Official Luthiers Forum!

On Sunday January 11th, Grit Laskin spoke at A&M Woods (Cambridge, Ontario). He had two of his own ornately inlayed personal instruments on hand, one of which is shown on the back of his book “A Guitarmaker’s Canvas”.   Grit has had a long association with A&M Woods and graciously agreed to do the talk pro bono at the request of Bob Cyr of the Golden Triangle Luthiers’ Group (www.gtlg.org).

There were a number of OLF members on hand – Josh House, Ron (Koa Snatcher) Belanger, David White (not the fella from the UK), Richard (aka Gibson355) and Tony (cornered the BRW bridge blank market) Karol. If I missed anyone – my apologies.

Grit is a very affable fellow. Having started working with Jean Larivee at the ripe age of 18, I suspect he does not have a formal education other than Guitar U. Notwithstanding his formal education he is an excellent and engaging speaker that was able to easily hold the tone wood hungry audiences’ attention for about 1-1/2 hours and graciously stayed on to field questions for sometime after his prepared talk was done. His discussion was primarily on aspects of his building with little discussion of his inlay work.

From my perspective the three (3) highlights of his talk and instrument display was:
1). Sound port Demonstration;
2). Visual Impact of Seeing His Inlay in Person vs. Book Pictures; and
3). Top Bracing.


1). Sound port Demonstration

Grit did a simple demonstration of how a sound port which he locates in the upper bout improved the sound not only for the player but the audience as well.   Many of us have probably done the cover/uncover the sound port test and noticed the improvement in tone and volume for the player. Being an audience listener, his guitar increased in volume, projection and tonal colouration dramatically (well at least to my ear).   Grit indicated that initially he used to build louvered sound ports (with a felt lined sliding door).   He has stopped doing this since the extra days labour (and cost) isn’t warranted as closing the slider diminishes the sound to the player and listener alike. The sound port is now a standard feature on all his guitars unless the person ordering his guitar specifically requests that it not be included. (Likewise the armrest for which he has become famous for is now a standard feature. The rib rest is an extra).

Grit stated that he has had a long standing objective to build a guitar with a multiple number of sound ports which could be individually opened or closed. He graciously acknowledged the work and research of Alan Carruth in this regard.


2) Visual Impact of Seeing his Inlay in Person vs. Book Pictures

Having often perused Laskin’s website and his book I have been a huge fan of his inlay work. The detail, workmanship and artistry of his work truly in my view places his work in a company of one. Having said that, I have commented here on the OLF and in conversations with others that I often find some his work to be “too much” and would not want some of his work on a guitar of mine. An example of that is seeing the picture on the back page of his book and now having seen the same instrument in person I find I am now really in awe of his outstanding inlay artistry. My initial reaction when seeing the inlay on the back cover was to cringe, yet seeing it in person had a total different positive visual affect. It truly looked fabulous. Now when I flip through (my autographed book) I will see his work differently.


3).   Top Bracing

Below is a diagram of Laskin’s top bracing pattern as it appeared in an old Fine Woodworking article.   From the diagram you can see that Laskin uses a 90 degree “X” brace positioned so that it crosses over the corner of the location of the bridge. He does not use the standard scalloped Martin tone bars rather he uses two tone bars situated horizontally below the bridge pad (noted as E and B in the diagram below). (He confirmed this is still the case in his talk).

[DIAGRAM TO FOLLOW ONCE UPLOAD PROBLEM RESOLVED OR SUFFICIENT INTEREST WARRANTS THE EFFORT]

What I thought was unique (gauging from reading numerous bracing discussions on the OLF) is that while the X brace and side tone bar braces are radiused, the horizontal lower tone bars below the bridge pad (denoted as E and B) are not.       

The horizontal lower tone bars are actually glued in flat and through his clamping technique forces them to be slightly concave (0.2 mm over the span) as opposed to being pre-radiused to a convex shape.   His reason for doing so is that once the instrument is strung up to tension the braced section below the bridge will naturally take on the symmetrical radius of the top. The originally laminated flat to slightly concave lower tone bars counteract the natural tendency for the bridge to bulge and distort the radius of the top. (I would imagine the size of his bridge plate is also a factor).   He demonstrated such on a three year old guitar where upon close inspection the plane of the top has held a “true” radius with no sign of bridge bulge.   As a student of guitar building it would be interesting to hear your reaction to this.

A few other interesting things Laskin mentioned was that for his steel string guitars, Sitka Spruce is his tone wood of choice (I wonder what his reaction would be to Shane’s Lutz Spruce). His discussion of what he looks for in spruce tops was consistent to what many other Luthiers will tell you, i.e. straight tight grain, no run out, etc. As for sides and backs he favours Indian Rosewood however will build with Brazilian for a significant uplift in price.

