valleyguy
Member
Why you shouldn't rub the top of your guitar for too long.
Sorry it's non-Guild....... :wink:
Sorry it's non-Guild....... :wink:
Don't Rub Your Guitar
- Thread starter valleyguy
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adorshki
Reverential Member
:lol: :lol: :lol:valleyguy said:Why you shouldn't rub the top of your guitar for too long.
Sorry it's non-Guild....... :wink:
LOOKS like a good idea....but I wonder if anyone can actually PLAY the beasts? :lol:
Hahahaha!!!
Those really are cool. I'd love to hear how they sound. This shape is more like a harp guitar... That sure seems like a lot of volume for a standard guitar.
Those really are cool. I'd love to hear how they sound. This shape is more like a harp guitar... That sure seems like a lot of volume for a standard guitar.
Retropicker
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:shock: Those guitars have cajones.
I would like to hear one.
I would like to hear one.
adorshki
Reverential Member
:lol:Retropicker said:
Judging by those "ported bouts", maybe the player's the only one who can? :roll:Retropicker said:
frettedstrings
Senior Member
Does anyone know what they call these instruments?
adorshki said:
My understanding is that most of the sound of a traditionally designed acoustic guitar comes directly from the vibration of the top, not from the soundhole. So, it would seem that eliminating the top sound hole and adding side ports wouldn't necessarily decrease the volume for someone sitting in front of the instrument, and it may actually increase the volume.
Also, if you look at a graph at what parts of the soundboard vibrate the most, very little vibration comes from the upper bout of the instrument. Most of it comes from the lower bout. So, while these large "additions" to the upper bout would no doubt change the sound of these guitars, I doubt it would make them significantly louder.
Disclaimer: I've never heard one of these played, so I might be way off base on this.
davismanLV
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Like Charlie said, it seems very much like a harp guitar but..... with no harp strings. I do wonder what one would sound like. Where did you find these valleyguy?? Tom in Vegas :?:
taabru45
Enlightened Member
They started life as a bong...... :lol: :lol: :lol: Steffan
Dadaist
Senior Member
Fred,
Where did you find these gems? Whatever they sound like, looks like the Luthier (or former, discredited and disgraced, JPL Engineer) made a series of three, as I imagine when He finished the first one, it either looked or sounded so good He just kept going.
That, or it was a diabolical experiment gone terrible, terrible amiss. Kind of like that scene
from the original Frankenstein....when the Good Doktor, screams,.." It's Alive...Alive.."
David
Where did you find these gems? Whatever they sound like, looks like the Luthier (or former, discredited and disgraced, JPL Engineer) made a series of three, as I imagine when He finished the first one, it either looked or sounded so good He just kept going.
That, or it was a diabolical experiment gone terrible, terrible amiss. Kind of like that scene
from the original Frankenstein....when the Good Doktor, screams,.." It's Alive...Alive.."
David
Good luck finding a case for those!!!
walrus
walrus
davismanLV
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If you held it normally, would you be able to SING into the upper bout sound hole? :roll: Just wonderin' out loud...... Tom in Vegas
Dr Izza Plumber
Senior Member
"John Holmes" customs? :lol: :mrgreen:
valleyguy
Member
Not sure where the foto came from. It was in a series of photos on someone's wall in Facebook that was forwarded to me, sorry.
I'm thinking someone designed those with a stereo sound in mind.
I'm thinking someone designed those with a stereo sound in mind.
adorshki
Reverential Member
Actually, I know you're right. Was just funnin'mjudd said:
I always remember my surprise when someone first told me the soundhole is to let the sound IN, not OUT.... :lol: BUT...since the soundholes aren't right under the strings, and the bodies are radically irregular, it DO raise questions about just how loud they might be...now that I think about it, maybe they really ARE intended more for the player than the audience?
valleyguy
Member
Interesting discussion about soundholes. I have played a guitar with a traditional soundhole IN ADDITION to a soundhole (or sound port) at the top (side?) pointing directly at the player. I must say it is louder than a regular guitar, you can definitely hear sound coming out of the sound port going directly to your ear. These seem to be more popular in hand built guitars.
