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Armando -> RE: warped soundboard (Oct. 21 2009 11:32:39)
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Hi Domingo
I know what you are reffering to and i don't think it is a good thing. A warp underneath and in front of the bridge means that the soundboard of that guitar was not built sufficiently strong in order to withstand the the stringtesion on the long run. The torque caused by the stringtension deformes the soundboard and might even bring the soundboard to collapse, allthough this is not necessarily the case. By all means a deformation of the soundboard is a critical issue as the deformation changes the ability of the soundboard to vibrate and how it vibrates. I have seen a flamenco guitar built by a famous spanish luthier with this problem and i found the guitar had weak trebles, little overtones and generally a lack of quality in the tone.
Flamenco guitarmakers tend to thin their soundboards to the limit in order to save weight. The expectation is to get a dry and percussive sounding instrument. This is generally a good thing to do, but in practice it may become very tricky to remove exactly the right amount of wood from the top and braces without to end up having the soundboard either too thick or too thin. The difference between just right and too much can be within a 10th of a mm.
In most cases the negative effect of the torque will not be visible right away on the instrument. It takes time, sometimes years until the deformation becomes obvious.
Not in vain do most luthiers concentrate most bracing in the area between the lower harmonic bar and the bridge.
A repair of this problem is a difficult thing as the bracing underneath the soundboard must be reeinforced. This is not an easy job as it has to be done thru the soundhole. The originial bracing pattern must be kept and only little reinforcement is needed to solve the problem. Drastic changes by adding additional or too heavy bracing could worsen the sound of the guitar and destroy the value of the instrument.
regards
Armando
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