Ed, the concert luthiers find that even with genuine master craftsmen using
well-set patterns for everything including bracing, that the minute
differences between one piece of wood on one guitar and its
not-quite-identical mate on the next guitar mean that they have to tune the
resonant frequency of the body (Helmholtz Frequency) very minutely and
carefully by hand.  That requires a good, trained ear and a deft, light
hand.  I'd assume the same to be true with automated manufacturing?

J

Joseph Sullivan

 
-----Original Message-----
From: OldTools [mailto:oldtools-bounces@s...] On Behalf Of Ed
Minch
Sent: Tuesday, June 06, 2017 7:17 PM
To: yorkshireman@y...
Cc: oldtools List 
Subject: Re: [OldTools] One for the luthiers.


On Jun 6, 2017, at 4:22 PM, yorkshireman@y... wrote:

>  Made with bog oak - 5,000 years old. 
> 
> He also said something about their being carbon fibre in it, and it having
a floating neck.   I have no idea what all that would do, But I thought I
may know someone who does. 


Richard:

Thanks - but I could not open the programme.   Carbon fiber is the latest
thing - there are several guitars with molded carbin fiber bodies (there are
even 3-D printed ukulele's).  I have used carbon fiber rods glued into a
neck to stabilize it.  In the 70's - 80's there were molded fiberglass
bodies that even Greg Allman played at the time - turns out they are hard to
repair!  I suspect the carbin fiber guitars will be the same.

"Contemporary" guitars don't have a huge market, with most buyer's choosing
traditional designs.  There are a couple of guys making the floating neck.
Thing to remember is that no one has done a double blind test on any of this
stuff, and famously, a paper mache guitar was mistaken for wood 50 years
ago.  They all sound basically like a guitar.

However, the one trend that is here to stay in lutherie is the CNC machine.
Cutting an intricate inlay is fairly easy, but cutting the socket that fits
exactly is a skill that few have mastered - not any more!  And once you
programme in the software to make a neck - then you can make a zillion of
them - and they look just like handmade necks.

It's a different world

Ed Minch
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