AN OPTICAL ILLUSION
Here’s a photo of a guitar that can present itself as an optical illusion.
Can you see it? Is the peak/point an innie, or an outie?
![](https://esomogyi.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/OPTICAL-ILLUSION.jpg)
Here’s a photo of a guitar that can present itself as an optical illusion.
Can you see it? Is the peak/point an innie, or an outie?
Dr. Dovetail is a [humorous] advice column for luthiers. It consists of some earnest letters of inquiry that Dr. Dovetail has been helpful with.
Be it noted that no one is named who has objected to their name being used, and other names have been disguised to protect the innocent. There is no subtext, there are no hidden messages, there is no weirdness or backstabbing going on outside of my own silliness. If I really don’t like someone, I certainly don’t make fun of them in public. I go after them in sneaky ways.
On the other hand, nothing is trickier than writing humor. It’s more difficult than any other kind of writing; it’s impossible to not offend someone, no matter how hard you try. So if this isn’t going to be quite your cup of tea, please don’t read on.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
I recently bought a Ribbecke guitar with a huge bulge in the lower bout on the treble side of the face, at my local flea market. The guy selling it said it didn’t need de-warping ‘cause it was made like that. He said it was a bubbled-top guitar. What’s the deal with this?
Signed: Bubbles, in Champaign (Illinois)
Dear Bubbles in Champaign:
What you have in your hot trembling hands, you lucky innocent, is one of the Ribbecke bubble-top guitars, manufactured in the 1970s. The genesis of the design is obscure: at first it was thought to be simply a metaphor for the essential post-modern deconstructionist paradigm. However, industrial sources report that it was the result of a search for a way to make guitars more sexy by giving them cleavage, and Ribbecke’s bulgey design ultimately provided the inspiration for the Miracle Bra. Having only a single bubbled mound on the treble side, however, these early attempts at representing cleavage came off as rather half-assed.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
Having been a member of the National Luthier’s Guild for some years now I’m puzzled by the fact that its publication, Guitarmaker, is only published a few times a year. Other magazines are published at least six times a year, if not monthly or even weekly, and, given the sheer amount of interest in lutherie and woodworking out there, I’d expect that there would be more than enough material available to publish an informational journal more frequently. What is the explanation for such a lapse?
Signed: Elmore Pulitzer
Dear Elmore:
Being a somewhat in-house publication, it is felt that the normal rules and considerations don’t apply to Guitarmaker. It is furthermore felt that this publication, like other things in its publisher’s life, more than makes up in size and quality for what it lacks in frequency.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
My wife recently surprised me by buying me a Humphries “millennium” guitar. The sense of occasion of the moment, unfortunately, was somewhat blunted by our getting into a heated argument about when the millennium actually began: in 2000, or in 2001? If I’m right, my wife threatens to return the “millennium” guitar and says I’m free to repurchase it myself on any date I wish. Can you help clarify this most vexing situation?
Signed: Stanley Kubrick (no, not that one)
Dear the-other-Stanley:
No need to worry: no actual, current time line is violated in the purchase of a Humphreys millennium instrument. Because the cachet of the current new millennium had already been co-opted by numerous commercial franchise ventures which had bought all rights to it, Mr. Humphreys’ guitars actually refer to the third millennium B.C.,which was still up for grabs. Keep your guitar and enjoy it. We understand these guitars are really great for playing old-timey music.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
I keep hearing that luthiers and lutherie folks are diamonds in the rough. That is, lots of them don’t have a lot of formal schooling, but they’re really smart anyhow. Are any members of this group particularly educated in a formal way, and how well did they do academically before they went in for lutherie work?
Signed, P.H. Dee, PhD
Dear P.H. Dee:
Todd Taggart quickly comes to mind. He’s often told us that he was in the top 98% of his graduating class.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
I’ve been excited to hear about Julian Gaffney’s new all-Brazilian-rosewood (top, back, sides, neck, braces, bridge and case) guitars, but have been hearing mutterings of dissatisfaction about these instruments. What gives? Brazilian rosewood isn’t all that bad a bad wood, is it?
Signed, Rio Janeiro
Dear Rio Janeiro:
We can only say that, for reasons which we don’t have the space to get into, it is generally felt that with the recent release of his “Save the Rainforest” line of Presentation Model all-Brazilian-rosewood guitars this man has hit rock bottom and begun to excavate.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
I’ve been on the periphery of the world of lutherie for quite some time and informally followed the careers, successes and failures of some of the more prominent members of the guitarmaking community. I couldn’t help noticing that Ericson Reid, who had been active in guitarmaking and finishing, seems to have dropped out of sight. Does anyone know why?
Signed, Nah Yusseem Nahwa-Yudunt
Dear Nah Yusseem:
This firmly-established luthier made a bad mistake some time ago in building a guitar for a very important client who was connected with the Mob. He mistook the massage lotion for the wood glue and used it on that project. These substances look quite alike, you know, and this is an easy mistake to make. I’ve done it myself. Anyway, this individual had to leave town quickly and has gone into the Federal Luthier’s Protection Plan, and no one knows his whereabouts. We think he may have been sent to Costa Rica to work anonymously.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
I’ve been hearing a lot about Ervin Somogyi lately: his unusual sense of design, his controversial politics, his pioneering nontraditional methods, his eccentric teaching style, his checkered work ethic, his highly Bohemian manners of personal behavior, his groundbreaking body of work, and the heroic array of medications that keep him going. This guy has made quite a splash. I hear he started out with nothing. Is this true?
Signed, Gudfur Nottingham
Dear Gudfur:
Yes. And common sentiment is that he still has most of it.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
How long have Alembic guitars been around? I seem to have heard about them all my life. And didn’t Rick Turner make them?
Signed, Old Timer
Dear Old Timer:
Turner guitars have indeed been around for a long time. As a matter of fact, diggers at a prehistoric archeological site in North Central Southeastern Germany recently unearthed a perfectly preserved petrified wood Rick Turner guitar. Experts said it was the earliest example of a rock guitar they’d ever seen.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
Why do archtop guitars have so much bigger pegheads than regular acoustic guitars?
Signed, Angelerenzorinaldi Manuelmauriccio
Dear Mr. Manuelmauriccio:
It’s because Italians have such long last names.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
I’ve been trying to come up with a great, socko byline for my guitars, but I’m hitting a brick wall. All the good slogans have been taken. Do you have any advice for me?
