What makes a guitar have 'natural reverb', bloom, etc?

[jimi junior]

Some guitars seem to have a lot of complexity and 3-D qualities when sustaining. It can sound like a natural in-built reverb, with harmonics swelling and pulsing, very enveloping and very pretty, particularly for slower melodic playing. I guess this quality could be a detriment if you play ragtime, as it would sound too busy. But I don't play ragtime.

Firstly, what would you call this quality? Am I mixing up my terms? Are there multiple things going on here ?

But more importantly, what qualities in a guitar help to achieve it? If getting a custom build, what would you go for? If I had to guess, I tend to associate this sound with:

- lightly built construction, very resonant
- lots of sympathetic resonance, so when using open tunings you get unison strings really droning with each other. But how do you build this in?
- plenty of harmonic content, which I guess comes Fromm wood choice among other things?
- Larger body guitars?


That said I've had guitars that would seem to meet that spec and still sound very direct and '2D' in the decay. I've got 2 large bodied spruce and rosewood guitars and one has it while the other doesn't.

Any ideas ?

Thanks!

[Robin, Wales]

Any ideas ?

Have a listen to some of the wonderful luthier and small workshop maple b/s guitars. And don't dismiss the smaller bodies 000/00. I hear that bell like quality of rich, reverberant harmonics from many of those guitars.

[Gdjjr]

Interesting subject/topic.

I use Martin Monel strings on my 00015M and Lag T118 ASCE, to specifically diminish the lingering is what I would call it- they are different beasts entirely.
The Martin is very light, comparatively speaking to the Lag-
The Lag is only 3 1/4 in deep the 00015M is a tad over 4 in deep-

I, at times, wonder what makes them sound like they do- a conclusion is, the Lag has a cedar top- maybe that's what makes it sound like a little sister to the 00015M-

The 00015M has more volume than the Lag- I write that off to body depth and a bit of b and s differences. I think the Lag is laminated wood and the 00015M isn't.

I hope to see more input to this thread.

[mawmow]

There are certainly experts around here...

For sustain, fresh NON coated strings.
I would name D'Addario EJ, ernie ball Al/Br, but the latter does not suit all acoustics.

For sustain, X-braced guitars (or Taylor's V-class) as opposed to ladder bracing.

For mellow more complex sound, Rosewood instead of Mahogany back to name the most frequently seen tone woods.

For bassier sounds, bigger and/or deeper bodies.

Those components sum up to produce so many different tones...

[Gdjjr]

Originally Posted by mawmow

There are certainly experts around here...

For sustain, fresh NON coated strings.
I would name D'Addario EJ, ernie ball Al/Br, but the latter does not suit all acoustics.

For sustain, X-braced guitars (or Taylor's V-class) as opposed to ladder bracing.

For mellow more complex sound, Rosewood instead of Mahogany back to name the most frequently seen tone woods.

For bassier sounds, bigger and/or deeper bodies.

Those components sum up to produce so many different tones...

Good points on the strings- which is the why I like the Monels on the 2 I mentioned. Oddly, the 00017 comes from the factory with Monel strings and I didn't like them on it - I changed them to a set of PB's and I like them a little better- I have a set of Mangan 80/20's on my Lag T70A and they produced more volume- I'm studying on putting a set on the 00017-

[KalamazooGuy]

Quality rosewood.

[Joe Beamish]

Originally Posted by KalamazooGuy

Quality rosewood.

Pretty much. All other things being equal. Yep.

[islandguitar]

Al Petteway has a clip on this (natural guitar reverb)....maybe it's on Dream Guitars web site or on UTube. Might be interesting to check out.

[Shadowfox]

I think my Furch Alpine/cocobolo GA does that quite well.

I run 80/20 strings and I also think the radied soundboard contributes to that as well.

[EZYPIKINS]

I'll jump in.

For a tone to function at its optimum. It should be free of canceling frequencies.

The closer a fretted note is to proper intonation.

The easier it will be for the note to ring true, and decay naturally.

If your guitar is fighting opposing overtones, it will tend to cancel decay.

Although wood, strings, coated or not, do make a difference.

You'll have much better luck achieving the desired effect when all things come together.

[jseth]

Some guitar builders have strong reputations for all the attributes you describe... to me it signifies the "modern sound" of an acoustic guitar.

I'd rather have all that stuff going on than not - I can always damp strings and use partial or full mutes to get a more tame, "dead" sounding guitar when needed, but there's no way to "fake' the overtones, natural reverb and harmonics.

James Goodall is frequently accused of having "too much" going on with his acoustic guitar builds - but to me, they are delightful! I've played around 125 of his guitars, most while I was living in Fort Bragg where his shop is... they ALL had that "thing" going on, to more or lessor degrees. My current Goodall is a Concert Jumbo (close to the Taylor GS. Martin J40 size) that has German spruce over Honduran rosewood... it's got plenty going on!

If you're looking for a custom build, just play as many of the builder's guitars as you can get your hands on - regardless of the wood varieties, you'll know if that builder's instruments have that "thing" happening!

[Rogerblair]

What Kalamazooguy said. Rosewood has a natural reverb, sometimes too much for my style of fingerpicking. Monel strings tend to tame it, phos brz or 80/20s will enhance that effect.

Rb

[Brushwood]

I’ve had comments by others who have said they thought my guitar had some sort of subtle reverb hooked up to it when I played out. It’s a Martin 000-18 Norman Blake signature. I think it being a short scale with 12 frets to the body may have something to do with that effect besides having it’s own pretty unique appointments.

[rollypolly]

I’ve noticed a reverb sound while playing my d-18 strung with elixirs. Not sure I really like it. All my solid top guitars have plenty of sustain, overtones, resonance because they have solid tops. Less so with the mahogany tops but they still have it. Not sure I agree this is only a quality of “expensive” guitars, but maybe It’s more apparent in lightly built, well made ones.

I play mostly with palm muting so I don’t care that much about all that fancy tone stuff. Almost all solid top guitars sound pretty darn good.

[Mandobart]

My most recently bought guitar, a used Eastman E2OM-CD has a very warm, resonant, reverb-rich tone. It definitely blooms, both with a flatpick and fingertips.

It really took off after I strung it with Curt Mangan phosphor bronze strings (.012). It exhibits more natural reverb than my HD-28, which also has a great, rich, sustained tone.

For the Eastman I think the cedar top and light construction help a lot, but those Mangan strings have really improved the tone of every instrument I put them on.