Finished basic construction of a falcate braced 14 fret 00

[johnparchem]

I am close to being able to start finish sanding my latest guitar. It has cocobolo back and top is lutz. The rosette and heel cap are amboyna burl. Bindings and fret board are ebony. I used a bit of african black wood for the end wedge as I did not have a scrap of ebony. I tapped both the top and back plates to get the information required to get the plate thicknesses. The 14 fret to the body bridge location is not ideal, but the guy that I am building the guitar for really wanted it. I tried to talk him into 12 frets to the body. I was going to calculate the target height for the falcate braces but I noticed the main braces were the same length as they were in my Gore medium guitar so I kept the same height. I probably should have changed the shape of the main braces a bit to get more even spacing in the lower bout of the four falcate braces. I increased the size of the brace in the center of the lower bout a bit to make up for the large unbraced section.

I also made the neck a bolt on bolt off.

[ckngumbo]

That's awesome! The back looks too nice to hide

[johnparchem]

Well I strung the guitar up this week.













Here is the tap spectrum with the strings on. The Air is at 102, the top is at 184 and the back is 152. I have mounts for side weights so I will add some weight looking to move the top closer to 180. The back is not very active, but I have the bottom brace tall so I can start shaving it to move the back down a bit. It might resonate a bit more then as well. It was a dense plate of cocobolo so I did not think I would get a very active back. All and all the guitar is starting to sound pretty good. Not as nice as my build of a Gore Medium size steel string, but with the smaller body and 14 fret to the body I was expecting some compromise sound wise. I have had it sitting with a tone-rite running. It has a rough setup now. I will get it properly setup up this weekend.

[johnparchem]

whoops! The Air is at 102, the top is at 184 and the back is 252

[johnparchem]

After taking some suggestions from Jim, he tought the 253 may be the cross-dipole , I took a couple of more spectrum graphics one with the mic pointed at the back. I now think the back is at 238 Hz, so a bit closer to where I want it. I am not sure how active it is though. The first spectrum is measured with the mic pointed at the sound hole, the second the mic is pointed at the back. you can see the peak I marked in the second graph grow with the mic pointed at the back. So I suspect that it is the back resonance.