Signed, Looking for a good Line
Dear Looking:
Before Boaz El-Laskin got on the bandwagon with his new slogan “Guitars so good you’ll plotz!” he was going to use “Miracle Guitars: if it sounds good, it’s a Miracle!”. This was originally intended to be marketed to seminary students, but he changed his mind after rethinking his demographic. It’s become available should you want it. Also, we hear that D. Angelico Corleone was going to release his new “il Padrone” model along with the slogan A Guitar You Can’t Refuse. But, since his mysterious disappearance, that one seems to be available as well.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
I’ve been hearing about Larry Robinson’s inlay work for a long time and I finally got a hold of some of his books. Wow. Where does he come up with these complicated, intertwined, colorful designs and images? But aren’t they a bit on the busy side?
Signed, Snowblinded by m.o.p.
Dear Snowblinded:
Well, yes, but overall there’s general agreement that Robinson’s work is quite a lot better than it looks.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
I’m a wealthy collector of fine things who is considering buying some guitars. My problem is that the most expensive guitars are made of rosewood, and my home is decorated in Danish modern style, so the guitars really wouldn’t match the décor. Do you have any suggestions?
Signed, Max from the Hamptons
Dear Max:
Why yes, I do, and your timing in asking this couldn’t be more perfect. Luddite’s Mercantile Inc. wood supplier in Healdsburg, California, has just received a large shipment of extremely expensive Brazilian rosewood which was recently culled from a pocket of the Amazon basin in which there has previously been little logging activity. This new wood is quite amazing. Far from looking like the same old dark Brazilian rosewood which everyone has been using for years, different samples of this new wood have the appearances of Danish maple, oak, Finnish birch, Dutch mahogany, and even Swedish chromed metal. Our staff feels that guitars made from unique materials would undoubtedly make the perfect accent statements to go with your couch, curtains, or gazebo.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
I haven’t seen any of the Greedlove guitars around in a while and I heard that the company went out of business. What gives?
Signed, I. M. Curious
Dear I. M. Curious:
Unfortunately Greedlove & Co. got involved with the advertising company that was also Enron Corporation’s former Public Relations organ. Everything started to fall apart when, through the error of a dyslexic adman, the advertising for their new Domed-Top Guitars was spelling “domed” with a double “o”.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
I‘ve been a guitar maker for a while now, but I’m finding the politics and egos involved are complicating my enjoyment of the work much more than I ever thought such things could. What advice do you have for a young guy with the hots to make it in this game, but doesn’t want to either take sides, get politicized, or alienate some people?
Signed, Disconcerted Dave
Dear Disconcerted Dave:
There are Four Golden Rules to follow in negotiating the complications and pitfalls of working with others. First, look for the humor in every situation. Second, don’t take sides. Third, never tell people everything you think.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
I’m a bit disconcerted by the entry of so many foreigners into guitar making. Used to be that it was only real Americans that did this work — for instance like Roy Noble, one of the real old timers.
Signed, Patriotic
Dear Patriotic:
Yeah, I know what you mean, but in this case I have to pop your balloon. Roy Noble’s family originally came from Eastern Europe, where their family name was Nobulshitzky. They shortened the name to something easier to pronounce when they arrived here.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
I’ve been reading Al Carruth’s articles for years now with increasing fascination. He has the most impressive grasp of musical acoustics and dynamics, and all done from a very scientific point of view. Yet, outside of his brilliant writings, no one I’ve talked to seems to know much about him. What can you tell me about this intriguing but shadowy figure?
Signed, Al Anon
Dear Al Anon:
In truth, Al is all but impossible to describe adequately. The best I can do is tell you the fact — widely agreed on by his friends — that if there were a contest for which First Prize would be a dinner with Al, then Second Prize would be two dinners with him. Third Prize would be three dinners with him. And so on. You get the picture.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
I understand that luthier Martin Einstein has a PhD. in philosophy and is very smart. I met him once. I was standing on a ladder, trying to throw a tape measure up to the top of a flagpole, hoping to catch the flagpole’s tip. I needed to measure the flagpole’s height, you see, and I wasn’t having much luck. This fellow took one look at me and said, ‘hey, wouldn’t it be easier if you took the flagpole out of its socket, laid it out on the ground, and measured it like that?’ Then he walked on. I thought that was a pretty silly thing to say, don’t you?
Signed, Flagpoleman
Dear Flagpoleman:
Yeah. Obviously, he didn’t understand that you were trying to measure the flagpole’s height, not its width.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
I’ve been hearing about something called the Doppler Guitar. Is it made by someone named Doppler? Who is he, and what are his guitars all about?
Signed, Coming & Going
Dear Coming & Going:
The Doppler guitar is the brainchild of luthier Martin Gibson. It’s based in the Doppler effect, in which objects approaching at high speed make a high-pitched sound and objects withdrawing at high speed emit a low-pitched sound — as when a car zooms past you on the highway as you are hitchhiking in the desert.
This enterprising designer saw a possibility of using this principle of physics to improve the response and tonal balance of his instruments. He is, at this time, attempting to patent a guitar the sound of which has its high end boosted as the player runs toward the audience with it; and the bass register is enhanced as one runs away from the audience, while playing the guitar. A special guitar harness is included at no extra charge, and this guitar provides something no other brand can boast of: tremendous aerobic and health benefits.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
My brother and I used to see Gustav Taylor at many guitar shows, but haven’t seen him lately. Has he dropped out? We’ve been really hoping to see and play some of his newer guitars.
Signed, Isaiah Wahoppen
Dear Mr. Wahoppen:
I’m happy to tell you that Gustav is still making great guitars. He went through a rough patch a while back and has simply found it hard to get to his tables at shows, because of all the restraining orders against him. Watch for someone who looks heavily disguised and it’ll probably be him.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
I’ve been reading your column for years and I think you’re making this stuff up. No one could write real letters like this. I’d like to see what would happen if you were hooked up to a polygraph.
Signed, Wired for Soundness
Dear Wired for Soundness:
You’re not the first one to bring this concern up. Not long ago I made an appointment with a luthier-polygrapher to settle people’s suspicions once and for all. Since he too had thought that I told incredible whoppers, he hooked me up not to a polygraph but a seismograph — in anticipation of getting truer readings. The needles held rock steady.