Some examples of sound ports:
http://www.google.com/search?q=guit...e&cd=2&sqi=2&ved=0CAsQ_AUoAQ&biw=1600&bih=676
From Acoustic Guitar's Teja Gerken:
SIDE PORTS
Renowned Long Island mandolin and archtop guitar builder John Monteleone was one of the luthiers commissioned to build a blue guitar for the Chinery collection. He came up with the Rocket Convertible, the first in a series of instruments featuring two ports in the side of the guitar closest to the player's ears, in addition to an oval hole in the top. His basic idea was that openings in the side would enable the player to hear the instrument better. The Rocket Convertible features panels that can be opened and closed, demonstrating the effect each opening has on the instrument's tone and volume.
The guitar proved to be "a brilliant learning exercise," according to Monteleone, who adds, "It did its job of projecting the sound to the player admirably. It's like sticking your head in the guitar. There is a very direct focusing of sound to the player. I thought it would sacrifice forward projection to the audience, but the real surprise was that there was almost no change at all. It was working both ways." Monteleone found that the best position of the panels was completely open, and his later experiments did away with the closable panels and eventually led to his current design, the Quattroport.
The Quattroport features a third hole in the side, located almost under the player's arm. Monteleone's intention was to remove as much wood as possible from the bass side of the instrument without sacrificing structural integrity. "Not much is really known about the effect of the instrument's sides on the sound," he explains. "That goes for violin, guitar . . . anything. I do know that the structural integrity between the top and back at the side's juncture is extremely important. You cannot sacrifice that edge and allow it to be detached. A perfect example is an older guitar where the glue seam has let go on that side edge. The instrument loses 70 percent of its sound. It's like short-circuiting the soundboard somehow. So it's important that the rim of the top and back be firmly attached."
The Quattroport also sports an elliptical soundhole in the top, which, according to Monteleone, gives the instrument the tone of a guitar with a round soundhole combined with the projection of a guitar with f-holes. "All those holes raise the air resonance so that you don't have that low thud that you'd normally get with a big body," says Monteleone, whose Quattroport is 18 inches wide across the lower bout. "I thought that I would lose the bass response of the instrument, and I didn't. I got a cleaner and clearer definition that is more spread out throughout the instrument--more like a piano."
Some examples of sound ports:
http://www.google.com/search?q=guit...e&cd=2&sqi=2&ved=0CAsQ_AUoAQ&biw=1600&bih=676
From Acoustic Guitar's Teja Gerken:
SIDE PORTS
Renowned Long Island mandolin and archtop guitar builder John Monteleone was one of the luthiers commissioned to build a blue guitar for the Chinery collection. He came up with the Rocket Convertible, the first in a series of instruments featuring two ports in the side of the guitar closest to the player's ears, in addition to an oval hole in the top. His basic idea was that openings in the side would enable the player to hear the instrument better. The Rocket Convertible features panels that can be opened and closed, demonstrating the effect each opening has on the instrument's tone and volume.
The guitar proved to be "a brilliant learning exercise," according to Monteleone, who adds, "It did its job of projecting the sound to the player admirably. It's like sticking your head in the guitar. There is a very direct focusing of sound to the player. I thought it would sacrifice forward projection to the audience, but the real surprise was that there was almost no change at all. It was working both ways." Monteleone found that the best position of the panels was completely open, and his later experiments did away with the closable panels and eventually led to his current design, the Quattroport.
The Quattroport features a third hole in the side, located almost under the player's arm. Monteleone's intention was to remove as much wood as possible from the bass side of the instrument without sacrificing structural integrity. "Not much is really known about the effect of the instrument's sides on the sound," he explains. "That goes for violin, guitar . . . anything. I do know that the structural integrity between the top and back at the side's juncture is extremely important. You cannot sacrifice that edge and allow it to be detached. A perfect example is an older guitar where the glue seam has let go on that side edge. The instrument loses 70 percent of its sound. It's like short-circuiting the soundboard somehow. So it's important that the rim of the top and back be firmly attached."
The Quattroport also sports an elliptical soundhole in the top, which, according to Monteleone, gives the instrument the tone of a guitar with a round soundhole combined with the projection of a guitar with f-holes. "All those holes raise the air resonance so that you don't have that low thud that you'd normally get with a big body," says Monteleone, whose Quattroport is 18 inches wide across the lower bout. "I thought that I would lose the bass response of the instrument, and I didn't. I got a cleaner and clearer definition that is more spread out throughout the instrument--more like a piano."
philr
Junior Member
I have very limited knowledge of speaker cabinet design, but I think that elongated channel in the upper bout should produce a lot of bass response. On the other hand, the lack of a forward facing port must make it hard for an audience to hear unless one of the upper ports is miked or the guitar is plugged in.
Phil
Phil