The Twins

[Lillian]

Bob, its been awhile now since the twins arrived. For whatever reason, I've been thinking about them of late. And I was wondering if you've spent much time with them, if they have influenced how you build and if so why, if you don't mind sharing.

[Bob Connor]

Lillian

Only one survives.

One got sold (swapped) with a friend in Tasmania who builds valve amplifiers, but the other one sits in my office and gets played regularly.

That is the one with the parabolic braces and was the instrument with less bottom end than the twin with the scalloped braces.

It ended up developing more bottom end as it was played in.

It had an Engelmann top and was reasonably thin at 2.5mm. There is some small evidence of deformation around the bridge.

So I've been making tops a little thicker nowadays and have been looking closely at the mass of braces and bridge plates with a view to strengthening up the centre of the soundboard (in the area I call the corridoor of uncertainty - a well known cricket term here in Oz) whilst still retaining the pump effect by thinning the perimeter of the sound board.

I've also been using very narrow bridge plates a la vintage Martin so I'm changing that as well and using a wider plate.

Essentially I'm trying to increase structural integrity without the loss of volume/tone.

During the next 12 months I'm going to play with flying buttresses and a new method of of dealing with the fretboard extension similar to what Colin Symonds does.

[Lillian]

Thanks Bob. Its a shame you had to separate them, but very understandable. Interesting information. I appreciate you doing the experiment and sharing with us.