I found out about the aluminium reinforcement the hard way when adding a strap button to my Furch. This attition seems quite ingenious, using the fluctuating humidity to its advantage. Thanks for making this video,
Neat, but no mention of the effect on resonance through the neck, affecting string vibration and thus volume and tone, from what looks like the pivot point of an allen bolt head being almost the only contact between neck and body. And how is the fingerboard overhang fixed to the top? Just a'wonderin'...
The technology is like in old Soviet guitars of the USSR period, only at a new level of modern technologies. But the principle itself is old. In general, it is normal when they remember old inventions and present them as new engineering technologies. ;)
Точно! Я сейчас сижу и угораю: сколько их ругали - наши бедные советские гитарки, а теперь это супер-пупер продвинутая технология 😂. Хотя, это вроде бы немцы придумали, но потом почему-то отказались от этого. Здесь правильно говорят, что дека должна дышать, её нельзя зажимать грифом. В общем, новое - это хорошо забытое старое😊
truth and He lied that they never saw it etc. Such guitars were all over Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania etc. Even some were in the western Europe. East Germany had a bit similar thing as well. And there were guitars with a screwed in neck , so you could adjusts angle easy.
Советская конструкция гитар была неидеальна: гриф подвижен и зажат с одной стороны винтом, а с другой - струнами. Новая жесткая конструкция позволит деке вибрировать и обеспечит стабильный строй, но при этом будет регулируемой. И гитара будет разборной и компактной для транспортировки. Я давно думал о такой конструкции, но не думал, что это так нужно и важно, и это будут покупать. Видимо, я просто не умею продавать. 😂
This is a solution looking for a problem. The basic traditional dovetail neck joint found in vintage Martin and Gibson guitars is a perfect neck joint. The neck resetting issues generally have to do with the body changing shape after it’s under tension. It’s very easy for a skilled luthier to remove and reset the neck angle. This is something that is needed every 20-40 years at a minimum generally speaking. All the contraption embedded inside the neck is bound to make it sound inferior.
In my Fender American Acoustasonic Jazzmaster, it is quite easy to adjust the neck angle using the Allen wrench provided. Of course, it is not automatic, as is possible with Furch due to the moisture in the wood, which is a completely new and ingenious idea. Really great!
I have 3 Furch guitars the trussrod arrangement is revolutionary just buy one you will never regret ...... I had money for the big boys but decided to see what's available outside, I decided on Furch never regretted my choice.
Brilliant concept to prevent the most common catastrophic failure in acoustic guitars. Electric boltons have long had the the Fender Micro-tilt. So some “electric guitars” do have this.
Very cool concept. Though I would question the degree of effect of humidity on a "block" of wood vs a thin guitar top. Would not the top's reaction to change in humidity be much quicker than a block of wood, especially if said block is contained within the neck joint area? Thus causing the "auto" adjustment to be premature or delayed?
Kif guitars in Cornwall (UK) has had adjustable necks on his guitars for years. His have truss rods too. About 20 seconds to adjust the neck angle from the back of the guitar.
I have a Furch Little Jane...very cool travel guitar that fits on the airplane under the seat as a personal item - not even the carry on! Their backpack doesn't protect it like I wanted, so I purchased a hard sided suitcase with removable wheels that fits it perfectly, and I can put a few changes of clothes and a book! Plus the guitar sounds great - high quality engineering. Furch is the real deal.
That is a brilliantly thought out system. I have my reservations about the 'automatic' adjustment with changing humidity, but the manual adjustment is a really good idea.
Make a comparison video between this system and the Taylor Guitars neck adjustment/connection. They have a bolted on acoustic neck that allows some adjustment. Be good to see both in detail side by side. Clever to have the wood plug natural actuator/compensator block.
Meine Furch SVJ 61 Lux ist jetzt 30 Jahre alt. Bin damals noch im Werk gewesen, war genau zu der Zeit als der Showroom in Brno eröffnet wurde. Da hat sich noch nichts dran verzogen, spielt und klingt wie am ersten Tag, sieht nur leider nicht mehr so taufrisch aus. Super leichte Ansprache und hölle laut das Teil. Aus heutiger Sicht ein absoluter Schnapper, für grade mal 630 Deutsche Mark. Bin Happy.
You are correct. I was thinking the exact same thing. While it's entirely possible to create the plug with the metal screw going across the grain rather than with it, they would need to add a car fender washer to prevent splitting the plug. But that would work.
I believe the block is a pivot and not supposed to move. The rounded-off plug may be some other material closer to cork. Also the block might have a radiused surface that sits against the neck joint - there wasn't a view taken closely enough to the device (possibly by design) that I could tell.
@@craighamley3669 The round plug looks like wood, and is the part that is designed to expand under the pivot point. In the cutaway example it will not expand in the desired direction.
@ The rounded piece may indeed be wood, but I respectfully disagree that you can tell at all from the cutaway shown what direction the grain of the piece is even running, which is needed to determine how it will or will not move when exposed to temperature and humidity changes. Without knowing the construction methods of the piece (i.e. the species of wood, the direction of grain and if it's composite or not) I think you're trying to pass judgement without all the facts. I also would like to see this device tested over a longer time - frame because I'm not convinced it's going to really stop belly-bulge in acoustic guitars over time, which is what most often leads to the need to reset the neck joint. To me that's more of a body bracing issue and how good the foundation of the bridge is constructed.
@@craighamley3669 You are confusing criticism with attacking. This is a commentary on how wood moves. You can get a great look at the joint at 5:12. I am not attacking the contstruction whatsoever. At least 2 of us are pointing out that the dowel won't expand along it's length, but the quartersawn square block (you can see the clear vertical grain, which is a nice touch) with the F on it will expand and contract with the top screw butting against it. If they are using the square as the pivot, then it might work well. I do wish them well. Time will tell.
