Hi! My name is Christian and I am a Brazilian guitar maker based in Olten Switzerland. I use this channel to show my process of making guitars and to share some of the music I compose. My main intention is not to educate or to guide people on the craft of musical instruments, but rather to present it to those who enjoy seeing and listening to the workshop ambient or are curious about it. This is also my own account of this hobby that has become a passion and a profession.
Thank you 👍 I enjoyed your patience,precision skills and calm. You have a great talent and passion. I try to make a bridge and saddle for my guitar which is an old acoustic Mayfair one( I think it's an early Japanese Mayfair handmade guitar) You are an inspiration
Love the scientific approach to tune the top, the radius on the fretboard and the overall guitar appearance. But you really need a good classical player to do the demo. A good classical piece would show the real potencial of the guitar. The volume, the dynamic, the overtones, the sustain etc.
Great video. I build Lacotes and Stauffers as well. Could you share the name of the gramil tool that your are using and where you purchased it? I have a number of gramils. This one is pretty cool!
You mean the circle cutter? I got it from the online store dictum, if my memory doesn't fail me. This one's actually the first Lacote I'm setting to make!
I just discovered you channel and I LOVE the great videos you posted! Excellent quality and super nice to see your building methods and the precision you can achieve with hand tools. One question: where did you purchase the fiberglass bars for the go-bar deck? I would like to build a go-bar deck as well to build my first guitar! :)
So glad you like the videos! Stay tuned, soon I'll post some more. As for the fiberglass, these ones I got back when I lived in Brazil, but it seems Stewmac sells some very similar ones
Interesting take on the traditional Fan bracing (I'm all for improving or changing 'tradition'). Would be nice to hear it played by a classical guitarist who finger picks, not criticizing your playing but it just sounds a little 'thin'. But I see you were using a plectrum, so I can't tell if it's the bracing pattern or the pick that is making it lose some of that 'fullness' usually associated with Classicals. Plus it's a Spruce as opposed to Cedar so that would shift the frequencies upward a bit. What is your thinking behind not running the linings all the way around the rest of the soundboard from the bevels? Just interested, and thanks for posting your process.
Hey! Thanks for your comment. Well, I actually look at it as a variation on the lattice design, but it does also resemble the fan brace, so it is indeed somewhat in between. As for my playing, you are right, I am no professional and I can't really keep my nails in order while woodworking. But there is also something else: any spruce guitar takes some time to open up, and those early recordings are really not a good representation. Then again, this is a prototype. Just a proof of concept with which I still have to do some further development. Thanks again for the comments!
I just built a acoustic baritinr out of free scrap and I stumble upon this craftsman. I am so humbled by the precision ans techniques. Im so blessed that i get to watch this...
@@chriscrevelsguitars of course I hope you keep making awesome videos like this. I used to work for Marco Basses and he gave me so much insight. I really love the ways people voice their soundboards but its also interesting to learn how the sound comes from so.many places. I've heard from my 12 string extending the headstock 6 inches and creating a 2 degree difference created longer lasting harmonics and significantly changed the resonance. Is there a golden ratio to scale length and string height over the the soundboard ?
Khaya is not easy to carve of plane. It's grain is interlocked and there is no "right" direction to work. It does finish very well and once you have a nice surface it becomes very beautiful
@@chriscrevelsguitars I'm trying to make my first guitar and the neck, back and rims are from this wood. It's been hard thinning back and rims with hand tools.
@@Txomo the upside is that you are going to end up with a beautiful instrument. Certainly thinning the back and sides, especially sides, will be the most delicate. You may want to try a scraper, or even sanding instead of a plane. The back is also annoying, but it can be left a bit thicker, as this is not the denser wood. You definitely want the sides not too thick so you don't have problems when bending
And a spider web kind of structure, have you thought about it? Last day I went for a walk and came across with this idea after observing how resistent it is.
Sorry took some time, I had to measure it again, couldn't remember! It is 70cm long and 40cm wide. Though if I would do it again, I'd make it at least 80cm long. Cheers!
Buenas! Esta tapa en particular se quedó algo como 2.8mm de espessura. Las barras harmônicas (las grandes), tienen 14 mm, e las pequenas empiezan con 5mm pero las esculpo hasta el tampo tenga la resposta que busco. Espero que ayude!
