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No. Sitka spruce is a wood that is very suitable for instrument making, because it has got a good stiffness to it. Among steel string guitar makers sitka spruce is widely accepted and used for many new folk guitars of many brands.
Sitka spruce grows along the west coast of North America and is a little more brittle in properties than engelmann spruce. The color is rather brownish to reddish, not a bright as Engelmann. Quatersawn pieces have a good mirror and you can see the cross fibres.
At Lakewood we used sitka spruce until March 2007 for our 18 models and even on some 32 models of the deluxe series, because the sound is nice and distictive.
Ergo: Don't be disturbed by the not quite as bright-yellow looks! Soundwise the properties are remarkable!
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We do not make factory tours but if you’re in our area give us a call at +49-641-43038 and you can drop by to see how we make our guitars.
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We usually ship our guitars without pickguard. However you can use a black or tortoiseshell pickguard that can be supplied from your local dealer or in our Lakewood online shop.
http://www.lakewood.de/shop/index.php |
Yes, but there's a few words to it.
1. It is only possible to retrofit the system in Lakewood guitars.
2. It is not possible for constructional reasons to fit the system to guitars that are made before 1997.
3. Retrofitting the system requires taking the neck out of the guitar, because we need to route a cavity in the fingerboard from beneath. The cavity holds the magnetic pickup of the system.
Since the effort is considerably high we need to charge € 100,- additionally to the costs of the pickup system (€ 290,-).
4. The regular Lakewood Sonic System uses a control unit (preamp) that sits in the soundhole. We can fit that without problems. Further we are working on a Lakewood Sonic System that has the control unit in the side of the guitar, as most of you are familiar with. The rest, meaning the pickups and their properties, stays the same. This "outside" system will also fit exactely in the routing of the B-Band systems A5 and A6, which enables us the replace previously installed B-Band systems without any traces.
We are planning to launch that system in Spring 2007.
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Custom-Shop guitars are a substantial part of our business. You can view a lot of options in the custom-shop list of our website.
Eventually you make the order through an authorized Lakewood dealer that will also assist you in planning and designing you customshop guitar.
Find our customshop list here:
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You can register your guitar online right here at our website. Please, follow this link:
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The second endpin can be installed in the center of the heelcap of your guitar neck. The screw has to be shortened to 12 mm length. This job should be done by your local dealer or a luthier.
You'll find a manual for this in the download area.
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Warranty is ten years and starts with the purchase of a new Lakewood guitar from an authorized Lakewood dealer. That applies to all guitars that have been purchased after June 2002. Used guitars and Seconds are excluded. Find more info about the warranty in the term and conditions.
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You can use a soft cloth and a mild guitar polish for the lacquer of your guitar. For really tough residues you can also use a damp (not wet) cloth, rub dry after using.
Please don't use polish on satin gloss (matt) surfaces, you will make them shiny, which doesn't look good. On satin gloss surfaces works a damp cloth best.
Also see our tips.
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New guitars are shipped with a owner's manual. At the Moment we've got a german one only. Here on our website you'll find an english owner's manual for download. Please follow this link:
pickups.php |
In the guitar case your instrument is in its safest place. However you can use a good guitar stand at home.
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You can adjust the relief on your guitar neck with the trussrod. Depending on climate, action and string gauge the trussrod should be checked and adjusted by your dealer or a luthier. If you’re not having experience with this job stay away from it!
The action is not adjusted by the trussrod!
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Our guitars are built under conditions of 40-45% rel.humidity. That means that you usually have no problems when you keep your guitar in a climate between 35-60% humidity. When the humidity goes up the arching of top and back increases. Action raises. Glue joints can expose sligtly. These changes usually disappear again when the humidity becomes normal again. Low humidity however can damage your guitar. If the humidity is less than 30-35% the risk of cracks in the lacquer and wood increases. The action goes down. Sharp fretends can expose at the fingerboard edges. You can prevent your guitar from humidity problems by using a humidifier in the area where you keep your guitar and mirror the humidity. Here you will find some equipment in our Online-Shop.
http://www.lakewood.de/shop/index.php?cPath=1_5 |
The Warranty does not cover regular wear and defects due to misuse of the guitar. Aging of woods and lacquer and problems of extreme high or low humidity are not covered by our warranty. The warranty on parts such as machine heads and pickup systems, gig-bags and cases is only two years.
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Through the registration we simply celebrate your highly official joining to the Lakewood family! You have no duties to fulfill and you data are stored savely in our database.
Using the registration we can understand better the course of the guitar's life and the way it goes htrough the years. This is helpful especially if customers want to buy a used Lakewood guitar and need information on i.e. age, origin and so on. This means, guitarists that buy a used guitar are welcome to register again with their "new" guitar!
If a guitar gets stolen, the registration is also a good help. You are associated with the guitar's serial number and we may hopefully rise the chances of finding your instrument by our research again.
If someone is buying such a precious and valuable instrument, he or she can expect the best possible service!
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We recommend the leads of the swiss manufacturer VOVOX. Those leads have been developed with a lot of care to details and serve only one purpose - to conduct the sound absolutely pure and without loss. VOVOX sound conductors are optimised in quite a few interesting details and also have a defined direction, which the signal needs to "flow". This has an audible effect. The one and only measuring instrument for that is the human ear!
Further information on the homepage of the manufacturer.
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When we send our guitars off, all fingerboards have been treated with a hard oil, that protects the surface from moisture and dirt. That's an important step in the process of making the guitars (fingerboards) and we use a kind of oil that gets hard after applying. It needs applying only once.
For the following cleaning and maintance of the fingerboard we recommend a thin oil, which posesses rather caring properties and makes the surface replete (i.e. fingerprints). At Lakewood we use (for example in our service section) PACCS Super Native Oil, which is a mixture of mineral and etheric oil. Olive oil and walnut oil are just 2 of over 30 ingredients. This oil is very good for cleaning and protects the wood from drying out.
We'd like to recommend you this oil, too. Please use it not more than once in 6 months. Apply a thin film over the whole length of the fretboard, rub the residues off and wipe clean and dry again. You may string your guitar up straight away.
This oil is not suitable for cleaning other surfaces than the fingerboard!
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Now we use our own system in our guitars. In the past year (2005) we developed together with the company "Shadow Electronics" a pickup system, that goes with our sophistication an imagination of acoustic sound and quality. The pickup system is called "Lakewood Sonic System".
In recent years we also use pickups of the brands B-Band and AER, which also supply good pickups.
Find more information on the Lakewood Sonic System here:
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The action is measured at the 12th.fret. It's the space between fret and string and shouldn’t be lower than 2,0mm for the e-1 string and 2,5mm for the E-6 string. (light gauge strings and "normal" playing)
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For our baritone guitar we recommend the following string gauges:
.016
.022
.029
.048
.060
.070
There is a string set available from D'Addario which is called "Baritone Guitar EXP23".
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We recommend Elixier Nanoweb light strings 012-053. Also we think that Martin M-540 light and John Pearse phosphor bronze light sound very well on our guitars.
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You can find a list of dealers at the dealer section of our website. They are sorted by country and ZIP codes. We supply all addresses including telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, website and even a route planner to ease the trip to the shop.
If you’re having trouble finding somebody please e-mail to info@lakewood.de
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If you have got any questions that are not answered here, please write an email to info@lakewood.de.
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