I believe Simon Marty’s guitars are radially braced but it would be a mistake to call them lattice braced. Beautifully balanced guitars with great projection from an innovative luthier.
Jouyan You almost always say that the guitar in your hands has a very fast response. Sometime could you demonstrate one which doesn't, so we can get some idea what you mean.
I am not overly fond of doubletop guitars, however this guitar by Michel Bruck sounded wonderful to me. I also rather fancied the Simon Marty especially the mellow resonance and sound-colour variation.
My guitar teacher said the best guitar he ever heard live in the back of a room wasn't anything Segovia or Williams or Russell played. It was A Simon Marty. He said it projected the most true version of a 'lap sound' to the audience in the back of a room where as other guitars like Smallman, ramirez etc. project well but the timbre doesn't stay in tact. This is all great but personally I don't like the Marty Lap Sound, it's good just not my preference, I prefer Fleta sound.
Marty is gorgeous with some really interesting color in the tone as played. Bruck had just about everything. Brazilian rosewood looked beautiful and dense. The cedar top sounded very, very nice with the lattice bracing. For me on the day; nearly a toss-up.
Very interesting review. But can you give a bit more about every guitar : - when a lattice bracing : is this a latice with carbon or not, the orientation of the lattice (angled, or parallel to the grain of the table top, ...) - when a fan bracing : is it a symmetrical (as Torres) or not ? - eventually, if another system, just describing its general shape ... That could help to associate a sounding with a class of guitar
I´m fond of spectaluar Wood back and side braz, rainforest wood , madagascar wood, and more wooh I´´m ecitet for those solid pieces If I could afford m,ore of them my living room would be full of them.
Yes, the superbly talented builders and instruments they showcase are awesome every week. It is humbling when you consider what it takes to build to the standards that show up here.
OMG! Where do i begin? It stood out a bit that Jouyan gave no intro, and straight away commenced to terrorize us with Marty’s guitar. I had to skip through that part; the sound of lattice top guitars is awful and insufferable. I listened a bit to each short piece J played and, confirmed: this lattice was not the one good exception. I had to skip even faster through Rzepka’s sound miracle. Why invent the wheel? Why not stick to what works? The sound was honestly atrocious. Bruck, meh. It was not as awful as a lattice top but double tops aren’t that much better. Something unpleasant happens to the note as soon as it is played on a double top. Naso easily and deservedly cruises to a victory and a first place this week; not that he had much of a competition:) His guitar is wonderfully traditional, it sounds like a guitar should sound. If you cannot hear the difference, how unfortunate. Naso stuck to tradition because it works, and the result is beautiful. Traditional makers look for sound beauty and lyricism with their lighter, elegant guitars. Weissgerber 1938 cedar top??? Say what? I guess so, but man! Anyway, R. J. Weissgerber was perhaps best at making Viennese guitars. His CEDAR top Spanish model, ehh. Not bad at all, and most certainly so much better than the instruments made by dudes in endless pursuit of volume and eccentricity instead of true tonal beauty. Still… 1938 cedar top guitar! Get out a here. A replaced top perhaps lol! That could be one reason why a 1938 guitar looks so new, excuse me, I meant to say preserved:) no one made cedar top guitars in 1938.
I don't think that the Weissgerber is a cedar top. It appears to me like the typical Weissgeber spruce color. I held numerous Weissgerber guitars in my hands and they all had spruce tops stained like this. Think the top isn't necessarily replaced. Also the bridge looks kinda correct to me except the 12 holes but its not uncommon to drill six more holes in the bridge when the bridge saddle becomes too low because of a changing neck angle. Regards, Nils
Marty does NOT make lattice braced guitars. They are radial braced (I can show you photos of the underside of my soundboard) and they do not sound like lattice braced guitars. They are capable of a wide palate of colours (as Jouyan beautifully demonstrated) but they still have the sustain and power of a lattice braced guitar. You may not like the sound (which is completely fair) but it is not because it’s a lattice top. In my experience, Martys are much closer to a traditional sound than lattice braced guitars.
