Guitars are fascinating instruments! Their design is constantly being experimented upon and improved, in the search for better tone, volume and projection. It is fascinating to track the guitar all the way from the baroque period, until today. Guitarists have always been eager for improvements, and guitar makers ever willing to innovate. Over the past 30 years, two innovations in particular have taken the classical guitar world by storm: the double top guitar and the lattice guitar. What are they? How, why and from where did they appear? What do they sound like?
The guitar before lattice and double top bracing:
You are probably aware that different guitar makers specialise in using different bracing patterns. Many makers develop their own designs, and it’s these different designs that give guitars their unique sounds. The narrow lengths of wood we call ‘bracing’ support the interior of a guitar's soundboard, keeping the guitar from caving in on itself under the pull of the strings. In balance with this structural purpose, the bracing is also designed not to be so stiff or heavy as to inhibit the vibration of the soundboard.
Throughout the 20th century guitar makers mostly used what we now call ‘traditional bracing’. This kind of bracing was pioneered in the late 19th century by a maker called Antonio Torres. A traditionally braced guitar in the Torres style generally has a soundboard with a thickness between 1.8mm and 2.5mm, the interior of which has 7 struts made of spruce laid out in the shape of a fan. 20th century makers built on this design, finding their own unique sounds within this concept. For example, French maker Robert Bouchet added a brace going across the soundboard under the bridge, and reduced the number of fan braces to five. A Spanish guitar builder called Ignacio Fleta started using cedar, as opposed to spruce, as his material of choice for the soundboard, and he increased the number of fan braces to nine. Within this general framework - a solid spruce or cedar soundboard with fan braces - many great guitars have been built and continue to be built. This fan braced instrument in all its variations is what we think of as the traditional classical guitar.
The lattice braced guitar:
The basic idea of lattice bracing had been around for a while. Using bracing across the guitar soundboard was not a new idea, though the rationale behind its use had been different. Lattice bracing not only has strutting along the grain of the soundboard, as in fan bracing, but also has struts across the grain of the soundboard. The bracing forms a grid-like trellis structure, which is stronger and stiffer than regular fan bracing. Due to the strength of the bracing, the thickness of the soundboard can be made much thinner, between 1mm and 1.5mm and in theory the result is a louder guitar and with a different sound quality.
Often the term ‘lattice guitar’ is associated not only with the bracing, but with the fact that many lattice guitars also have very thick back and sides, and are generally very heavy. However, not all lattice braced guitars are like that; this is just one way that they can be constructed. Guitar makers are exploring many possibilities of lattice bracing; some makers use carbon fibre to reinforce the lattice structure to make it really stiff; some makers conversely only use wood bracing; some lattice guitars are constructed with thin back/sides, others with thick. The very heavily built lattice guitars are associated with the Australian school of guitar building and particularly with the luthier Greg Smallman, who was one of the pioneers of the lattice guitar.
The lattice guitar began to rise to prominence and be accepted in the 80s. It seems that Australian guitar builder Greg Smallman, Japanese builder Kohno and English maker Paul Fischer all separately came up with lattice based designs at that time, and probably other makers did too. I like the story of Greg Smallman developing his guitar; if I recall correctly, he would doggedly try to get feedback on his guitars from players (particularly collaborating with very famous guitarist John Williams), trying to understand what guitar players wanted and needed from their guitars, and adjusting the design of his guitars in accordance. What he eventually came up with was something quite far from the traditional guitar. In England, Paul Fischer collaborated with a scientist called Bernard Richardson; together they experimented on designing a bracing pattern, for a guitar with increased projection. The result was Paul’s Taut model. Technically, both Paul and Greg’s guitar models have lattice bracing, but they are very different guitars. Well known and fantastic players such as John Williams (on a Smallman guitar) Xuefei Yang (Smallman and Fischer), Jason Vieaux (Fischer), play using lattice guitars, showing that this type of construction must have some merit.
The double top guitar:
Many luthiers over the centuries have searched for some innovation to make a drastic improvement to the guitar. But I don’t think any such innovation has been quite so successful at making such a huge impact on the guitar world, as the double-top guitar.
