How to work out the body pitch of you guitar.
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- Опубліковано 9 лют 2025
- In this video I explain how you can work out what the body pitch of your guitar is and why this is relevant.
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What a wonderful video. You have such a great disposition as a teacher and luthier. Our world is crowded with arrogant and rude masters who fancy themselves as misunderstood artists rather than craftsmen.
wow what an information, great video. I started singing into my marcelo barbero negra guitar and I finally find out that it's pitch is tuned in F#, My guitar started shaking 😄😄
I agree with this, but what you are measuring here is the main air resonance of the soundbox. The soundboard can resonate much higher and you still get pretty much the same main air resonance because that pitch it mostly determined by the size of the cavity and the soundhole diameter. Equally important in my opinion is the main top resonance and that is a bit difficult to measure on a guitar in this stage, because you get the interferance with the cavity resonance.
The Helmholtz resonance of the guitar body has a Q quality.That means a bandwidth . The low air resonance of the soundhole produces the only significant output from the guitar in the fundamental region of the first rew notes on the sixth string.
The bandwidth of the air resonance is good when it is about a minor third ( three semitones ) Stiff body construction will raise the air pitch a little and make the air resonance more peaky.
A resonant bandwidth of about a minor third centred on F# will result in a nice enhancement of the lowest notes without any being too dominant.
Well done Pablo Requena.
I did Pablo's online course and the body pitch of the guitar I made is G. It sounds great!
Excellent information Pablo. Thank you!
The Helmholtz resonance within the body / soundhole has overtones also. These are at a much lower level and the balance between fundamental and overtones will be affected by the soundhole place. See violin style F hole instruments. Also feedback busting ports in the neck join area etcetera.
Muchas gracias, maestro. Entonces ¿no es posible ajustar o cambiar esta tonalidad de base?
Very interesting stuff! Thanks Pablo!
Love your videos Pablo, thanks for sharing. uk
It is possible to produce the main air resonance very loudly by aiming a compressed air cleaning pistol across the soundhole from about half a metre at the proper angle . Like playing a flute or bottle.
This will make the guitar body roar loudly and provide a good workout.
Breams Romanillos was G#
It's possible to get deep basses without going to lower body resonances. It really depends on the design you are working with. For a Hauser pattern I'd agree F# is a good place to be .
The Friedrich model I made is G#, and it’s the one that everyone says plays and sounds the best
Thank you so much, Pablo, for another excellent and informative video.
I have been using the humming method that you mention at the beginning and find it very effective. I sort of came to it intuitively I think. I’ve also been hitting the F# range and your video here has helped a lot knowing that this an excellent place to be. It so lovely when one hits that pitch feeling the guitar just take off and vibrate in the hands!
A question… is there anything much that one can do to lower the pitch (or i suppose raise) once the guitar body is in the more or less completed state as you show with the guitar in your video?
Thanks again!
With appreciation, Cath in the n. Thai highlands!
I commented too soon. I just heard you say that you explain how to achieve this resonance in your course. Thank you.
Very helpful as usual. Curious, how do you trouble shoot after the fact? Do you have the braces on the inside or do you shave the edges of the top? Or some other way ?
amazing video, thank you
Interesting video. Can you do a video on how to influence the resonant tone? You said it won’t change much at this point. So what do you do to arrive at F# and what can you still do if you aren’t there?
Hello Pablo, super interesting video as usual, thank you.
Question if you can: what note do you aim for on a finished soundboard to help getting to F# on the end product? Gracias
On the soundboard on its own I aim between B and C
This is interesting Pablo, I have a view on this. Usually I test the guitar with the strings on at pitch.
1/ Sing into sound hole as described and the note is often close to G as you showed
2/ Play the bottom string plucking in the middle of the string speaking length, Play each note and look at the shape the string makes when vibrating. As you ascend there will be a note that the string seems to jump, this is a different note often close to F#.
1/ is the Helmholtz resonance of the body cavity/sound hole; while 2/ is the fundamental frequency of the top/front.
In violins the maker will aim to have the resonance of the top, half to a tone different to the back to avoid wolf notes and we do want even notes.
I'm not sure the note matters that much, since smaller bodies will be higher pitch and still sound wonderful, but maybe the relationship of these two resonances is the key? I don't know. The science has not been done, and what has misses the point so far.
Great discussion mate, hope we can go through this in detail one day when you next visit England
I don't think any part of the guitar is or should be dead, the whole thing should vibrate, sing as one.
Correct. The best guitars I ever had in my hands or built by myself had the octave between the /1 and /2. The positioning of those resonances in between the notes in guitar building is very common. The reason is that it allow to avoid the wolf notes.
