Gibson Cascade LC 1

JerkMoans

I, er *may* have become slightly carried away on eBay whilst deciding I needed an acoustic in my sad and empty life, and sprung for this, this afternoon.  Grainy, out of focus shots not showing top of headstock and all the rest of it, but it looks in theory, like a decent little package and I'm covered by PayPal if it all goes tits. 

Anyone got any experience of these things?  Not too much info out there - seems a limited/niche thing they knocked out...

Kittyfrisk

It seems that you can resist everything... except temptation 

It looks from the colour that it might be the cedar topped version, which I would think should have a more mellow tone than an all maple type. It could be a very nice guitar that is a bit different from the usual run of the mill stuff.

I'll look forward to seeing how you describe it in the classifieds in a fortnight  

JerkMoans

Kittyfrisk said:

It seems that you can resist everything... except temptation 

It looks from the colour that it might be the cedar topped version, which I would think should have a more mellow tone than an all maple type. It could be a very nice guitar that is a bit different from the usual run of the mill stuff.

I'll look forward to seeing how you describe it in the classifieds in a fortnight  

Harsh, but fair. Blame boozy lockdown Sunday lunch  

Andy79

I am also clueless on them but Cedar and Maple will surely make for an interesting combination. 
Sure looks purdy 

Tadragh1

I heard good things. And they weren't too expensive, I believe.

ICBM

Interesting, I’ve never seen one of those before.

I’m not a fan of cedar tops usually, but maple is my favourite body wood and neck wood... I wonder how that combination will sound? Don’t think I’ve ever come across it on any other guitar, of any make.

earwighoney

ICBM said:

Interesting, I’ve never seen one of those before.

I’m not a fan of cedar tops usually, but maple is my favourite body wood and neck wood... I wonder how that combination will sound? Don’t think I’ve ever come across it on any other guitar, of any make.

Any particular reason for that ICBM? What difference does a maple neck make for an acoustic guitar in comparison for a mahogany one? Of course, it's impossible to generalize but is one more or less stable than the other?

I've never owned an acoustic guitar with a cedar soundboard, I have a flamenco guitar with a cedar soundboard which I absolutely love.

ICBM

earwighoney said:

Any particular reason for that ICBM?

I find cedar too 'soft' sounding for steel-string guitars - I prefer the punch of spruce. Cedar sounds better for a nylon-string to me though, I find spruce classicals too 'plinky'.

earwighoney said:

What difference does a maple neck make for an acoustic guitar in comparison for a mahogany one? Of course, it's impossible to generalize but is one more or less stable than the other?

Tighter, more ringing sound - it is also stronger and more stable too.

I actually wonder if the softer cedar and tighter maple might counteract each other.

Andy79

Hopefully @ToneControl will be along in a bit for a fight over Cedar tops
I wholeheartedly agree about maple bodies, tight snappy base makes for an excellent wood. Looks the parts too

Kittyfrisk

And yet George Lowden does cedar topped steel strings, that sound gorgeous.  

ICBM

Kittyfrisk said:

And yet George Lowden does cedar topped steel strings, that sound gorgeous.  

I owned one for a couple of years - an early O10. Beautifully made, but I really could not get on with the sound of it at all. Stupidly, I sold my wonderful old J-45 when I needed some money because it was too fragile to fit a pickup and gig with, and the Lowden had a pickup system so I was using it with my band.

I disliked the sound of it so much that when I bought a cheap Hondo Everly Brothers copy, I fitted it with a pickup and sold the Lowden because the Hondo was just better - for me. What I should have done in the first place was sold the Lowden, bought a cheap guitar to use with the band and kept the Gibson.

That may be partly why I've had a thing against cedar-topped acoustic guitars ever since .

Kittyfrisk

Yes, that'll be an experience to certainly stay with you 
My late friend had a Cedar topped Lowden with the body in walnut & an ebony fretboard that was an utterly fantastic sounding thing, despite being made of the 'wrong' tone woods.
I've got a beat up early Epiphone EJ200 that sounds way, way better than it should, with a ringing sustain that makes it a pleasure to play, but it's worth buttons. Funny things guitars & people  

ToneControl

Andy79 said:

Hopefully @ToneControl will be along in a bit for a fight over Cedar tops
I wholeheartedly agree about maple bodies, tight snappy base makes for an excellent wood. Looks the parts too

LOL just personal preference, and playing style
If I only played with a plectrum, I think I'd prefer spruce
The back and sides are more of an issue for me, I have not like many mahogany back+sides guitars
but love various cedar and spruce ones with rosewood back and sides

many who play fingerstyle with nails prefer cedar tops, they have more mids, but they can sound distorted when played hard with a plectrum. Redwood is similar, but even more mids

ICBM

Interestingly I play with fingers... although I do hit the strings quite hard. Whatever the reason, cedar steel-strings don’t suit me. In fact ‘pretty’ sounding guitars don’t suit me in general - I prefer something with more roughness and punch. I would never say never though, I haven’t played all the cedar guitars there are!

earwighoney

ICBM said:

Interestingly I play with fingers... although I do hit the strings quite hard. Whatever the reason, cedar steel-strings don’t suit me. In fact ‘pretty’ sounding guitars don’t suit me in general - I prefer something with more roughness and punch. I would never say never though, I haven’t played all the cedar guitars there are!

Interesting observation. I have a all solid Recording King which fits your description for sounding a bit honky, rough and punchy. It kind of has a scooped midrange but it works really well for playing with a slide. Not a guitar for playing Bach but one for ragtime.

ICBM said:

earwighoney said:

Any particular reason for that ICBM?

I find cedar too 'soft' sounding for steel-string guitars - I prefer the punch of spruce. Cedar sounds better for a nylon-string to me though, I find spruce classicals too 'plinky'.

earwighoney said:

What difference does a maple neck make for an acoustic guitar in comparison for a mahogany one? Of course, it's impossible to generalize but is one more or less stable than the other?

Tighter, more ringing sound - it is also stronger and more stable too.

I actually wonder if the softer cedar and tighter maple might counteract each other.

Thanks for the info. A few Eastman acoustics have maple necks and they sound great. There are a few models with maple necks and cedar soundboards as well.
I'm largely an acoustic player but an all maple neck is my favourite neck for an electric.
As for spruce classicals sounding plinky I can get what you mean as with cedar soundboards for steel strings being a soft/'polite'. They seem to favour a lighter touch from my experience.

JerkMoans

Well look here: the good news is, it's arrived...

The bad?  I think I may well have bought a pig in a poke...

Comes in an authentic and (I think) period correct Gibson case...




Which is a little bit big for it.  Well, it happens...




Certainly looks fairly snazzy, with abalone sound hole inlay and all...




And check this insane quilting on the rear...

JerkMoans

Some sort of pickup system on board...



And the internal label looks kosher...

JerkMoans

But, as first spotted by our very own @danishbacon , it's had a Bridge Doctor installed, which was not disclosed in the ad., and after I'd spotted the extra dot behind the string pegs on the out of focus pictures and asked the seller about, he failed to get back to me.  Not wildly happy about that little detail.

JerkMoans

But then why would we have single ply binding on most of the guitar (that no other Cascade I've been able to find on the net possesses: they're all multi-ply)



...but then have multi-ply binding only where the neck meets the body...

JerkMoans

...and these tuners look like they were installed in the dark...

JerkMoans

Worst of all, and sort of hard to see in the pictures, the headstock inlays look like they were put in as someone's first attempt at marquetry for a GCSE woodwork project...