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Brace
Yourself
Q
I enjoyed your article on
Tracy Chapman (April 2003). In the article, Chapman says she had
to break a lot of bad habits, including using her little finger
as a brace. On the issue's front cover, lo and behold, she is doing
just that. I do the same. Is this really a bad habit?
Thomas M. Ippolito
Port Huron, Michigan
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A
Anchoring
your little finger on the guitar's top is one of those things
that really isn't right or wrong. Many players do it when
fingerpicking (as it looks like Chapman is doing in the cover
photo), and flatpickers sometimes rest their pinky on the
top or pickguard while playing single-note lines. The advantage
is more stability for the picking hand; the potential drawbacks
are restricting picking hand movement and unintentionally
damping the guitar's sound. In my own playing, I never rest
my pinky on the top while playing fingerstyle, although I
sometimes rest either my pinky or ring finger on the first
string if I'm playing on the lower strings only, and I often
use a pinky anchor when flatpicking. Experiment for yourself
and find the technique that works best for you, although beginners
may want to try to avoid using any fingers as an anchor.
—Teja Gerken
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Anchors
away!
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Spruce
or Cedar?
Q
What are the
differences between spruce and cedar tops?
Travis
Tran
Santa Ana, California
A
To appreciate
the difference between the two woods, we have to understand their
similarities. When a spruce or cedar tree is felled by a woodcutter
who wants to turn it into guitar soundboards, it must be carefully
split apart with wedges into large blocks instead of sawn into boards.
This ensures that the fibers are precisely aligned. Later, soundboard
sheets are sawn off these blocks perpendicular to the rings (lengthwise
down the log). The rings will thus be oriented in the soundboard
like a series of tiny, rigid beams ("reeds" as luthiers like to
call them), separated and kept upright by softer, fluffy fibers
in between. This natural architecture yields a soundboard that is
enormously strong and stiff relative to its weight. In terms of
strength-to-weight ratios, materials engineers rank vertical-grain
spruce and cedar among the most efficient structural materials in
the world, comparing favorably with aluminum or even space-age carbon
fiber laminates. The differences between spruce and cedar are very
slight but noteworthy. Cedar soundboards have a reputation for not
noticeably improving in tone over time as much as spruce boards
usually do. But that may be the stuff of lore, as it is difficult
to prove. Subtle structural differences make cedar somewhat stiffer
and lighter than spruce and therefore more brittle and fracture-prone.
In our repair shop, we often see spruce tops that are dented from
a collision with a microphone. All too often on cedar guitars, there
are cracks beneath the same sort of dents. And because the fiber
between the reeds is softer and fluffier than that of spruce, cedar
is considerably less wear-resistant, and fingernail and pick marks
tend to accumulate more rapidly than they do on spruce tops. But
these same differences also result in a marginally crisper, louder
tone from cedar-top guitars. All things considered, spruce and cedar
perform equally well as guitar soundboards, whether on low-priced,
off-the-rack factory models or high-priced concert-quality instruments.
—William
Cumpiano
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Out,
Out, Green Spot
Q
About four
years ago I purchased two then-new Martin guitars. Now, tiny funky
green spots are showing up where the frets meet the side of the
neck, basically where my thumb wraps around the neck when I play.
Wiping the neck down with a soft cotton cloth isn't helping this
problem. What can I do?
Leonard
Hevia
Silver Spring, Maryland
A
You might be experiencing
a bit of corrosion on the frets from handling or from ambient conditions
in or out of the case. This kind of corrosion is more likely to
show up if you live in a humid home or climate. If it's occurring
beneath the finish on the fret ends, take the guitar to a professional
luthier. If the frets show serious dulling or corrosion, particularly
over the body where you don't handle them much, you can probably
count on corrosion at the ends, as well, which can loosen the finish
at the end of the fret. Excessive dryness can also be a culprit,
causing wooden fingerboards to shrink, in turn making the ends of
the frets stick out a tiny bit. In that case, a luthier can level
the frets and buff the finish at the edge of the fingerboard to
an acceptable appearance. I've never seen a circumstance where fret-end
corrosion or finish looseness caused a serious problem. So don't
spend too much time worrying about it, but do contact your local
Martin warranty repair shop for a quick inspection and advice specific
to your guitars.
—Frank
Ford
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Excerpted from
Acoustic Guitar magazine,
November
2003, No. 131.
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