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Aaron Cardenas

Konrad Kaczmarek

Music Tech

December 12, 2018

Classical guitar: Form and Function

Within the classical music bubble, many a private conversation is delegated to-

ward instruments and their unique specs. Whether it be personal gripes with their cur-

rent instrument, or the speculation of the magic and wizardry contained within a Stradi-

vari, highly skilled musicians have developed a refined palette when comes to the

acoustic qualities they think will make them sound good in front of the masses. No

other instrument is subjected myth and lore more than the Violin. With names such as

Stradivarius and Guarneri tied to such myths for over hundreds of years, it’s no wonder

why these instruments are revered by not only the bowed string community, but also

other instrumental circles as well.

The classical guitar community is an interesting one, considering that the di-

mensions and qualities of the modern guitar change vastly from decade to decade, it is

an extremely exciting time to witness the development of the guitar equivalent of the

Stradivarius. The violin, and the majority of classical instruments, are perfect in its

acoustical design. Certain deviations such occur from builder to builder, but the overall

shape and physics that occur within its form wont change drastically. The reason being

is because you shouldn’t fix what isn’t broken. The classical guitar on the other hand

has seen major changes as its demands have shifted from being a quiet and intimate

chamber instrument, to being played in much larger contexts with much larger spaces.
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Because of this, the physical parameters of the guitar is under constant manipulation

and has deviated. In other words, its form does not parallel it functionality to perfection,

not like the violin anyway.

The Vihuela is considered by many to be the earliest most predecessor to the

modern classical guitar. There is a long history of plucked instruments that date back

to 1400 B.C, but the Vihuela seems to dethrone all others because of its mechanics

and how it was viewed and played. The Vihuela was the preferred instrument in Spain

until keyboard instruments became the prominent solo instrument. But because of the

demands of performance and repertoire, the guitar thus became the result of needing

more range and more resonance within the body of the instrument. By the 19th centu-

ry, a guitar with fan struts underneath the soundboard emerged, which allowed the

tops of the guitars to be become much thinner. This sparked a trend within luthiers to

tinker with types of wood, bracings, top resonance, and back and sides. The newly ac-

quired body of the guitar could also handle a wider frequency range and thus added

more strings to the instrument.

The development of the guitar top has seen many different changes within the

past half century. A common thread for the plucked instrument is that the guitar must

constantly adapt and fill larger spaces, whilst still keeping its structural integrity and

still having it sound like a guitar. And it is in fact possible for the traditional Spanish

sound to get distorted when we start to compound methods of increasing the thresh-

old of sound pressure level. But the basic specs that contribute to the sound of a guitar

type come down to the type of would thats involved, the type of bracing and its posi-
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tioning, how thin or thick the top is, and a number of uncontrollable variables that make

each instrument unique.

Bracing plays an integral role in the production of both sound pressure and tone.

The bracing style and placement is meticulous in a sense that not only doe the bracing

of the sound board prevent the bending of the wood under stress form the string ten-

sion, but it also controls nodal and anti-nodal points of resonance on the sound board,

which in turn affects harmonic and inharmonic partials, otherwise known as resonant

frequencies. One type of bracing that revolutionized the guitar scene was the advent of

fan bracing, which is still in use today by many luthiers who choose to create a tradi-

tional “woody” and “earthy” sound, rather than something loud and synthetic. A luthier

by the name of Antonio de Torres is attributed with the creation of the fan brace, which

allowed for guitars to be much larger in size compared to their 19th century predeces-

sors, and since the bracing was distribute evenly like a fan, the tops could be made

even thinner. Even though this invention was made 150 years ago, legendary builders

like Thomas Humphrey rose to fame in the 80’s by making very balanced guitars with

the fan bracing style.

The Andres Segovia endorsed luthier Jose Ramirez created guitars that suited

the demands of the Spanish legend. Because the guitar was starting to gain recogni-

tion as a concert instrument due to the efforts of the late Andres Segovia, there were

demands for more sound pressure production and projection to be had within each

guitar. So Ramirez created a guitar that was bigger in scale and employed a different

type of bracing technique that brightened up the sound board at the treble end. The

guitar scale is normally 650mm in length and can withstand a certain amount of stress
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from the fully tuned string, but as the Ramirez guitar got up to length such as 660mm

and more, the stress from the strings needed even more bracing for the thinner topped

guitars. The Treble bar is a bracing technique that ran diagonally across the sound

board, and put more reinforcement toward the treble end. This didn’t only add support

to the already thin tops, but also brightened up the guitar in the treble frequencies,

which allowed the guitars sound to reach the back of any concert hall.

