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A quick primer on Double top soundboards
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Echi
Posts: 1132
Joined: Jan. 11 2013
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RE: A quick primer on Double top sou... (in reply to hannabach)
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Well, it’s a whole field of the modern lutherie and obviously it’s not easy to summarise it here. The main goal is the attempt to reduce mass and add strength to the top with consistency. The top is by far the main element of a guitar and the wood quality is the main variable for consistency. A composite top is a top plate made by gluing different layers of wood/composite materials, usually at the centre of the sandwich. Mathias Dammann experimented first with a sandwich made with 2 layers of cedar, 0.6 mm thick, and in between a layer made with many transverse cedar sticks 6 mm distant to each other. Later on, with the help of Gernot Wagner, he experimented with a core made of a synthetic honeycomb sheet called nomex. Barrueco and Russell have been playing the latter kind of Dammann for many years now and many people copied that model. Recently Dammann passed to a balsa core as many other luthiers. In the meantime a luthier (Luis Feu de Mezquita) shared some pictures of an early Dammann he had restored: that guitar showed a nomex patch glued just in the lower bout area and so many people started routing the top and filling the gap with nomex or balsa just in that area. As said Balsa became a good alternative to nomex. The balsa core tends to sound as powerful but more natural than nomex. People like Antonius Muller set the path here by gluing sticks of balsa at 45 degrees between the two layers of cedar. On the tube there is a video of Michael Thames explaining his process. Other people instead decided to work the outside wood skin with a cnc machine, making hundreds of small holes (Robert Ruck, Frederick Holtier, Garret Lee) avoiding balsa and nomex. I myself tried an early Holtier 20 years ago and was impressed on how loud it was compared to a traditional guitar. Btw Gareth Lee has a very complete infos on his website. Better to take a look there. I’m aware of very few flamenco double top guitars (Canin with balsa and John Shelton with nomex) but never tried one. It should work quite well though. To be clear, I don't think a double top guitar is in itself better than a traditional guitar; it's usually louder.
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Date Dec. 18 2019 9:47:08
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Richard Jernigan
Posts: 3433
Joined: Jan. 20 2004
From: Austin, Texas USA
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RE: A quick primer on Double top sou... (in reply to Echi)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Echi Let me say that Smallman is known for his lattice bracing guitar, which, while very modern, are quite different from the double top guitars made Dammann. I should have pointed this out in my previous post. The only concert artist who comes to mind, whom I have heard in person playing a sandwich top instrument, was Jason Vieaux. He played a Gernot Wagner. The piece I remember most vividly was Benjamin Britten's "Nocturnal." For those not familiar with it, the piece is a set of variations on "Come Heavy Sleep" by John Dowland, the great composer and lute player of the late 16th-early 17th centuries. Britten wrote the piece for Julian Bream. The form of the piece is a little unusual. Instead of first stating the theme, then folllowing it with variations, instead the variations come first. They begin softly, in somewhat halting rhythm, and 20th century harmony. The variations increase in complexity and, if I may say so, 20th century angst. At the end Dowland's great song emerges with simplicity, serene repose, and deep melancholy. It often brings me nearly to tears. Vieaux's performance was a masterpiece, on as high a level as Bream's. The main characteristic of the guitar which I remember was its dynamic range. There are no blazing fortissimos in Britten's piece, but I had never heard so many audible gradations between pianissimo and forte. The use of these gradations in clarifying counterpoint fascinated me. I was sitting on the front row, maybe 15 feet from Vieaux. At a gathering after the concert I said to him that his was the only peformance of the piece I had ever heard that was as great as Bream's. RNJ
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Date Dec. 20 2019 7:58:44
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Tom Blackshear
Posts: 2304
Joined: Apr. 15 2008
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RE: A quick primer on Double top sou... (in reply to Echi)
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quote:
There is a variant of the auditorio series called auditorio trio, with top, sides and back layered with nomex. I think these are definitely first class guitars but my impression is that Ramirez makes just few of these overall and probably their single top model is still the more requested. Perhaps, rightly so since her production models have arrived through generations of hard work and hair pulling, to say the least. My own theory, if I'm permitted to say, arrives from thoughts about the new methods of allowing more air/sound to escape from the top, therefore providing a more immediate contact with the players' hearing senses. Although this might give some advantage to the player in audio feed back, what does it do for audience appreciation? I've always thought that a more immediate release of sound may work against the amalgamation of tone to homogenize its delivery inside the box for tonal appreciation. So I've tried to create a basic traditional moment for the tonal quality by working with certain vibrations of the box and slight tonal adjustments. Characteristics of tone seem to travel quite well, as far as projection is required, as tone is heard as a constant with its musical output, perhaps more than just louder sound. Also, I've found that the middle register voicing does have a tendency to project well when correctly tuned. But whatever it may be, I applaud the innovators of more modern trends, as they are the salt of searching for a better way.
_____________________________
Tom Blackshear Guitar maker
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Date Dec. 23 2019 15:28:12
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