At least, until he plugged the machine in.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
As a marketing student on my way to an M.B.A., I know that Ford, Oracle, 3-M, Toyota, Chef Boy-Ar-Dee, Pepsi-Cola, etc. have long since zeroed in on the perfect sound-byte for increasing sales and market share. I’m wondering what might be the absolute best marketing slogan you’ve ever come across from a guitar maker?
Signed, Future Biz-Whiz
Dear Future Biz-Whiz:
My personal favorite is from Ervin Somogyi’s pre-lutherie career, when he was making vacuum-cleaners. His slogan was Somogyi; Our Products Really Suck. His business went under just before the advertising campaing that was to use this line got off the ground. Too bad; he really had high hopes for it. We hear that he has been working on an entirely new model of guitar called “The Miracle Model”, to soon be marketed as “The Miracle Guitar: if it sounds good it’s a Miracle!”. We wish him luck.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
My most embarrassing moment in lutherie happened one night when, in the dark, my girlfriend and I mistook the white glue for the massage lotion. The next morning the fire department had to be called in to hose us apart. Living in a small town, everybody was there to see the show. It was really embarrassing. Say, this is the “most embarrassing moments” column, isn’t it?
Signed: Togetherness in Tillamook
Dear Togetherness in Tillamook:
It is now.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
I really need help. I’m an alcoholic with a bad problem that’s getting out of control. I’d like to try one of the 12-step programs, but I can’t afford them. What should I do?
Signed, My Wood is Drier Than I Am
Dear Dryer Woods:
I’m glad you wrote, because there’s a fix. Luthier’s Anonymous offers a fifteen-percent-off, ten-step, program which has had good results. To make the transition easier, L.A. takes you off the hard stuff gradually by putting you on a temporary diet of wines which are specially developed for luthiers — and which are the same stuff the National Luthier’s Guild bigwigs enjoy at their symposiums (have you ever noticed how sober they look?). The current offerings are the award-winning Vin du Pay Forever, this year’s best near miss Chateau Clos But No cigar, the somewhat overinflated Le GrandPinot Envee’, and the perennially asymptotic Maison Clos-To-Being-Done. Good Luck!
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
I’m puzzled by some aspects of Harry Fleishman’s persona. In his writings, he comes across as a thoughtful, highly professional and smart guy. But in person, when he lectures or gives classes, my impression of him is that he just woke up. Am I missing something? What gives?
Signed, Puzzled in Peoria
Dear Puzzled in Peoria:
Harry really is, in fact, a phenomenally gifted, charming, witty, and urbane man of penetrating intelligence who is, after everything is said and done, sparklingly brilliant. Because of this, the directors of lutherie events have long made it a point to ask Harry to mumble, stutter and say inane things when he makes public appearances. It makes people in the audiences not feel so bad about themselves.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
As fur as hand-applied finishes go, do ya’ think that if’n I rubbed sausage grease all over mah guitar I could call it a French Polish finish?
Signed, Jes’ Wonderin’
Dear Jes’ Wonderin’:
That does it. I quit.
Dr. Dovetail is a [humorous] advice column for luthiers. It consists of some earnest letters of inquiry that Dr. Dovetail has been helpful with.
Be it noted that no one is named who has objected to their name being used, and other names have been disguised to protect the innocent. There is no subtext, there are no hidden messages, there is no weirdness or backstabbing going on outside of my own silliness. If I really don’t like someone, I certainly don’t make fun of them in public. I go after them in other sneaky ways.
On the other hand, nothing is trickier than writing humor. It’s more difficult than any other kind of writing; it’s impossible to not offend someone, no matter how hard you try. So if this isn’t going to be quite your cup of tea, please don’t read on.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
My boyfriend is a luthier and I’ve been going to lutherie shows with him for some time now. I’ve noticed something odd going on. All the luthiers part their hair on the left. Is this some weird membership or dress code thing? Why do they all do this?
Signed, Puzzled in Topeka
Dear Puzzled:
Their mothers were all right handed.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail,
I am thinking of hiring some luthiers for my guitar factory. I have heard that Leo Buendia is a fine luthier that I should get to work for me? What do you think?
Signed, Anxious
Dear Anxious,
You will be very lucky to get this man to actually work for you and I would waste no time in hiring him.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
My teacher at the Roverto-Benn school gave me a lutherie problem to solve: A famous guitarist is playing a big concert in a renown music hall in City A at 8:00 p.m. City A is 200 miles from City B, and 300 miles from City C. A luthier in City B wants to sell the performer in question a guitar and starts hitchhiking with his guitar to City A, at noon. He averages thirty miles an hour. But, unfortunately, he forgets to take his medication along. A second luthier, in City C, also wants to sell a guitar to this musician. He starts driving his Yugo toward City A at 10:00 a.m., flooring it all the way. He averages 40 miles per hour. Unfortunately, he leaves his concert hall tickets at one of three bars he stops at to ask for directions.
Which luthier gets to the musician first and makes the sale?
Signed: Al Thumbs
Dear Al Thumbs:
Obviously, the luthier at the bar who found the mislaid concert hall tickets.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
I’m a part-time luthier and computer hacker and I’ve just hacked into the central C.I.A. database files at Langley to find out what kind of dirt our top national security agency has gathered about the. board of directors of one of our larger lutherie supply organizations. Amazing!!! These people are the most incredible bunch of misfits and ne’er-do-wells I’ve ever read about. They’ve run their own businesses into the ground, cheated on their partners, colluded in price fixing of a vast array of their shoddy merchandise, have wild sex orgies at their annual sinposiums, and take drugs regularly. The most disturbing thing was that none of them seems to have ever been convicted of anything. Do these people have any previous convictions?
Signed, Amazed
Dear Amazed:
Well, yes; they all used to believe that honesty is the best policy.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
I have a problem. I have two brothers. One is a luthier. The other was put to death in the electric chair for murder. My mother died in an insane asylum when I was three years old. My two sisters are both prostitutes and my father sells narcotics to high school students. Recently I met a girl from a reformatory where she served time for smothering her illegitimate child to death. I’m really in love with this girl and I want to marry her. My problem is this: if I marry her, how do I tell her about my brother who is the luthier?
Signed, Fred in Omaha
Dear Fred in Omaha:
It’ll sound better if you tell her he’s on the Board of Directors of a nationally prominent luthier’s supply organization with certain connections to a major national security organization.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
I understand that individual guitar makers, having no advertising budget, are forced to market their instruments by going to guitar concerts and hawking them backstage, after the shows. Amazingly, some luthiers do very well at this. I’m told that Jason Kostal has been particularly fortunate in this method of marketing. How did he start?
