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Old 04-29-2005, 08:52 PM
edman edman is offline
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Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Michigan
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ljguitar
Hi...
Martin, Taylor, and others do build the sides rigid. The sound waves radiate from the top and the back is a passive radiator. You don't want sound dissipating into the sides.

The rigid sides suspend the top & keep it from twisting or from folding up under 200 pounds of string tension. We do a lot of unnatural things to an acoustic guitar. We take wood which has been wound around a tree trunk, and saw, sand, plane and otherwise straighten, brace and string it up like a tight drum and then strum on the strings causing the top to vibrate in waves which go side to side, up and down and top to bottom (neck to lower bout) simultaneously.

And we expect it to keep this up for a hundred fifty years or so.

You will have to ask Martin, Taylor etc. why they try to build every guitar the same while hand builders try to build every guitar better...
Martin, Taylor, etc are in the mass production business. Very simple concept -they can't make changes during production runs.

Another thing to consider is the fact that Martin, Taylor, etc., customers like the products the way they are. People want the Martin sound or the Taylor sound, etc. Besides, most small time builders mimic their designs.

Although, the most important factor determining how good a guitar sounds is the guitarist's ability to play. No one will care whose guitar you are playing if you can't play it well.
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