About the Leonardo Guitar Research Project (LGRP)
About the Leonardo Guitar Research Project (LGRP)
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Are listeners able - by ear only - to distinguish guitars made of common tropical woods from those made of alternative local European woods ?
By way of introduction, we briefly present one of the LGRP tests where the above question was the starting point of multiple investigations.
In the video right, Gaëlle Solal plays a piece of music on successively 16 guitars who were recorded and edited into sections of the right length and then pasted together into one fluent piece.
• 8 guitars are made from traditionally used tropical tonewoods like rosewood, ebony, mahogany and spanish cedar. (except for the top)
• 8 guitars are made from local and non-commonly used non-tropical wood species.
• All guitars are of the same model.
•They all have European spruce tops, the same bracing pattern and the same strings.
•They are recorded with a flat EQ. No audio editing or effects are added.
This video illustrates what listeners had to assess in the preceding blind listening test where people could only listen to the audio and then had to complete an online survey with questions like:
• How many guitars did you perceive ? • Can you note the transition time points when one guitar follows another? • Which of the perceived guitars are made from non-tropical wood species ?
The video, along with the results, was published after the blind listening test was completed.
Click here for details, results and conclusion.
Other tests and research can be found via the menu, left.
About
About
The main goal of the Leonardo Guitar Research Project (LGRP) is to study, demonstrate and communicate the possibilities of building acoustic and classical guitars from non-tropical woods.
LGRP is a Europe based independent non-profit organization that was funded by the European Commission from 2011 till 2017.
(Leonardo-Da-Vinci and Erasmus+ programs )
Follow-up:
With partners from different fields, we aim to further develop a cooperative knowledge and information platform concerning the use of alternative non-tropical wood species in guitar making.
•CONTEXT
Many of the exotic tropical woods are now protected and their trade restricted under the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). For the luthier it means that these woods, which have been traditionally used in guitar making, are becoming rarer and ever more expensive. For those tropical woods still available, care needs to be exercised to ensure that they are from a legitimate source as, despite certification processes such as that of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), much of the available tropical wood is illegally harvested.
Need to study alternatives
Because of the decreasing availability and increasing cost of tropical woods there is a need to find economically viable alternatives. Against this background the LGR-Project started up a research program to study the possibilities of using species of local non-tropical woods that are not normally used in acoustic and classical guitar making. The program consists of building guitars from both tropical and non-tropical woods and assessing them for performance and acceptance in a series of comparative tests. This work is carried out by an international team of 3 lutherie schools and 4 entrepreneurial luthiers, working in co-operation with external experts (forest management experts, environmental organisations, universities, and other researchers). Together we aim to develop a knowledge centre surrounding the use of alternative non-tropical wood species in guitar making.
Environmental value
As the LGRP research programme demonstrated that locally grown sustainable non-tropical woods can be used as viable alternatives for the traditional tropical woods, the effect could be more than just providing luthiers with a broader range of affordable tonewoods. Any move towards sustainable local tonewoods could have important environmental benefits through reducing demand for tropical rainforest woods, and by reducing transportation miles.
Read more about the Economic situation & Environmental value on this page
•EVENTS
The LGR-Project was present during several Guitar Festivals and Symposia where the project guitars also were exhibited, played (in concerts), tested and compared.
- Lecture and tests at Cordefactum Guitar Festival 2014, May 30 >June 1, Hingene - Belgium.
- Lecture and tests at Tampere Guitar Festival, June 2014, Tampere - Finland
- Lecture and tests at Gitaar-Bouwers-Meeting, Oct 2014, Barneveld - Netherlands
- Lecture and tests at the Holy Grail Guitar Show, Nov 2014, Berlin - Germany
- Lecture and tests at the Holy Grail Guitar Show, Oct/Nov 2015, Berlin - Germany
- Lecture and tests at the Holy Grail Guitar Show, Oct/Nov 2016, Berlin / Germany
- Exhibition at The first Salon de la Guitare 5 and 6 Dec 2015 à la Belle Villoise, Paris, FR
- Exhibition at The Musicora Event . February 2016, Paris, FR
- Lecture and tests at the APLG Symposium, August 27, 2016, Le Mans, FR
- Lecture and tests at the ROMA EXPO GUITARS March 18/19th 2017, Rome, Italy
- Lecture and tests during the Cordefactum Guitar Festival, 2017 / Lier, Belgium
- Lecture and tests at Itemm 24.04.17 Le Mans, FR.
- Lecture and tests at the APLG Symposium, 23 Nov 2018, Montluçon / FR.
- Lecture at the Symposium & expo "Guitar on/off" / 4.11 > 15.12, 2019 / Le Mans / FR
•Project Partners, click here
•More Background, click here
•Related research, click here
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