The construction of the double-top is clever and modern. “Double-top” refers to the soundboard, which, rather than being one solid piece of wood, is actually made up of three layers: two very thin layers of wood - hence ‘double-top’ - and sandwiched between them, a layer of a man-made material called nomex. Nomex has a honeycomb structure, so there’s a lot of empty space. It feels a bit like paper, quite light and fragile. However, once the nomex is glued up between the two layers of wood, the whole structure is very stiff and strong. Each layer of wood can be around 0.3-0.6mm thick! Extremely thin. The whole rationale behind double tops is to decrease the overall weight of the soundboard, and the resulting sound is supposed to be much louder.
There are two guitar makers associated with the creation of double top guitars. They are Mathias Dammann and Gernot Wagner. I believe it was Dammann, in his search to build his ideal guitar - and dissatisfied with attempts so far - who initially experimented with double top ideas, in the late 80s/early 90s when he was in his early 30s. I believe initial attempts involved using strips of wood as the middle layer of the double top, but he soon discovered the material nomex, and was able to see its potential for guitar building. I do admire the ingenuity of the double top invention, particularly as nomex was initially developed for use in fields completely unrelated to guitar making
While Dammann was building the first double tops, fellow German luthier Gernot Wagner had reached similar conclusions while trying to improve the sound of his guitars. He had realised that when he used the lightest material for his soundboards, he came closer to achieving the sound he wanted. He would therefore immediately see the merit in an idea that reduces the weight of the soundboard considerably. Somehow, the two luthiers met and exchanged ideas, around the time when Dammann was building his first double tops. I think such a collaboration is quite enviable! And from it has emerged the double top classical guitar that we know today. As with lattice guitars, and traditional guitars, there is a spectrum of double-top guitars, and many different construction styles. They tend to sound differently to traditional guitars, but each double top builder will have their own unique design and sound.
So, double top, traditional or lattice?
Usually, it’s best to simply judge every guitar on its sound, playability and aesthetic, and not worry initially about what the interior construction is. There are many stereotypes regarding materials and construction methods, such as: spruce sounding more articulate; cedar’s tone being darker and louder; double tops and lattice being louder but with a less pleasing tone. It’s important to be aware of the different construction methods out there, but I would recommend disregarding such preconceptions and try to judge each unique guitar impartially. Also, you will have different priorities, depending on if you’re a professional constantly touring musician, a student, a teacher, or someone who likes to play guitar in their free time. There are professional guitarists playing all different types of construction, so there is no clear consensus as to what is better; it is really down to personal taste.
So far, I have built mostly traditionally braced instruments. There is a huge gamut of tones, colours, loudness levels etc to be found, even only among traditional guitars. It is in fact extraordinary to hear the wide range of possibilities. I have experienced this when attending guitar making competitions - where there is the opportunity to hear many guitars in comparison with each other - and when visiting classical guitar dealers, where of course you can try many guitars. I have built one experimental double top guitar, which I wasn’t at all happy with actually, but it was just an experiment; in the end it was a loud guitar but with a voice that barked rather than sung. I would say that knowing how to build a good double top, or lattice, is its own art, as valid as building traditional guitars. I think it’s fantastic that lattice and double tops exist; I think it broadens the possibilities of the classical guitar, and increases the chances of finding the ideal sound for you.
I was able to meet Gernot Wagner, one of the first double top makers, while visiting London Guitar Studio one December. Since, Gernot was scheduled to arrive soon, the owners said I should stay and get get some feedback on a guitar I’d built. Gernot, like many luthiers, is extremely open about his methods, for the sake of furthering the craft. I had the fortune to receive from him what he called a free lecture. He told me in particular about his general building principles which eventually led him to building double-top guitars. When I was studying at college, I attended a lecture by guitar maker Paul Fischer. He developed a kind of bracing, not dissimilar to lattice, that he called taut bracing. It takes a certain curiosity and bravery to really push the limits in guitar making, and a lot of talent to do so successfully. I do admire the lattice and double-top guitars of the world. I don’t know whether my quest for my perfect sound will lead me down the double-top/lattice path in the long run. Having said that, I am building my first lattice guitar now, in collaboration with a guitar maker called Rik Middleton. I look forward to seeing how it sounds.
Excitingly, many luthiers who are considered quite influential today, such as Smallman, Wagner, Dammann, Friedrich etc, started to settle upon their signature sound around their early 30s. I’m approaching that age! I’m at a time in my career, where worries about craftsmanship are getting smaller as skill increases and my perfectionism regarding my guitars is more satisfied. That leaves the sound as the main focal point of my attention, and I look forward to seeing what sound-paths I tread in the coming years.