What I wanna see are well-recorded comparative sound clips between guitars with and without this device they've invented to see if it sounds good. I could see where if the device doesn't detract from the sound, maybe it'll allow for a less-braced body and better resonance without a significant decrease in the lifespan of the instrument? I have a cheap fender acoustic that was my first guitar 8 years ago - because it's poorly braced internally it's got pretty severe belly bulge now and sounds woodier with each passing year. It lives in the same humidity - controlled studio as my second acoustic (mid-tier Eastman) that I bought one year later, which is just internally braced much better and has no bulge (yet). In the case of the fender I think it's partly also a deliberate thing in the acoustic world to build a guitar that won't last too long (especially at the lower tiers of the market) so that there's always a market for entry-level guitars. As a player improves, typically they're apt to spend more money on better and better instruments, & their expectations re the lifespan of the instruments they purchase will change correspondingly. My understanding is that more bracing changes the sound because it restricts the movement of the top (the reason laminate-top guitars sound dull and lifeless), and that there's a tradeoff between bracing and sound, so maybe this device will allow for a better-sounding guitar? Idk as I'm not a luthier nor a physicist...
11:11 "I love going through the factory and just seeing all the crazy contraptions they made to build these guitars" And yes we do too! Do a future episode with a factory tour showing these crazy contraptions of which you speak.
I also have a Martin OMCRE that adjusts the neck height with a hex key. It was designed by partnering with Babicz. Takes seconds and doesn't change the tuning. They just didn't catch on and only 42 (i believe) were made over 7 years or so...then they shelved it. Beautiful guitar - Carpathian Spruce, Rosewood body, Mahogny neck, cutaway. Hard to find any info on them now...
I wonder if due to aging the wooden block would loose it's adaptability. In the end it is just a small piece of wood. Then the system could start getting loose. The idea is very innovative and reminds me on the adjustable neck in Ken Parker's Archtop guitars, where you can adjust the action without even detuning the strings.
Fender Strats had the microtilt system in the 70's for changing the neck angle. It wasn't well received at the time, but it works perfectly well for me.This is still very cool!
This system is genious expecially for the "automatic" adjustment according to moisture. About the neck angle adjustem for the action, I think that Fender Microtilt is pretty similar in principle and exists since early 1970s (and was still a Leo Fender Idea, even if it was introduced in the CBS era)
I know it happens but I have a 52 year old Fender acoustic that has a neck and front as solid as could be. I've had to adjust neck angle on a couple of electrics and compensate a floating bridge on an archtop but this old girl has never let me down.
This reminds me of the neck angle adjustment that Mike Doolin designed into his Doolin Guitars. However, the automatic adjustment to compensate for humidity changes is brilliant.
Small detail - but saying its "fucking clever". Love your videos - no hate - just feedback.... I am just sensitive to sharing to my customers who may be younger guys/girls. As of November 2024 we now have the first models arriving in with the system
I'd just like to shout out Keith Guitars and Lame Horse guitars. They both have had adjustment systems for the neck and playing action for many years and neither require the neck to be removed to adjust the action. Quite a few of the modern boutique Luthier built acoustic guitars with adjustable necks use the system pioneered by Martin Keith. Obviously with these systems designed and implemented by small boutique luthiers, there aren't thousands of these instruments out there but just so you know, Furch didn't invent the on-the-fly and adjustable-under-tension neck system even though the Furch guy seems to think they have.
Wooooaaahhhh! How cool is this?!? And even cooler Furch will be implementing it in ALL their guitars, i.e. also the more affordable ones. :-) Gonna check them out, for sure. Question for Furch: I tune down all my guitars a full 3 half-steps, to C# standard tuning, and compensate for string slack by using 13s (favorite set = Martin SP). Will this new system also make setting up this low tuning easy?
On a holiday in austria i went on a trip toprag, and somewhere underway i went into a musikshop (budweis or Tabor?), and played a Furch . Such super nice guitars, , back home in NL i bought one, The nicest acoustic i ever owned Only, no pickup installed , now i own a godin multiac
I’m a big fan of optimizing setup over time as the guitar changes, and this seems to eclipse the Taylor NT neck. IMHO, this is a brilliant development. Now, let’s hear it from the Dovetail Devotees- “Dovetail necks produce better tone because they are tighter and glued….and they ring….they sound better…and don’t need resets…..well not as often….err… they sound better.”
So - that video of the neck being adjusted - old-style - it looked like a dovetail joint which requires glueing... and the whole job was done in less than 30 minutes...?
Not really... Truth is..Luthiers have plenty of work out there.. Also, noting the unglued gap between the neck block and the fact that there's absolutely no true connection of the neck to the body is going to change the acoustics. Is this a bad thing ? Well , not so much if you play with electronics.. However, if you play acoustically in a 4 piece ensemble, such as bluegrass, this guitar will lack... and you lose resonance as compared to an old-fashioned dovetail joint.. If you're going to pay 1k more vs having a luthier do a reset in 20 years, while giving up inherent sound qualities, then what have you really gained ? build 2 identical guitars onen with a simple bolt-on neck and one with a dovetail.. the difference is quite noticeable..then build one with this setup.. There's a place for this setup.. but it's not universal... I know many players who swear by A taylor bolt-on system.. and about as many who can't stand it .. I have had some old guitars that still don't need anything more that a simple sanding the saddle ... a half hour job...
@@thefreese1Interesting. I was recently researching deep into an old luthiery forum discussing adjustable necks (because this concept isn’t new at all, apart from the claimed auto adjust with humidity) and there was a post by a respected maker saying they’d made dovetail, bolt on, and bolt on adjustable neck versions of the same model and the join had zero effect on the acoustic properties of the instrument. But they did not continue making them because of the belief amongst so many customers that it would have an acoustic effect. Is it not possible that the people with the issues with the Taylor guitars just don’t like the general tone? How do they know it is the bolt on neck?
