Ask Bob

Andy:

1. Yes and no. In the grand scheme of guitars, everything matters. The density of one piece of wood over another, the relative hardness, the graining, the weight, the figure. Despite that, the influence of these variables is relatively small in the whole recipe of a guitar. A koa-top guitar of a certain design will tend to sound more like a koa-top guitar of that style than anything else. The subtlety of one figured top compared to another becomes a small enough nuance that, as players, we’re free to choose our favorite-looking one and feel good that we’re getting a great-sounding koa guitar.

2. I love how guitars get better the more they’re played. Most things wear out as I use them. Guitars wear in. There isn’t a magic timeframe for a guitar to go from new to fully broken in. The process is more of a continual ripening. The first five minutes of playing time on a guitar is dramatic as to how quickly an instrument comes alive. Then the first few days of solid play time makes a noticeable change. After two weeks, then a month, it’ll continue to ripen, and is especially noticeable when strings are changed for fresh ones. After a year of regular play time, a guitar is going to be feeling pretty good. From then on, every year of playing is just better and better. One caveat to this: With serious play time on an instrument, if it starts to sound or feel worse than you remember, it’s probably due for some service to restore optimum playability. The frets, nut and saddle do wear eventually. But once serviced, the guitar will be right back to peak performance.

Bob: Over the years, I have tried to notice big changes in guitar sound over the life of many guitars that I know of. I call these phases of change “gears,” like shifting gears in a car. What Andy describes is so true, and with each “gear” you’re in, the guitar winds out, just like a car. Then you change gears and it’s noticeably different. I perceive these changes more than I perceive the more subtle variations within a gear. With that as a background, here are the guitar gears that I’ve noticed. First gear happens within an hour. This is from standing still to moving. Second gear is about one year. Third gear is at three or four years. And fourth gear is at 12-15 years. A fifteen-year-old guitar is way better than a new guitar, and better than a five-year-old guitar. Especially if it has spent time out of its case, being played.

Also, don’t try to rush it. I recommend just letting it happen and enjoy all the phases. Guitars shouldn’t be a struggle. They have a lot to offer on the day they’re first strung.

3. It’s tough to measure differences in performance with something like a number or percentage. There are some nuanced differences between individual pieces of wood, but within a certain wood species, or particular models, those differences will be subtle and often perceived as a character trait rather than a “better than” or “worse than” performance measurement. As an example, if I line up several examples of one model and listen very closely, I might be able to tune in to their individual uniqueness as I play. When I invite several musicians to come play those same instruments, each musician is more often than not going to find one that fits their playing best but rarely selects the same instrument as what another player chooses.

Andy: Jeff, we currently don’t have plans for a square-shoulder dreadnought with V-Class architecture inside. I’ll reveal a part of my prototyping work, however, and admit I built some guitars in the square-shoulder dreadnought shape early on as I was developing the V-Class idea. Those guitars sounded great. In the end, we simply preferred the style and sound of the Grand Pacific shape and moved forward with that design.

Andy:

Wow, Davy, those are two great guitars to compare! Since you’re in the fortunate position of exploring nuance, I’ll first address your question about Adirondack spruce. While I wasn’t alive a century ago, I’ve had numerous opportunities to work with both raw wood and completed guitars from that era and compare them to more recently cut wood. I’ve noticed the Adirondack spruce from eras past was slightly lighter in weight and less stiff than the wood we see now. The Adirondack cut today tends to have a stiffer, coarser grain that creates a powerful sound, but it takes some play time to develop the rich touch sensitivity it’s capable of. In fact, the wood that reminds me the most of Adirondack spruce from eras past is the Lutz spruce we get to use on some models. I love its physical characteristics and tone. In either case, we’re fortunate to use these great-sounding woods.

One additional component in the sound comparison you’re hearing between those two guitars is the back and side woods. Honduran rosewood has a beautiful ring and density that accentuates the rich shimmer and overtone components of the guitar’s sound.  Enjoy those two guitars — they’re both great ones.

Andy: Leon, for now, the 200 Series guitars are built with our own design of a X-brace internal architecture. But we’re always interested in building the best guitar we can and continuously improving our designs. So while we’re working with our X-brace design today, down the road, if we’re able to make those guitars even better with a different design, you can bet we’ll do it.

Andy: Jeff, you bring up some interesting design questions. There are a lot of different ways a builder will alter a design to emphasize or balance a soundboard. On our V-Class designs, there are some hard-to-see subtleties in the exact heights and shapes of the parts on each side of the soundboard, especially when you consider the different body shapes and whether a guitar has an armrest or not. In addition, we employ altered back brace designs to help complement the way the tops resonate with different species of back woods. Have fun with that Builder’s Edition 614ce. That’s one of my very favorite guitars to make and play.

Andy: Sorry to hear about the damage to your guitar, Michael. That’s a terrible feeling to see an instrument suffer like that. Whether or not the cracks can be heard depends on what sort of damage it was and how it was repaired. A crack that runs along the grain can typically be repaired with no ill effects at all. In fact, you might simply think of it like another perfectly fit glue joint in the top. A crack like that, when repaired carefully, will be acoustically transparent for the life of the instrument. A fracture that occurs across the grain lines (picture snapping a pencil in half) is far more difficult to repair and typically needs some structural work to help correct the issue. When performed well, even that work can be nearly seamless. From the sound of it, I’d think of the hit your guitar took as one more chapter in its story. I love honest wear on an instrument, and would play it proudly.

Bob: Andy, I totally agree. A scarred-up guitar from use and even a little abuse is part of its voice. (With the exception of high-temperature damage from leaving guitars in the trunk of a car. That’s a no-no!) Michael, my favorite Taylor is an 810 that I made for myself around 1975. It’s had holes for knobs drilled and abandoned; it has finish flaws and dents. I even glued the top together upside-down and backwards by mistake. Who cares? It’s a great guitar and now almost 50 years old. It sounds how it sounds, and we cannot compare it side by side with how it used to sound. This is Uncle Bob talking. Try not to worry.