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Post by rogerh on May 16, 2011 18:46:42 GMT 1
Well, that was almost too much information for one read! ;D Thanks. Tone bars is the natural thing for an archtop, but just like the X and ladder bracing on the flat top guitars, the different bracing styles has pro's and cons. With tone bars and a little bit with X-bracing you get VOLUME and a more narrow frequenze spectra. Tone bars gives the classical jazzguitar sound for an archtop. With ladder bracing you get less volume but a wider frequenzy response and a sweeter sound. X-bracing and tone bars are more stable, the top will not break as easy as with ladder bracing. I really like the tone of my Master Craft now when I've doubled the volume (from too low to good enough). Still nowhere near the tone bar style volume, but the sound is sweeter and more interesting to me. Not your typical jazz sound, a bit strange if that's what you expect. I think I like it as it is Maybe I can take away a little bit more of the bracing wood...
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Post by snapcase on May 16, 2011 20:59:54 GMT 1
I've been researching a little more. It seems that the pre war Czech builders used ladder bracings for most round hole archtops, while they used parallel bracing for F-holes guitars. I only know a single exception to this rule for now. That weird Martin Coletti I mentioned before belonging to my friend.
Curiously the early Gibsons had no bracings at all originally (of course, all of them had oval holes) but soon they got a kind of ladder bracing. they had a short bar right below the sound hole and a wide flat stripe running all along the bridge area from side to side. Like a kind of huge bridge patch. Only when the floating bridges were introduced around 1908 they changed the pattern for the common parallel bracing.
Though the Czech round holes were way less successful than the F-holes and they are so scarce, they have a higher tendency to have top cracks. I guess it's due to the poor reinforcement along the grain. The early Gibson top plates were way more thicker than in these guitars both after an before the parallel bars.
Sure, but if I were you I'd remove wood from the bar ends only as a first attempt trying to allow the top to vibrate more freely without compromising the bridge area strength. Remember that they crack easier than equivalent archtops with other kind of bracings.
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Post by rogerh on May 16, 2011 21:19:22 GMT 1
Sounds logical that the round hole arctops had ladder bracing, tone bars barely fits on either side of the hole. How they could do an archtop like this without reinforcments under the bridge beats me.
I used my small violin planer, a knife and some sandpaper and removed more wood from the braces, mainly from the third extra brace under the bridge, but also a little bit more from the bracing ends on the two braces below the soundhole.
No change in string height after stringing up. No big difference in sound, a bit fuller tone and maby a tiny bit louder. I'm done with the brace shaping now. I need to play it ;D
The difference in sound between holding the guitar to my stomach and holding it out is way smaller now. I got the top producing sound by thinning the braces and not just the bottom.
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Post by snapcase on May 16, 2011 21:45:17 GMT 1
Good to know it improved even further. ;D ;D Well, Gibson did it all the time from around 1908 to the early '30s when the oval holes were definitely discontinued. Parallel tonebars with no bridge patch and only a small bar under the sound hole to prevent splitting. It worked good for decades, but as I said before, the tops were much thicker than in any Czech archtop. Here's a crossover, hybrid or mixed approach you may try some day if you want to open the guitar again. It's the Richard Jacob concept. He made a few archtop models in his late days, intended to be classical guitars, thus having a very sweet and open sound unlike most regular jazz oriented archtops. The guitars are very good actually, but didn't fit amongst the classical players. Here are some info bracing sketches of these guitars. It's something I want to try some day. I'm sure it works good. Jacob never made so-so sounding guitars. Konzert ModelStrad ModelBracing patterns (Guitars #4774 and #4882)
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Post by rogerh on May 17, 2011 7:55:36 GMT 1
För att runda av tråden. Från att ha varit en väggdekoration är det här en av mina favoritgitarrer. Låter bra, intonerar perfekt och är rolig att spela på! Kul att få veta mer om den också.
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Post by snapcase on May 17, 2011 11:01:46 GMT 1
Of course. It's a big progress rescuing a wallhanger and turning it into a real guitar again.
Please, keep us updated whenever you have any recording available with this guitar. I'm dying to hear her voice! ;D
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Förstås. Det är en stor framsteg rädda en vägg hängare och göra den till en riktig gitarr igen.
Snälla, hålla oss uppdaterade när du har några inspelningen tillgänglig med denna gitarr. Jag längtar efter att höra hennes röst! ;D
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Post by rogerh on May 17, 2011 11:32:09 GMT 1
Det blir nog läge att spela in en liten demo. Kan tan nån vecka. Jämförde volymen med min Yairi Martin kopia och den håller jämna steg! Inget fel på volymen längre alltså Den låter tamejtusan kalasbra
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