@joelstewartinstruments it's kind of funny, you really can't tell that it's actually the bolt-on neck that's killing the resonance you're looking to hear.. because sometimes it's just the choice of woods.. But you can definitely tell.. There's no one thing g that makes a guitar sound great. It's all the little things that add up ... and this neck system seems like it could take a potentially great guitar and rob the sound
@joelstewartinstruments oh it can make a difference . It's funny how as time goes along an instrument gets sounded so much better as the wood opens up and that's just a simple little thing. The neck connection is actually pretty important because the vibration at the nut and meets up with the vibrations that are transferred to the bridge and it really truly affects the sound more than a person knows . And I'm not dissing this set up. It will work for some people regardless . Especially a musician that's on the road all the time going two different parts of the country and the woods in their guitar are changing quite a bit. It would be invaluable for them. And they are playing through a pickup and an amp . It will be a perfect solution I'm sure. I'm saying in an open-air band setup it's going to rob Rob the guitar up some residence. There's no way you can get away from it but that doesn't mean it's not a good system. There's a lot of people that play with bolt on guitars. Although most of them have their fretboard extensions affixed to the body either by bolting or by Glue. Martin has one bolt that goes through the heel and the neck block, and glues the fretboard extension to the top of the guitar. While others have bolts on systems that bolt at the heel of the neck and also crank the fretboard extension down also. But they're not going to transfer vibrations as well as a totally glued dovetail neck and fretboard extension. Also when it comes to fretboard extensions being glued, that also supports the tension on the neck. Best way to explain this is to you have you picture the string tension coming from the nut at the other end of the neck pulling back towards the bridge and the glued down fretboard extension helping counteract at Force . While also transmitting more resonance to the body.... Luthiers, most all of us think about this because we've learned it over time..
OK, I understand the principle of how this system changes the neck angle with humidity. But how is this calibrated? If the top rises or falls by a factor of "x", according to humidity, then the wood block in the neck joint must expand by a factor of "Y" for the string angle to remain the same. That is a complicated relationship at best, particularly given that you are dealing with a natural material like wood. So, how did they design this system to consistently make the minute changes necessary for the string angle to remain constant? The principle is intriguing, but I'm skeptical that it is able to accurately do what it professes. I also wonder if the problem of neck/body angle change due to humidity is really a problem that is worth worrying about.
This is good. As a luthier I have had to economically write off many (edit: glued on neck) guitars because a neck removal and reset costs a lot more than the guitar is worth. Nice one Furch!
@@robinervin6660 That's great provided you are one of the 1% of guitarists who can afford a Gibson acoustic! Almost all were ten year oldish guitars that had been bought second hand by people who thought they would be easy to fix up! Seriously loved one's get done because they are worth more than their cash price.
Несколько нюансов. Анкер не регулирует угол грифа, он регулирует его рельеф. Угол можно менять на венской (русской) конструкции, но те гитары без анкера. Дальше. Вы утверждаете, что нижний деревянный блок впитает влагу и потянет гриф назад. Но для этого надо чтобы волокна в нём располагались не горизонтально, а вертикально. Дерево практически не увеличивается от влаги в длину, оно распухает в ширину. Чтобы использовать эту идею, не нужно усложнять конструкцию, старая венская система и без того подразумевает такой подход. Достаточно на венской гитаре поставить верхний клёц торцом вверх, и у вас получается то же самое. Клёц распухнет поперёк и потащит болт с грифом назад, и отклонит его на нужный угол. А если этого недостаточно, всегда можно просто подкрутить ключом. Вы изобрели велосипед. Мне нравятся ваши гитары и я приветствую эксперименты, но сейчас вы просто неоправданно усложнили старую венскую конструкцию.
Check out Riversong Guitars in British Columbia Canada. Neck through body acoustic. adjustable principle better Gorgeous guitar. I bought one and love it
Ken Parker archtops adjust action by changing the neck angle. The bridge is not adjustable. It’s not the same system as this, but it’s similar. Watch his videos.
06:04 "not even electric guitars can do that." That is not quite true. Fender has had the micro-tilt system for years. It's not "automatic", but since you're specifically referencing the manual adjustment, I thought I should bring it up. There's also the traditional shimming, which is doing the exact same thing, but with a bit more work. The true innovation here is being able to do it on a set neck, and not just a bolt-on.
i tried some furch guitars a year or so ago, really nice guitars, really nice finish and for the price (£300 or so) really good value for money. i have seven acoustics and i've had a bout 60 since 2013, never had any neck problems, seems like a waste of effort.
I think it's caused by the string tension over time. I have a cheap fender acoustic that was my first guitar 8 years ago - because it's poorly braced internally it's got pretty severe belly bulge now and sounds woodier with each passing year. It lives in the same humidity - controlled studio as my second acoustic (mid-tier Eastman) that I bought one year later, which is just internally braced much better and has no bulge (yet). In the case of the fender I think it's partly also a deliberate thing in the acoustic world to build a guitar that won't last too long (especially at the lower tiers of the market) so that there's always a market for entry-level guitars. As a player improves typically they're apt to spend more money on better and better instruments, & their expectations re the lifespan of the instruments they purchase will change correspondingly. My understanding is that more bracing changes the sound because it restricts the movement of the top (the reason laminate-top guitars sound dull and lifeless), and that there's a tradeoff between bracing and sound, so for me what I wanna see are well-recorded comparative sound clips between guitars with and without this device they've invented to see if it sounds good. I could see where if the device doesn't detract from the sound, maybe it'll allow for a less-braced body and better resonance without a significant decrease in the lifespan of the instrument?