Signed, For The Record
Dear For The Record:
This luthier’s early career in somewhat vague, but we have an unverified report that before he was a guitar maker he made grand pianos. He would drive them to concerts and haul them backstage to show musicians. It was working pretty well for him, but his back eventually gave out and he needed to lift lighter things.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
Supposing you are making a guitar out of Egyptian Yew and Baltic Wormwood that have a density of six point two and five point nine pounds per cubic foot, respectively, at 26 degrees centigrade and 36% humidity. The woods are worked to .130″ during light Santa Ana wind conditions in October, when Young’s Modulus for the topwood is precisely 3. The braces are made out of Thuringian poplar felled at a 7000 foot elevation in December, with a grain count of 13 per centimeter. The air cavity is 17.85 liters and the soundhole is 4.25 inches in diameter. The bridge, made from rare aged Tasmanian Devilwood, weighs 39.7 grams at sea level at 60 millimeters of barometric pressure.
What would you expect the effect on the guitar’s 0,1,1 resonance dipole to be, and also on the impedance midrange transient of the 5000 to 8000 Hertz band (including bass signature roloff), of increasing the scale of this guitar by one centimeter?
Signed, Scientific Guitarmaker
Dear Scientific Guitarmaker:
None at all, unless you put strings on it.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
I’ve been reading about the Kasha bracing system, with its radial asymmetrical bracing and impedance damping split bridges. I find this radical approach thought-provoking and intriguing, as it seems to come out of a heretofore unexplored concept of guitar acoustics that has ramifications into both monocoque and structural engineering, as well as exciting implications for entirely new bracing systems. Can you explain some of the dynamics and thinking behind this important contemporary breakthrough in guitar design?
Signed, Fascinated
Dear Fascinated:
No.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
Frank Ford, of A.S.I.A.’s board of directors, is a well known repairman and an avid adherent of hide glues. He recently wrote the definitive History of Glue. Is this book any good?
Signed, Curious about Yellow
Dear Curious:
No one on the staff here could put the book down once they picked it up.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
I hear Ervin Somogyi has broken ground as an artist by developing a new art form: woodcarving art inspired by the techniques and materials of lutherie work. Some people say this artwork-for-the-wall is pretty brilliant. What have you heard?
Signed, Aesthetic Woodworker
Dear Aesthetic:
The consensus in the art gallery world and among the doyens of the National Endowment is that at least Somogyi’s wall-art work, if not the man himself, is quite well hung.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
I’m impressed with Michael Bashkin’s guitars, as well as his marketing acumen. He has worked hard at placing his instruments in the hands of prominent endorsers and is constantly striving to increase his market profile. What advertising blitz will we, the members of the public, be treated to next?
Signed, MBA plunker
Dear MBA plunker:
This man has really surpassed himself by recently signing an exclusive-use endorsement deal with the prestigious Gallaudet University Guitar Symphony Orchestra. They love the sound of his guitars! Look for their CD soon on the Music Mime label.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
I want to buy a guitar, but am concerned that I find one that’s made with New Age Consciousness, with regard for all living things, and with an attitude of respect for the earth. What brand do you recommend?
Signed, Conscientious in Fargo
Dear Conscientious:
I’d try a Taylor. They don’t use laboratory animals to test their products. They use real consumers instead.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
It’s been a long time since anyone’s heard about Larry Robinson, the famous guitar inlay artist. He made it Big Time in the seventies and eighties, but then ran into trouble with controlled substances, gambling debts to the Mob, various nervous breakdowns which led to hospitalizations and electroshock therapy and, of course, some sexual escapades notorious to the point of becoming legendary. What ever happened to him?
Signed, Reminiscing
Dear Reminiscing:
The individual you named has really cut a wide swath through the barrel bottoms of life, there’s no denying. After several attempts at drug rehab, counseling, and ultimately finding religion, his parole officer assures us that Robinson has turned his life around a full 360 degrees.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
Me and my brother-in-law Biff went into partnership to import inexpensive Mexican guitars. Our business plan has been to rent a truck, drive to Mexico, buy a load of cheap guitars, and haul them back across the border to sell. We’ve done this a few times, buying the Mexican guitars for $50 each, driving them across the border, and selling them for $40 each, stateside. Cash flow is terrible, and we’re just scraping by. We’ve been tryin to figure out what to do about this situation. What do you think we oughtta do?
Signed, Mack from El Paso
Dear Mack from El Paso:
You obviously need a bigger truck.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
I read that the National Luthier’s Guild. recently completed some rigorous controlled listening tests on guitars made by its members. What were the findings?
Signed, Acoustician in Nashville
Dear Acoustician:
The N.L.G. found that Nothing sounds better than a Manzer guitar. Much better, in fact.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
It’s always interesting to know how various prominent luthiers got their start. After all, it’s not as though one could go to school to learn these skills, until recently, and all the old timers segued into guitar making from something else. One of the most fascinating individuals on the scene is Kasha Michael, who heads a world-famous enterprise that carries his name: how did he get his start in designing and making soundboxes?
Signed, Anecdotally Curious
Dear Anecdotally Curious:
He started out making caskets for dead pets.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
The name C.F. Martin is known the world over. The first initial stands for “Christian”. It seems to me that to have four generations of the most famous guitar making dynasty in the world having this name can’t be an accident in this day and age. Do you know anything about the nexus between Christianity and guitars, which this name suggests? There’s probably a significant history, perhaps even an entire metaphysic, involved. Can you cast any light on this?
Signed, Christian luthier
Dear Christian luthier:
There’s been a lot of speculation about the nexus. You can read all about it in the recently published The Day Christ Died: The Real Story Behind “X” Bracing, which is available through The Luddite’s Mercantile catalogue.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
I’ve been following Lewis Santer’s career for some years now, and I’m really impressed with his work. What accounts for his fabulous success as a repairman?
Signed, Motown groupie
Dear Motown groupie:
This man’s work is motivated by an attitude of extremely conscientious, almost compulsive, carefulness and fastidious attention to the smallest details. Why, he’s so meticulous that when he misplaces something, the place he finds that thing is not the last place he looks— just to make certain he didn’t lose it somewhere else! No one else we know of functions at this level.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
I’m a psychologist and part-time luthier. In doing archival research for my doctor’s thesis in weird personality disorders, I’ve stumbled onto the fact that Bick Doak, who is associated with the Marlin Guitar Company’s custom shop for many years, once aspired to become an engineer as well as a writer of literature. He wrote at least one book in which he tried to combine engineering, fiction, ethics, marine science, whaling, theology and topology, but it seems to be out of print and I can’t find any references to it tell me what it was about either. Can you help?
