HoboKen
Member
Wood thickness.......A Luthier art unto itself!
When the luthier builds the guitar, its a fine walk on the razor's edge of sound. Too thick and the player artist has a heavy guitar with a less % of possible sound for the volume of the sound chamber. Thicker wood doesn't vibrate as much as thinner wood.
I've handled some older Guild acoustic dreds that weighed in at heaver than a Gibson Les Paul. (Good LPs are suspose to be real heavy; Guild dreds aren't.)
I remember that Taylor, when they first came onto the acoustic scene built light guitars with tops that were very thin. they had great sound, but didn't last more than a year before the bridges started pulling up, etc. It almost ruined the company right off. Taylor had to start making the woods thicker for durability.
A Guild acoustic has always been a little heaver than a Martin, model for model. I do believe that is why it has a better balance of treble and bass and carries the bass better than a Martin. The trick for "Tacoma Guild" to figure out, and I believe they are trying, is to keep the guitar as light as possible without killing the great "Guild" sound that a certain weight (wood thickness) provides just this side of human neck and guitar tone-killing "Heavy."
I am encouraged by what I see in the newer Tacoma D-55s.
HoboKen
When the luthier builds the guitar, its a fine walk on the razor's edge of sound. Too thick and the player artist has a heavy guitar with a less % of possible sound for the volume of the sound chamber. Thicker wood doesn't vibrate as much as thinner wood.
I've handled some older Guild acoustic dreds that weighed in at heaver than a Gibson Les Paul. (Good LPs are suspose to be real heavy; Guild dreds aren't.)
I remember that Taylor, when they first came onto the acoustic scene built light guitars with tops that were very thin. they had great sound, but didn't last more than a year before the bridges started pulling up, etc. It almost ruined the company right off. Taylor had to start making the woods thicker for durability.
A Guild acoustic has always been a little heaver than a Martin, model for model. I do believe that is why it has a better balance of treble and bass and carries the bass better than a Martin. The trick for "Tacoma Guild" to figure out, and I believe they are trying, is to keep the guitar as light as possible without killing the great "Guild" sound that a certain weight (wood thickness) provides just this side of human neck and guitar tone-killing "Heavy."
I am encouraged by what I see in the newer Tacoma D-55s.
HoboKen