I don't understand the choice of grain direction for the block (cylinder). The grain must go the other way to have any effect. "Wood is made of fibers. Think of wood as a bunch of soda straws or flexible rubber tubes bundled together. When you add water, the fibers expand to hold the extra water. When it dries, they contract. So you will see expansion across the width of the grain, and very little along its length."
It doesn’t work if the dovetail fails. Which they frequently do. My ex-boss was the service manager for Martin Canada. He did 100s of neck re-sets a year. This is brilliant solution.
1. Just like @StepanVasylyshyn said, we had similar technologies/neck angle adjustable Nylon+Steelstring guitars since the 1940ies over here in Germany, too. 2. All these guitars have to have their fretboards floating over the top of the guitar instead of glueing it to the top which usually leads to tonal loss at least in the higher register-how about this on these Furchs? 3. The common problem of older Flattops is usually a distorted/warped top with a forward turning momentum of the bridge caused a) by false storage (air too dry) and/or b) a too light top construction. This usually cannot be repaired or resolved other than than by removing the top and replacing it for a new one since at least Baroque times. Nowadays it's hip to do neck resets due to some US-luthier approaches - but this does not solve the original problem! A ruined top is nothing less than a ruined top! Sorry Henning, but this has to be said. Trotzdem schöne Feiertage!😘
Point 2: absolutely - I always wonder about this. At least in Taylor's system the fingerboard extension also changes angle in conjunction with the heel change of angle. But how does this do the same? I've seen people doing 'old-fashioned' style neck resets, pulling apart the dovetail joint and re-working it but appearing not to er... do anything with the fingerboard extension. Point 3: Totally agree. The traditional 'neck reset' basically re-works the joint to make the neck work with the new, deformed structure of the guitar. Does nothing to the deformation of the guitar. It's my experience that this deformation is far less about any humidity issues and far more about the 2nd aspect you mentioned, namely the destructive force of the strings on an inadequate structure.
@ I like that idea… but as I understand it’s not only the top that deforms but the overall box structure of the guitar as well? My mind always goes back to the early arch-top guitars where the majority of the string loading forces are resisted by the much stronger end of the guitar (usually via a ‘trapeze’ tail piece of some kind) rather than the delicate and weak top.
wood doesn't move much lengthwise (specially Maple), and that is the orientation of your moisture block and sound board, so wouldn't change things much by only that strategy, the possibility of applying opposite force by the screw, yes, time will tell about unwanted reactions, wood and its treatments (seasoning and cutting ages) are quite inconsistent. I overall like the Idea, but I feel quite sure that is not an originality.
Or just buy a Lowden instead, with a super stiff 5 piece neck which doesn't alter the string height no matter what the moisture content of the air is ?
@@EytschPi42 My Lowden is Sitka Spruce top and Rosewood back/sides, and that never moves ? I can tune right down to Nick Drake style and the action is the same ?
The guy in the silly shirt was so annoying that he made this video hard to watch. I am very dubious about the claim that the blocks of wood incorporated into the neck are going to expand and/or shrink just the right amount to correct for the rise or fall of the top (which is not always just caused by the moisture content of the wood). Nevertheless, if the idea allows for simple manual adjustment of the neck angle then it might have merit. They would not be the first to come up with this capability.
I would have liked to have seen a measurement of string height at the 12th fret before and after the adjustment.
Brilliant idea. So happy to see this!
I found out about the aluminium reinforcement the hard way when adding a strap button to my Furch. This attition seems quite ingenious, using the fluctuating humidity to its advantage. Thanks for making this video,
Neat, but no mention of the effect on resonance through the neck, affecting string vibration and thus volume and tone, from what looks like the pivot point of an allen bolt head being almost the only contact between neck and body. And how is the fingerboard overhang fixed to the top? Just a'wonderin'...
The technology is like in old Soviet guitars of the USSR period, only at a new level of modern technologies. But the principle itself is old. In general, it is normal when they remember old inventions and present them as new engineering technologies. ;)
Точно! Я сейчас сижу и угораю: сколько их ругали - наши бедные советские гитарки, а теперь это супер-пупер продвинутая технология 😂. Хотя, это вроде бы немцы придумали, но потом почему-то отказались от этого. Здесь правильно говорят, что дека должна дышать, её нельзя зажимать грифом. В общем, новое - это хорошо забытое старое😊
truth and He lied that they never saw it etc. Such guitars were all over Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania etc. Even some were in the western Europe. East Germany had a bit similar thing as well. And there were guitars with a screwed in neck , so you could adjusts angle easy.
Советская конструкция гитар была неидеальна: гриф подвижен и зажат с одной стороны винтом, а с другой - струнами.
Новая жесткая конструкция позволит деке вибрировать и обеспечит стабильный строй, но при этом будет регулируемой. И гитара будет разборной и компактной для транспортировки.
Я давно думал о такой конструкции, но не думал, что это так нужно и важно, и это будут покупать. Видимо, я просто не умею продавать. 😂
This is amazing for the guitar. This is almost like adjusting the rods in a banjo.
This is a solution looking for a problem. The basic traditional dovetail neck joint found in vintage Martin and Gibson guitars is a perfect neck joint. The neck resetting issues generally have to do with the body changing shape after it’s under tension. It’s very easy for a skilled luthier to remove and reset the neck angle. This is something that is needed every 20-40 years at a minimum generally speaking. All the contraption embedded inside the neck is bound to make it sound inferior.
In my Fender American Acoustasonic Jazzmaster, it is quite easy to adjust the neck angle using the Allen wrench provided. Of course, it is not automatic, as is possible with Furch due to the moisture in the wood, which is a completely new and ingenious idea. Really great!
You adjust the bow of the neck, not the angle. This is a different thing.
I have 3 Furch guitars the trussrod arrangement is revolutionary just buy one you will never regret ...... I had money for the big boys but decided to see what's available outside, I decided on Furch never regretted my choice.
