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Soundboard thickness vs. bracings...
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Ramón
Posts: 440
Joined: Feb. 23 2005
From: La Jolla, Ca
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 Soundboard thickness vs. bracings...
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So I'm building from the Reyes plans (thank you, Tom), and now starting to get ideas and a little understanding of other designs, and want to 'experiment' a bit. I have an older Esteso that I have been studying, along with the Ramirez flamencos of the 60's.
Soundboard thickess appears to be thicker when there is only 5 almost-vertical braces, and when a brace for the underside of the bridge is not used. I've never seen any plans with simpler bracing/no bridge support, so I'm curious, as my Esteso seems to be like 3mm thick! Great sound, though.
Any feedback or thoughts, ideas, experiences, or knowledge here would be helpful.
Thanks
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Date Feb. 4 2009 9:45:56
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Armando
Posts: 302
Joined: May 27 2005
From: Zürich, Switzerland
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RE: Soundboard thickness vs. bracings... (in reply to Ramón)
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Hi Ramón
I'm not Tom but i might also be able to give a feedback.
As from my experience (which is limited, but plenty at a time) it's true that soundboards with a bridge badge are usually thinner than those without. That's logic in a way, because the bridge badge adds latteral stiffness to the top. This allows to build guitars with thinner/lighter tops without loosing significantly on strenght. This in turn is a good basis to go from, if you want a guitar with a lot of attack, nice trebles and good bass at a time. All this attitudes are tipical for Reyes guitars. The Reyes guitar on Toms plan has a relatively thin top, but the bridge badge and the seven fan bracing pattern ensures enough stiffness to perfectly support the top. The plan worked very well for me allthough there are still some uncertainties regarding some construction details of this model / maker.
A top of three milimeters thickness appears to me to be too beefy even for a classical guitar with a red cedar top. I assume you know that already, but you must make sure not to measure the thickness of the soundboard close to the a soundhole, if a reinforcement is glued around this area. Three milimeters would probably give you strong trebles but it would take you away almost all bass and the dynamics of the sound. I have a Bernal negra with a red cedar top of 2,6mm thickness and a rather beefy seven fan bracing. That guitar sounds not too bad, but it is hard to get sound out of it, compared to my sprucetop flamencas with thinner tops. It really requires "pumping nylon" to get a nice sound out of that guitar.
Indeed it is important to have the top thickness and the stiffness of the bracings well balanced. How to reach that is a matter of personal experience, belief and whatever else. This topic becoms often a matter of dispute as there are many different opinions around among luthiers.
regards
Armando
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Date Feb. 4 2009 11:41:21
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Tom Blackshear
Posts: 2304
Joined: Apr. 15 2008
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RE: Soundboard thickness vs. bracings... (in reply to Ramón)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Ramón
So I'm building from the Reyes plans (thank you, Tom), and now starting to get ideas and a little understanding of other designs, and want to 'experiment' a bit. I have an older Esteso that I have been studying, along with the Ramirez flamencos of the 60's.
Soundboard thickess appears to be thicker when there is only 5 almost-vertical braces, and when a brace for the underside of the bridge is not used. I've never seen any plans with simpler bracing/no bridge support, so I'm curious, as my Esteso seems to be like 3mm thick! Great sound, though.
Any feedback or thoughts, ideas, experiences, or knowledge here would be helpful.
Thanks
The best guitars are mostly thinner in their tops but thicker tops do carry more music in them based on my building experience. But the trick is to know how to get good musical response out of thinner tops since this gives the guitar better projection and voicing, if it is done right.
The Reyes plan is about the best example I know of right now to get the modern response most musicians are seeking; not the Reyes itself but characteristically something that is close in its proximity to where you will get the proper articulation without having to do too much top graduation technique. Most of the older patterns have a lot of top thickness difference to worry about.
Even the older Condes had certain or various top thickness graduations to make them right. Most really good flamenco guitars will be slightly thinner around the bridge area than on the edges. This technique comes from growing to understand the top flex before installing the bridge.
Many Ramirez flamenco guitars seem to operate with even tops but some have the tops thinner in the middle for particular articulation and power. Same with the older Conde guitars that were braced toward the middle and that presented a stiffer top that needed a thinner center area.
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Tom Blackshear Guitar maker
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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE |
Date Feb. 22 2009 5:53:52
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