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(pics added to bottom of thread) I'm getting very close to taking delivery of a new Hauser guitar and he sent me some pics. The pic of the neck looks like he has a truss rod channel routed (although it doesn't go all the way to the body) as well as a couple other inlaid pieces (carbon fiber maybe?). What do you guys think, is that a truss rod channel with some carbon fiber inserts? From the back of the neck it looks like solid cedar so it's not a decorative laminated piece.




Cheers!

John

John, your picture link doesn't work.

FWIW, I use a single solid carbon fiber rectangular rod down the center of my classical guitar necks. I run it from the top of the fingerboard/just under the nut to the tenon just before it enters the body of the guitar (yes, I use a bolt-on neck with a M/T joint on my classicals). This is all that is required to keep the neck straight for many years given the low tension of the nylon strings (obviously I use good straight mahogany for the neck - the CF won't keep reaction wood from doing its stuff!). Some luthiers use an insert of ebony. Why don't you just ask the luthier who made it? I'm sure he/she would be glad to discuss their construction methods/philosophy with you.

Cheers,
Dave F.

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Cambrian Guitars

"There goes Mister Tic-Tac out the back with some bric-brac from the knick-knack rack"

You guys can't see the pic? I'll try and post another when I get home. The Luthier is Hermann Hauser III so I could ask him, but there's already several things he won't comment on about his construction methods. I just figured once you all saw the pic you'd know exactly what he was doing.

Cheers!

John

Looks like two strips of ebony to me John, a single strip of ebony is quite common as you know, looks like Hauser uses two, probably opposite grain. The way it's been cut by the table saw blade suggests it's not CF, which I can't see Hauser using anyway.

Didn't you order this about three years ago or so, or is my ageing memory playing tricks?

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Wow, you have a good memory Colin, I'm impressed! I ordered the guitar in 2006 and was told it would be a 3 year wait. In 2009 he actually began construction and I should be taking delivery sometime toward the end of this summer. The label on the inside of the guitar says 2009 although it won't really be done until 2011. I have more pics to show but for some reason can't get them to link here. Will try again tonight.

Cheers!

John

Trying to add pics again...

Cool, you must be quite excited about. The 2 outer stripes do look like ebony, but I wonder what is the center line. I doubt Hauser would use a trusrod. Also, it seems like a lot of reinforcemnt if he is using mahogany. Some Spanish cedar blanks can be as light as very light spruce, needing some extra reinformcent, but I didn't know Hauser uses cedar at all.

Perhaps ask him, I am curious too...

Very nice back and sides set! Same subspecies as the one I am working on right now

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Build log

Yes but they write the label when the order is received.

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Build log

More likely when they start construction. He ordered in 2006 and construction began in 2009.

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Waddy

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Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Sorry, I didn't read John's explanation carefully... but let's get back on that neck

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Build log

So I think you guys are probably right, an ebony strip down each side, but what do you think that line down the middle is?

John

Perhaps yet another strip of Ebony or CF. . . after all, there is a very limited number of things that it can be.

I agree, but being familiar with a paper written by David Schramm (can you chime in?), there's a section where he references the fretboard and some secrets all three Hausers had when attaching the fretboard to the neck.

To quote David's paper "One of the most mysterious details of the Hauser family Spanish guitar is that all three generations did something to the fingerboard that has been kept a secret. In the area of the 12-19 frets, the bottom of the fingerboard has a one millimetre counter veneer. The Hausers seem to have experimented with different materials. In some instruments it looks like mastic or a combination of hide glue and ebony dust was used. Andrea Tacchi who restored a 1957 Hauser Jr. guitar asked Hauser III about this material. His response, “This is a secret!”. To find out more about this construction detail I contacted Hauser III. Here is what he had to say:“My new guitars have this piece under the fingerboard. This is only one thing, which a Hauser guitar has more in the construction like on other guitar. (Many small pieces make in the end a big thing). If you think only for the small piece under the fingerboard I am sure you will find the right answer. Many people in the guitar world think on this piece but not every one found the right answer. Sorry that I do not tell it exactly. I hope you understand this. This is special and I know because it is a small piece under the fingerboard. You can be sure that it has sense. There are four right answers and this has also to do with the whole construction. I am sure you found by yourself two right answers.”[sic]

So, I wonder if the apparent ebony and possibly center channel somehow relate to what David found in his research paper? Full citation provided below.

Contributed by Mr. David Schramm, Clovis / USA
The Definitive Elements of the Hermann Hauser Spanish Guitar, 2003
E-mail: ddschramm@comcast.net
http://www.hauserguitars.com

I'm guessing but I don't think that the inlay strip pertains to the treatment of the fretboard above the 12th fret. I also fail to see the importance of the counter veneer, other than an attempt to prevent cracks forming.

I don't know that it's exactly pointless. I think the most reasonable answer is that it acts like a membrane between the neck and top to help prevent the top from cracking along the edges of the neck due to differing rates of expansion. I don't think it's the lure of pointlessness. The man is clearly an accomplished builder and I agree that a great guitar isn't one single thing but a huge amount of little things that add up. I'm guessing when Hermann makes the decisions that go into building a guitar, almost none of them are "irrelevant to anything that matters."

So if the answer is as prosaic as that, what's with the 'secrecy bit'? That particular problem has been known for years.
The response by Hauser implies that it has a tonal effect. I come to that conclusion because of his rather guarded and reticent response. There can be no other reason, save perhaps to create some Strad type myth and to flex minds of the chattering luthiers.
It's worked! Having said that, I too think it of little consequence.

I, and many builders I know, get over the differential expansion of FB and top by only gluing down a central one inch strip of the FB extension.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.