6:30 Riversong guitars, Ken Parker Archtops…. To name a few.
Wow, that's innovation, also very well filmed. Kudos for Furch and Henning!
Brilliant concept to prevent the most common catastrophic failure in acoustic guitars. Electric boltons have long had the the Fender Micro-tilt. So some “electric guitars” do have this.
Thts a fact , iv had a few myself .
Sure any guitar with a bolt on neck (most Fenders) can have the neck adjusted. However, most acoustic guitars dont have bolt on necks. Some do though.
Very cool concept. Though I would question the degree of effect of humidity on a "block" of wood vs a thin guitar top. Would not the top's reaction to change in humidity be much quicker than a block of wood, especially if said block is contained within the neck joint area? Thus causing the "auto" adjustment to be premature or delayed?
Tops deform from string tension, not moisture.
@ i’ve had acoustic tops ‘sink’ in very very dry weather, lowering the bridge slightly, lowering the action.
What an exceptional company!
Kif guitars in Cornwall (UK) has had adjustable necks on his guitars for years. His have truss rods too. About 20 seconds to adjust the neck angle from the back of the guitar.
Thanks Joff, and FAR simpler!!!
fender micro tilt 3 bolt on tele etc
Cool, Fender micro-tilt for acoustics!
Nothing like that
I have a Furch Little Jane...very cool travel guitar that fits on the airplane under the seat as a personal item - not even the carry on! Their backpack doesn't protect it like I wanted, so I purchased a hard sided suitcase with removable wheels that fits it perfectly, and I can put a few changes of clothes and a book! Plus the guitar sounds great - high quality engineering. Furch is the real deal.
That is a brilliantly thought out system. I have my reservations about the 'automatic' adjustment with changing humidity, but the manual adjustment is a really good idea.
Give the guy in the weird shirt a really long vacation.
Make a comparison video between this system and the Taylor Guitars neck adjustment/connection. They have a bolted on acoustic neck that allows some adjustment. Be good to see both in detail side by side. Clever to have the wood plug natural actuator/compensator block.
Meine Furch SVJ 61 Lux ist jetzt 30 Jahre alt. Bin damals noch im Werk gewesen, war genau zu der Zeit als der Showroom in Brno eröffnet wurde. Da hat sich noch nichts dran verzogen, spielt und klingt wie am ersten Tag, sieht nur leider nicht mehr so taufrisch aus. Super leichte Ansprache und hölle laut das Teil. Aus heutiger Sicht ein absoluter Schnapper, für grade mal 630 Deutsche Mark. Bin Happy.
Interesting, but wood doesn't expand in length. In the configuration the block is put in
You are correct. I was thinking the exact same thing. While it's entirely possible to create the plug with the metal screw going across the grain rather than with it, they would need to add a car fender washer to prevent splitting the plug. But that would work.
I believe the block is a pivot and not supposed to move. The rounded-off plug may be some other material closer to cork. Also the block might have a radiused surface that sits against the neck joint - there wasn't a view taken closely enough to the device (possibly by design) that I could tell.
@@craighamley3669 The round plug looks like wood, and is the part that is designed to expand under the pivot point. In the cutaway example it will not expand in the desired direction.
@ The rounded piece may indeed be wood, but I respectfully disagree that you can tell at all from the cutaway shown what direction the grain of the piece is even running, which is needed to determine how it will or will not move when exposed to temperature and humidity changes. Without knowing the construction methods of the piece (i.e. the species of wood, the direction of grain and if it's composite or not) I think you're trying to pass judgement without all the facts. I also would like to see this device tested over a longer time - frame because I'm not convinced it's going to really stop belly-bulge in acoustic guitars over time, which is what most often leads to the need to reset the neck joint. To me that's more of a body bracing issue and how good the foundation of the bridge is constructed.
@@craighamley3669 You are confusing criticism with attacking. This is a commentary on how wood moves. You can get a great look at the joint at 5:12. I am not attacking the contstruction whatsoever. At least 2 of us are pointing out that the dowel won't expand along it's length, but the quartersawn square block (you can see the clear vertical grain, which is a nice touch) with the F on it will expand and contract with the top screw butting against it. If they are using the square as the pivot, then it might work well. I do wish them well. Time will tell.
Great to see such innovations. I still think individual cymatic analysis and tailoring of soundboards is coming.
Taylor guitars allows you to adjust the neck angle but you have to do it manually.
taylors are a breeze to adjust i wish all acoustics were bolted on like that
Yes, you just need the right shims...Also instead of adjusting the saddle for action height you just adjust the bolted angle neck.
What I wanna see are well-recorded comparative sound clips between guitars with and without this device they've invented to see if it sounds good. I could see where if the device doesn't detract from the sound, maybe it'll allow for a less-braced body and better resonance without a significant decrease in the lifespan of the instrument? I have a cheap fender acoustic that was my first guitar 8 years ago - because it's poorly braced internally it's got pretty severe belly bulge now and sounds woodier with each passing year. It lives in the same humidity - controlled studio as my second acoustic (mid-tier Eastman) that I bought one year later, which is just internally braced much better and has no bulge (yet). In the case of the fender I think it's partly also a deliberate thing in the acoustic world to build a guitar that won't last too long (especially at the lower tiers of the market) so that there's always a market for entry-level guitars. As a player improves, typically they're apt to spend more money on better and better instruments, & their expectations re the lifespan of the instruments they purchase will change correspondingly. My understanding is that more bracing changes the sound because it restricts the movement of the top (the reason laminate-top guitars sound dull and lifeless), and that there's a tradeoff between bracing and sound, so maybe this device will allow for a better-sounding guitar? Idk as I'm not a luthier nor a physicist...
11:11 "I love going through the factory and just seeing all the crazy contraptions they made to build these guitars" And yes we do too! Do a future episode with a factory tour showing these crazy contraptions of which you speak.
