GG 106

Made a guitar I recently bought at an auction in Östersund. Had some ideas to test.

It is a fairly ordinary vein-painted old pearl from about 1910. Slightly smaller, total length 92 cm and with a 626 mm mens watch. Fairly slim grip board, 45 mm at the upper saddle and a comfortable V-shaped neck. A typical German with maple in the bottom, side and neck, nice spruce cap and mustache stall in maple. The grip board in rosewood is a bit more luxurious than usual. The tuning screws were perfectly OK but odd so I mounted new ones. No big problems with it except a few cracks in the lid.

Since the grip board was in rosewood I kept it but rubbed the straps as not all straps were in the right place. The stable was also in good condition and had to remain. Plugged and drilled the string holes and reinforced the stable in front of the stable leg (formerly a band) with ebony so that the stable leg would not fold in the soft maple.

The neck was given the usual carbon fiber rod and both the neck and stall were painted black with spirit lacquer. New ribs were glued into both the lid and the bottom. A K&K mic was also installed.

The two things I tested on this one were a flat bar at the bottom, the third bar of four and what I call “Turbocharger plugs”In the stable plate. Round poles in birch to provide better resistance than the spongy spruce in the lid between the string ball and the underside of the stable.

After the long procedure of getting all the parts together, overshadowing, making composite stable legs and varnishing, I can state that both experiments were successful. The flat bar in the bottom means that the bottom lives with and contributes to the sound (you should keep it from the stomach when playing which otherwise dampens the bottom). The "turbo plugs" gave higher volume, a little more harmonics and sustain as well as a clearer and more separated tone 🙂

I am very pleased with how it sounds and was a little surprised that the "turbo plugs" gave such a great effect!

Will use both details in the upcoming Old Gura. Before the new strings dropped their playful new sound, the volume was almost too high, but after a few days of playing it calmed down a bit.

 

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