Here's my attempt at Leo Kottke's arrangement of Wonderland by Night on my most recent guitar. This one is an East Indian Rosewood back/sides and Sitka spruce top Grand Concert. Sound port, 12-fret body joint and elevated neck -- a bit of a prototype but I'm really happy with how it turned out!
Saturday, November 10, 2012
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Sound Ports 101
I have a theory. Sound ports are awesome. I have another theory. Sound ports allow guitar tops to vibrate more freely and with less energy loss. The first theory may be a bit hard to disprove seeing as sound ports are awesome. As for the second theory, well, let me explain...
The primary function of sound ports is to make it easier for the player to hear without any noticeable difference out front. The secondary benefit, and potentially more important, is the increased freedom it gives the top to vibrate. How does it do this? Imagine pouring water out of a bottle.... the water glug-glug-glugs as it fights the vacuum created inside the bottle. What happens when you poke a hole in the side of the bottle? Air flows in and the water pours smoothly out. Now think about a guitar top vibrating after you pluck a string. As the top pumps up and down there will be some resistance as air is pulled or pushed through the soundhole. Poke a hole in the side and voila! Smoother airflow and less energy wasted!
There is a school of thought amongst guitar makers concerning how the air inside the guitar interacts with the top and back. Through bracing and careful tuning many builders attempt to couple the top and back together as one system to maximize efficiency. In theory I think this would work, but in practice people like to play standing up, leaning back on a couch, on stumps around a fire, and basically all sorts of positions that introduce a giant damper (ie. your belly) on that precision tuned back. For this reason I like to make my backs stiff and focus on the tops. And what can I do to eke out as much energy from the tops as possible? Sound ports!
The primary function of sound ports is to make it easier for the player to hear without any noticeable difference out front. The secondary benefit, and potentially more important, is the increased freedom it gives the top to vibrate. How does it do this? Imagine pouring water out of a bottle.... the water glug-glug-glugs as it fights the vacuum created inside the bottle. What happens when you poke a hole in the side of the bottle? Air flows in and the water pours smoothly out. Now think about a guitar top vibrating after you pluck a string. As the top pumps up and down there will be some resistance as air is pulled or pushed through the soundhole. Poke a hole in the side and voila! Smoother airflow and less energy wasted!
There is a school of thought amongst guitar makers concerning how the air inside the guitar interacts with the top and back. Through bracing and careful tuning many builders attempt to couple the top and back together as one system to maximize efficiency. In theory I think this would work, but in practice people like to play standing up, leaning back on a couch, on stumps around a fire, and basically all sorts of positions that introduce a giant damper (ie. your belly) on that precision tuned back. For this reason I like to make my backs stiff and focus on the tops. And what can I do to eke out as much energy from the tops as possible? Sound ports!
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Thursday, April 19, 2012
And the award goes to....
A few months ago I was asked to design and build a trophy for the Montreal Guitar Show Tribute Award. Here's what I came up with....
And here's what I built....
And here's the album I listened to while finishing it...
(it's Led Zeppelin's "Presence")
So who does the award go to? I have no idea, but the past winners have been George Benson, Paco de Lucia, and Jeff Beck!
Monday, April 9, 2012
It's April?!
Apparently, it's April. I'm at a bit of a loss as to how this happened, but it appears that the inexorable march of time is, well, inexorable. (Don't worry I just looked up inexorable too) As per usual, shop life has been humming along quite nicely with all sorts of activity. The guitars shown in the previous post are much closer to being fully finished and strung up. As proof, here are a few shots of the wee tenor taken at some unknown point in March (though now it's a whole lot shinier and has neat little elevated neck eagerly waiting to be attached) ...
Do these pictures look familiar? If so, congrats! You are well on your way to receiving the full internet assault of the Indian Hill Guitar Company! These pictures were previously posted on my facebook page which can be found..... here. But wait! There is also the little know Indian Hill Guitar Company youtube page (here) where you can see videos of my guitars in action as well as lots of videos from our in-shop concerts. Let the internet domination begin!
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Eventually....they all go barefoot
Having spent almost no time in other peoples woodshops I can not definitively say how our shop compares to most, but I have an inkling that we might be just a wee bit more casual than the norm. Much to the surprise of most visitors, scraggly clothes and bare feet are the unofficial shop uniform. Over the years as new members have joined our little collective, the amount of time to adopt our unique style has varied but in the end... they all go barefoot.
At the close of last summer we were all quite sad to see our good buddy and shopmate Dion head out west to set up a shop of his own in Edmonton. Dion was the third member to work with Jeremy and myself and he was a perfect fit right from the get-go. Anyone who shows up for their first visit with a bag of whole oats was a-ok in our book. With that in mind our newest addition, Martin, had some big shoes to fill (despite having nearly a foot on Dion) when he first set up his bench last fall. It took a few months, but we're proud to say, Martin is now working barefoot!
(At this point I'd ask that we all pretend there was some witty and poignant segue into this next section. Okay? Good.)
The above picture shows a bit of what I currently have on the go. On the left, we have a nifty little tenor guitar with a calla lily inspired back destined for the Montreal Guitar Show this summer. To the right, a new shape! I'm calling it the Grand Concert model (or Concert Grand?) and it is my take on a jumbo/dreadnought sized guitar. I'll have more details and an explanation of how I came up with the shape soon, but for now, here's a more detailed picture of the tenor...
ps. For the full on internet assault of Indian Hill, visit my facebook page!
https://www.facebook.com/IndianHillGuitars
At the close of last summer we were all quite sad to see our good buddy and shopmate Dion head out west to set up a shop of his own in Edmonton. Dion was the third member to work with Jeremy and myself and he was a perfect fit right from the get-go. Anyone who shows up for their first visit with a bag of whole oats was a-ok in our book. With that in mind our newest addition, Martin, had some big shoes to fill (despite having nearly a foot on Dion) when he first set up his bench last fall. It took a few months, but we're proud to say, Martin is now working barefoot!
(At this point I'd ask that we all pretend there was some witty and poignant segue into this next section. Okay? Good.)
The above picture shows a bit of what I currently have on the go. On the left, we have a nifty little tenor guitar with a calla lily inspired back destined for the Montreal Guitar Show this summer. To the right, a new shape! I'm calling it the Grand Concert model (or Concert Grand?) and it is my take on a jumbo/dreadnought sized guitar. I'll have more details and an explanation of how I came up with the shape soon, but for now, here's a more detailed picture of the tenor...
ps. For the full on internet assault of Indian Hill, visit my facebook page!
https://www.facebook.com/IndianHillGuitars
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