Bracing
I firmly believe that the luthier's senses and intuition lay at the heart of a guitar’s success. However, the materials available and the builder’s approach to unifying the instrument’s vibrating plates (i.e. bracing technique) will ultimately affect its tonal quality. There are myriad classical guitar bracing patterns out there, and navigating through all of the possibilities can be overwhelming. When I began building classical guitars, I was overwhelmed. I experimented with several traditional fan brace patterns and generated decent sounding guitars. I passed these instruments around to various players and found that although they liked the sound, they felt the guitars needed more power, especially in the treble range. I agreed. I considered the lattice braced guitars of the Australian school and decided that although they offered the power and balance players were seeking, they seemed to lack the romantic allure of traditional Spanish style guitars. Additionally, I was not entirely enthusiastic about the building process or materials involved in these guitars. I sought to find an alternative that would allow me to bridge the qualities found in traditional Spanish style guitars and the lattice braced versions. I read a few persuasive articles by contemporary builders advocating the benefits of moving the fans inward at a steeper angle, in effect, making each fan cross over more of the top’s grain lines. It made sense. Builders have long been adding a treble cut-off bar across the treble half of the lower bout in order to stiffen the soundboard and accentuate the trebles. I built a couple guitars in this manner. I also tried moving the lower harmonic bar tangentially across the lower bout in order to decrease the amount of vibrating plate on the treble side of the guitar. These guitars sounded good, but I was still dissatisfied.
I decided to revisit what I believed was happening as the soundboard activated via string energy. What I surmised was that rather than choking the soundboard with a treble cut-off bar, the instrument would be best served by disciplining its soundboard. I reconsidered the Australian lattice guitars and realized that the lattice pattern provides an even stiffness across the lower bout. I figured that this was the key to their balance. What I came up with is a bracing pattern that utilizes nine narrow, light fans, which cross the soundboard more steeply than traditional fan-braced guitars: i.e. the apex of these fans is the center of the lower harmonic bar rather than the twelfth fret. I sometimes add two additional cross braces near the tail block depending on the sound desired and the soundboard’s characteristics. I feel that by spreading these fans out across the lower bout at a steeper angle, the plate vibrates more evenly without being choked. Additionally, by using fan braces instead of lattice the soundboard is still allowed to move like a traditional fan-braced guitar but with more balance. I feel that this system offers the balance, clarity, and power sought by players while still maintaining the romantic allure of the traditional Spanish design. With all of this being said, I do not profess to have discovered the Holy Grail of soundboard bracing patterns. I have just developed what I believe to be a good balance to the issues faced by contemporary classical guitar builders. Sound is such a subjective consideration that I do not believe a single solution to this problem will ever exist; therefore, I am not married to any approach and continue to research other solutions to the tonal question.
Double (Sandwich) Top
I have been building double top guitars almost exclusively for the past eight years, and most orders on my waiting list are double tops. Double top soundboards are actually constructed of three layers: an inner skin, outer skin, and a middle layer of a honeycomb fiber material called Nomex®. I believe double tops have a few advantages over traditional soundboards. First, they are lighter than a similarly thicknessed traditional soundboard. Second, sandwiching the honeycomb material between two thin skins creates a very thin and consistently stiff torsion box. So what does this mean? In short, a double top soundboard responds quicker and with less energy input than a traditional top. The sound created is powerful and balanced. A double top guitar can usually be driven quite hard before the sound "breaks up".
Is a double top for everyone? No. I feel that if you are consistently performing, a double top is an excellent choice. The volume and projection created in such an instrument is at home in a large hall. However, these qualities can be overwhelming in a more private setting. Additionally, by removing wood and adding a synthetic material to the top, many of the structural variances of the wood is lost. I believe that the tonal variations inherent in traditional wood tops, add to their allure. Please keep in mind that these are all subjective considerations. If you have any further questions regarding this option feel free to contact me.
Raised Fingerboard
Increased accessibility to the upper register without changing the classical guitar's basic shape is a factor that many players consider a necessity. A raised fingerboard solves this problem by raising the neck above the soundboard. Of course, a cutaway will offer more access, but only a handful of my clients have expressed a need for more access than the raised fingerboard provides. If you are not interested in a raised fingerboard, I will build your guitar in the traditional Spanish method.
Sound ports
Many modern builders have implemented ports into their designs. Claims of their merits include sound quality considerations for both the player and the audience. I have tried a few variations and have settled on the sound ports developed by Robert Ruck. For the player, a sound port in the upper bout mimics a stage monitor. That is, the player gets more sonic feedback from the instrument than normally found with a guitar without port. To test this, just place your ear against the top of your guitar’s upper bout the next time you play. You will hear the difference. The next common claim gets a bit tricky. Many purport that from the audience’s perspective, the sound port adds to the volume or presence of a guitar on stage. I conducted an experiment to address this claim. The experiment consisted of having a few different guitarists play certain passages and scales with the holes plugged and unplugged. While each guitarist played the other guitarists and I made observations. To limit bias, observations were conducted first with eyes closed and then with eyes opened. The general consensus was that there was no significant increase in volume. However, there was a noteworthy change in the instrument’s presence when the ports were open. The overtones seemed to ring a bit more vividly. The guitars sounded bigger, more open, and lively.