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Just wondering why guitars are thinner at the neck than the tail? Is there an acoustic reason for this convention? Or just tradition? Or what?

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Player comfort I assume.....not as thick right in front of you where your belly meets the body.

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

Because...

In a book on classical guitar building written by Art Overholtzer in the 70's, he said that it should be reversed in order to allow the sound easy access to exit the sound hole. He also leached as much resin as he could out of rosewood backs and sides using acetone, built flat backs because he thought guitars should be made with as little built in stress as possible, and used water-proofing on the top wood before gluing to help prevent distortion from water in the glue. An interesting chap to say the least.
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

Interesting isn't quite the word that I would use to describe him.

It also creates a subtle variance which, to the eye, makes a uniformly wide rib look less bulky at that scale.

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I did find this on the web, "My understanding is that if the body were not tapered, it would be a single depth throughout the body, which would be bad because tapering is better. Also, a single depth would be inferior."

http://www.harmonycentral.com/t5/Acoust ... p/23763527

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..and this

"...A steel string guitar is tapered because most of the sound that's generated is done so in the lower bout, and since the sound then travels to the upper bout, where there is less physical volume, it gets compressed, hence speeding up the sound of the notes played before they escape from the sound hole and it makes you sound like you're playing faster.

If they made classical guitars the same way, the speed at which the notes would come out, since classical guitarists play faster anyway, would be so fast that the notes played would break the sound barrier and the guitar would explode and blow your pecker off."

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Good reporting, Larry. I'll share that info with my classical guitarist friends. Better to be safe than sorry.

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George :-)

Ha! This sounds like the little girl on the commercial trying to explain why more is better than less........

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

And that, my friends, is why I won't play classical guitar.

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

I personally believe it's so you can use up all that tapered side wood you have laying around......build with all your sides tapered (even the sides that are striaght) and people think it was intentional.........<smile>

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

Tony, in the interest of full disclosure, I have filled in the rest of your quote.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Oops was that supposed to be out loud?

Oh thanks Bryan! My phone keeps posting stuff before I am ready. I had to edit this post because it was supposed to include a picture of a fat goat for no reason other than it reminds me of you. See for yourself:

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

Well she has my eyes. . .

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

I think I use one of his ideas all these years later, but I can't remember what it was.

Pat

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

I only play very sloooow classical pieces! Pachelbel's Canon comes to mind!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Trees taper as well. It's always best to look for the simple and the obvious answer.

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There is actually a stability in adding a wedge .

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
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You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

It was done in anticipation of the electric guitar...which would look stupid otherwise.

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I read Emerson on the can. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds...true...but a consistent reading of Emerson has its uses nevertheless.

StuMusic

So it's mainly structural?

Does anyone build non-tapered bodies steel string guitars?

Just can't help but think about the tale of a house wife who always cut the ends off her roast before she cooked it. When asked why, she said, "Because that's the way my mother always used to do it." Curious she asked her mother why she always cut the ends off her roast before cooking and her mother replied, "Because my roasting pan was too short for a whole roast."

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Dewey Decibel? Did he organize a sound library?

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That goat sure looks a lot like a sheep but it kinda looks tapered too - does anyone know why?

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