Official Luthiers Forum!

Terry I was going to give the long answer, but I've just checke on that thread you mention and I think it says most of what I wanted.

A couple of points extra, for altered tuning work where your using slack strings, some of the time, I think that the extra attack that 'parabolic' bracing gives helps a lot in stopping any muddiness as does Mahogany B&S (you knew I'd say that!) That said I'm currently building an OM with Walnut B&S specifically as a DADGad guitar, well DADGad, drop D and open G.

Robbie's Thread

This is the bracing for my new one.

ColinColin S39112.2058680556

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Terry,

Like Colin I had my say in that other thread. If your friend goes between lots of tunings with different string tension balance, then neck stability will help a lot. Using twin carbon fibre rods on each side of the truss rod helps a lot here - you don't need to make big baseball bat necks though!. The other thing is a good set of tuners - well worth the investment as they will likely be used a lot. Nothing worse than jerky or non sensitive tuners when you change tunings a lot.

And as a personal touch I like the feel of real wood buttons (ebony are my fave's) over metal - again in lots of tunings you stroke them a lot .

I agree with Colin on the parabolic bracing as well. It also helps with the ringing sustain that these tunings beg for in my experience.

Dave White39112.2592592593

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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

Terry,

I like to play with a pretty "manly" action on my instruments and so it was never an issue for me - plus I am hardly ever in EADGBE tuning. Going from EADGBE to DADGAD tuning with light gauge strings (0.012"-0.053")gauge strings on a 25.5" scale guitar lowers the string tension by 15lb. Going from lights to mediums (0.013"-0.056") gauge strings on the same guitar in EADGBE tuning adds 25.5lbs. So if you play with a very flat neck you might have to slacken off the truss-rod a smidgeon. Depends on player style.

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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

Terry, like Dave I use two carbon rods in my necks, they never go anywhere and give a great stability to the neck, and I believe help with sustain. This is the neck (cherry) that is going on the new one.



Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

terken
Its nice to re-introduce a topic every once and a while for the people who have just jumped on the OLF boat, and have not had time to peruse the archives fully...
or people who might have missed the topic the first time, and/or now the topic is more relevant to them and they have need of that data...
also good are links to the old discussions,
   hmmm as my west Indies friend used to say
me aff an idee man

I wonder if there could be a way, to have a button in the post window that could link a topic to every previous discussion about the same ideas... they could be categorized mabye? handy.................
anyway Good topic!
Cheers
Charliewoodcharliewood39112.5769791667