CONCERNING SOUND QUALITY
One of the things about the guitar that made me fall in love with it is the variety of sounds it can produce. From warm, sweet, and velvety when playing dolce to bright, and brassy, and aggressive when playing ponticello. With this palette of sounds, along with changes in tempo and playing dynamics, the artist can produce tension and release, can draw the listener in and have them truly interested in what's going to happen next. In short they can produce beautiful music.
A great guitar, then, should be capable of responding to a players input in a meaningful way. It should speak clearly when played softly and have room to grow in dynamics when pushed harder. It should produce a variety of sounds from the sweet sighing sound a human voice can make to bright and brassy. It should have the sustain to be played lyrically and with vibrato. The voices should be distinct from one another when playing a chord so that it sounds like multiple instruments or voices are singing. It should sound full and well supported from the bass all the way up to the high trebles on the first string. It should also have an even enough response across the strings and up and down the finger board so that all of these qualities can be produced no matter what note the musician is playing.
This seems like a tall order for any one guitar but it is what I aim to produce.
ENGINEERING VS. INTUITION
Given my background in engineering, espeically since it was in aircraft assembly automation and robotics,
I've been asked if I use machines or automation in making my guitars. I've also been asked
what kind of analysis, measurements and testing I do. The short answer is that to date I don't
do much of either. As I build I use and record the spectrum of frequencies produced to an impulse response in the top
back, and later in the finished guitar. That's not to say that I don't benefit as a luthier from my
background as an engineer.
I read about acoustics, about guitar theory, and about other luthier's experiments. With my
background in engineering I find this fascinating and possibly understand such articles at a
deeper level. I can look at a guitar design and see load paths, imagine how complex or simple the
movement of the top is going to be, if the design will produce more or less modes of vibration, and other
things I'm probably not even aware of. When I'm actually making a guitar I prefer to work with my hands,
my eyes, and above all my ears. I don't doubt though, that all of my perceptions and choices are colored
by my background both as an engineer, as a musician, and as someone who grew up around classical music.
My senses tell me more about and give me more valuable information than any tests I can think of. Every
piece of wood is different: different density, stiffness, grain spacing and direction, and most importantly
different sound. If I were to use automation I would miss out on a lot of that information as I built;
and that's the really important stuff, the information that allows me to make the hundreds of choices
along the way that will add up to produce an exceptional instrument.