My guitar Nr. 4 with too much sustain

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Armando

Posts: 302
Joined: May 27 2005
From: Zürich, Switzerland

My guitar Nr. 4 with too much sustain

Hi everybody

Last night i have strung up my guitar Nr. 4 for the first time. Allthough the french polishing is not entirely done i have strung up my guitar nr. 4 last night.
It is a flamenca blanca with wooden pegs. The guitar is built after the plantilla of Francisco Barba as well as the bracing pattern. I was pretty much surprised that the guitar sounds quite much similar to my guitar Nr. 2 which was built after the 1951 Model of Barbero. The basic character of the two guitars seems to be the same allthough the new guitar with peg head is a bit brighter in tone. I have expected to get a guitar with a different tone, because the two instruments are not the same in regards to their construction nor in regards to the plantilla. Also the spruce used for the top is different. The Barbero was made of italien alpine spruce whereas the Barba was made of finer grained and somewhat heavier swiss spruce. To my surprise there is no big difference except the sustain. The new one has even more. The sustain is just in every note that i play. If i hum into the soundhole the guitar responses with reverb that lasts for 15 to 20 seconds on every tone i hum into the soundhole. That's defininitely too much for a flamenco guitar. So...what happened? What may be the cause of that sustain and how to reduce it in my next guitar?
Well i have taken the guitar making course with José Romanillos last year and i have incorporated some of his construction methods into that guitar. I have used his method of using wedges to join the body to the neck. Furthermore i have used his system of glueing single kerfings to the top. I find the guitar to be very responsive. Slightest touching of the strings is causing a loud tone. The guitar is very resonant and is unforgiving to improper playing technique. I think that's all what makes up a good classical guitar but the heck... I wanted a flamenco guitar with a dry percussive tone.

Maybe somebody can enlighten the issue

regards

Armando

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Dec. 15 2007 8:52:06

HemeolaMan

Posts: 1514
Joined: Jul. 13 2007
From: Chicago

RE: My guitar Nr. 4 with too much su... (in reply to Armando)

well i like sustain, i just adapt my playing to stop the sustain. sounds the same. even on a guitar with no sustain you should probably do that.

most classicals are not responsive at all. they take forever (in comparison to a flmaenco) for the attack of the note.

my advice, drop the saddle a little, that will kill some sustain, and make it more percussive. however, i think you may want to avoid altering this guitar, you may find it useful later on

as for a dry percussive tone, try building another one with reallly minimal bracing. as light as you can. try carbon fiber too.

most of all, just give it time to open up. i had a really wet sounding guitar that dried up in about 2 months of constant playing. i got a different perspective along the way too.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Dec. 15 2007 9:09:23

Anders Eliasson

Posts: 5780
Joined: Oct. 18 2006

RE: My guitar Nr. 4 with too much su... (in reply to Armando)

Maybe its over braces behind the bridge. How long did you make the sloping cut offs (Do you understand what I mean?

)

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Dec. 15 2007 20:35:23

Armando

Posts: 302
Joined: May 27 2005
From: Zürich, Switzerland

RE: My guitar Nr. 4 with too much su... (in reply to Armando)

Hi Anders

Actually the design of the bracing should be well done. As you may know, the Barba bracing consists of seven fan struts which are symetrically distributed. There are two long closing braces who touches each other close to the end block, similar to Torres but with a much sharper angle. The three central braces start to taper at the back end of the bridge and Nr. 2 and 6 in the middle of the bridge. Bracing height is about 3.5mm, width is 7mm.

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Dec. 16 2007 3:07:15