Tone Analysis with Ervin Somogyi
I left the last blog post on a bit of a cliff hanger, with the finish in need of some touch up. Well, after some research, I started the process of fixing that, which involved careful sanding, re-amalgamating of the finish, and then slowly building it back up again. While waiting for that to dry, I decided to go ahead and glue on the bridge, get the strings on, and rough in the setup.
I copied Chris Morimoto’s clamping caul, making little feet which conformed to the carved top of the bridge, and capping those with another piece of wood.
Anything I can do to speed up the process of getting the clamps on is helpful, as with hide glue there is very little open time.
With the bridge glued, I then attached the neck and tuners, and made the saddle and nut. Finally, after about a year working on this guitar, I could hear it for the first time.
My first impression was very positive. I really liked the sound! I played it for a bit to see what I had created, and then showed it to Ervin. He had some suggestions on how to further enhance the bass response. With that in mind I did some slight re-voicing, taking a little bit of material off some of the braces through the sound hole. The strings went back on, and in my opinion the loosening of the top had the effect that Ervin suggested that it would. Enhancing the ability of the top to vibrate in the monopole mode improved the fundamental bass response.
That’s the state I left the guitar in before returning to New Zealand to visit my family. Once I’m back in Oakland in a couple of weeks, I’ll finish the finish, and do the final steps of the setup. Then I’ll take some photos, publish my video of the complete build process, and do a demo of the sound.
While back here in New Zealand I had a chance to play some acoustic guitars that I made before the apprenticeship. I made them with the help of Ervin Somogyi’s books, and at the time of their completion I was very happy with their sound. Analysing guitar sound is something that I’ve been learning a lot about during the apprenticeship. Having the opportunity to play some really good guitars has expanded my perspective on what a guitar can sound like. I was curious how I would perceive the sound of these early builds of mine after this experience. I was very pleased when I played them and they didn’t sound very good at all. I guess I learned something in a year with Ervin Somogyi.