Official Luthiers Forum!

There was a request to see a voicing box in one of the other threads. Here's mine, it was inspired by debates with engineering friends over the merits of free plate tuning vs. fixed plate tuning. Either can work.
The top plate of the box is concave and has a 25 ft radius on the rim, it holds my tops in upside down giving complete access to brace carving and tapping at the same time. The box volume matches the volume of guitar, providing similar air coupling. The clamp ring is bolted down using 1/4-20 bolts into t-nuts in the top plate of the box.
I like it.



An unbraced top installed on the box.


As is evident in the 2nd photo I can also make deflection measurements with it.

Oh, it's sounds great with a completed top on it, you can really get a lot of information off of one of these.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Excellent Jim, thanks a million for this.

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Bill Hodge


One does not simply, own enough guitars!

Thanks, Jim! And you just tap as normal?

Thanks for showing us this.

Jim, That is very nice. I have actually been planning on making something similar. How did you go about cutting the upside down radius in the top edge? CNC?

Hi guys,
James - yes you tap as normal I suppose. but it's more tactile for me. It sounds like tapping on a closed guitar body you can feel/listen for responsiveness, measure delflections and see how the air is pumping out the sound hole.

Barry- yes I cut the groove on radius groove on a cnc.

Oh, I should of mentioned the clamp ring has 3/16 o-ring cord stock on it as the clamp interface.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Boy, what was that saying? What I meant was it's a radius recess cut on a cnc.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Thanks for sharing this, Jim.

I think I'm gonna make my own as well.

Cheers.

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-Clint Beacock