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 Post subject: Tap Tune procedure
PostPosted: Tue Jan 29, 2013 10:56 am 
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Walnut
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Joined: Thu Dec 06, 2012 12:04 am
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First name: Martin
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how to do a tap tune procedure ? is tap tuned guitar sound is differrent with the guitar that not tap tuned ... because i've seen a guitar factory that only carving the soundbars,they not tap tune the guitar .... thank you.. sorry 4 my poor english.... :D

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 Post subject: Re: Tap Tune procedure
PostPosted: Tue Jan 29, 2013 11:13 am 
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Martin,

Factory guitars are just built according to the plans. Every guitar is built the same way. However, since each piece of wood is different, the guitars will not necessarily sound the same. Tap tuning is the procedure of making changes to the soundboard and bracing based on how each individual soundboard responds to tapping. So yes, the idea is that you make changes during tap tuning that will change the sound of the guitar, hopefully to improve it. But of course, one could also make changes that do not improve the sound or even make it worse.

I have never done it, so I can't give you a procedure. There are some posts around here on the subject, and other posts at other places on the internet. Also, there are DVDs available which describe the procedures developed by certain luthiers. Some other posters may be able to give you a quick procedure here, but I think the process is not very easy to describe in written form.


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 Post subject: Re: Tap Tune procedure
PostPosted: Tue Jan 29, 2013 11:24 am 
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Cocobolo
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Joined: Tue Jun 30, 2009 3:20 pm
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i would suggest buying this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Tuning-Build-Grea ... r+siminoff

ex. gibson employee siminoff seems to have taken up the work of loyd loar and applied it to guitar building. nothing wrong with that, but it is controversial. i have his books and iirc he has a chart in this one that lists specific pitches to tune guitar components to. the dvd's didn't work in my ps3 and i exchanged 3 of them and gave up on the videos. his books are interesting and worth having in your collection. esp his deflection testing fixtures -although i would have mounted the indicator on top so as to see it better none the less, knowledge is power (or just knowledge).

and no i have not built a guitar this way.


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 Post subject: Re: Tap Tune procedure
PostPosted: Tue Jan 29, 2013 11:36 am 
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Cocobolo
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martinbandung wrote:
how to do a tap tune procedure ? is tap tuned guitar sound is differrent with the guitar that not tap tuned ... because i've seen a guitar factory that only carving the soundbars,they not tap tune the guitar .... thank you.. sorry 4 my poor english.... :D


see this book Martin, pizza The Art Of Tap Tuning; Roger H. Siminoff also you can read up from Making an Archtop Guitar Robert Benedetto page 11.
you can search recent topic of tap tuning.. Eat Drink salam...


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 Post subject: Re: Tap Tune procedure
PostPosted: Tue Jan 29, 2013 3:50 pm 
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Koa
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Location: Caves Beach, Australia
I would recommend you NOT buy Siminoff's books.
They are a very poor and illogical approach.


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 Post subject: Re: Tap Tune procedure
PostPosted: Tue Jan 29, 2013 4:17 pm 
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Koa
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Joined: Sun Jun 20, 2010 2:52 pm
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before you start taptuning you should develope a goal, an idea what you want the reach. What sound, what kind of sound your guitars should have.

Every book is good to read and to own and have a look into it from time to time. You can learn how to do things, and you can learn how not to do things. This depends again on your idea. A guitarmaker without a plan, an idea in his head can also not taptune, thats what I think about this topic....

Cheers, alex


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 Post subject: Re: Tap Tune procedure
PostPosted: Tue Jan 29, 2013 6:26 pm 
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Brazilian Rosewood
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Jeff Highland wrote:
I would recommend you NOT buy Siminoff's books.
They are a very poor and illogical approach.


I don't know, I found his acoustical study of lacquer film thickness to be very scientific and worthwhile. He also has a lot of good info on strings as well, I think he worked with D'addario for a while as well as Gibson.

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 Post subject: Re: Tap Tune procedure
PostPosted: Tue Jan 29, 2013 6:26 pm 
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Skip the tuning book as advised above it is basically useless as far as usable information. I would suggest John Mayes Voicing tuning DVD's http://www.mayesguitars.com/DVD.html
The nice thing of them is you can hear the sound of the taps as John is working on the braces.

Fred

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 Post subject: Re: Tap Tune procedure
PostPosted: Tue Jan 29, 2013 6:43 pm 
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Koa
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Joined: Thu Jan 24, 2008 2:13 am
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Location: Caves Beach, Australia
B. Howard wrote:
Jeff Highland wrote:
I would recommend you NOT buy Siminoff's books.
They are a very poor and illogical approach.


I don't know, I found his acoustical study of lacquer film thickness to be very scientific and worthwhile. He also has a lot of good info on strings as well, I think he worked with D'addario for a while as well as Gibson.



Does anyone really do his procedure of tuning each brace to a note BEFORE gluing it to the soundboard?


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 Post subject: Re: Tap Tune procedure
PostPosted: Wed Jan 30, 2013 3:16 am 
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Cocobolo
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[quote


Does anyone really do his procedure of tuning each brace to a note BEFORE gluing it to the soundboard?[/quote]

for me it's totally nonsense ...


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 Post subject: Re: Tap Tune procedure
PostPosted: Wed Jan 30, 2013 5:18 am 
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Walnut
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I think you'll find that you tune the braces after they are glued on. Whether you can achieve the specified notes may be another matter. Thats the way I read it in the book.
Cheers John


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 Post subject: Re: Tap Tune procedure
PostPosted: Wed Jan 30, 2013 9:01 am 
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Fred Tellier wrote:
Skip the tuning book as advised above it is basically useless as far as usable information. I would suggest John Mayes Voicing tuning DVD's http://www.mayesguitars.com/DVD.html
The nice thing of them is you can hear the sound of the taps as John is working on the braces.

Fred


+1 on the John Mayes DVDs. I found them very helpful when I was trying to get a basic understanding of the whole tap tuning thing.

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