I already did this video.
Hanning had a mini seizure in the now future 😂😂
Simple, yet ingenious and brilliant. 👌
I also have a Martin OMCRE that adjusts the neck height with a hex key. It was designed by partnering with Babicz. Takes seconds and doesn't change the tuning. They just didn't catch on and only 42 (i believe) were made over 7 years or so...then they shelved it. Beautiful guitar - Carpathian Spruce, Rosewood body, Mahogny neck, cutaway. Hard to find any info on them now...
I wonder if due to aging the wooden block would loose it's adaptability. In the end it is just a small piece of wood. Then the system could start getting loose. The idea is very innovative and reminds me on the adjustable neck in Ken Parker's Archtop guitars, where you can adjust the action without even detuning the strings.
Fender Strats had the microtilt system in the 70's for changing the neck angle. It wasn't well received at the time, but it works perfectly well for me.This is still very cool!
This system is genious expecially for the "automatic" adjustment according to moisture. About the neck angle adjustem for the action, I think that Fender Microtilt is pretty similar in principle and exists since early 1970s (and was still a Leo Fender Idea, even if it was introduced in the CBS era)
I know it happens but I have a 52 year old Fender acoustic that has a neck and front as solid as could be. I've had to adjust neck angle on a couple of electrics and compensate a floating bridge on an archtop but this old girl has never let me down.
This reminds me of the neck angle adjustment that Mike Doolin designed into his Doolin Guitars.
However, the automatic adjustment to compensate for humidity changes is brilliant.
Are you sure it's not Doolin banjos?
That’s really cool and neat. How will this new update change pricing?
What a brilliant idea, as easy as neck ajustment, How many nice guitars have been scrapped as un economical to repair?,
Sorry - gave up after 1:53 ! Is this guy a comedian or just trying hard to be ?!
He’s trying way too hard to be funny …..prefer when he’s not tweaked out on coke
Small detail - but saying its "fucking clever". Love your videos - no hate - just feedback.... I am just sensitive to sharing to my customers who may be younger guys/girls. As of November 2024 we now have the first models arriving in with the system
Love the video and the product if it really works!!
I'd just like to shout out Keith Guitars and Lame Horse guitars. They both have had adjustment systems for the neck and playing action for many years and neither require the neck to be removed to adjust the action. Quite a few of the modern boutique Luthier built acoustic guitars with adjustable necks use the system pioneered by Martin Keith. Obviously with these systems designed and implemented by small boutique luthiers, there aren't thousands of these instruments out there but just so you know, Furch didn't invent the on-the-fly and adjustable-under-tension neck system even though the Furch guy seems to think they have.
The best innovation in guitar building to date.
All that is good but how it sounds with and without CNR
As an engineer, i'm sold!
Seeing this is always refreshing!
Wooooaaahhhh! How cool is this?!? And even cooler Furch will be implementing it in ALL their guitars, i.e. also the more affordable ones. :-) Gonna check them out, for sure. Question for Furch: I tune down all my guitars a full 3 half-steps, to C# standard tuning, and compensate for string slack by using 13s (favorite set = Martin SP). Will this new system also make setting up this low tuning easy?
Genius! Thank You.
On a holiday in austria i went on a trip toprag, and somewhere underway i went into a musikshop (budweis or Tabor?), and played a Furch . Such super nice guitars, , back home in NL i bought one,
The nicest acoustic i ever owned
Only, no pickup installed , now i own a godin multiac
Incredibly cool
I’m a big fan of optimizing setup over time as the guitar changes, and this seems to eclipse the Taylor NT neck. IMHO, this is a brilliant development. Now, let’s hear it from the Dovetail Devotees- “Dovetail necks produce better tone because they are tighter and glued….and they ring….they sound better…and don’t need resets…..well not as often….err… they sound better.”
I managed to get a 10 year old Furch OM32 for a good price, it is the most beautiful instrument I have ever played! Far beyond my talent and ability.
aluminum expands/contracts with minor temp change. it will always change,
I bought a Furch (blue series) I dont know if this idea works. I can tell you that mine sounds very, very good. now
So - that video of the neck being adjusted - old-style - it looked like a dovetail joint which requires glueing... and the whole job was done in less than 30 minutes...?
automatic neck resets are a grim future for shade tree luthiers right now😂
Not really... Truth is..Luthiers have plenty of work out there.. Also, noting the unglued gap between the neck block and the fact that there's absolutely no true connection of the neck to the body is going to change the acoustics. Is this a bad thing ? Well , not so much if you play with electronics..
However, if you play acoustically in a 4
piece ensemble, such as bluegrass, this guitar will lack... and you lose resonance as compared to an old-fashioned dovetail joint.. If you're going to pay 1k more vs having a luthier do a reset in 20 years, while giving up inherent sound qualities, then what have you really gained ?
build 2 identical guitars onen with a simple bolt-on neck and one with a dovetail.. the difference is quite noticeable..then build one with this setup..
There's a place for this setup.. but it's not universal...
I know many players who swear by A taylor bolt-on system.. and about as many who can't stand it .. I have had some old guitars that still don't need anything more that a simple sanding the saddle ... a half hour job...
@@thefreese1Interesting. I was recently researching deep into an old luthiery forum discussing adjustable necks (because this concept isn’t new at all, apart from the claimed auto adjust with humidity) and there was a post by a respected maker saying they’d made dovetail, bolt on, and bolt on adjustable neck versions of the same model and the join had zero effect on the acoustic properties of the instrument. But they did not continue making them because of the belief amongst so many customers that it would have an acoustic effect. Is it not possible that the people with the issues with the Taylor guitars just don’t like the general tone? How do they know it is the bolt on neck?
