Finally Getting the D40C fixed -- Any suggestions for Add-ons (including new Pickup)

PittPastor

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I think I have seen the bracing diagram before. But, I guess I am structurally deficient, because I can't quite see how the cutaway can create the ripple. Part of it is that I can see the compression, and no one else online can. It's hard to see it unless you can turn the guitar over in the light. A still picture doesn't really show it well.

But it seems symmetrical to me -- with it's center in the center of the fretboard... and that's what is baffling. It seems to me that the cutaway would cause a ripple effect that would be seen off center, since it is only in one side.

The other thing I don't fully understand (and never have) is: What makes a Guild sound like a Guild?

Simply looking at the Guild and comparing it to a Gibson of the Mid-Sixties, it seems to me that Guild is designed around the Gibson style guitar. Even the headstock is similar. I've never played a 70s Gibson. Do they sound similar to the Guild? IDK.

Martin has a sound to me. And their dread sounds "Boomier" to my ear. The Taylor sounds more "trebly". One of the things I have always loved about my Guild is that the tone sounded even across the strings. What makes that true? Is that a function of the bracing? Then wouldn't changing the bracing radically change the sound? If they moved away from the "over built" popsicle bracing, wouldn't effect the sound? If they started using a V Bracing in Cordoba, wouldn't the Guild start sounding like a Taylor?

What can be changed in the design without altering the tone and sound? Is the reason no one on this forum (or mostly no one) likes the new Cordoba Guilds is because they changed the underpinnings and therefore the sound?

Also, there is the matter of sustain. I chose my Guild over a Martin in 1981 because the Guild had better sustain. Now, that could have just been a function of the strings. But I don't think so. Because I met a Martin fanboy once who just raved about them and was dumbfounded when I told him I chose the Guild over a Martin. When I told him why, though, he didn't protest a bit. He instantly agreed and said he did a modification to the Martin to correct that.

If the Guild has a better sustain out of the case than Martin, why Wouldn't Martin fix that?

These are just general musings of mine. I imagine every question is answered with: "Well, it depends..."

But I was just wondering...
 

adorshki

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Hoo-boy. Too many questions to take on in depth right now, except let me observe that the upper bout is supposed to be the least acoustically active area of a top, almost "dead", so the popsicle bracing thing was never about "tone" that I saw, but just construction technique, and that Guild moved to the later design to help prevent fretboard extension cave-in and neck-block dislocation seen in earlier instruments.
The neckblock might be why the ripples look symmetrical, maybe the stress on the top is evenly dispersed around it.
The other stuff about "tone": yes bracing's supposed to be a large part of it, but spacing, angles, and top radius (flat tops are actually slightly arched) are all part of the equation too.
Finally I don't think "Most of us" dislike the new Oxnard instruments based on sound, I think most of us are on the fence keeping our fingers crossed as they get up to full potential.
Some of us have minor gripes based on other things like construction details or model numbering.
One well-respected member did have a less than optimal experience with a brand new D55 on display in a shop, but at least one if not a couple of others posted very good reviews, and even that first member could cite a couple of possible reasons for the guitar he tried being less than hoped for, in his opinion.
"Tone" is kinda like every maker's "secret sauce" and I bet they all have little undisclosed design details intended to preserve the brand's "tone identity" including some of the stuff I mentioned above.
For example I wonder if tops have to be uniform thickness or if maybe making sure they're a few thousandths thicker across the lower bout has an effect?
Maybe the fact that Guild bridges are traditionally thicker under the bass strings (I don't know if that's true of other makers) helps create that balanced string volume?
Heck there's even a case to be made for headstock shape affecting tone, and if you've ever felt a neck vibrating in your hand and realized there was a big ol' headstock mass at the end of it affecting how that neck was putting energy back into the top through the fretboard extension and heelblock, you'd start believing it too.
At that point I'm content to let the mystery remain a mystery until I have more time to really dig in to some "luthier's theory".
:friendly_wink:
 

Nuuska

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Hello

Slight veer towards Martin booming - when I was at Berns in MN we had Martins, too. For me - playing fingerstyle - D18 was way better than D28 or D35 - and then came the Shenandoah line, that was superior - FOR ME.

D35 was my absolute favourite as far as looks go . . .
 
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