Signed, Rosewood Sheepskin Man in Tulsa
Dear Rosewood/Sheepskin:
Mr. Doak has indeed had a varying palette of interests in his past lives. The book you refer to is Mobius Dick, (or What Goes Around Comes Around), which became an obscure but intensely studied cult classic some years ago. It was unfortunately doomed by vicious academic infighting between the engineering and ethics departments of the Universities at which the book was taught, that culminated in the unfortunate and subsequently hushed-up lawsuit between the Vatican and M.I.T. Psychologists have argued that the book, which carries the author’s first name in its title, is autobiographical. Pirated versions can still occasionally be found on the Vatican’s website. Mr. Boak is presently working on a specialty catalogue of inexpensive woods and materials for the guitar maker, titled Cheap Thrills In The Woodshop. We can hardly wait for it to come out.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
Many luthiers have had previous careers in everything from business to photography to the arts, and have been successful in these. Furthermore, when they become guitar makers they often bring specific skills and attitudes from their former occupations with them, and use these to great advantage in mastering the skills of lutherie. I understand that one of the most prominent female luthiers on the scene today used to be a lawyer. What legal skills did she transfer over?
Signed, tax-accountant/guitar maker
Dear tax-accountant:
She actually wasn’t ever a lawyer: she was a dyslexic law student who dropped out when she found out she wouldn’t ever be joining the American Bra Association. But, even so, she did have a bit more trouble at first than the average second-careerist in transferring her legal skills over into lutherie. Due to a semantic misunderstanding, she believed that her guitars’ ease of playability needed to be actionable. She made many like that.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
I went to the opening of a fancy new yuppie restaurant in my town and was attended by a most attractive waitress. When she asked me what I wanted I told her that I wanted a quickie from her, and she slapped me. She said that she didn’t do that kind of thing, and what did I want? Brought up short as much by her reflexes as by her looks, I repeated that I really did want a quickie from her. She slapped me again, and said for me to forget that, and what did I really want? I didn’t want to get hit again, so I left. What gives?
Signed, Bubba von Dresdner
Dear Bubba:
It’s pronounced keesh. We could recommend a good finishing school for you.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
I’ve been hearing reports about Santer Instruments but I can’t quite get a fix on them. I hear that they have a guitar model called the “Zero Defcets”, which happens to be my name. Can you tell me something about its founder?
Signed, Zero Defcets
Dear Mr. Defcets:
Miroslav Santer is a man who has achieved the American dream. Originally an immigrant into the U.S. from New Jersey, Mr. Defcets started out with nothing. But like many self-made men he has, through sheer hard work and will power, made his way to the very highest pointof the Bell Curve.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dear Dr. Dovetail:
I’ve long been fascinated at how guitar making work has attracted aficionados who previously have had other jobs, interests and careers. I’m particularly fascinated at how these creative individuals have brought with them the skills and disciplines of their former work lives — be they training in fine arts, machining, architecture, pattern-making, cabinetwork, commercial design, music or physics — and adapted them to guitar making. Have any luthiers come from the automobile making industry?
Signed, Edsel from Detroit
Dear Edsel from Detroit:
Why yes, there is one prominent luthier, whom we cannot name, who has come from that well-established industry. His current main project is a guitar with listener’s-side air bags. Frankly, it’s generally felt that his instruments really do need them.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – <> – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Dr. Dovetail’s column will be continued in the second volume of this set.
November 12, 2018
Someone asked about why I don’t post photos of current builds, comments, updates, etc. on the lutherie discussion forums. Well, there are several reasons. Mostly, I just don’t have the time.
I think that the Acoustic Guitar Forum is mostly a good thing; it gives individuals a chance to show off their latest work and get comments and information and support. I particularly am impressed by the postings such as one that I saw by JESSUPE (Jessupe Goldastini). What a painstakingly original and unique piece of work he’s accomplished! I have myselfposted my thoughts on various internet sites in the past. I did quite a bit of this some years ago on the ANZLF (Autralia/ New Zealand Luthier’s Forum), as well as on this one, and on a third one the name of which I’ve forgotten. These were mostly good experiences. But spending time on internet forums at this point in my life is not really for me; they can really soak one’s time up. And, frankly, not everyone behaves well.
Aside from all that, I have put everything I know and think about how guitars function, into my two books. My information is all there. Really: I’ve kept very little back except the specific thicknesses of my guitar woods. This is largely because there is no specific target thickness: each guitar top is a bit different in thickness. This is itself because I’m going for a specific stiffnessevery time, not a thickness. Each piece of wood is a little bit different, and it’s meaningless to give one number that would include tops for Jumbo guitars, and OM guitars, and OO guitars, and everything in between . . . that would furthermore include no information at all about bracing, string gauge, scale length, voicing procedures, doming, selective thinning within the same top, and the specifics of wood selection. PLUS: there are by now fully two dozen HOW-TO books that will give one or another specific number for top thickness. So the best I could do is to give an average thickness.
I produced a DVD a few years ago of a lecture that I gave in which I listed and explained the factors that are responsible for a guitar’s sound: voicing work, bracing, materials stiffness, and vibrating modes of guitar tops. I laid out everything that I’ve discovered and use that I consider important. I even brought some guitar bodies that had been voiced to different degrees of completion, and tapped on their tops to illustrate the progression of tap tones in my voicing work. Such tap tones audibly reveal how a guitar top “opens up”, and I find them indispensable as guides.
At the end, when the audience was asking questions, someone asked if they could see the final shapes of my bracing (that was producing those tones that had reflected my voicing efforts). I responded that he’d have to take my voicing class to see that level of the work. That may have been a mistake, and I got some blowback from it as the word spread that I was stingy and secretive with my work. I regret having sounded so flip and glib. I wish I’d had the presence of mind to have said the following — or something like it:
“I’ve described every principle and consideration that I find important in dealing with guitar sound: wood stiffness in guitars, optimal bracing, top vibrational motions, torque and string pull, an evenness of the vibrating gradient, the Cube Rule of stiffness, guitars as projectors and as diffusers, and top doming. [NOTE: this stuff is all in my books.] I’ve told you what I think, and why I think it, and I used visual aids and diagrams. I’ve talked about how I came to discover these important things, and even what mistakes I made along the way. And, mainly, these are precisely the factors that I work with as I make guitars the sounds of which everyone likes. Now, if I just show you the shapes and profiles of my bracing . . . youwillimmediatelyforgeteverythingIsaidandgohomeand copywhatyou’veseenmedo. And that, in my opinion, is really bad teaching”.
