Andy Culpepper -> RE: What IS the purpose of a flamenca negra? (May 29 2010 18:27:50)
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Just to throw another cat amongst these pigeons: Don't forget that Torres, just to prove his point that the back and sides wood is irrelevant to guitar tone, built a classical guitar with back and sides of papier mache, then challenged guitar experts to tell the difference. That's completely untrue. Brune believes, and I agree with him, that Torres was just trying to ascertain exactly what role the back and sides do play in tone production. Although cypress was considered to be a back and side wood of lower quality to be used on cheap folk music instruments, Torres used it on many of his finest instruments. Don't forget Torres was an incessant experimenter constantly trying new things in order to better his craft. In fact the back (one half of the air pump that is a guitar) plays a huge role in tone production, and having an active back was one of the main factors in the guitar emerging as superior to it's predecessor, the lute, for concert hall performance. Think about the extremely stiff, rounded back of a lute. It's one of the reasons that the lute just doesn't have the power. The more I build, the more I realize how much the back affects the sound of a guitar. Canadian cypress (actually it's a cedar) has a noticeably different tap tone than Spanish cypress, or Monterey cypress, and each contributes a different sound to the finished guitar. And of course rosewood is completely different from either (it's way heavier). I've had the experience of starting out with a stiff cypress back, and playing the guitar "in the white". It just wasn't giving me that characteristic "honk" or "bark" of a blanca. So I just started sanding the back plate, and a little on the braces too...believe it or not the sound just got better and better! I mean really remarkably so. And more flamenco. Last but not least, don't forget one of the primary laws of physics: a more massive object will take longer to get moving, but will also keep moving longer and be harder to stop. This is very important in the difference between rosewood and cypress. Want a guitar with quicker attack, with lots of dryness and little sustain? You're going to want cypress because it makes a much lighter guitar. Rosewood, just the opposite. Heavy guitar, slower attack, lots of sustain.
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