Thanks for the the video and link Bob, I ordered a copy as soon as I saw the preview.

Fred

Sorry Max.

A lot of the DVD covers the technique: what the patterns are, how to look for them, and so on. Also, the equipment gets covered pretty well. The basic method of looking at a top to decide whehter it's going to be easy or hard to tune holds across the board. In that respect, you'd get some information from this DVD.

All of the tops I look at in this go-round are X-braced. I have not had much luck with that pattern on classical smaller than a 12-fret 000 size, which is a lot larger than any 'normal' classical. I do play one of those (my 'Autumn' guitar) on the DVD, but, of course, you can't tell much from a recording in any event. Sharon Isbin liked it, though! But I digress.

In some ways fan-braced tops are easier to tune than X-braced ones. Often the modes look really good right off the bench, which is a testimony to the robustness of the design. You can usually do a little tweaking to get them to be better, though. Also, I've found a couple of things that I try to avoid on classicals: frequency relationships and mode shapes that have not worked out well in the past. These are not common problems, and I don't think you need to worry to much about them if you want to try Chladni tuning. Anyway, when we get around to the classical DVD I'll cover all of that, and try to look at some of the alternative bracing patterns, like the angled waist bar and Bouchet brace, as well. So you might want to wait.

If you have specific questions you can e-mail me, or post them on this list, and I'll try to address them. It's easier to get some things across in a video, especially since I'm working on a dial-up connection that really limits my ability to post graphics.