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estebanana -> RE: Eduardo Ferrer and Stephen Faulk Blancas available (Dec. 16 2011 17:59:07)
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Shawn,
I think the Port Orford guitars, I've made three or four ( I can't remember), are generally warm. Warm and dark in the same way cedar tops can be warm. I think it depends on what kind of top you use. I have also made the ribs with Port Orford outsides laminated over Ash or Maple veneer on the inside. I think that made that guitar a bit "glassier" maybe. It could have been my perception.
Port Orford makes wonderful guitars, but you have to keep them from getting "woolly" sounding, the softer woods used for back and sides, In my opinion, can be unfocused if you don't make them thick enough. Again it's just my take on it. I leave more wood in the Port Orford backs and sides than in the Cypress. I usually brace the backs at about 3mm and I've increased the brace size and mass and lowered the placement on the back. This is all in accord with the received wisdom between guitar makers that softer, less dense woods need thicker dimensions in order to have a profound voice or presence. Then I sand the back when the box is assembled and 'tune' it a bit. By tune I mean thump until it resonates freely and sounds/responds like a tabla. I take all this in to account when I feel the cross grain stiffness of a back in relation to it's mass and weight. When talking about backs and sides of various woods and how they function I tend to focus more on the back. You can modulate the response of the back with thickness a braces, the ribs don't l exactly go along for the ride, but honestly I spend less time thinking about how the ribs affect the whole. At least at this time.
With any various types of back and side wood you can only do so much and then the top comes into play. Most of what the guitar is determined by the top. But if I can offer a general opinion about POC is that it makes warm guitars, unless you veneer one side or the other. The thing to be cautious about is allowing warm to take over and turn into "warm and fuzzy". Warm and fuzzy is not profound. I seek the profound if I can get it.
I would have to see your security clearance to tell any more.
[:D]
I'm going to see if I can get a sound clip of Cypress guitar of mine up, depends how busy Jason is this weekend. He said he would play it for me. As for the difference between POC and Cypress I'll let you decide over time as the POC guitars get send you to various people. I just took the last order so that is closed. I will be charging more now.
P.S. I'm not a master builder, just a good practitioner / and no guitar is worth peeing on yourself.
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