Official Luthiers Forum!

I just had the most pleasurable experience examining and hearing what was perhaps Richard Schneider's last guitar prior to his death in 97'. For those not familiar with Richard, he was the luthier who worked with Dr. Michael Kasha in an attempt to push guitar design forward.
This guitar I'm told was about 75% complete prior to Richards passing. Jay Hargraves who had studied extensively with Richard ended up finishing it for Richards client. So this guitar most likely represents the final Kasha/Schneider design, pretty cool I think.

So, some of the interesting details;

Kasha's ideas mainly centered around impedance matching, there's plenty of information on Kasha's sound board bracing so I won't go into much detail as I'd probably mess up the description anyway. I will say however that it is very lightly braced, much lighter that what you'd think by looking at any pictures of this style.

This guitar had Redwood for the top and back, the sides were BRW.

It has the Kasha asymmetrical bridge. The strings feed through string holes in the top/bridge from the inside via the trap door in the back vs. having a tie block. String changes aren't super convenient as you have to pull the door which is held on by four screws, but this doesn't seem to bother the owner.

For frets it has 1/8 maybe 5/32 inch diameter steel rod inlaid into the fingerboard,perhaps stainless though I'm not really sure. It had definitely been heat treated as it was a nice straw color. This was not a TiN coating. One interesting thing to note here is that the "frets" have worn and some actually need replacing, which is surprising considering the nylon strings.
This is a 24 fret neck.


The peg-head was mass loaded, the claim is this acts like a reflector putting more vibrations back into the body. It makes for a neck heavy guitar, the owner has added a weight to the trap door at the tail to act as a counter weight.

The guitar has very thin linings, but it has 1/4" fillet of epoxy or so between the linings and the top/back, very neatly done.

Sound hole is on the treble side of the upper bout.

The back is double X braced and the X in the lower bout is completely flying. That is it only contacts the back at the perimeter. I'm not sure I understand how useful that brace is, it looks cool though!

Anyway, the craftmanship on this guitar was impecable and the sound was very even from one string to the other and the volume was very good also.

Maybe one day I'll be able to get some pictures.

Happy new year!

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Jim-
Thanks for the info- very interesting stuff.
Is the door in the back or at the tail? (Or both?)
And, are the screws 'exposed' or hidden in some way?

Getting a neat fillet of epoxy on both top and back is quite a feat- guess the door came in handy for that!

Cheers
John

John,
The door is at the tail and is held on with four small cap head screws. They're set in counter bores.

You know that's a good point about having nice fillets on both the top and the back, perhaps I was concentrating on the top so much and just mentally transferred the fillets to back also, but I really think they were there, but can't imagine how one would do that.

Well, hopefully I get to check it out some more as this guitar lives in my neighborhood.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

james, I can't picture what you mean by a fillet of epoxy between the linings and the top (or back). Do you mean a gap that is filled with epoxy? What would be the point?

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

Howard, I think Jim means a smooth radius of epoxy blending from the inside surfaces of the lining to the top (like you'd wet a finger & smooth silicone grout between a bathtup & the tile wall). Also like a fillet weld.

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Dave
Milton, ON

Dave got it right.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

From what I've read, if I recall correctly, he also used to run a bead of epoxy around the brace ends near the bridge on his soundboards.

The Gibson/Norlin Mark-53 acoustic (Kasha/Schneider) I've got has a drop of epoxy at the ends of those braces.

And the point of this is? It sounds to me like the solution to a structural problem no one had. Or is it to damp vibration and make the guitar sound duller?

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

You know Howard, I really can't think of reason to do it this way, it's just the way the guitar was.
American Lutherie #58 & 59 have articles on this design and the claim is it frees the edge a little. I don't really see it myself either.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

If the linings were replaced by the fillet, it seems to me that it would 'free up' the top a bit. However, the guitar has thin linings as well as the fillet, so it doesn't sound like much is gained here.
Perhaps there would be a problem gluing the binding to the epoxy fillet? Or, if Schneider was using silica to thicken the epoxy, it would dull the router bit or whatever he used to cut the binding channel? So the thin lining is just thick enough to support the binding??

I've done a lot of linear feet of epoxy fillets in boats, and it would be a challenge for me to do a neat enough job for the inside of a guitar.

Epoxy is not that much fun to work with. I think I'll stay with wood linings.

Cheers
John

Jim,

Thanks for sharing the info' on Richard Schneider's guitar. I knew him years ago when he was here in Detroit and hung out at his shop a lot back in the late 60's - early 70's. I met Jeffery Elliot in his shop when he came to be an apprentice. After that I lost contact with Richard. He was a great innovator, craftsman and dreamer. He got me interested in making guitars and it's only taken me 35 years or so to get started!

Thanks, Richard

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Max Bishop
Brighton, Michigan