| As incredible as this new custom Slope D looks
(and it DOES look incredible to these eyes!!!) it is the sound of this
instrument that completely blows my socks off! Dana Bourgeois is
one of those veteran luthiers who has the rare ability to "get inside"
the woods he's using ... whatever those woods are. He adapts his
specifications depending on the specific tonewoods he is using on any particular
guitar. In this instance, he is dealing with Adirondack spruce
and tropical mahogany. Here's a bit of what Dana thinks of these
woods.
"Red spruce is relatively heavy, has a high velocity
of sound, and has the highest stiffness across and along the grain of all
the topwoods. Like Sitka, it has strong fundamentals, but it also exhibits
a more complex overtone content. Tops made out of red spruce have the highest
volume ceiling of any species, yet they also have a rich fullness of tone
that retains clarity at all dynamic levels!"
"Mahogany has a relatively high velocity of sound
when considered as a material for backs and sides and thus contributes
much to overtone coloration. Where rosewood guitars can be thought of as
having a "metallic" sound, mahogany guitars are better described as sounding
"woody, although the harder, more dense examples of these woods can take
on some of the characteristics of the rosewoods. Mahogany tends to favor
the bass (to some extent) and the treble registers."
I can really hear what Dana is referring to when
I play this particular Slope D. The complex overtone series that
the Adirondack contributes is very nicely balanced by the woody overall
tonality of the tropical mahogany and to say that this instrument has a
"high volume ceiling" would be a major understatement!!! |