With respect to his remarkable inlay work – Laskin is totally self taught and has had no formal art training.

Hearing Grit Laskin speak was a real treat and a very worthwhile Sunday afternoon jaunt.   Unfortuneately Grit Laskin will not be attending ASIA 2007. He mentioned that he blocked off June in anticipation of the event being held then and has prior obligations which will prevent him from attending in May.

I doubt I was able to give you the deja vu feeling but hope I captured a few useful tid bits.
Anthony Z39098.4044675926

Fantastic reportage, Anthony! Looking forward to seeing the diagrams.

Thanks for taking the time to post!

_________________
JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

Thanks,
Grit does do amazing work!

_________________
Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Anthony that sounds like it would have been a great little get together there are A&M.

Grit truly is an amazing luthier. His guitars sound absolutely amazing and the inlay work ain't to shabby either

It's no surprise that he uses the two straight lower tone bars (Ala: Larrivee, most of the protege's do) That certainly is interesting that he makes them concave.

Since talking with Jim Olson (who makes his tops flat) I have come to the belief that the pull of the strings will create all the arching needed to resist moisture drop in the guitar. Further to this, I also believe that adding an arch (induced arch, not carved like an Archtop or violin) stiffens the top and does not allow it to vibrate as freely as if it were not arched.

One thing that has been argued and debated over the years is that adding an arch to the top helps strengthen the top (stated the the use is mostly to combat moisture changes). Reading Clapton's guitar (I know I'm referencing it a lot these days) Wayne mentioned something about arch tops. The arch tops and violins have the top arched like they do to strengthen the top because the strings push down on the top via the bridge.

But a "flat top" works differently, the strings pull up on the top, so why do we really need to arch the top at all.

There are a small number of very established builders who use a perfectly flat top (other than a slight angle from the soundhole to the front of the body) soooooo........

It's certainly not an argument that I want to start, but I sure like to think about it alot.

Does anyone know when Martin switched to a top that has a slight arch in it? Or did they ever build with a totally flat top???

_________________
My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Just to add to Anthony's post - one thing I think he said AZ was that the tone braces are indeed flat - he doesnt radius them at all .. but when gluing them in, he clamps them in from the ends first, then the centre - this action causes a small (I am pretty sure he said 0.2mm) dip in the area as its clamped - then the string tension and bridge torque pulls it up. 2mm across a 6 inch brace would be a huge dip ... if you look at the diagram -(when it gets uploaded if possible), those two are indeed flat.

_________________
Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

oh ... and his X brace ends are tucked in, at about 1mm.

_________________
Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

[QUOTE=Rod True]   Further to this, I also believe that adding an arch (induced arch, not carved like an Archtop or violin) stiffens the top and does not allow it to vibrate as freely as if it were not arched.
[/QUOTE]

Rod,

Yes but "free vibration" is not the be-all and end all. If it was then loose floppy wood for tops would be at a premium.

I liken the arching I use more to a drum-skin analogy. If I play my bhodran with the skin loose it sounds "c**p" - no focus projection or anything. Tighten it up and what a difference - loud, great projection and a thumping driving bass.

Yours

Arch-Duke De Faoite

_________________
Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

[QUOTE=TonyKarol] Just to add to Anthony's post - one thing I think he said AZ was that the tone braces are indeed flat - he doesnt radius them at all .. but when gluing them in, he clamps them in from the ends first, then the centre - this action causes a small (I am pretty sure he said 0.2mm) dip in the area as its clamped - then the string tension and bridge torque pulls it up. 2mm across a 6 inch brace would be a huge dip ... if you look at the diagram -(when it gets uploaded if possible), those two are indeed flat.[/QUOTE]

Thanks Tony -- good catch

One other thing that Grit mentioned about his tops is that on classical tops he thins the treble side more than the bass. He does the reverse on steel strings thinning the bass side more than the treble. He said that his top thickness (before gluing to the rim and final sanding) would be 2.8mm at the thickest point and around 2.5 on the thin side. Grit and Sergi de Jonge built a number of pairs of guitars to test these thicknessing principles. They both found that the guitars always sounded better if the tops were thicknessed in this manner. I think I might give it a try.

_________________
Josh House

Canadian Luthier Supply
http://www.canadianluthiersupply.com
https://www.facebook.com/canadianluthiersupply?ref=hl
House Guitars - Custom Built Acoustic Instruments.
http://www.houseguitars.com

Great report - thanks!

Regarding the arching of the top, the reason some folks do it is that it does add strength. Mix that with being able to thin the top a bit more as a result of the added strength, and you've reduced the mass and increased the efficiency. I'm betting Ervin Somogyi's class covers that...

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Great review Anthony and great thread, i'm learning a bunch here, thanks!

Thanks, Anthony.
Lots of interesting details.
I'm looking forward to the pics when they can be uploaded.

John