#1
|
|||
|
|||
Top bracing - anything new?
Now that we seem to be past the days when we use strings sized like small bridge cables, and bracing doesnt need to be stout enough to hold a Mack truck, what's the hot ticket? Has the idea of stiffer/smaller (Adi, etc) been taken to any extremes - like carbon fiber? Martin has their CF bridgeplate, but how light can a top be made without exploding?
__________________
______________ ---Tom H --- |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
Well, from my perspective, it's about sound. Specifically, the sound you want your instrument to produce.
Different top "configurations" - bracing patterns, bracing materials, top thicknesses, sound hole sizes and positions, etc. - produce different sounds. From my perspective, one chooses the configuration that produces that sound one wants to achieve. For example, most of the lattice-braced classical guitars produce a sound that, to me, sounds very lute-like. One such guitar that I heard sounded indistinguishable, to me, from a Renaissance lute. That isn't the sound I want from a classical guitar. I doesn't sound "bad", just not the sound I'd like to hear from a classical guitar that I've made. If double tops with carbon fibre-enhanced lattice bracing gives you the sound you are looking for, go for it. If a traditional X brace does it, go for that. And so on. Many possible configurations and many different sounds produced. |
#3
|
||||
|
||||
Lots of new variations out there if you count the smaller luthiers in addition to the major guitar companies.
I find double tops (though they have been around a while) pretty compelling. Image below is of a Greg Smallman classical guitar - not very clean looking on the inside but the sound makes them highly sought.
__________________
Derek Coombs Youtube -> Website -> Music -> Tabs Guitars by Mark Blanchard, Albert&Mueller, Paul Woolson, Collings, Composite Acoustics, and Derek Coombs "Reality is that which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Woods hands pick by eye and ear
Made to one with pride and love To be that we hold so dear A voice from heavens above |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
|
#5
|
|||
|
|||
Quote:
__________________
______________ ---Tom H --- |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
Yes. But fast and easy.
|
#7
|
|||
|
|||
Never tried Trevor’s Bracing methods for the top. It looks great, does it produce better tones than you have achieved with x-bracing?
|
#8
|
|||
|
|||
Lighter weight soundboards do tend to make the guitar louder, but there is a tradeoff. In particular, sustain is reduced, and the sound becomes more like a banjo. Quick attack and decay, and less tonal complexity.
|