@joelstewartinstruments it's kind of funny, you really can't tell that it's actually the bolt-on neck that's killing the resonance you're looking to hear.. because sometimes it's just the choice of woods.. But you can definitely tell..
There's no one thing g that makes a guitar sound great. It's all the little things that add up ... and this neck system seems like it could take a potentially great guitar and rob the sound
@@thefreese1 Yes. Or some kind of metal coupler in the neck might be the magic secret to perfect tone. Or it might make no difference at all.
@joelstewartinstruments oh it can make a difference . It's funny how as time goes along an instrument gets sounded so much better as the wood opens up and that's just a simple little thing. The neck connection is actually pretty important because the vibration at the nut and meets up with the vibrations that are transferred to the bridge and it really truly affects the sound more than a person knows . And I'm not dissing this set up. It will work for some people regardless . Especially a musician that's on the road all the time going two different parts of the country and the woods in their guitar are changing quite a bit. It would be invaluable for them. And they are playing through a pickup and an amp . It will be a perfect solution I'm sure. I'm saying in an open-air band setup it's going to rob Rob the guitar up some residence. There's no way you can get away from it but that doesn't mean it's not a good system. There's a lot of people that play with bolt on guitars. Although most of them have their fretboard extensions affixed to the body either by bolting or by Glue. Martin has one bolt that goes through the heel and the neck block, and glues the fretboard extension to the top of the guitar. While others have bolts on systems that bolt at the heel of the neck and also crank the fretboard extension down also. But they're not going to transfer vibrations as well as a totally glued dovetail neck and fretboard extension. Also when it comes to fretboard extensions being glued, that also supports the tension on the neck. Best way to explain this is to you have you picture the string tension coming from the nut at the other end of the neck pulling back towards the bridge and the glued down fretboard extension helping counteract at Force . While also transmitting more resonance to the body.... Luthiers, most all of us think about this because we've learned it over time..
So it’s like micro tilt?
Patented? Brilliant idea :)
OK, I understand the principle of how this system changes the neck angle with humidity. But how is this calibrated? If the top rises or falls by a factor of "x", according to humidity, then the wood block in the neck joint must expand by a factor of "Y" for the string angle to remain the same. That is a complicated relationship at best, particularly given that you are dealing with a natural material like wood. So, how did they design this system to consistently make the minute changes necessary for the string angle to remain constant? The principle is intriguing, but I'm skeptical that it is able to accurately do what it professes. I also wonder if the problem of neck/body angle change due to humidity is really a problem that is worth worrying about.
Don't some fender stats have a neck angle adjustment screw? Think this part has been done before
The amount of brains needed in order to engineer mechanical auto-adjustment is mad
This is good. As a luthier I have had to economically write off many (edit: glued on neck) guitars because a neck removal and reset costs a lot more than the guitar is worth. Nice one Furch!
Gibson? I have a Life Time Warranty on My Gibson guitars. Now if the J pan would do something like this to their Ibanez, would be great
@@robinervin6660 That's great provided you are one of the 1% of guitarists who can afford a Gibson acoustic! Almost all were ten year oldish guitars that had been bought second hand by people who thought they would be easy to fix up! Seriously loved one's get done because they are worth more than their cash price.
Несколько нюансов. Анкер не регулирует угол грифа, он регулирует его рельеф. Угол можно менять на венской (русской) конструкции, но те гитары без анкера.
Дальше. Вы утверждаете, что нижний деревянный блок впитает влагу и потянет гриф назад. Но для этого надо чтобы волокна в нём располагались не горизонтально, а вертикально. Дерево практически не увеличивается от влаги в длину, оно распухает в ширину. Чтобы использовать эту идею, не нужно усложнять конструкцию, старая венская система и без того подразумевает такой подход. Достаточно на венской гитаре поставить верхний клёц торцом вверх, и у вас получается то же самое. Клёц распухнет поперёк и потащит болт с грифом назад, и отклонит его на нужный угол. А если этого недостаточно, всегда можно просто подкрутить ключом. Вы изобрели велосипед.
Мне нравятся ваши гитары и я приветствую эксперименты, но сейчас вы просто неоправданно усложнили старую венскую конструкцию.
Check out Riversong Guitars in British Columbia Canada.
Neck through body acoustic. adjustable principle better
Gorgeous guitar. I bought one and love it
Shouldn't the relief be continuous from the first to the last fret for optimal action? It looks like you will have a lot of problems on that 6th fret.
Fancy but won-t miss it, never had problems playing 50 years acoustic guitars
Ken Parker archtops adjust action by changing the neck angle. The bridge is not adjustable. It’s not the same system as this, but it’s similar. Watch his videos.
Will this be in the Furch basses as well?
Proud Riversong owner here.
06:04 "not even electric guitars can do that."
That is not quite true. Fender has had the micro-tilt system for years. It's not "automatic", but since you're specifically referencing the manual adjustment, I thought I should bring it up.
There's also the traditional shimming, which is doing the exact same thing, but with a bit more work.
The true innovation here is being able to do it on a set neck, and not just a bolt-on.
That's a bolt on neck, totally different and for different problems
i thought you coudl do this with certain modern Martin acoustics
i tried some furch guitars a year or so ago, really nice guitars, really nice finish and for the price (£300 or so) really good value for money.
i have seven acoustics and i've had a bout 60 since 2013, never had any neck problems, seems like a waste of effort.
Buying 60 guitars in ten years is a bigger waste of time
Having owned a Furch Yellow OM I can attest that these guitar are Taylor killers. A whole different class of acoustic guitars.
So, kinda similar to the EKO fastLOk then.
Also, I thought belly bulge was caused by a LACK of moisture in the wood. Hence the point of humidifiers.
