joejeweler
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I was thinking about some of my better luthier made classical guitars and their use of a very thin "French Polish" (shellac) top finish,
and wondered why i haven't seen that carry over to the top tier of quality ukuleles?
One of my better classical guitars Brazilian & Spruce "Millenium" by the deceased master Thomas Humphrey. His collaboration with Martin (and their use of his design) had at least one point of contension,......that they continued to spray on the much heavier nitrocellulous top finish. I am fortunate to have two of these Martin solid wood CTSH "Humphrey" models.
One of them was sent back to Thomas Humphrey to improve it's tone and volumn, and Tom removed the factory bridge, stripped just the top finish off, french polished the top, and replaced the factory bridge with one of his own making. This was all done before i bought
the guitar used, but it DOES show how much a master luthier felt about the benefits of using a lighter top finish. Since it was already an "altered" guitar, i even added a sound port to it myself. This Martin/Humphrey CTSH sounds WONDERFUL!!!!
Considering both ukuleles and classical guitars make use of much lighter tension nylon (or similiar) type strings, it would seem to me
that a french polished top would allow the top to vibrate at it's maximum. :drool:
Some of the lower priced ukes almost look like they have NO finish on them, in fact. So leaving a KOA top finish free is also a
possibility, even on a top luthier made uke, since it is harder than a spruce or cedar top anyway. My soprano uke looks wonderful , but the top has a mirror finish with all pores filled. That seems like a lot of top deadening finish, or maybe it's thinner than it looks.
One possibility that i thought about is that the very small size of a ukulele top might not be vibrating much at all in generating tone, so maybe it's not as critical on a uke.
Just wondering if anyone's experimented with using french polishing their tops,.....or leaving virtually NO finish on the harder KOA tops?
......any thoughts????
and wondered why i haven't seen that carry over to the top tier of quality ukuleles?
One of my better classical guitars Brazilian & Spruce "Millenium" by the deceased master Thomas Humphrey. His collaboration with Martin (and their use of his design) had at least one point of contension,......that they continued to spray on the much heavier nitrocellulous top finish. I am fortunate to have two of these Martin solid wood CTSH "Humphrey" models.
One of them was sent back to Thomas Humphrey to improve it's tone and volumn, and Tom removed the factory bridge, stripped just the top finish off, french polished the top, and replaced the factory bridge with one of his own making. This was all done before i bought
the guitar used, but it DOES show how much a master luthier felt about the benefits of using a lighter top finish. Since it was already an "altered" guitar, i even added a sound port to it myself. This Martin/Humphrey CTSH sounds WONDERFUL!!!!
Considering both ukuleles and classical guitars make use of much lighter tension nylon (or similiar) type strings, it would seem to me
that a french polished top would allow the top to vibrate at it's maximum. :drool:
Some of the lower priced ukes almost look like they have NO finish on them, in fact. So leaving a KOA top finish free is also a
possibility, even on a top luthier made uke, since it is harder than a spruce or cedar top anyway. My soprano uke looks wonderful , but the top has a mirror finish with all pores filled. That seems like a lot of top deadening finish, or maybe it's thinner than it looks.
One possibility that i thought about is that the very small size of a ukulele top might not be vibrating much at all in generating tone, so maybe it's not as critical on a uke.
Just wondering if anyone's experimented with using french polishing their tops,.....or leaving virtually NO finish on the harder KOA tops?
......any thoughts????
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