Hello! There are many differences in terms of design, but I would say the main difference (the most important one) is the thickness and stiffness of the top, the design of the braces and the shape and design of the bridge. The main concern is that steel strings on the acoustic have much higher tension, thus the guitar's top must be adjusted to that, being more stiff
Hello Christian, I would be interested to the plans for the circle cutter and I would be extremely grateful if you could share them with me! Thanks in advance ❤
Hi Chris, also von mir hast du vollsten Respekt für die Ruhe und Liebe bei deiner Arbeit. Diese Energie, die du deine Kreationen mit auf den Weg gibst ist einfach wunderschön anzusehen. Als ehemaliger Tischler hätte mich so ein Schaffen auch begeistern können. Wirklich wertvoll dass es Kunsthandwerk wie deines im Herzen Europas noch gibt. Viel Erfolg und alles Gute auf deinem Weg.
Essa era a que eu tinha à mão, sobrando. Usei ela pra não comprar mais nada, e ela estava parada mesmo. Funciona bastante bem e já completei vários instrumentos usando ela.
I'm curious about one thing, I saw where you marked the underside of the fretboard so you could cut it out to match the sound hole, but you never made that cutout, why is that?
I've marked it to know the position of the soundhole, not really to cut the fretboard there, as you perceived. Sometimes I also make design decisions on the fly, when it is not a commission instrument.
It is really not that hard! Just need to adjust it with the handplane and account for some loss of material when measuring. Tell me what you think after you try it!
@ChrisCrevelsGuitars you are a very patient man...love the detail! I just discovered your channel today... What do you call the circle cutting jig a spoke shave you used to make the initial circles please?
Hello, Thanks a lot for sharing your amazing work. I have a question; being an acoustics and vibration engineer and an aficionado of guitars (particularly flamenco) I wonder one thing. Have you ever made a study comparing objective resonance frequency measurements with how they subjectively sound when the guitar is played? We sometime want guitars with less sustain which are usually for accompaniment to a singer, or sometimes a balanced one if you also play solo. Sometimes, like some traditional flamenco guitars we want bright treables but without too much sustain still and so on. I am trying to understand, what sort of bracing/thickness etc and consequently the first 3 resonances of the guitar leads to which sort of certain sound. Have you ever made a conclusion as to "keeping the air reaonance, soundboard reasonance and back resonance at "..." frequencyies give a subjective result like high sustain/low/sustain/high treable sounding etc.? Thanks in advance.
A lot to unpack here, but let's go. The short answer is "it's complicated": I do keep notes on the frequencies and sound of my guitars, or better yet, recordings, as the memory does not do a good job with sound quality. But those are only good so far: a guitar's sound changes over time, especially when it is very young. You are right, most of the sound of the guitar comes from the lower frequencies, but the higher harmonics make a good portion of 'timbre', if you like, because our hearing is much sensitive around that area (for distinguishing consonants in speech, for example). So quality of sound depend also in the relation on harmonics: fewer harmonics give a more 'focused 'sound, "root pure", while more harmonics sound brighter, "richer". Much of what we think of sustain is also related to harmonics. Overall, the exact frequency of the top in itself doesn't matter that much as long as it is in a specific range and not in the exact frequency of any scale notes. The efficiency of the frequencies, and relationships between them are more important.
There are some general rules of thumb, though. As we are dealing with a limited amount of energy in a pluck, it needs to go somewhere and we can't have it all: so a guitar with stronger, faster attack will normally have shorter sustain (like a flamenco). This relates to the physics of the top: a heavier top will take longer to put in motion, and 'attack slowly', but once moving, will take longer to dissipate all its energy due to its greater inertia, i.e. 'sustain' vibration for longer.
Hi Chris,@@chriscrevelsguitars Thank you again for your comments. I would like to give a sumamary on the several guitars in which I measured the first three resonances and I also played them to note the differences. Is there somewhere that I can write you about those to have your opinions also? Email, social media etc if that is also okay for you?
@@OkanTandogan Beautiful work. if you have published it anywhere, pl share the link, will be more than happy to see those numbers to get a feel of the modes.