Pablo, I'm astounded by your admission that you're not a musician. Most luthiers are I would suspect. This highlights your qualities as a luthier in my opinion. (No reply necessary.)
I believe our friend Pablo is being humble.
@@me_myself_et_moi Perhaps you're right 🤞I'm the reverse....a guitar player who does a bit of rudimentary luthiery!
Thank you Pablo for sharing this. I am building my 10th acoustic steel string guitar. What should I do in construction to achieve this resonance?
This is applicable to classical and flamenco guitars. My knowledge about steel string guitar is quite limited but I have the feeling this subject is no the same for steel string guitar.
I love your approach Pablo - thankyou. So I guess we should shape the braces to get an F# tap tone (?), but I guess that may have altered in the assembled guitar. Is it possible to refine the resonance at that stage - e.g. by sanding the top?
Yes, I would tune the soundboard to something between B and C. However, the sides, back and other things would contribute to the final pitch. Perhaps I will do another video about this in the near future.
@ thankyou. I also wonder how putting the strings on alters the resonant note of the guitar. Its complicated isn’t it! I build Selmer Macafferri guitars so the bridge presses down onto a 5-7mm arch.
Many thanks Pablo. If the resonance is not F# what can be done to change it?
A very practical and sensible discussion of this topic, Pablo. If you find your guitar doesn't have the best pitch, is it possible to change it at this late stage?
Yes. The tornevox that is a tube added to the soundhole will drop the pitch.
Incresing the area of the soundhole will raise the pitch , reducing will lower.
Thinning the bridge or braces or plates of the guitar will lower the pitch slightly and boaden the bandwidth of the resonance.
Pablo, thank you for your video. What do you think about the guitars with a pitch of E flat?
Hi Sergio, it is a little unusual for a guitar to have such a low pitch but not necessarily a problem. Perhaps the bass might be a bit dominant but in any case I rather have l low pitch like the one on your guitar than a high pitched one.
thanks for this video, very informative! of the 3 guitars I still own (I'm reducing) 2 are at G#, 1 is in A. This is with bridge and strings. would there be any difference without?
thanks for reply.
No, there won’t be a significant difference
Profesor;
My Yamaha FG-160 is at F;
my Mitchell MU-70 concert ukulele is at A
I have the humidifier running to compensate
for the hot dry air from our heater as it is
cold up here; as we are 7 degree further north
of you, here in the east coast USA.
both instruments were manufactured with
Spruce tops/back & sides of Rosewoods
Thank you for a truly surprising insight.
Hello Pablo, I tested my japanese guitar (Masaru Matano - 1976) - I got Eb - below F#. Will tune it to Eb to see if there is a "wolf-note"?
Thanks. But how do you build the guitar in the way to achieve that body resonnance?
There is a number of things that you need to do like the size of the soundhole, the thickness and strutting, the thickness of the sides…. Everything is explained in detail on my course which is available on www.onlineguitarmakingcourse.com
Gostei que colocou dublação pra quem não é de seu país.
Dear Pablo, thank you for the very exact explanation. But I am missing one thing: How can the pitch be changed once the box is already closed?
Essentially by altering the sound hole.
Larger equates to higher. Smaller to lower.
A tornevoz will drop the pitch.
An important way to tune the bass response is with the thickness of the bridge feet. This is a small change of resonant pitch but a substantial change in Q bandwidth.
@@peterstephen1562 Thank you!
My new Hsienmo custom 00 guitar is exactly F# 😄
My cheap guitar is around A with the bridge! Is it gonna be different without the bridge?
Not significantly
My guitar sings at G#. It's an amazing instrument. To me anyway.
Well yes, the bridge is still missing. But so is the fingerboard, and that certainly has a lot of influence on the pitch, hasn't it?
Hello, I don't think so. As far as i know, everything above the mouth is acoustically dead, I may be mistaken, tho.
The stiffer the box the higher the air resonance will be BUT only by a little bit.
Stiffening the box will make the air resonance more peaky though.
Fun fact, The earth resonates at F#?
So here are the findings. Every cell and organ of our body has its own frequency. Moreover, everything that surrounds us including our planet also has a frequency. Obviously, our planet sounds in F# major.
Wouldn't the body pitch change with the bridge and the fret board, and the strings on.
All together.
Whatever that tone/pitch is would be the strongest tones or the worst sympathetic vibration problem with those pitches on the fret board. No---Yes, maybe.?
Pianos are that way.
Bang the side of any piano with the dampers off, and that will be the loudest tone at the keyboard.
It will. Not too much, but several Hz lower then without the bridge on top.
The spelling mistake in the video’s title tells me immediately that this video isn’t worth watching.
is Spanish a foreign language to you? that would explain your comment