JOSÉ ROMANILLOS 05 | PANDORA's BOX - FINE TUNING the TOP

CustomGuitarVideo.com | ESomogyi.com | José Romanillos opens Pandoras Box. Which fundamental note should the soundboard be tuned to? How low should it be? The interesting part is, that we are comparing two ways, two opinions, two approaches. We asked Ervin about his way to do it. Compare both ways. They are not as far apart as you may think. José Romanillos became famous by building the guitars for Classical Guitar Virtuoso Julian Bream. He his one of the last icons in Spanish guitar making tradition. His guitars are among the most sought after classical guitars. José wrote numerous books about the Spanish guitar and the man who defined the classical guitar as we know it today, Antonio de Torres. We spent a whole week in Següenza, Spain close to Madrid to document his last guitar. In the first part José talks about how to select wood and the validity of old methods. This is right from the workbench. Spanish "Guitar Making" at its best.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• José Romanillos
• Ervin Somogyi
• luthier
• guitar
• tune
• tuning
• top
• soundboard
• how to
• sound
• classical guitar
• nylon string
• spanish

[deegz]

Absolutely amazing! Thank you very much for uploading such wonderful videos :D

[umbyronco85]

I agree

[slowfinger2]

This is the kind of advanced information and theory that cannot come from textbooks. Thanks for putting this up.

[slowfinger2]

@enricopg1 I think I understand what he means because I think Somogyi is not trying to tune his top, but to even the response across the surface. Two different things.

[Flamingrae]

Great videos and interesting arguements. My violin making teacher was into tap tuning always going for a difference between front and back. Whilst this was her way of building, she was more concerned that you found a way that suited you and you then stuck to it. Consistency being the method. Then you could change things and respond to the materials used. Another method was to weigh the plates. Whatever works for you. Interesting to see this applies on other instruments. Didnt use this on mine.

[kithkinavrien]

The other reason you can't tune the top to a specific pitch is because every piece of wood is different, even from the bottom of a tree to the top of the same tree. A given soundboard may have different dimensions and/or weight to reach the proper stiffness because of these inconsistencies in the wood. Therefore, a single universal tap-tuned pitch will not apply to every guitar. Hence their similar philosophies of using tap-tuning to just lower the tapped pitch and eliminate nodal points.

[kithkinavrien]

Somogyi is better known in the acoustic guitar world, where his guitars start at $26,000 US.

Science and mathematics are important in instrument design and construction. For example, it's nearly impossible to determine exact fret placement without the help of science and mathematics, because musical intervals follow mathematical ratios that we've have known about for more than 2,500 years now. (Thanks Pythagoras!) Sound is physics and physics is science, so why exclude it from guitar design?

[kithkinavrien]

If you watch the next video it starts to make more sense. Both builders are saying that you can't just tap-tune the guitar top to a specific pitch because the rest of the guitar (once assembled) has a huge bearing on the tuning of the top too. Instead, they're both saying you want to tune the top as low as it can safely go, and you want to eliminate any dead spots (nodal points) so that as much of the top is producing sound as possible in its first vibrational mode. Different words is all.

[poupee58]

Science has no place in building quality guitars.

[poupee58]

Who the heck is Ervin Somogyi ? He is not a well known classical guitar maker.

[enricopg1]

Wonderful video. Very many thanks. I don't understand the comment by the publisher (guitargourmet) that the two opinions are not as far apart as you may think. What do you mean? To me they are as far away as they could possibly be. Opposite approaches. North and South pole. Night and day. To me Romanillos is more convincing.