Acoustic Guitar Innovations
The Evergreen Style guitar system is a revolutionary new approach to building acoustic guitars. Conventional flat-top acoustic guitars must be braced to prevent the tension of the strings, ( typically around 160 pounds) from destroying the thin and delicate soundboard wood. This has been the conventional approach for hundreds of years. This bracing supports the wood but is not always successful in preventing creeping or sometimes catastrophic destruction and warping. The structural stiffness created by the bracing also dampens the acoustic response of the wood as a sound amplifier. Striking a balance between structural integrity and acoustic performance is a key focus and skill of the advanced luthier.
Almost 40 years ago, I asked the question: Is there a way to fundamentally resolve this problem? Is there a way to approach guitar construction that balances, neutralizes or redirects the strong string tension and allows the soundboard to just be an acoustic member of the instrument? I was not trained as a luthier and my only sources were a few precious books on guitar construction techniques. But using basic intuition and a knack for mechanical principles I came up with this idea. I took a guitar that had been destroyed by these very string forces, the bridge ripped from the soundboard and started to build a prototype to see if this crazy idea could work. I got started but due to lack of a good shop, resources and life the project got shuffled to the side but was in the back of my mind.
All these years later, the carcass of the instrument was hanging on my wall with a design drawing tucked in side and the partially constructed soundboard busted in two by mishaps.
Finally time, resources, technology and a desire to return to my love of making musical instruments brought this project back to mind and I decided to try and make it work. Surprisingly in the intervening decades, nobody had happened on or followed through to make this idea work. It's really a fundamentally simple idea but all of the teachers, the authorities assure you that bracing is Essential to a successful acoustic guitar. Any other idea is foolish and not worth wasting the effort. Using a better shop, 3D printed parts, composite materials, high strength stainless steel cables, the Evergreen Guitar is born.
