estebanana -> RE: The difference 1mm can make (Oct. 15 2011 19:14:59)
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Sorry, but when I see a guitar that has a low bridge it usually feels good to play because of the right hand, not the left, and it is obvious with these instruments, that the luthier "gets it"....but it is certainly more rare. In short, we forgive a higher then perfectly comfy 12th fret action if the bridge feels right when we strum. Exaclty. On a flamenco guitar you work for the action at the saddle height, the rest follows. In my way of thinking about it. The reason I did not say this is because I think it's so obvious and I've played in enough cuadro situations myself to know that zone. (not saying I'm a good player by any means) Again at saddle height there is no single magic number, but you have a zone to work in. I consider that zone to be between between 7mm to 10mm with 8mm being an average for most guitars. But the crucial thing is how does the right hand feel and how does saddle height effect string tension and it's relationship to rasgueado tempo? My teacher Eugene Clark has his own way of expressing what in Spain they call 'Pulsation'. He calls it String Tempo. By string tempo he means the effect the saddle height has on tension, power and the speed at which the string recovers from being pushed. If I am correct in Spain they call that whole relationship 'pulsation'. I think they are talking about the same set of action and reactions in the string because Clark's concept of 'string tempo' includes the right hand feeling and ability to move through the set of strings at a tension that will recover at a speed that allows the player to do powerful rasgueado yet not have to plow through tough string feeling. I may be off base with this analogy and I'm sure Anders could hone it down finer and say what is intrinsic to both the Spanish idea of 'pulsation' and Clark's idea of 'string tempo'. The way Clark came to this language is that in the early 1960's when he was set up in San Francisco as a professional guitar maker he did a lot of adjustment and repair work on Spanish guitars that were in circulation as players instruments. Those era guitars are mainly in collections or not being played on stage today, but in 1964 he said it was common to have Barbero, Domingo Esteso, Fleta et al guitars moving though his shop. He told me that many of the flamenco guitars in that era were coming from Span with higher set ups and that the lower /lowest actions were the exception not the rule. He told me he would consistently see saddle height of 10mm - 9 mm on flamenco guitars. The 12th fret string height was not the issue, it was the saddle and it's relation to this idea that the guitar has a 'tempo' ( pulsation) of it's own and this tempo of the string can be regulated and changed by saddle height. I think he was searching for language in English to explain what he observed and what the Spanish makers understood to be pulsation. He also has another term called 'Forcing Power'. Forcing Power is the idea that a guitar can be pushed hard over the sound hole and the guitar will not 'bottom out'. This is his benchmark of a guitar that can be played behind the sound hole in front of the bridge with a comfortable action and still not bottom out. If the guitar has this strength built into it you may lower the action and the guitar will stay powerful. I think the idea of forcing power is what in Spain they look for in a guitar that has the ability to be played in noisy situations and still have power in reserve. This is to say that some people here in the US also got this pulsation concept early on and worked with the elements of power and saddle height to make guitars that have be playable saddle height yet have power and projection. The other maker who is more reclusive and mainly known locally, but is one of the best flamenco guitar makers in the US is Chris Burkov. He and others of his generation, ten years younger than Clark, including Lester DeVoe understand the pulsation/string tempo idea profoundly. I know in other areas of the country there were people building, Blackshear, Lucian Barnes and Warren White who also intuited and studied this relationship between power, projection and right hand feel. Only many of those US makers who "got it" were eclipsed by player prejudice towards instruments from Spain. So many of them did not get the credit they deserved. And who can blame the players for in those days the economic factor of buying a guitar in Spain for a third of the price of a domestic guitar must have been quite persuasive. The idea of saddle right hand compatibility has been in the air here for a very long time and it is something for me that is an 'a priori'; so obvious that it does not need to be said. But I guess it does need to be said. The only problem I see with Clark's history is that anomalies pop up, like drawings of Barbero's with super low actions, or stories of Diego del Gastor playing guitars with super low action. These attributions are curious, I've come to the conclusion that action height is a thing that takes on cyclic trends according to who the best players of the day are. When people speak of 'old time flamenco guitar sound' in my mind that equates to higher actions. I hear it on the old records that those guitars sound to me like they are set up much higher and cleaner than what was trendy in the 1970's -80s - But I hear Sabicas playing on a low action, yet cleanly. I think the trend changes, but always from the earliest days to now there were those who favored higher actions if they were powerful players. And those who used lower actions who seemed to have a touch to make those actions work in early recording and playing situations. Personally I like a clearer less jangly sound, I'm more interested in power and following my teachers lead in making instruments that have power in reserve while at the same time having that right hand feel that makes rasgueados feel like butter. What I would really like to know more about is how the great players of history from Molina to Morao thought about right hand string tempo or pulsation and what was acceptable to them in saddle height. Or do/did they even care? It's probably counter productive from a business stand point to challenge customers on action height, but I'm more interested in the over all investigation of the guitar and the set ups of seminal players in relation to trends of what players want. I think it serves the guitar and the buyer in the end. If anyone has real information about important guitarists and the set ups they prefer I would really like to hear about this. But don't try to blow any anecdotal smoke up my ass.
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