The classical guitarist John Williams rose to fame and was quickly recognized as

one of the worlds most powerful sounds onstage. This was due to the invention of the

Lattice braced guitar that was used by the Australian luthier Greg Smallman. Much like

the dough baked on top of a blueberry pie or a honeycomb, the lattice brace was an

structurally sound, as it is evening dispersed on the surface of the sound board. This

means that with the extra reinforcement from the bracing, the tops can now be made

even thinner, resulting in more excitement within the wood and allowing more sound

pressure to shoot out of the guitar. and apply more stiffness within this type of bracing,

luthiers started to use laminated carbon fiber with the lattice bracing giving the guitar

an extra punch. This has lead to many criticisms about the Amallman sound. As the

carbon fiber allowed the guitar to project beyond what we thought was possible, is

also sacrificed the traditional “woody” and “earthy” sounds of rooted in traditional

Spanish guitars. Some luthiers have come up with many compromises that include us-

ing a combination of using different types of darker woods and thicker tops to counter-

act the synthetic sounds of the carbon fiber lattice brace. Another technique to the

construction of the top has come into recent popularity due to Luthiers such as Glenn

Canin and Mathias Dammann. The double top is a technique that uses a sheet of
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Nomex that is sandwiched between two thin pieces of wood, creating what would be

used as the soundboard. Nomex is a kevlar-polymer, best known for its use by Nasa

and astronauts, and is honeycombed in design much like the lattice bracing. The dou-

ble top results in a monstrously loud instrument, but results in a highly synthetic sound

with a lower that normal resonance frequency.

Aside from the placement and style of bracing, the type of would used for the

top is established as the determinant of how dark or bright a guitar will be. And it just

so happens that this also coincided with the color of the actual top, where darker look-

ing guitars are actually darker sounding, and lighter guitars are usually have harsher

attacks and seem to be brighter. There are two schools that reign supreme when it

comes to wood choice. You’re either on team Cedar or team Spruce. Regardless of the

type of wood you use, there are a number of combinations to be used in conjunction

with the wood type, and not to mention the quality of cut can also affect the sound as

well. But lets just say that two guitars are made with the same specs, same bracing

and same materials for back and sides, also same dimensions. A spruce guitar will look

visually brighter and often times have a blonde and shimmery quality to them. This

parallels the sound and color palate in many ways. Overall, spruce is a porous and

compact type of wood, which will give the sound a clearer and often times brighter

sound, which means that the upper partials ring out and are quite present at all times.

and depending on how thick the top is constructed, the porous wood also allows the

sound come out of the guitar at a much quicker rate than cedar, giving it a quick and

responsive attack. Spruce guitars also have more of that “woody” and “earthy” sound

that many hardcore traditionalists prefer over the synthetic and darker sounds of a
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cedar. Cedar guitars on the other hand are almost the exact opposite of there brighter

counterparts. They look darker in comparison and provide the guitar with a strong

wash of lower partials giving the guitar a mellow and round sound. The choice of using

either of these two greatly affects how a guitar will sound in a hall. Because the nature

of the brighter spruce woods, the higher partials allow pitches to reach the back of any

hall with the same clarity as you would have if you were to stand right in front of the in-

strument. Where as the cedar guitar is much more rounder and disperses sound like a

shotgun, rather than its sharp sniper like counterpart. But this is but one dimension that

contributes to the guitars sound quality and projection. Any of these woulds in combi-

nation with bracing type, top thickness, type of back and sides, wood quality, type of

string, even nail shape can contribute to the clarity and/or warmness of an instrument.

Another dimension to add to the discussion is the type of woods that are used in

constructing the back and sides of the instrument. The types of wood that are used for

the back and sides of the guitar are usually that same, as its function is to provide a

container for the distressed air pressure to shoot out of the top. It doesn’t have much

influence on the guitar ability to project, but it does influence the resonance frequen-

cies and the guitars preference to over the frequency spectrum. A very well balanced

and popular choice for back and side are rose woods. Brazilian and Indian rose would

to be specific. This wood is a top choice for most players because of the its equal

treatment of both high and low frequencies. This is a type of wood you would choose if

you didn’t want to affect the tone of the top to a great degree. Another popular choice

in wood be maple. This wood tends to greatly shape the instruments sound by

strengthening the fundament and giving a very bright and cutting quality to each notes.
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This pairs with any double top would almost be able to shatter eardrums, comparative

to our 19th century guitar counterparts. Mahogany is another common and popular

choice amongst players for its warm and darker qualities that seem to balance out

brighter and “sprucier” type of guitars. This wood proves the fundament note with a

strong wash of mid range partials, giving each note a boomy and round quality, thick

and buttery like molasses. Another component that adds to the sound of the back and

sides are whether or not a guitar uses a laminate or solid wood. Obviously the solid

wood choice would be much better in comparison to the laminate, as the laminates are

many different types of cheaper woulds that are used to fill out the back and sides.

