[ ]
From: Ross
Remote Name: 67.8.51.18
Date: 12 Feb 2007
Time: 08:46:35 -0500
Daily Blog 2/12/07 I was just thinking about the list of people that I really love. It seems awfully short, and I should probably feel guilty about that. I think I’ll add people I marginally love to the list and make it look bigger. I’ll feel better then, probably. Or try to love marginal people more. It’s very early. Tomorrow I’ll start this thing a little later. A cup of coffee or two later. I saw on a weird blog today a reference to “spent Starbucks cartridges”. Cool turn of phrase. Yesterday the reference was to playing positions for an imaginary finger style guitar. The standing position utilizing a strap presents some questions. While the endpin/headstock tie method presents more stability and support than the endpin/heel area strap button method, it may inhibit some of the natural playing movement of the left hand. It also shifts the entire instrument somewhat to the right in relation to the player’s body, moving the right elbow outward. Locating the support exclusively to the body means that the luthier must take into consideration the overall weight of the instrument and it’s point of balance. He may conjecture that neither of the two main types of strap anchor locations is viable, or at least reserve judgment regarding placement until the instrument is otherwise completed. He will have to decide early on, though, where he wants the player’s picking hand to fall on the instruments string scale when the picking hand is in the most comfortable position. In other words, where the guitar should naturally line up to afford the right hand natural access to the string’s prime picking real estate, or “sweet spot”. Typically this is 2-6” from the 20th fret. This, and every decision to be made must be a judgment call by the luthier. The more logical consideration of every aspect of the guitar that can be made, the greater the chance of a successful instrument. I’ll spend more time on this subject later. Setting aside location of strap support until completion, the shape of the instrument must be considered so that the sitting position accommodates the ideal right hand/picking “sweet spot”. The part of the body supported by the leg must be far enough from the centerline of the guitar so that the string path is lifted to a comfortable location in relation to the right hand. We may think of this as the up/down axis. The waist of the instrument (if, indeed, any) may serve to orient the instrument on the left/right axis. We can see that adjusting the width of the body and the location of the waist may be done in such a way that the right hand falls naturally to the area of the strings that will most commonly be picked. More attention is given to right hand location than to the left at this stage of design as the right is the more static in location, while the left is asked to make frequent movements up and down the neck. The shape of the lower bout and it’s distance to the centerline, we can see, is critical to ergonomics, whereas the role of the upper bout shape is less demanding. It’s only ergonomic function (if it is a function) is to make contact with the player’s forearm, locating and supporting the picking hand. Fewer restrictions thus apply to shaping it, and only convention would dictate that it mirror the shape of the lower bout. If the luthier believes ergonomics to be paramount, there may be reason to believe that the divergent functions of upper and lower bout may indicate asymmetry. Of course, I may be prejudiced on this point. If a reasonable playing position can be achieved by a tentative body shape (plantilla), sound and tonal considerations must be reconciled to this shape. And, having achieved a remarkable clarity of mind by getting these thoughts down, off to the bench.