Acoustic Guitar Construction

Since "wolf tones" are commonly associated with very long sustained notes produced on bowed instruments -- many dismiss this issue since it cannot apply to a normally picked or strummed guitar. So what was it the class was listening to hear? And could you hear it in the context of a strummed chord? Some guitars display a clear resident frequency "A" or "G" for example and those notes do tend to jump out. Roger Siminoff actually advocates constructing guitars with this intent, tuning each component to match.

My question is, this is such a low flying issue what is to be gained relative to a normal performance of any given composition? -- -- Considering 10's of millions of guitars have been played for a century and a half -- some recorded and shared with the world because of their magnificent sound and the skill of the player. I would suggest that there was no hunt for "wolf tones" on all but maybe a minuscule few.

Just my $.02 -- I'd suggest that perfecting, normal intonation and set-up measures as well as fit and finish are things that will tend to elevate the level of excellence of any hand made guitar (any guitar).

If guitars exhibited something as dramatic as the following -- my guess is that there would have been a device developed to fix it as with the cello and other bowed instruments.

ken cierp wrote:Since "wolf tones" are commonly associated with very long sustained notes produced on bowed instruments -- many dismiss this issue since it cannot apply to a normally picked or strummed guitar. So what was it the class was listening to hear? And could you hear it in the context of a strummed chord?

Ken - I think Alastair uses the term "wolf tone" inappropriately, at least in terms of the traditional sound of a bowed instrument. What he's really after are notes that have a rapid fall-off on sustain when compared to notes a half step above or below. During the demo he took a participant's guitar and methodically played up the fretboard (focusing on the higher portion of the fretboard), and found a note that fell of much more dramatically than its neighbors. It was as if the sound was being swallowed by the guitar. The theory (and this is what the phenomenon has in common with bowed instruments) is that the resonances in the sound board are interfering to cancel each other out at that particular pitch. Adding some mass (which is really what the Cello fix was all about in the video, right?) alters the resonance just enough to allow the pitch to sing. Of course one runs the risk of introducing a new interference mode somewhere else in the process - rinse and repeat.

Alastair got interested in this playing a particular piece - Villa-Lobos Prelude #3 - on his new build, where the high E (1st string, 12th fret) was just dead, and that's a critical repeated note in this prelude. So his motivation was purely practical - fix his guitar so that he could play a favorite piece. I agree that in most cases and in most pieces, the issue would probably not be noticeable. I was reading an interview with Pepe Romero where he describes learning the character of each instrument and adjusting his fingering and technique to work around the inevitable differences in voicing between strings and particular pitches.

-Larry

learning the character of each instrument and adjusting his fingering and technique to work around the inevitable differences in voicing between strings and particular pitches.


Exactly my point -- wood wind players do the same "lipping" certain notes to fit the piece. No risk of introducing new issues by modifying the instrument. I see this as part of mastering one's playing skills and the particular instrument. Just my opinion.

My first crafted guitar which I still play at gigs has a G string with a bit more, sustain somewhat louder than the others with a tone not to my liking. I found that when I use a capo even on the first fret the G string fits in great with all the others.Maybe a nut problem? It sounds good with barre chords also.

Yep -- sounds to me like maybe the slot has a little hump or perhaps not slanted back enough.