The Martin Show

tovo
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Sat Dec 22, 2012 4:29 pm

I'm certain this new Internet based guitar show, focused on comparing Martin guitars, would be as interesting to many of you as it was to me.



dennisg
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Sat Dec 22, 2012 6:40 pm

This was interesting. Thanks for posting, Tony.


BobR
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Sat Dec 22, 2012 8:58 pm

Thanks Tony, That was very interesting.


Yamaha48
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Sun Dec 23, 2012 5:45 am

Thanks Tony for sharing this with us.
But what are tje differents between Martin And Taylor.
Both are exspensef guitars.

cheers Anton


jayswett
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Sun Dec 23, 2012 7:14 am

Several comments about the show:
1) Useful, and definitely worth the time. I plan on watching the pilot episode later today
2) My ear is simply awful. I can barely hear a difference in any of those guitars.
3) I liked that fingerpicking song he played. I'd like to learn it.
4) Thanks Tony for posting that.
5) I would love to see a video describing the physics of guitars. That is, how the sound waves bounce around the interior of the guitar, get amplified, and ultimately create the sound that it does.

Hope everyone has a great holiday week.
Jay


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daryl
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Sun Dec 23, 2012 7:34 am

jayswett wrote:
Several comments about the show:
1) Useful, and definitely worth the time. I plan on watching the pilot episode later today
2) My ear is simply awful. I can barely hear a difference in any of those guitars.
3) I liked that fingerpicking song he played. I'd like to learn it.
4) Thanks Tony for posting that.
5) I would love to see a video describing the physics of guitars. That is, how the sound waves bounce around the interior of the guitar, get amplified, and ultimately create the sound that it does.

Hope everyone has a great holiday week.
Jay
Exactly what Jay said.


tovo
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Sun Dec 23, 2012 2:45 pm

I don't think I have a great ear either. I thought the D35 sounded very rich but actually thought the HD sounded disappointing. I thought the relative thinness of the Yamaha in that company was fairly obvious. Not very fair on Yamaha by the way. Put any lower end guitar against those and it's not going to sound great.

Anton there are differences between Martin and Taylor, not just cosmetic. The Taylor neck has a very different feel to Martin, one that I prefer, but I acknowledge that Martin make superb instruments and I'm not running them down one little bit. It's just personal preference.


dekotaj
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Mon Dec 24, 2012 9:57 am

Thank Tony, Fun to Watch. I sure enjoy playing my D-28.Sure would like to have a D-45. Man they are a lot of money.

Kev


wrench
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Mon Dec 24, 2012 12:18 pm

jayswett wrote:
5) I would love to see a video describing the physics of guitars. That is, how the sound waves bounce around the interior of the guitar, get amplified, and ultimately create the sound that it does.

Jay
Jay,

That would be a very long video, indeed. Thanks to ten years of practicing machinery vibration analysis and over three years of full time research of acoustic guitars, I actually can answer your question in detail, but it's not practical to do so here. I can give you some basics though, and I think it's enough to provide a basic understanding.

The guitar is a spring mass system of components, each with their own natural frequency. The joints connecting these components are important because only through these joints can the instrument deliver optimal energy through the entire range of frequencies. The joints facilitate the power and the frequencies available to the rest of the guitar. The entry point of string energy to the guitar is at the saddle, and as my research also shows, at the nut (many experts don't believe this). The string energy enters through the top of the saddle, and subsequently the saddle to the bridge. The saddle to bridge joint is one of the joints previously mentioned. The rate at which string energy enters the guitars is determined by the impedance of energy through these joints. This results in the sustain of the guitar. High impedance gives long sustain, and low impedance gives shorter sustain. Extremely low impedance at certain frequencies produces wolf notes, a common malady of many guitars (I can usually fix these as I will explain later). With power now available to the guitar, its components now come into play. First, the physical properties of the wood will create the timbre of the sound. Graphically represented, this is the shape of the sound wave produced. Next, the natural frequencies of the guitar parts go to work. The main natural frequencies that matter the most here are the main air resonance, the top, the back, and the neck. the main air is the Helmholtz frequency measured at the sound hole, and is a function of the hole diameter and the body volume, among other things. It is to a lesser degree affected by the mass of the top and the bridge. Next is the natural frequency of the top. Many, many variables go to work here, but mass and stiffness are probably the two most important here. Then there is the natural frequency of the back. While a back isn't necessary to produce sound (as Torres demonstrated), if it is present, it has a profound effect on the resulting sound because of its mathematical relationship to the other frequencies and its phasing to the top. While I have never heard other sources reference this, my own research shows the natural frequency of the neck is also one of the fundamental frequencies affecting the final sound of the guitar. The mathematical relationship of these frequencies can maximize or minimize the sound quality of the guitar. The best news is these frequencies can be somewhat altered to optimize the sound quality of any given instrument. I'll give up a trade secret here. To do this, I analyze the graph of a guitar to identify the natural frequencies of it components. I then alter the mass and stiffness of components and braces to adjust their natural frequencies to prime numbers and away from each other such that no natural frequency is mathematically related to another component. This results in clean, smooth sound. It gets a little more complicated when you analyze the phasing of the top to the back, and I won't go into that here - it's more of a math discussion. Other factors affecting the overall sound qualities of a guitar are the shape and volume of the body. The volume is one of the primary controls of the main air frequency, but is also affects the speed of response. This why small guitars sound "crisp". They react very quickly to string strikes. The shape of a guitar determines the amplitudes of frequencies across the spectrum that the guitar produces. Dreadnoughts, for example, are very heavy on low G and D, and smaller-waisted guitars are more balanced than dreads but a little stronger at E and A.

Whew, I left out a lot, but I think that'll get you started in thinking about why a guitar sounds the way it does. Why do some ring a long time? Why do some sound clean? Why do they sound better on some days than others? Why do some guitars have great harmonics? And here's a question I call special attention to - why does a guitar sound better in different rooms? A hint on this one - sometimes it has nothing to do with the guitar. ad nauseum.

Whew again.

I commented on the Acoustic Addict videos in another thread. See here. http://www.totallyguitars.com/forum/4-g ... tml#105572


Yamaha48
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Tue Dec 25, 2012 2:55 am

Thanks Tony.
You know,i have a Martin 12 string guitar with a rights sound.
But when i have change my strings,i make a big mistake.
The new set Ddario 011 whas not good for this type guitar.
A friend of my he is a specialist in guitars,tolds me that 010 is maximal.
Im a lucky man that he told me that.
Cheers Anton


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