Just bought this book

[kiwigeo]

http://www.springer.com/materials/mecha ... 614-1921-1

[charangohabsburg]

Nice. Looking forward to your online lectures of this book.

[Kamusur]

Is it any good Martin?

Steve

[kiwigeo]

Is it any good Martin?

Steve

Book hasn't arrived yet. Springer only print the books on demand so will be a few weeks away. Busy at work right now so wont get to read the book for a while. I'm sure that no matter how good this new book is it won't quite match.....THE books.

[lauburu]

I found a pdf version of the book somewhere on the Interweb a couple of years ago. From memory it is a good descriptive overview of the technologies employed in guitar making and has good photos but is not intended as a "how to" guide.
Miguel

[Kamusur]

Speaking of The Books Martin, which i do not own, how often is it that any author avails themselves of open and repeated answering of questions and not just to those contained in the books? We are pretty lucky i reckon.

Steve

[kiwigeo]

I found a pdf version of the book somewhere on the Interweb a couple of years ago. From memory it is a good descriptive overview of the technologies employed in guitar making and has good photos but is not intended as a "how to" guide.
Miguel

Thanks Miguel

[Dave M]

I bought this book some time ago (it may have been published a bit earlier in the UK...) but I have to say I found it such hard going I put it on the shelf.

Your post made me dig it out and have a more serious go at it. It does have some good stuff in it.
My perception though is that it is aimed at the university student rather than the guitar builder, or indeed the man in the street. The style is very dry and almost seems to be trying to make the subject academically respectable.

Having said all that if someone has not met these concepts before it does have good scientific/engineering discussions of the basic physics of guitar sound production, plus some descriptive work on construction as used by manufacturers.

It is also great that someone else is tackling the design of the guitar in a scientific way. Richard French's work is a useful independent check on other peoples approach to the subject. And in my admittedly limited go at the book I see little disagreement with other sources.

Dave

[kiwigeo]

My perception though is that it is aimed at the university student rather than the guitar builder

I've been to university....but I studied Geology

One use I've found for THE books is getting rid of unwelcome guests from my house. When I pull out Book 1 and suggest to my guests that we talk about Four DOF models my guests suddenly announce that it's time they left

[johnparchem]

I have been reading the Technology of the Guitar and all and all find it packed with useful information. This book covers a lot of diverse topics (mostly guitar related) so it is a bit hit or miss to the depth of information and fairly shallow at the practical use of much of the theory listed at least relative to the Contemporary Acoustic Guitar Design and Build {The Book.)

As an example both books have a bracing section on area moments of inertia, brace stiffness and cross-sectional area. The Technology of the guitar emphasizes the point that for a given mass a rectangle brace is the stiffest: "Even more useful for guitar makers than area moment of inertia is section modulus, s. The section modulus is simply area moment of inertia divided by the cross-sectional area. Assuming the material doesn’t change, the section modulus is stiffness per unit weight. Based on section modulus, the rectangle is the stiffest shape per unit weight."

The Book goes a step farther with the same information pointing out the value of the larger base "less print through", thus a consideration using more of the practical considerations of brace designs shows that "in practical terms, the most efficient cross sectional shape is the tall triangle" If I had only read the Technology of the Guitar I may have thought that a rectangular cross section was no brainier ( I am sure many would argue this point as well). The Book provides additional practical considerations when making a design choice.

All and all I am happy I purchased the The Technology of the Guitar. It reinforces and a lot of what I have already read elsewhere and I had very little knowledge about electric guitars and liked the level of information this book provided.

[kiwigeo]

Thanks for the review John.

[Trevor Gore]

Quoting French:

"Based on section modulus, the rectangle is the stiffest shape per unit weight."

Not entirely true, unless this statement had further qualification. It's dependent on aspect ratio, too.

Check out Fig. 4.4-21 in CAGDB. (AKA "The Book").

[woodrat]

Quoting French:

"Based on section modulus, the rectangle is the stiffest shape per unit weight."

Not entirely true, unless this statement had further qualification. It's dependent on aspect ratio, too.

Check out Fig. 4.4-21 in CAGDB. (AKA "The Book").

CAGDB....Trevor I thought that you were talking about your new banjo tuning!

[Jorge Bertholdo]

Looks like a great book.
For people that is interested, take a look around where it is available. I just order from Amazon (UK) for £40 (used, hardcover)

[Nick]

Quoting French:

"Based on section modulus, the rectangle is the stiffest shape per unit weight."

Not entirely true, unless this statement had further qualification. It's dependent on aspect ratio, too.

Check out Fig. 4.4-21 in CAGDB. (AKA "The Book").

CAGDB....Trevor I thought that you were talking about your new banjo tuning!

I thought exactly the same thing John! But fortunately Trevor qualified his statement Goes to illustrate the importance of qualifying things .