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Old 04-30-2012, 09:34 AM
rmyAddison rmyAddison is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Addison, TX
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This is an eternal debate, and I say "yes", to my ears Martin 28 series and 40 series sound different, adn I've owned many of both to compare over many years. To me the 28s are warmer and woodier, and the 40 series have a high end shimmer and more harmonics/overtones than theri cousins.

Here's an interesting read:

The following is from the SC Forum, by Dan Roberts when he was with Santa Cruz:

The Effect of Purfling on Tone

"The deeper the purfling cut, the more top isolation is achieved. This is because you are cutting out the stiff joint of the spruce top to the back and side assembly, and replacing it with a material that allows more movement to take place. Also it allows that movement to be more consistent around the bout. If you flex a piece of spruce you find that as you would expect, it is much stiffer longitudinally than it is when flexed the other way... where the soft summer wood flexes more readily.

If you glue a spruce top to the side assembly without purfling or binding at all, that longitudinal stiffness translates into a top that can't move as easily along the bottom of the lower bout. Cutting most of that joint away and replacing it with plastic, or a soft wood and cellulose fibers as in violin purflings, allows the top to be more consistent in its flex around the perimeter of the top. These translates to better string to string separation as well as better responsiveness. It affects other dynamic aspects as well.

It has been accepted as fact for years that the purfling in a violin is essential to its proper tonal response. The materials used as purflings and bindings can also affect the overall tone and dynamic range of a guitar.

When a deep purfling cut is made and then the material used to fill it is Abalone, there is a resulting brightness to accompany the responsiveness. When SCGC does abalone we do a narrower abalone strip. We do this partially for visual aesthetic, we feel it is a more elegant look, and it also leaves room to border the abalone on both sides with BWB Purfling strips to maintain the purfling advantage and not overdo the brightness result of the abalone.

Herringbone is a similar material to violin purflings and so results in a nicely isolated top, great responsiveness etc. Conversely, when we designed the D/PW, all of the design decisions leaned in the direction of a dark, open, tonally complex guitar. The choice to use a single BWB (black white black) violin purfling was appropriate both for its aesthetic simple elegance, but also tonally, it serves to lend some focus to an otherwise dark, open complex timbre and prevents any chance of a "muddy" tone.

I have heard through a third-party that Eric Schoenberg thinks the pearl borders on the pre-War Martin 45 guitars make a difference to tone as compared to their Herringbone cousins.

Whether any of this is true is subjective, IMHO, but if there is any truth to it, then bling can sometimes not only be a visual treat, but an aural one, as well."

My opinion is based on my ears, others should be based on their ears.....
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Rich - rmyAddison

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Martin OM-18 Authentic '33 Adirondack/Mahogany
Martin CS OM-28 Alpine/Madagascar
Martin CS 00-42 Adirondack/Madagascar
Martin OM-45TB (2005) Engelmann/Tasmanian Blackwood (#23 of 29)
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