Custom building..."How to make a guitar sing"??

[Rodger Knox]

Originally Posted by Alan Carruth

Some folks are very good at measuring the stiffness of a piece of wood with their hands, but some tests that I was told of indicated that most people are not as good at it as they think they are. With a measurement, you KNOW.

John Greven sorts his tops into three stiffness categories by flexing them with his hands, and subsequent measurements have confirmed his accuracy. Mr. Greven builds about 50 guitars a year, and has been for more than 40 years. He's a member of that "some folks" group.
It is a much, much, smaller group than the "not as good as they think they are".

[Alan Carruth]

Karl Roy, who was Head Master of the Mittenwald Violin Making School took this test when he was teaching a summer course at UNH years ago. He could reliably distinguish a difference of 3% in stiffness between samples, which is about as good as any simple 'shop' test could do. I was told that the test was subsequently given at a Violin Society meeting, and very few people did well at all. Again, Dr. Roy taught for more than forty years, and built many instruments of his own. The point is that, with some simple apparatus and a half day's instruction you can get about the same level of precision, and, as a friend of mine has said, it works just as well after you've had an argument with your wife.