Richard Jernigan -> RE: using 430 vs. 440 standard pitch (Jun. 5 2019 2:02:10)
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ORIGINAL: Ricardo Most guitars are not tuned F#-G, I find only a handful with tops that thin and bassy like drum heads. Scooped mid range most of em. The vast majority are right at A or between G# and A, such that in almost all cases a notch filter right at A 220 will allow a close mic right on the soundhole, or else it will make the entire guitar sound anemic overall. By most I mean 80-90% from Hauser to Córdoba. You can find the main air resonance by singing into the soundhole. You not only hear it, but you can feel the body of the guitar vibrate in your hands. Once you find the resonance you can measure the pitch with a tuner like the Seiko SAT1200. It lights an LED showing the nearest standard pitch, and indicates the deviation from that pitch with a needle that moves over a scale measured in cents=1/100 equally tempered half step. Here are a few results: Tom Blackshear cedar/Indian "Rodriguez" classical #325, 2016 F+20 cents Ramirez cedar/cypress 1a #2126 1967 initials A.M. for Antonio Martinez F#+30 cents Jose Romanillos spruce/Indian #407 1973 ("modeled on" a 1950 Hauser) F#+40 cents Arcangel Fernandez spruce/cypress 1982, no serial number, signed and dated on inside of soundboard G-40 cents Abel Garcia Lopez spruce/Brazilian 2009 "RB2" G-25 cents Manuel Contreras Sr. spruce/Brazilian "Doble Tapa" 1991 G+20 cents I don't claim accuracy better than about 10-15 cents. The Romanillos and Garcia have slightly smaller Hauser size bodies. The Blackshear and Contreras have the larger bodies. The Ramirez is very close to dimensions I have seen published for Barbero blancas from the 1940s-50s. The plantilla of the Arcangel is just a little bigger than the Ramirez, but the depth of the box is a little less. I don't dispute Ricardo's experience, or his professional preference for guitars that mic well. My experience has been different, and I never play into a mic except to record. I have read that older guitars, such as Torres often have much lower resonance, down around E, but I've only played a couple, and didn't try to measure the main air resonance. They certainly had a different tonal balance from any of the guitars mentioned above. They had a deep mellow bass, but still a brilliant treble. RNJ
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