Official Luthiers Forum!

SOME COMMENTARIES AND INFORMATION ABOUT A WEEK-LONG CLASS IN THE PRINCIPLESAND PRACTICE OF VOICING THE GUITAR;

PART 3 OF 4
BY ERVIN SOMOGYI

THE CURRICULUM: As I said previously, we do hands-on, eyes-on and ears-on work for six days.This includes daily lectures and discussions that range fromintentional/differential thicknessing of topwoods, soundboard dynamics, taptone interpretation, engineering of load-bearing materials, traditionaldesign variables, an overview of traditional and experimental bracingsystems and theories, practical problem solving, and guitar/tone listening.There are daily question-answer sessions that are integral to the process.And we make, work, shape, profile, and pay attention to the tops that wemake, in the ways described above. A great benefit of the class is for thestudents to not only pay attention to the effects of their own working oftheir own tops, but to peek over each others' shoulders and get some benefitfrom others' doing more or less the same thing.Not to keep on beating a dead horse, but the main idea really is tounderstand the work we're doing. The last day is a lot of fun in adifferent way than anything else yet done. It's devoted to (1) leftoverquestions, (2) discussions of other makers' methods and/or alternativemethods of doing any part of the work, (3) critique-ing exercises in whichwe look at photographs of other makers' work and try to understand what thethinking behind their work is (and form opinions about how successful suchwork might or might not be, based in the concepts we will have learnedduring the past week), (4) discussions about possible changes in our ownwork/approach/thinking as a result of having taken this class, and (5)critical hands-on evaluation of the guitars the students will have broughtwith them to the class. This last is usually a real eye (or ear) opener.It sometimes is not easy for students to bring a guitar of their own making.Often there isn't one available. Often what is available is not somethingthat someone might be all that excited about showing off. Nonetheless, themore real work that students bring with them, the more useful the class is.We're all in the same boat, and no one makes fun of anyone else's work. Thecritical hands-on evaluation of brought guitars that I mentioned in theprevious paragraph includes everything you might think: a careful look atthe guitar as a woodworking project, and a listening to every guitar undertest conditions - including one of mine. Afterwards, we try to correlatestructure with perceived sound. This is a very, very valuable exercise, andthose classes to which a few students have been brave enough to bring someof their own work are much more valuable than those classes to which theyhaven't, and in which I have only one of my own guitars to show off.What the student should expect to take away with him (or her) from thisclass is not a completed guitar, such as they'd get from any of the otherbuilding classes that are availble here and there, but instead (1) acoherent concept of how the guitar works, (2) a method of thinking forimplementing, testing and improving his or her lutherie ideas in anintelligent way, (3) a new-found capacity for them to do subsequent workwith a great deal of independence, (4) a better concept of real andpotential guitar sound, and (5) not least, the class aims at giving thestudent a conceptual framework within which to understand, evaluate andinterpret the opinions and theories of other luthiers as well as various andsundry authorities -- which they will be subject to for as long as theycontinue to make instruments. And if the student should feel like debatingthe holders of those other opinions and hold their own ground, well, theycan do that too.One way in which we internalize theory is to spend a day in theoreticaldesign. Each student is assigned a certain kind of guitar to make, asthough it were commissioned by a client. One person may be asked to come upwith a full-size plan for a proposed Jumbo twelve-fret guitar with a 26"scale length that is supposed to be an orchestral instrument, or maybe havea bluegrass sound. Another student may be asked to make a baritone 14-fret,25" scale length guitar for the accompanying of hymns in church: would fanbracing or "X" bracing work best? And, specifically, how would oneshape/size/brace these? And why? A third student might be asked to "make"a 26-fret dreadnought cutaway guitar with a cedar face for playing jazz.Where would one put the soundhole? And what would that do to the bracing?And why? A fourth might be commissioned to make a guitar that has superbbass sound, but no particular treble, etc. The possibilities are rich forthinking and learning. And everyone gets to design and draw a plan forsomething and then explain and defend it to the class as members askquestions, suggest alternatives, etc. Some of the best learning experiencescome when someone will have designed something that won't work for onereason or another -- and can then understand why. If you have any questions or comments, please offer them and I'll respond.