Spreadsheets and "Contemporary Acoustic Guitar"

[GregHolmberg]

Over on anzlf.com, I've posted several spreadsheets in the past, implementing various formulas from the book "Contemporary Acoustic Guitar" by Trevor Gore and Gerard Gilet. Panel thickness, fret positions, fretboard radius/width, neck shape, intonation compensation, 4DOF model, brace stress/sizing.

I decided to combine these into one big spreadsheet file with 20 worksheets, and create connections between them, so when you change one worksheet it affects others. In essence, I've tried to create a complete acoustic guitar model. How accurately this predicts acoustic function is yet to be seen.

I place them here for your use, in the hopes that they will be used to create better acoustic guitars. I feel that the necessity of creating ones own spreadsheets from the book is too high a hurdle for most people, and this has hindered the successful use of the wonderful information in the books. Yes, you can use the books to make a copy of a Medium Falcate steel-string, but I would like to see some new designs.

• Medium steel-string falcate with CF spreadsheet
• Medium steel-string falcate, no CF spreadsheet
• Classical nylon-string falcate with CF spreadsheet
• Wood Properties spreadsheet
• Guitar Modeling Documentation

You may copy and modify these spreadsheets for your own purposes, just always keep the copyright and the links to the original spreadsheet, and to the documentation.

You can work with these directly in Google Sheets (free to use, nothing to install) in your web browser, or can download an Excel or OpenDocument file to work on them offline. Use the File -> Download command in Google Sheets. For the OpenDocument files, I recommend the free LibreOffice software, available on all platforms.

Feedback, constructive or otherwise, is always appreciated.

I'm looking for people who would like to test the spreadsheets and work with me to find bugs. Please send me a PM if you're interested.

Greg

[Howard Klepper]

I see some detailed specs. But where are the formulae for designing a guitar that is not just a copy? And where do you explain how those formulae were derived from the specs? And why you think those formulae can be generalized?

[GregHolmberg]

Originally Posted by Howard Klepper

I see some detailed specs. But where are the formulae for designing a guitar that is not just a copy? And where do you explain how those formulae were derived from the specs? And why you think those formulae can be generalized?

As I said, it implements formulas from the book. The book explains it all. I'm not going to repeat everything from the book in my docs. This is for people who have the book. It's a great book, you should get a copy.

Greg

[Howard Klepper]

I misunderstood your purpose.

[Bruce Sexauer]

This is an ambitious and challenging project you’ve got going. I am SO thankful that it is completely unnecessary to think of lutherie from this perspective.

[GregHolmberg]

Originally Posted by Bruce Sexauer

This is an ambitious and challenging project you’ve got going. I am SO thankful that it is completely unnecessary to think of lutherie from this perspective.

I guess you haven't read the book then?

Greg

[Foghorn]

Originally Posted by GregHolmberg

I guess you haven't read the book then?

Greg

People write books about Bruce and his guitars.

[Bruce Sexauer]

Originally Posted by GregHolmberg

I guess you haven't read the book then?

Greg

I am one who prefers to tap my sub-conscious data-base, which is informed by my years of experience, using the vehicle of aesthetics. I call this the art process, though I think of my results more as "tools" than art. Many of my fellow practitioners use a more technical approach, but it doesn't look like as much "fun" to me as my method. I am very happy with my results, which continue to improve markedly on nearly every project. It's a "different strokes" kind of thing, and I mean no disrespect, but if I had to do things TG's way, I'd be doing something else entirely. Like him, I would like to influence the community in my direction.