The final extraneous dimension and contribution toward sound quality is dictat-

ed by none other than the strings. I say extraneous because nail shape and technique

also contribute, but is more about the player rather than controllable dimensions set by

the luthier. Aside from the string gauge and the string tension, it’s the materials used

when making the strings that usually control its sound quality. The most basic string

used by many are the standard nylon string. This material is used on the treble strings,

while the bass strings are usually bound in either silver or bronze. Silver bass strings

are the warmest out of the two options, while the bronze tends to give the bass strings

a more brighter and clearer quality. The nylon table strings have much more deviation i

its design, and each iteration has specific qualities that either add to the base model of

the guitar, or can possibly make it even worse. Titanium strings give off a thinner tinny

the of noise that would sound good and a very dark guitar, perhaps something made

out of cedar with mahogany back and sides. Black nylons tend to be warmer and tend

to give preference toward higher partials, this would then be great on a clearer and
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brighter guitar made with spruce and rosewood or maple. A popular string used by

many a competition player is the carbon string. Its popular because judges will usually

remember who your face if you come in with the loudest sounding guitar. Carbon

strings provide the guitar with a strong fundament that lack much of the mid range

partials, which then give the guitar a terribly bright sound, but also terribly loud. This

could also make a darker sounding guitar sound less like a shotgun, and more like a

large cannon. String tension is a simple dimension when it comes to string choice. The

more tension that is put onto a string, the more air excitement can be produced, giving

you much more control in terms of sound pressure level.

A dimension of sound that a luthier cant control is the right hand technique of

any given player. Everything from nail length to right hand placement contribute to

around to partials present during the striking of a string. Two contrasting players with

two vastly different sounds and techniques are David Russell and John Williams. Both

are regarded as some of the best technicians within the guitar world, and both have

sounds that are starkly dictated by their nail length and hand angle. David Russel is

famous for his use of what we call “ super ramps.” And it is just as it sounds, his nails

are quite longer and angled at a slant. His sound is characterized by a smooth nail en-

try point that is released by another smith exit point. The string moves across the sur-

face and angle of his nail as if the strings are being bowed. He is known for having a

mid range-y sound and the roundest and fattest tone in all the land. Where John

Williams can almost be described as the exact opposite. His nail shape is comparative-

ly shorter than that of Russel’s, but his short nail length is able to really give him a really

strong fundament that really bright and clear. His sound is known as the most powerful
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and many leave his concerts thinking that he was amplified the entire time. But these

signature sounds also have to do with the guitar that these players have chosen to

play. John Williams plays a Greg Smallman, which greatly compliments his playing

style because of the guitars ability to not only project a great amount, but balance out

the lack of mid range that John Williams right hand produces. And David Russell also

plays a guitar that perfectly complements his sensitive touch. Such a guitar would have

to be a Mathius Dammann because of its double top is able to project the roundness of

his sound, something that usually only spruce tops would be able to do, yet

Dammann’s are cedar. The pairing of guitar to player as proven to be an interesting as-

pect of a musicians career.

The development of the classical guitars sound production is still within it’s early

stages. As each new generation of guitarists put more and more physical demands on

the instrument, the more luthiers will discover new modes of increasing the potential of

the classical guitar. Unlike other orchestral instruments, the guitar had to fight its way

onto the concert stage because of its folk roots. It was seen as a poor mans instrument

and wasn’t taken seriously by anyone. It wasn’t until the great Andres Segovia came

onto the scene that the guitar started to gain more respect by the classical community.

As more and more rep was being transcribed for the guitar by Andres Segovia, more

and more people started to realize that the guitar gave an intimate and personally qual-

ity to the classical repertoire that would otherwise have been played on the piano or

the Violin. Because of this intimacy between player and audience, classical guitar con-

cert goers started to grow in numbers and soon the guitar would share repertoire with

almost every classical instrument. This newly gained traction sparked the interest of
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many great composers such as William Walton, Benjamin Britten, and Joaquin Rodri-

go, and thus they started contributing to solo and concerto repertoire. This cycle of

putting more stress on luthiers to accommodate players will be an ongoing process

that will really push the physical limitations of such a tiny wooden box. Given the tra-

jectory of its development, the guitar will soon be likely be a perfect instrument compa-

rable to other concert instruments.

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Works cited

1. Lee, et al. “Mathematical Modelling and Acoustical Analysis of Classical Guitars

and Their Soundboards.” Advances in Decision Sciences, Hindawi, 27 Dec. 2016,

www.hindawi.com/journals/aav/2016/6084230/#B4.

2. Neal, Nicole. “Category: Luthiers.” Classical Guitar n Stuff, classicalguitarnstuff.-

com/category/luthiers/.

3. Werner, Bradford. “Cedar vs Spruce Top Classical Guitars.” This Is Classical Guitar,

This Is Classical Guitar, 4 Nov. 2016, www.thisisclassicalguitar.com/cedar-vs-

spruce-tops-classical-guitar/.

4. Guest. “Bracing Styles for Classical Guitars.” This Is Classical Guitar, This Is Classi-

cal Guitar, 4 Feb. 2018, www.thisisclassicalguitar.com/bracing-styles-for-classical-

guitars/.

5. “A Brief History of the Guitar.” Blog - Guitar Salon International, www.guitarsalon.-

com/blog/?p=3985.