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Old 02-18-2015, 06:52 PM
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Mark Hatcher Mark Hatcher is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Green Mountains
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TomB'sox View Post
Boy oh boy, the rosette and the fret board with the bloodwood binding, all come together there in a piece of artwork to be sure. Looking great Mr. Hatcher! These two builds are definitely Brazilian Beauties!
Thanks! I like seeing how two guitars that are the same model and back and side woods can be so different.

Now that both guitar bodies are closed up I was interested in what the pitch difference would be when tapping the tops. They are both the same model and have the same back and side woods but there are a lot of differences:

The cutaway would have a bit less air volume so that might raise the pitch

The full bodied guitar has a sound port which may raise it's pitch

One has a ADI top the other Swiss Spruce but, the tops were voiced similarly so that should pretty much be a wash.

Typically the things that effect the body pitch would be;
The air volume
The size of the sound hole
The location of the sound hole
The flexibility to the top and back
The body shape, dimensions, and depth

Without putting them on a strobe, it turns out that they are exactly the same pitch to my ear. Go figure.

Does that mean they will sound the same? Absolutely not, because the strung up sound adds another whole can of worms like the fact that one has a 25.5" scale length while the other is 24.75". The tops, although voiced similarly, are different species of spruce with different density and Q values.
One top is rung with abalone purfling, the other with wood. Does that make a difference? Beats me

These are the kind of things you think about when it takes you six hours the make a sculpted headplate for a headstock:



Thanks for reading through all that!
Mark
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Mark Hatcher
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