Richard Jernigan -> RE: Stress-Free Assembly (Dec. 4 2011 5:51:17)
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My '73 Romanillos has a relatively flat top, compared to his instruments that immediately followed it. It has the plantilla, body depth, bracing pattern, etc. of a 1950 Hauser I that Romanillos studied. Interviewed by the well known English luthier Kevin Aram, Romanillos said that in building the '73 Romanillos made so famous by Julian Bream, constructed just after mine, he increased the doming of the top, "to put more tension into the guitar." The doming of the top is not carved into it, as in a bowed instrument or an arch-top guitar. Instead it is produced by arching the braces slightly, forcing the top plate into a hollow in the workboard (solera) when the braces are glued on, and arching the bridge. This produces stress in the top. Romanillos thought this was a good idea, and Bream said the resulting guitar was the best he ever had. Earlier Bream had bought two 1971 Romanillos guitars. One of them was the guitar he debuted the Villa Lobos Guitar Concerto on. He had also owned and recorded with more than one Hauser I, an Hernandez y Aguado and a Ramirez, at least. Wasn't there a Bouchet in there somewhere as well? My Arcangel Fernandez blanca is my favorite among all flamencas I have played. I didn't say it was "the best." Players will disagree on which guitar they like the most, depending on their way of playing, and the sound they want to get. One of my friends has a 1970-something Manuel Reyes blanca. I like my '67 Ramirez blanca better, he prefers the Reyes. They cost about the same when new, now the Reyes is worth four times as much as the Ramirez. I have played only three or four flamencas that I liked better than my Ramirez. Both the Arcangel and the Ramirez have domed tops. These tops were intentionally stressed during construction. Damann has good reason not to dome his tops. The honeycomb structure of the Nomex he uses in the middle of his sandwich tops very strongly resists the traditional method of doming. My college room mate is one of the pioneers of honeycomb structures, having introduced them into numerous commercial and military aircraft designs, Formula I cars, skis, etc. At least 20 years before Damann got interested in honeycomb I helped my friend to lay out the procedure for producing a honeycomb structure with compound curvature. You can't buy stock honeycomb material with compound curvature. It has to be produced specially for the particular application. Given the low ratio of density to bending stiffness of the wood-Nomex-wood tops Damann produces, doming is no doubt unnecessary. RNJ
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