I said above that it may have been a mistake for me to refuse to show my final configuration of voiced bracing to the audience member who asked to see it. That’s half of it. The other half is: Are you kidding me?; you expect me to show you what it’s taken me four decades to figure out, just for the asking — and then criticize me when I say no? Pal, I just told you ALL the things that I think about in order to do the work that I do. I owe you that because I promised to speak about these things. But I draw the line there; that SPECIFIC stuff is entirely proprietary. I do not owe you to show you the specific fruits of forty-plus years of my learning curve just because you’ve bought a $10 ticket to a presentation I’m making.
I wish to be a cheering section for the honing of one’s own thinking skills. Also, I know something important that a lot of younger people don’t: things acquired without effort or equitable exchange — sort of like sex on demand — have no significance. You can stop reading now, by the way; I will post further postings on this matter but they are merely additional commentary.
I have postponed my voicing classes, for an as-yet-undefined period of time. This will be a disappointment to a good handful of people, but I see no other alternative at this point, given other factors in my life.
For some years now my classes have been far from full. I’ve had quite a few classes with only two or three students. I had one with four. But I really want to have six. That is a much better arrangement from the standpoint of interactions, question-and-answer sessions, problem-solving, looking-over-the-next-person’s-shoulder as we do the hands-on exercises, and the sharing of views and opinions.
The problem has not so much been the cost as it has been the inconveniences of scheduling. Different people can only come during certain months or times of the year, but not others. And I cannot offer the class several times a year. But whatever the cause, the result is that the classes are a net loss for me at a time when I cannot take such efforts on.
Another part of this mix is I’ve gotten very busy with guitars to make, and am so far behind schedule that I cannot afford the time each class takes. It requires about a week of preparation beforehand, then the class is nine days long, and then it takes me a week to recover my energies. In the meantime, my students and I take over the shop and nothing else gets done. It really is costly in terms of time . . . not to mention the hour of weekly emailing and communication that must be dealt with between classes; over the course of a year that adds up to fifty hours at the computer. All in all, having classes that are only half full really works against me.
Good luck to you in your building efforts. The best advice I can give at this point is that, if you have not already done so, go out and buy a set of my books and read them. They are FULL of pertinent and useful information, and my class has been organized around the information contained in these books. You can read up on them on my website, and order from me directly or through my website; They cost $265 for the set, plus shipping, and I can autograph them for you if you wish. See below for more information.
Sincerely, Ervin Somogyi
P.S.: My two-volume book set has the titles The Responsive Guitar and Making the Responsive Guitar. The first is about the Why, the How Come, the What If, and the What’s That All About. Each of its chapters describes a part or component or function of the guitar, its dynamic importance and structural, how that aspect of the guitar works and interacts with other aspects, and how different builders work differently with these same variables, and what happens when one emphasizes one variable or function over another. Mainly, it is about what each part of the guitar is there for, and what relationship it stands in to the other parts. The second is about how to construct the instrument itself. These books are heavily cross-referenced and are more useful a set than as single volumes. Finally, if you are not going to buy my books, then the single most useful piece of advice I can offer you is to accept that most guitars are SIGNIFICANTLY overbuilt. If you lighten up on the construction, thickness of parts, etc. then you will make better guitars.
May, 2015
I want to tell you about a project I completed recently. In order to gain a better understanding of the tonal differences between cedar, European spruce, and Sitka spruce, I built three identical guitars that differed ONLY in the use of these soundboard woods. Backs and sides, gluing and assembly techniques, bracing, ornamentation, tuners, finish, and voicing were the same. (Technically, there was one difference besides the choice of topwood: the mosaic inlays on each of the instruments were of different colors; but I don’t think this affected sound in any way.)
The project began in 2012 when a client (who prefers to remain anonymous) bought a classical guitar from me. In the course of subsequent discussions we began to talk about a steel string guitar commission. This individual is genuinely interested in the ins and outs of guitars, guitar making, music, and sound; and he asked me a lot of questions and he patiently listened to my various answers. It eventually led to a conversation about the characteristic sound of one wood versus another… and how difficult it was to pin down those factors when comparing one maker’s work to another’s — or even two guitars built in different years that might or might not have structural or design differences significant enough to affect sound. There are too many building techniques and variables. So we began to consider the possibility of a multiple build that focused on keeping every variable — except for the choice of topwood — constant.
As far as we knew nothing like this had been done before. It would be a tricky challenge to keep everything else constant; it cannot be done in a factory setting because the ideal in that environment is dimensional consistency. And when it comes to sound, woods that are the same size/thickness/height do not predictably yield identical density, stiffness, or vibrational action. Especially if the woods are of different species.
So, the selection of materials and the construction of the soundboxes needed to be carried out with a hand, an eye, an ear, techniques, working conditions, back-and-side woods, voicing procedures, tap tones, etc. that promoted consistency. That was going to be my contribution. And after that, we would need a competent player with a sensitive touch and a discerning ear to evaluate the performance of such instruments. We both thought to ask Michael Chapdelaine, who is in our opinion second to none as a guitar player, to do this.
Finally, in order to make the resulting information available to others in a meaningful way, it seemed obvious that this ought to be written up and even accompanied by a videotape and high quality audio recording of the experience.
I am writing this up in the form of a two-part article that will appear as two chapters in my forthcoming book — with links to a website that will give access to both the visuals and the audio — so that anyone who is interested can read our comments and opinions of these guitars’ sounds, see how the tests were carried out, and also hear the guitars directly. It should be interesting.
I have been writing a second book. It is an outgrowth and continuation of my first two-volume work which is about the ins and outs of the contemporary guitar. I’m having trouble containing my writings to a single volume under a single umbrella title, though. Some of what I’ve been writing about is technical, and some is more personal, reflective, and biographic… and the material is altogether too wide-ranging to fit comfortably under one title. I mean, who wants to read about an author’s personal ups and downs in a how-to or method book? I’m pretty sure that titling this “a luthier’s further reflections on the guitar” or something like that will sound terminally boring. So, as with my last book project, this one will likely morph into a two-volume set. I’m thinking of titling these books as Guitar Making: Some of the Fine Points and A Luthier’s Life, respectively. Those titles seem more fitting than any one name I can think up.
