
intonation, but the bar tailpiece
boasts 12 anchor holes.
Sounds
Humbuckers don’t always
make ideal 12-string pickups,
but these examples combine
rich lows with a healthy
high-end, delivering the
necessary note definition and
typical ringing chime via all
three switch positions.
Verdict
Tuning issues aside, this
Vintage should please any
player who fancies a good
sounding 12-string semi for
a wallet-friendly figure that
includes a nice hard case. [PD]
GIT327.rev_quick 131 25/2/10 5:13:52 pm