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Hi All,
I’m finally on the home stretch with this one.
I decided to temporarily attach the bridge and string it up to see if it needed tweaking before I apply a finish to the top. The back and sides (Imbuia) have one coat of nitro so far as does the neck (Bacote). I am favoring a FP for the top mainly do to issues I may have with the pierced rosette.
A special thanks to Colin for his guidance and inspiration during this build!
This instrument also has a back door, so I have access to braces etc. with the strings still on.
I am happy with the tone so far but it seems a bit dark. I have heard that “dark” is a relative term but I would like to keep the “dark” and add a little highs of possible.
Given that the top is still “in the white” and I can also shave braces, what would you do to bring out more high end?

Thanks,

Wade

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Wade
Nashua, NH
http://www.wadefx.com

Thanks Hesh,
Here is a view of the tail with the door open.

And what's inside..

I might add there is an interesting difference in tone and projection with the door off as you may expect. It seems to project out the tail. It doesn't help much in trying to figure out if a side port would be good or not. I think I like the deep tone it has with the door on. I'll try to put up some sounds later to compair if anyone's interested.
Thanks for lookin,


Wade

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Wade
Nashua, NH
http://www.wadefx.com

Awesome guitar Wade! I'm curious about getting access to shave the braces also.... curious minds want to know

I've got to wonder if the restriction of air flow through the carved sound port may also be adding to the "dark" tones.

_________________
Reguards,

Ken H

Wade, what a nice guitar.  Very retro / Renaissance looking.  Nice work carving out that Rose Soundhole.  

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

One thing you might try is to reduce the weight of the bridge some. A student of mine got a little carried away carving hers, and the guitar was too bright. We added two grams of weight (!) at the bridge and that was enough to tame it. So, going the other way....

Thinning the top from the bridge wings out to the edges can get you more treble. Do not thin it behind the bridge; that gets more bass.

Other than that, I think I'd leave the bracing alone; shaving baces usually adds to the bass response.

Al beat me to it. What he says...

Thanks Guys,

Ken,
Restricted air flow from the rose was a concern for me also. Interesting that it turns out it still puts out a good amount of sound. It seem more akin to a smaller size sound hole since the wolf-tone or main air pitch is lower than usual (around G or so). I think it seems to even out the tone a bit too. An open hole can have a port/honk sound to it sometimes and the piercing could be helping to smooth that out somewhat.
I could be making that up.

Thanks Waddy,
I started with the soundhole design and attempted to carry some of that design to the rest of the guitar.
I understand now why you don’t see a pierced rose on too many modern 6 string guitars.. Maybe if you can get a cnc involved, but you’d still have to do a lot of sanding.

Alan,
As per usual, you get right to the solution. I thank you for that.
The lighter bridge sounds like a good place to start before I start sanding away the top.


Wade

_________________
Wade
Nashua, NH
http://www.wadefx.com

I have a friend, one of the people in my guitar ensemble, who knows a guy that makes rose inserts for guitars.  She has a couple of them, and I was surprised at how little difference they made in the sound when she put them in the soundhole.  I don't understand why they don't just kill it.

_________________
Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Rick Turner wrote:
"Al beat me to it. "

Another example of small minds in the same gutter....

:)

Wade S. wrote:
"It seem more akin to a smaller size sound hole since the wolf-tone or main air pitch is lower than usual (around G or so). I think it seems to even out the tone a bit too. An open hole can have a port/honk sound to it sometimes and the piercing could be helping to smooth that out somewhat.
I could be making that up."

You're not making that up.

A rose like that does have somewhat less open surface than a plain hole of the same diameter, so, indeed, it acts like a smaller hole. It _is_ smaller! A parchment or paper rose, with layers that step back like an inverted wedding cake, can have about the same overall hole area as the round hole it's set in, but it still effects the tone.

The drag of the air trying to get around all of those edges slows the flow through the hole some at the resonant pitch. The further you get from that pitch the less flow there is, though, so the effect of the rose becomes less off the peak frequency. The result is that the output peak is at about the same pitch as it would have been without the rose, but it's lower, and more 'spread out'. In acoustics terms, it has a 'lower Q value'. So, yes, it's more 'even' if less powerful. You can get some of the same effect by making the body deeper.

Those rose inserts are handy if you have feedback problems on stage. Generally the feedback happens at the 'main air' or 'main top' pitchs; the pressure changes in the room are pumping air in and out of the soundhole, and the guitar responds strongly. Adding some drag in the soundhole cuts that down without changing the timbre of the instrument much.

Hi-fi enthusiasts do somewhat the same thing with 'tuned absorbers': trash-can sized resonators tuned to pitches of the room, that are damped and have screen in the opening. These actually reduce the amount of sound in the room at that pitch, flattening out the response, although more power is required, of course.