Archtop Guitar Dynamics research paper

[MAJackson]

Saw this and thought it could be of interest to some here as its relates to how vibrations impact archtop guitars: Archtop Guitar Dynamics by Thomas Nania of Indiana University South Bend, who also owns and runs House of Luthiery and Midcoast Guitars.

[skykomishone]

Thanks for posting. I'll give it a read.

Cheers,

S

[supersoul]

thanks for posting this. I was just wondering if there was a study on the vibrational patterns of an archtop.

[Jimmy blue note]

thanks for posting this. I was just wondering if there was a study on the vibrational patterns of an archtop.

I had the great fortune to study, work and build with Al Carruth the luthier (now retired) in NH. He was a member of a group of luthier acoustical engineers and researchers who did extensive work on plate tuning, vibrational analysis of free and bound plates, modal matching, frequency spectral analysis, fourier analysis, chladni patterns with holographic and glitter patterns and wood analysis for resonance tuning in plates and helmholtz modes.
He worked with Carleen Hutchins the great violin builder of violin octet instruments, and in their group The Catgut Acoustical Society, Al was one of the ones who worked with guitars, archtop and flattop; most of the others worked with violin family instruments.
CAS Journal
They published extensively and while he was active, Al would do plate tuning with archtop builders to match top and back plates to form a complementary frequency spectrum that assured and even and efficient projecting guitar.
He also worked with and published with the Guild of American Luthiers
Guild of American Luthiers – Sharing Information & Inspiration for Stringed Instrument Makers
with whom he had an acoustical network that reached to the universities of Australia and Bell labs in Princeton NJ. They had access to computers where they could do finite element analysis, and isolate inconsistencies in nodal patterns, and by controlling mass and stiffness in braces and archings, "tune" plates to a very precise degree.
I'll try to remember some other places where his works are published and available.

If you want to PM me, I'll try to think of some other sources if you're interested. It's about time I checked in with Al anyway.