Anyway, the prospect of getting a more scientifically-based handle on the contributions to sound of different topwoods has been an interesting one. I just thought I’d give you a heads-up on this one.
![]() Sitka Spruce Top |
![]() Cedar Top |
![]() European Spruce Top |
March, 2015
I received the following letter from one of my friends. It’s good enough to share with others. He wrote:
Dear Erv,
I had a wonderful ah-hah! Moment that startled me greatly. I was so enthralled at the time that I didn’t think to take pictures, so I hope my words will be enough to give you an idea.
We went with some friends to the new strip-mall built outside of town. I went scavenging around the back, being that kind of dude that is always looking for treasures left behind, like some cargo-cult islander or a stranger in a strange land. Near the little tin hut that houses cardboard, later to be crushed and bundled, was a strange box. I opened it to get a look at what was inside. Well, it was something I had never seen before: a brown plastic disposable keg, made like a big coke bottle, but much larger, about a 4 to 5 gallon capacity, and with a heavy-duty cap & a siphon to the bottom. In volume, it was about the same as a dreadnaught acoustic. It had a very thin skin, but the cap was industrially tough.
Of course I didn’t know anything about it, and was frustrated like a chimp because I could not unscrew the cap. I knew that if I took it back to my wife and friends, who were eating & schmoozing, they would not want me to keep it. I started to finger-drum it like a drum. It had the most amazing acoustic response. I just could not believe my ears & hands because it literally bounced with my fingers and made the loudest sound I ever got from any plastic bottle of any size. It was a wonderful drum. And because this strong drum was so wonderful I was determined to keep it.
So I got out my pocket knife and began to disassemble the cap guards so that it would be able to be all mine, minus the siphon. As I began to cut the locks on the cap, a tremendous amount of CO2 gas began leaking out… not for just a few seconds, but for a long long time. I was surprised at what great pressure this plastic bottle was under. I had to cut about 9 plastic safety locks, and even though I had done two-thirds of them, and the cap got loose, more gas kept on coming out. It was under a lot of pressure, and that kept the skin of the plastic alive and responsive.
As soon as all the gas came out and I removed the siphon, the keg was all as loose as an old man’s scrotum after 3 hours in a steam room. In more polite terms, as loose as a big balloon that had once been tight but had all the helium (or air) taken out. At that moment I was sad that I had lost my drum, but happy to just discard the now flaccid jug in the garbage where it now belonged.
All of this led me to fantasize that perhaps, in an analogous way, the braced system of a guitar gives the skin a similar “personality” — as if it were (in its own way) “pressurized”. Perhaps there is a better word, but for an example of the difference between responsive & non-responsive, I could not imagine anything better.
I’m thinking of you, and enjoying your books, of course. Someday I will do things. Progress is my most important product, elusive as it may be.
Your garbage-bandit friend, Alan
December, 2014
Steven Jay Gould is probably the most famous scientist, paleontologist, geologist, evolutionist, and scientific historian of our time. Well, even if he shares that distinction with scientific superstars Neil deGrasse Tyson (the most popular astrophysicist on television) and Steven Hawking (of Singularities and Black Holes fame), Gould is, in my opinion, the most broadly accessible. He has written many books that describe — in language that is easy to understand and that makes those subjects interesting — the natural world that preceded us. He even uses (brilliantly!) the game of baseball as a lens or prism through which to view, explain, and help us comprehend what might otherwise be considered obscure and arcane natural phenomena. All in all, Gould’s a cool dude — even though he died in 2002.
As far as evolutionary processes in general are concerned, authorities have generally taken the attitude that evolution has always been gradual and steady. You know: one step at a time. Gould, on the other hand, held that evolution was irregular and lumpy; millions-of-years-long stretches would occur in which nothing happened, and then, all of a sudden and for no apparent reason, a major leap or advance could be seen. This is certainly what the geological evidence has revealed to us. Gould called this process punctuated equilibrium, a concept he developed with colleague Niles Eldridge in 1972.
My guitars have, in their own modest way, followed this same path. That is to say, my guitars have evolved over the years; but they have not evolved at a steady pace. At times I’d have a new idea and I’d “put it into” a guitar. I do have an impulse to continually push the envelope (which is a phrase that has baffled me ever since I first heard it) and try something new. I tend to always wonder what is around the next corner; what would happen if I made something a bit thinner… or re-shaped a brace… Also, I’d be making guitars in my usual way… and keep on working like that… until I’d eventually discover or notice something, by accident, or have an insight into something that hadn’t jelled for me previously. And then, I am always looking for new ideas concerning artistry and decoration. Anyway, altogether, these kinds of alterations would result in a guitar that had a somewhat better look and free-er (freeer?) sound.
And, on the whole: how could any of this have been any different? The guitar itself has always been my best teacher. She has always revealed herself to me bit by bit, taking her own sweet time. I’ve been the student.
Lately, some guitars of mine from the eighties and nineties have come on the market, and some of them have come to my shop for visits, checkups, or for a tweak or repair… or because the original owner was no longer playing guitar and wanted to see if I knew anyone who would want to buy their baby. And so on.
I have been pleasantly surprised in every instance by how well they’ve held up. Yes, they’ve had signs of wear and tear – if not in small scratches and such, then most notably in the look of the lacquered finish. (I used to lacquer my guitars rather than to French polish them. Mentioning this often opens the door to the lacquer-vs.-French-polish debate, but I’m not going into that now.) Lacquer has the capacity to separate from its underlayment, over time; and these guitars show small spots of lacquer separation/bubbling from the wood underneath. This is not in the least bit serious; it’s cosmetic and easily fixable; a guitar simply looks not-brand-new in this regard.
Happily, not one of the guitars that I’ve seen or heard about, from this period, has been mistreated: they seem to be structurally sound. And I’ve been pleasantly reminded of how far back I was using certain elements of decoration, or arrangements of bracing, that now seem to me like the most intelligent way to carry out this work.
