My first soundboard finished

[Walter Massa]

I have finally finished my first soundboard. I have been tapping and carving until it sounded good to me. I'm not experienced enough to know exactly what I should be hearing, so I simply continued until I heard a tone that sounded "clean" and not muffled. One thing I noticed for sure was that I was getting only a half second or so of sustain until I carved the ends of the tone bars all the way flat with the soundboard. Now it rings for a good second and a half. Out of shear curiosity, I tapped in front of my chromatic tuner and it consistently read E flat. Does this mean anything? Is there a target I should be aiming for or am I lost on this whole concept? I would greatly appreciate any input you have to offer on the subject.

[John Link]

Hi Walter,

My feeling is the actual note is not as important as the length of the sound you are getting. 1.5 seconds is very promising. Whatever your box is capable of doing, this portends that it will devote a great percentage of string energy to doing it. In other words, you have arrived at an efficient configuration that transmits a maximal amount of the energy from your tap into sound waves.

There are many views about decoupling the top from the sides. My own coincides with what you have done. By weakening the connection between the sides and top, the top is enabled to move as a unit, due to the stiffness imparted by the braces that are gathered around its center. This favors long amplitude notes - bass, in other words. Since steel strings are inherently more treble than nylon, I think this leads to better balance. Some experts espouse the same idea, others the opposite. Good guitars are built on both sides of the fence.

Bottom line, 1.5 seconds is a great result.

[Walter Massa]

Thanks John,
I suppose I got lucky with this one. I was hoping to end up with a flexible top for better bass response, but not at the expense of treble. I reduced the outer edges by .3 mm around the lower bout ( slightly less around the waist and upper) in the hopes that it would respond better. I don't know how much this contributed to the results, but I made sure to document all that was done throughout the build so I could reproduce them if it all works out. Only problem is that if it doesn't work out, I may find myself wondering which aspect of the build contributed to the failure!

[Dave Sayers]

I must confess I tried tapping some soundboards, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to take notice of. I do know that on two soundboards they didn't sound to brilliant without bracing and with the bracing they sounded totally different. Both guitars sound very good.

[ken cierp]

Nice looking work!

In theory lighter is better (cleats add weight) less energy is needed to move the soundboard therefore it will be more sensitive. Roger Smirnoff explains this well in his publications. Relieving the perimeter tends to free up the soundboard again making it more responsive. The truth is, there are tens of thousands of guitars at both ends of the construction methodology spectrum that sound wonderful – so there is no magic silver bullet or fairy dust.

You can only do an effective tap test after the soundboard is attached to the rim (Siminoff explains this too). This is why I recommend gluing the top first, it gives the maker an oppurtunity to shave braces if the soundboard is less responsive than it was free state. Some makers flex the top with finger pressure --(huh?), Siminoff actully applies string tension using a special fixture. If I were to ever sell completed instrument again, I would construct such a device.

As for bass response just look at the drum and viola families and even hifi speakers tweeter/midrange/woofer – bigger diaphragm – more bass, a guitar is no different.

Build it tight, build it light, use proper tension strings to get the sound board moving, spot on intonation -- the resulting guitar will sound fine indeed.

But don't' forget the most important ingredient -- The player's skill and what is called "bone tone" -- the music (is this not what its all about?) coming from the most expensive, well constructed guitar in the world in the hands of a "crappy player is still going to sound "crappy" $.02

[Dave Bagwill]

Ken - I've read Simonoff's book a few times - it's great reading - I want to build that testing device and wondered - to you knowledge, did he ever produce any plans to build that device? In his book he says just to follow the pictures; I'd feel better with some plans

[Lonnie B]

Ken you are so right. Once I played my fiddle as my brother accompanied me on guitar. A fella who was listening said"Man that old Fiddle has a good tone doesn't it"? I remember thinking to myself he just doesn't know how long I had practiced to make that old fiddle sound like that. :0)