Welcome to our FAQ page!!

We have compiled a list of the most frequently asked questions for you to browse through.
We hope they are helpful to you. Enjoy!!
Happy reading!!

Where can I find guitar resources on the Internet?
How do you describe the sound of a guitar?
How does a guitar's construction affect its sound?
How do I take care of my hands and nails?
How should I take care of my guitar?

Where can I find guitar resources on the Internet?

Newsgroups

FTP Sites
For all of these FTP sites use the user name "anonymous" and your e-mail address as the password.
You may have to do a little poking around to find what you are looking for, but the sites are pretty well organized.

World Wide Web, Gopher, and Archie Servers

How do you describe the sound of a guitar?

The physical characteristics of an acoustic guitar are easy to identify and compare. A cutaway, mother of pearl inlays, or wood binding are qualities that are easy to make decisions as to whether you like or dislike them. The sound qualities of a guitar are much harder to discern and evaluate. In order to accurately describe the characteristics of a guitars sound, you must first be familiar with the nomenclature used to explain the sound qualities of a guitar. An acoustic guitar's sound has many facets. Here is a brief overview of the terminology most often used when discussing a guitar's sound:

Tone: Tone is the quality that makes guitars from various makers sound different. When you set a string into motion, the string has a fundamental vibration, as well as many smaller vibrations, called overtones. Most guitars share some fundamental tones and overtones. Thats what makes them all sound like guitars. But they each have their own unique combination of fundamental and overtones also. Thats what makes guitars sound unique.
The woods used for the back and sides of the guitar factor most into the characteristic tone of a guitar. Rosewood gives a soulful, darker sound. Mahogany is sweeter and softer, as well as rounder and nicely balanced. Maple is louder, like rosewood, but has less bass resonance and a more brittle tone.
Volume: Volume is how loud your guitar is. But not just as measured by a decibel meter, but also how loud your guitar *seems*. This is directly related to the quality of the top wood, the top bracing, and the rigidity of the back and sides. Heavier strings are louder, because they vibrate the top more than lighter guage strings. Also, larger guitars are generally louder, since they have more top to vibrate, and a larger sound chamber.
Presence: Presence is a psychological factor that is very subjective. It is a guage of how full your guitars sound is. A good measure of presence is how satisfying your guitar sounds when you play it softly. A strong presence means that the tone quality does not deteriorate with less volume. The efficiency of the guitars top plays a large part in the perceived presence.
Balance: Balance is the relationship between the high and low notes in point of fullness and volume. In a balanced guitar, the notes have equal authority throughout the entire range of the instrument. Guitars that are over-balanced toward the bass are called boomy. Flatpickers and folk singers prefer this type of balance. Fingerstyle guitarists might prefer a guitar that is balanced toward the high strings. Balance is usually directly related to the size of the guitar. Balance is also affected by the body woods (Rosewood is boomier than Mahogany), and the size of the soundhole (a larger soundhole usually balances the guitar toward the high strings).
Separation: Separation is the ability of an instrument to express simultaneously played notes so that they are perceived distincly and individually, rather than as a homogeneous whole. In other words, when you strum an open E chord, is what you hear more like one glob of sound or six separate ingredients? An analogy might be to the flavors that make up a fine sauce. Separation is related to the quality of the guitar, as well as the player's individual touch.
Sustain: Sustain is the measure of how long a note keeps sounding after you initiate it. If the sound decays too fast, you have poor sustain. Sustain is directly related to the quality of the guitar. More specifically, it is the vibration of the top that gives you an honest, clean sustain that preserves all the components of the tone throughout its duration.

How does a guitar's construction affect its sound?

The type of wood used on a guitar is probably the single most influencial factor to its tone. There are a variety of different woods to choose from. Here are some examples:

Genuine Mahogany: Its anywhere from yellowish brown to reddish brown in color, Genuine or "Amazon" mahogany is exceptionally stable and consistently clear. Mahogany is much lighter in weight than rosewood, koa, or maple. In spite of its weight, mahogany yields a surprisingly strong loud sound with an emphasis on clear bright trebles.
Brazilian Rosewood: This wood is sometimes referred to as "Jacaranda". It is a species of genuine rosewood ranges in color from dark brown to violet with spidery black streaks. The smell is like roses when freshly cut. Brazilian rosewood is considered nearly extinct and is extremely expensive if available at all. Martin rosewood models before mid-1969 were made with Brazilian rosewood. As a result, Martin's long standing reputation for tone was closely connected to the historical use of this wood. Brazilian rosewood is occasionally available in very limited quantities for custom or special limited edition orders only.
European Flamed Maple: Curly, flamed, tiger striped, or "Fiddleback" maple refers to the characteristic alternating hard and soft rippling which runs perpendicular to the grain in some rarer maple trees. This particular species of European maple is very hard and reflective, producing a loud powerful projective sound. Uniquely figured domestic "Birdseye" maple, used on the D-60 models, displays characteristics and tonal properties similar to European Flamed maple.
Koa: Golden brown color with dark streaks and a lusterous sheen. koa wood occasionally develops a curly or flamed figure. Regardless of any figuring, koa seems to have a bass response that is slightly less than that of rosewood and treble response that is slightly less than that of mahogany. The result is a very equally balanced instrument.
Sitka Spruce: Sitka spruce is the primary topwood for Martin Guitars. It is chosen because of it's consistent quality as well as it's straight uniform grain, longevity, and tensile strength. Tonally, Sitka spruce is extremely vibrant providing an ideal "diaphram" for transmission of sound on any size and style of stringed instrument.

Bracing adds strength to the top without (hopefully) killing too much of the top's vibration. A set of medium gauge steel strings on a normal dreadnought scale length (25.4") guitar exerts about 185 lb of tension. This would splinter a thin wood top if it weren't braced. A top thick enough to hold this much tension without bracing would be very quiet and tinny-sounding. Another important function of the braces is to efficiently propagate the vibrations through a large area of the top. Bracing also plays a major role in determining the tone of a guitar.

How do I take care of my hands and nails?

Hand Care:: One area that can not be overlooked is warming up before you play. Common sense prevails here. Start off each guitar session by playing something that is slow, and doesn't involve huge stretches. Scales and arpeggios are always a good starter. Also, you may want to do some sight reading of a simple piece, since this will normally keep your movements slow. Or you might try a piece that you know (and enjoy!) that is not too difficult. Play thru at a moderate tempo, just to get the juices flowing. A few minutes of warm-up goes a long way towards preventing hand injuries, just as warming up prevents injury in sports and other physical activities.

And what about those callouses that build up on your fretting hand? A lot of British guitarists use "Surgical Spirit" to toughen up the skin on their fingertips. Surgical Spirit is simply the English term for rubbing alcohol. If you wipe your fingertips with it twice a day for a couple of weeks you'll get callouses tougher than elephant hide!
Nail Care:: Keeping your nails strong and evenly filed is essential to maintaining consistency in your sound. There are basically 2 things to consider: "How do I prevent nail breaks?", and "What do I do when a nail does break?" Part of preventing nail breaks means don't expose your nails to dangerous situations. Another part of preventing nail breaks is preventive maintenance.

People claim that nail polish makes their nails stronger (and shiny!). Others use hand lotions with Keratin (a natural protein) in them. Still others claim that your nails get stronger if you ingest powdered gelatin. And there are other products, like "Barielle Nail Strengthener Cream", which was originally used to strengthen horse hooves, which has been modified for use on your nails.

If you do get a nail break, your options are basically: 1) Remove the broken part of the nail, and file the nail as best you can, and wait for it to grow back, or 2) attempt to repair the broken nail, or 3) replace the nail with a fake one. Filing the nail is pretty straight forward, and is described later on. Repairing the nail can be done by reinforcing the nail with a paper/nail polish, paper-mache type fix up job. Replacing the nail can be done thru a number of means. These include growing your non-picking thumb-nail long, and using it as a replacement nail, using a piece of ping-pong ball, using some brand of fake nail, or even temporarily moving to the use of fingerpicks. There is a brand of picks called "Alaska Picks" that fit under the nail, and are made of plastic, so they don't give that metallic sound that normal fingerpicks do.

How should I take care of my guitar?

Avoid Climate Extremes: Do not expose it to extremes of temperature. If it's too hot or cold for you, it's probably too hot or cold for your guitar. Don't expose it to quick temperature changes. If you're in an area of low humidity (<20%), keep it humidified. Humidifiers that fit in the soundhole are available, or you can easily make one out of a plastic prescription bottle, some string, and a piece of a kitchen sponge.
Clean Often: Cleaning keeps the guitar looking shiney and new!!!