One thing that I have noticed in these instruments is how my voicing work has evolved in the last twenty-five years: I’ve gotten bolder in wood removal. Everyone has always liked the sound of my guitars, and this was true even years ago. But my newer guitars give off more open tap tones. This is a result of the fact that I currently voice my guitars to a different point of physical/mechanical responsiveness than I used to. This is itself explained by the fact that I’ve allowed myself to push the envelope just a bit further, and a bit further, and a bit further, as far as my stopping-point in removing wood and manipulating physical structure are concerned. (Those of you who make guitars and voice them must also wonder, as I have done each time: what would happen if I shaved off another 1/32 of an inch off these braces, or sanded another ten thousandths of an inch off the top??? Well, I’ve traveled that road some.)
What this is all about is that I have long been aware of the adage (in Spanish guitar making, at least) that the best guitars are built on the cusp of disaster. That is, the best ones are built so that they are just able to hold together under the pull of the strings and the stresses of use. Anything less, and the guitar would be on the slippery slope toward falling apart; anything more, and the guitar would have less than its full voice. This is an intuitive concept that is central to my approach to making guitars. It also represents a metaphysical balancing act that, in its execution, is never the same for any two guitars. In any event, mostly, I’ve tried to sneak up on that balance point. I have overdone it and overstepped the mark a few times. And I can tell you with authority that these are useful experiences, because one has to have some idea of where to stop.
(Parenthetically, making a mistake isn’t the end of the world. I’ve learned a few things. One is that we’re talking about balancing acts, and not good guitar/bad guitar. If the braces are too small, then one can use lighter strings, or thin the top so that it is no longer underbraced for its stiffness. Or one can add bracing mass (or even entire braces!) through the soundhole to re-establish a previous balance point; it’s tricky, but not impossible. Finally, and not least importantly: even if I don’t like the sound of a particular guitar… someone else will eventually come along who does like it. Basically, if you can learn something from a given project it will not have been a complete failure.)
Anyway, I’ve been impressed by my older work. It’s held up well. When I act as an agent in re-selling an older guitar for a client, I show the guitar to prospective clients, talk with them about it, and along with that offer to do some retro-voicing. This is always an option with any guitar, by the way. And I do feel, when it comes to my guitars, that there is always a little bit of a responsibility for me to lead a client to an instrument that has the best possible sound… even though that is invariably a subjective quality. So I don’t push. I merely offer to do that. I do charge for this work, of course. But considering the selling price of these instruments it’s a modest one. I need to underline that I am in no way saying that there’s anything wrong with any of my older instruments; they merely have the response of older guitars of mine. And this procedure simply introduces the option of helping the sound, if not the look and feel, of these older Somogyi guitars to be more in line with my current work.
August, 2014
One reason that the bringing out of a guitar’s best voice is the main challenge for steel string guitar makers today is that there is no agreed-on standard to aim for. This is so for two reasons. First of all, most of the makers of this instrument have never heard a steel string guitar with a really great voice of its own. Therefore their idea of great sound is frequently based in hearsay instead of direct experience, combined with a lifelong experience of having conventionally overbuilt guitars as their models. It is understandable that they’d knowingly or unknowingly copy these models – which, despite the fact that their own guitars might look distinctive, they are really copies of copies of copies of copies of copies of copies of the same essential concept/blueprint – in the belief that their job is done when such an instrument is faithfully replicated and strung up. I say these things without intending to offend anyone, but because this is the territory as I see it.
The second reason is that whereas classic guitars are all pretty much the same size and shape, steel string guitars come in a wide variety of shape, size, and depth. This complicates the acoustic part of the work. It does so in the same way that a marksman is always called on to do the same work in shooting, but his emphasis will vary slightly as his various targets are placed at different distances away. Same skills, somewhat different factors.
Classical guitar makers, in my opinion, have more of a clue as to the sounds that better guitars are capable of: they have more of an agreed-on standard for what the Holy Grail of sound is (it is largely thought of as having the power, clarity, projection, and otherwise operatic voice that one would expect from a concert guitar). They also have had access to musicians with better-trained ears and better guitars, as well as other examples of more optimally-realized modern and historical models to study, listen to, and emulate. In comparison, the most familiar and widely accepted steel string guitar is the one that you can always plug into an amp or play into a microphone.
What I said above about “getting the most out of a steel string guitar’s potential” probably sounds too simplified and vague to be very useful. But consider the matter in this way: an OM model guitar and a Dreadnought differ in a number of specific ways: woods, scale lengths, body depth, possibly stringing, etc. How is one to factor these differences in? The best thing that a luthier can do is to make a really good OM and/or a really good Dreadnought; each will have its own voice because it will have brought different things to the table, blueprint-wise and tone-wise, from the very beginning. To repeat what I said above, the guitar maker’s task is to bring those qualities fully out without overbuilding, underbuilding, or misbuilding. And in the case of guitar makers just as much as with marksmen and cooks, it takes time and experience to learn to do the work professionally and well.
August, 2014
I was recently in a conversation with a client during which he asked whether I voice my guitars differently depending on whether they are OM models, or Modified Dreadnoughts, or Jumbos, or 00s, or whether I make accommodations within a given model depending on whether it will be played in standard or open tuning. It’s not a bad question, and it’s a topic that’s come up more than once. The assumption seems to be that something has to be done differently because these guitars are different sizes and shapes and uses, and will of course have different sounds. How could one recipe voicing approach possibly work for all of them?
My short answer is no, I don’t have different voicing tricks or techniques for my various guitar models. Not really. There may be nuances and difference of emphasis here and there, of course, but the procedures are basically the same in all cases: to progressively and systematically lighten the structure so that the voice of the guitar stops being choked by too much wood, mass, and stiffness and begins to open up. This is, in fact, no more nor less than every serious guitar maker’s challenge.
Chances are high that every luthier you will ever have a conversation with will give you his own perfectly-good-sounding reasons for whatever he does to his guitars’ woods in order to tease the best sounds out of them. These accounts will undoubtedly surprise you with their variety. And some of them are certain to be on the right track. Nevertheless, I do NOT believe that the chief task of these luthiers is to apply this or that particular recipe procedure to get “this kind” of sound out of one model guitar and “that kind” of sound out of another. The various guitar models and types, together with their individual factors of size, depth, wood selection, stringing, etc. set most of the tonal possibilities for what such a soundbox will be capable of. The luthier’s task is, simply, to get any soundbox to fully release its tonal potential. Period. Just as a cook cannot make any food taste better than what it can be, a soundbox of a given size and volume cannot do better than its best. Short of that end result one simply achieves… well… something less than that.
© Ervin Somogyi 2024. Powered by WordPress