Hi Michael, I've used Spanish Cedar for harp backs. It is a lovely wood and smells fantastic. Same effects on tone in harps as you mentioned with Hon. Mahogany vs. Spanish Cedar in guitar necks.
Likewise, In the past 30 years it was almost a standard to make early harps, especially reproductions of Gaelic brass strung harps, entirely of hard maple or sycamore. More recently upon further research on the Irish antiques the wood of choice for the soundboard and box turned on to be willow. Black willow is similar to Sp. Cedar in density and surprisingly strong for it's weight, and its volume and clarity is much greater than maple. The greater mass of the clavichord tangents made sense to me too; just like a lute, clavichord bridges raise in height and width towards the bass end. It's just one more bit of proof that the ancients knew what they were doing and built these things to achieve the results they wanted. >> I also will inlay a piece of hardwood inside the neck not to reinforce it, but to kill the natural frequency in the neck, so it won't color the tone.<< Wow, I would have never guessed that, but this too makes perfect sense. It will interesting to see if I can get the same results you are seeing and hearing with the double frets. Going to order more fretgut in the morning! Chad ----- Original Message ----- From: Michael Thames<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: lute<mailto:[email protected]> ; Chad McAnally<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, June 21, 2005 11:17 PM Subject: Re: Built-in action? Double frets I just finished reading some Dalsa in Italian Tab. then tried to read some French tab. Man, my mind stopped working for a moment. So I checked my Email. Chad, Interesting you picked up on this as well. 20 or so years ago, I quit using Honduran Mahogany, for necks in exchange for a lighter wood called Spanish cedar ( cedro). H. Mahogany is the typical wood Hauser used, and the Spanish cedar is typical for Spanish guitars. H. Mahogany is heavier, and gave the guitars more sustain, especially in the bass, but less warmth and volume. S. Cedar gave the guitars more warmth, and openness in the treble, more volume, but less sustain, and less clarity in the bass. I've always told guitarist's that the neck can make or break an instrument. Also, if you make a thin neck you get more warmth, ( up to a point) and the opposite for a thicker neck. I also will inlay a piece of hardwood inside the neck not to reinforce it, but to kill the natural frequency in the neck, so it won't color the tone. Chad as you mentioned adding heaver tangents, for the bass, this makes perfect sense, as the bass needs damping which is mass. This same principle can be seen on lute bridges. On the bass side of the bridge, it is higher, and wider adding mass, but on the treble side it is lower, and more narrow creating lightness, as well as stiffness. Anyway, in the next few days I'm making a neck for a baroque lute, and can't decide on going with linden (light ) or Spanish cedar ( a little heaver) for the core. Michael Thames www.ThamesClassicalGuitars.com<http://www.thamesclassicalguitars.com/> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Chad McAnally" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>> To: "lute" <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Sent: Tuesday, June 21, 2005 8:06 PM Subject: Re: Built-in action? Double frets > > Michael Thames wrote: <<<If one really thinks about it, half the sound goes into the bridge, and half goes into the neck, via the frets. So to not consider the effect the frets > contribute would be silly.>>> > > Now I know this is a lute list, not an early keyboard list, but I have come upon a direct parallel that may be of interest to lutenist and luthiers alike. The same phenomenon mentioned above by Michael was recently has been noted also on clavichords in an article by Martin Skowroneck in "Clavichord Intenational" ( Vol 9 #1 May 2005) > ; Half the energy of the strings goes into the bridge and half into the tangents, equivalent to the "frets" of a clavichord. > > It appear the some of the old builders realized this and made their tangents progressively heavier toward the bass end of the instrument, or tried to concentrate more the weight of the key levers closer to the tangent end, both in an effort to make the key "reflect" more of the energy of the string. Also critical to this was making the tangent more stable in the key than the traditional hammering in of the tangent. Some makers used addition small wooden wedges to tighten the tangent into the key to accomplish this. > > So, I began to experiment with all this on an instrument I'm working on. The result was not only a slightly louder clavichord but the tone was totally different. Very much like Michael's description of the impact the double fretting has on Baroque lute tone, the sustain is increased, but not so much as to muddy the instrument and the overall tone colour was rounder, much closer to the antiques in good condition I've heard and played. > > So, I wonder if the stability of the frets via double fretting transfers more energy to the neck resulting in a better tone or like the clavichord tangent, the double frets help reflects the motion of the string better into the air? A new puzzle for builders! > > Chad > > > > -- > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html<http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html> > --