I think it's caused by the string tension over time. I have a cheap fender acoustic that was my first guitar 8 years ago - because it's poorly braced internally it's got pretty severe belly bulge now and sounds woodier with each passing year. It lives in the same humidity - controlled studio as my second acoustic (mid-tier Eastman) that I bought one year later, which is just internally braced much better and has no bulge (yet). In the case of the fender I think it's partly also a deliberate thing in the acoustic world to build a guitar that won't last too long (especially at the lower tiers of the market) so that there's always a market for entry-level guitars. As a player improves typically they're apt to spend more money on better and better instruments, & their expectations re the lifespan of the instruments they purchase will change correspondingly. My understanding is that more bracing changes the sound because it restricts the movement of the top (the reason laminate-top guitars sound dull and lifeless), and that there's a tradeoff between bracing and sound, so for me what I wanna see are well-recorded comparative sound clips between guitars with and without this device they've invented to see if it sounds good. I could see where if the device doesn't detract from the sound, maybe it'll allow for a less-braced body and better resonance without a significant decrease in the lifespan of the instrument?
Fender's micro tilt adjustment is a quite old solution in the world of electric guitars.
Danelectro had it first
Thanks Henning! One for the algorithm... ;-)
Martin had an adjustable neck in the 1800s went back to the 🕊️ tail for one reason or another 😮
I don't understand the choice of grain direction for the block (cylinder). The grain must go the other way to have any effect. "Wood is made of fibers. Think of wood as a bunch of soda straws or flexible rubber tubes bundled together. When you add water, the fibers expand to hold the extra water. When it dries, they contract. So you will see expansion across the width of the grain, and very little along its length."
I’ve heard nothing but good things about Furch
Love the time travel explanation at the beginning.
Amazing
I don't get it. It takes me 8 seconds to adjust the neck on my old Taylor ?
Truss rod or neck angle?
Who doesn't like automatic wood that blows your mind! Is there a line forming somewhere? LOL
Very cool!
The traditional method of having two saddles with different heights still works well, it's cheaper and doesn't put extra metal inside the guitar.
It doesn’t work if the dovetail fails. Which they frequently do. My ex-boss was the service manager for Martin Canada. He did 100s of neck re-sets a year. This is brilliant solution.
1. Just like @StepanVasylyshyn said, we had similar technologies/neck angle adjustable Nylon+Steelstring guitars since the 1940ies over here in Germany, too.
2. All these guitars have to have their fretboards floating over the top of the guitar instead of glueing it to the top which usually leads to tonal loss at least in the higher register-how about this on these Furchs?
3. The common problem of older Flattops is usually a distorted/warped top with a forward turning momentum of the bridge caused a) by false storage (air too dry) and/or b) a too light top construction. This usually cannot be repaired or resolved other than than by removing the top and replacing it for a new one since at least Baroque times. Nowadays it's hip to do neck resets due to some US-luthier approaches - but this does not solve the original problem! A ruined top is nothing less than a ruined top!
Sorry Henning, but this has to be said. Trotzdem schöne Feiertage!😘
Point 2: absolutely - I always wonder about this. At least in Taylor's system the fingerboard extension also changes angle in conjunction with the heel change of angle. But how does this do the same? I've seen people doing 'old-fashioned' style neck resets, pulling apart the dovetail joint and re-working it but appearing not to er... do anything with the fingerboard extension.
Point 3: Totally agree. The traditional 'neck reset' basically re-works the joint to make the neck work with the new, deformed structure of the guitar. Does nothing to the deformation of the guitar. It's my experience that this deformation is far less about any humidity issues and far more about the 2nd aspect you mentioned, namely the destructive force of the strings on an inadequate structure.
@@SamDeeksRelovedGuitars Yeah. I see the guitar top more as a wearing part that has to be replaced at some point.
@ I like that idea… but as I understand it’s not only the top that deforms but the overall box structure of the guitar as well? My mind always goes back to the early arch-top guitars where the majority of the string loading forces are resisted by the much stronger end of the guitar (usually via a ‘trapeze’ tail piece of some kind) rather than the delicate and weak top.
Didn’t Bob Dylan play one of these in the 60’s? I’m sure i’ve seen an old Triumph branded acoustic with a key adjustable neck heel.
No
Auto wood 😂 awesome innovation 😎👌
wood doesn't move much lengthwise (specially Maple), and that is the orientation of your moisture block and sound board, so wouldn't change things much by only that strategy, the possibility of applying opposite force by the screw, yes, time will tell about unwanted reactions, wood and its treatments (seasoning and cutting ages) are quite inconsistent. I overall like the Idea, but I feel quite sure that is not an originality.
I are too am you. I thought therefore i was.
Cool!
So, apparently I have a Furch on my Bucket list.
genius
Neat!!!!
Or just buy a Lowden instead, with a super stiff 5 piece neck which doesn't alter the string height no matter what the moisture content of the air is ?
It’s the spruce top that alters the height
@@EytschPi42 My Lowden is Sitka Spruce top and Rosewood back/sides, and that never moves ?
I can tune right down to Nick Drake style and the action is the same ?
@@DjNikGnashersyou obviously don't understand the problem
0:45 so I'm basically a time traveler
According to my Chek mother the material is,
Lungloom.😂
FOR $3500, i want to hear the tone. interesting notion, but as others have said, it has been done before and not made it commercially.
Yes , you see , this device has the greatest chance of putting a hump
(sometimes called rollercoaster ) at the 13th fret
Not seeing it
As long as it’s not Furchbar!
The guy in the silly shirt was so annoying that he made this video hard to watch. I am very dubious about the claim that the blocks of wood incorporated into the neck are going to expand and/or shrink just the right amount to correct for the rise or fall of the top (which is not always just caused by the moisture content of the wood). Nevertheless, if the idea allows for simple manual adjustment of the neck angle then it might have merit. They would not be the first to come up with this capability.
He’s actually rather pleasant
For an imbecile
Vorsprung durch Gitarrentechnik.