Quote:
Originally Posted by EvanB
Maybe. I'm thinking of the following, and would appreciate your thoughts.
An X7, nylon strung instrument, 1 3/4" nut width, short scale,active Barbera Pickup.
None of that is particularly new. Alistair and I have been through a 10, a 20, another 10, and two thin-bodied nylon string guitars. Those guitars have all reflected some new variables in CF instruments, and each has been a success.
But I have yet to play a CF nylon instrument that projects like a good wooden classical instrument. I believe that the problem is the rigidity of carbon fiber. CF seems to work particularly well with steel strings, but not so good with nylon strings. I think a new top needs to be designed.
I've an email to Emerald to see if Alistair is wiling to take on yet another challenge in his customized work. He may be too busy. He may jump on it.
If he jumped on it I would sell the acoustic 10 and the thin-bodied electric 10 and keep the thin-bodied 7 as a matching guitar.
In going for the thinnest possible face, I would forego the beautiful veneers and want a thin rather than thick finish.
In designing my Emerald guitars, forum members have been a big help. If you can add, subtract, divide, or multiply any aspects of the envisioned instrument please step up.
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Your experimentation and ideas make for an interesting read. I do think you are on to something regarding the top. My younger brother builds high quality classical guitars. He built a steel string guitar early on in his building career. He told me once that to him, it is easier to get good tone and volume from a steel strings than from nylon strings because it takes a lot of experimentation to build the expertise needed to make a guitar top that nylon strings can move, while creating a good tone and avoiding wolf tones.
It may be that a completely different approach to a carbon fiber approach is needed for nylon strings to efficiently move the top. I have no idea what that approach would be, since I am not a builder. However, based on your posts so far, it does seem that you have not yet been satisfied with the resulting sound of the carbon fiber nylon string guitars you have had built.
It would seem to me that if Alistair were to embark on such a task, he would need to do it as a long term side project in which he would be trying some really wacky ideas that have not yet been thought of, to achieve what you are looking for. Doing it the way any carbon fiber builders have been doing it would likely yield the same results you have already been getting. For Emerald/Alistair, it would be an expensive (time and materials) R & D quest that may or may not yield the desired results in the end.
Tony