Ladder Braced Concert Guitar

[Dave White]

Paul,

The old hog guitar is slightly smaller than a Martin O size I think.

[Serge]

Sorry for being late brother Dave!

WOW AND REWOW buddy mate! thanks for sharing the fruits with us, wonderful pics of amazing instruments, great info on how you build them and the icing is the sound files, mon, you're spoiling us goooood!!

Love ya Dave!

Serge

[Dave White]

Serge,

Thanks - glad you liked it.

[Dennis Leahy]

Dave,

I think I commented on this at OLF (if not, it was an oversight), but I'm listening on a different computer today with better speakers & sound card.

Holy guacamole, you sure have created a wonderful sounding instrument!

I was listening to a CD from Bruce Cockburn, Speechless, on which he plays a number of cuts on what is obviously a small bodied guitar. It is a haunting, compressed, mid-range, nasal, and "jangly" sound, not at all something I would describe as "full" or "smooth", and yet... ...somehow, it was the *perfect* instrument for those songs. You know how your ear and your appreciation of musical sounds evolves and grows over time, well, that Cockburn CD was a real "ear-opener" for me. I actually have 3 parlor guitars started, and that was a big chunk of my inspiration.

OK, back to your guitar: your playing, and arranging/composing, and recording are so good, it does make me wonder if you could make a lesser instrument sound magical. Because, this guitar just sounds magical! The bracing on this and other ladder braced guitars at first glance makes no sense to me at all, from a sonic engineering standpoint, but then, I look again and sort of see a pair of pivoting brace beneath the general bridge area.

Oh well, I'm just blithering now, but wanted to try to put into words how wonderful this guitar sounds. You have done some amazing things in your instruments, and this guitar is no exception. Can't wait to see/hear what you come up with next!

Dennis

[Dave White]

Dennis,

I'm blushing

I do like the sound of this guitar and I really do think that ladder bracing is dismissed too easily. With modern materials and techniques I think you can do as much in terms of tone and versatility as you can do with X bracing.

"Next" is underway and also ladder bracing - a twin-necked acoustic lap slide guitar

[Allen]

Come on Dave, why don't you step out a little from the norm and try something a little different.