'LGR Network Luthiers' are Professional Guitar Makers or Lutherie Schools
Schools in particular have a great potential to do research due to their freedom from commercial considerations, for example, a group of students can make many guitars of the same models which allows for a lot of comparison options
purely for research purposes.
Possible Areas of Research
LGR Network Luthiers are conducting research into one or more of the following areas:
1
Making acoustic guitars (steel-string and/or nylon string) from non-tropical wood and comparing them for sound and aesthetics against the same guitar model made with tropical wood (either newly made or from their own stock). The guitars can be assessed either using own developed test methods, or using (some of) the test methods developed for the
Research Project click here to see them/
The non-tropical guitars should be 100% made with wood that is sustainable, local (i.e. from your own country/continent) and not commonly used in guitar making (i.e. no maple). Click here to look at the species we used so f
2
Researching the properties and qualities of the woods, such as;
- Workability: planing, scraping, sawing, bending, ...., ....
- Coloring and finishing of the wood. In particular, how can we best modify the aesthetics to more closely resemble those
of tropical wood guitars.
- Researching suitable alternatives for ebony fretboards/bridges
3
Researching the local availability and sustainability of suitable tone woods.
Questions we want to answer include: How can we best develop local sustainable supplies of non tropical woods? Are local forest managers willing to plant suitable wood species? What is the long term thinking of wood suppliers/forest managers? Will there be enough wood in the future for guitar makers (and other instrument makers) who want to build with non-tropical woods?
Other ecological aspects...(?)
Let us know if you have questions: leonardo.guitar.research@cmbpuurs.be
What do we offer ?
We encourage all research findings to be shared with the Network, and we will publish on the LGR website and/or
LGRP-Facebook page.
We plan to hold LGR Network Events where LGR Network Luthiers can exhibit their non-tropical guitars (even if they made only one guitar and have not been able to compare test it), attend interesting lectures and workshops, and meet with other guitar makers and musicians. There may also be an opportunity for your guitar to be played before a public audience.
The inaugural LRG Event took place at the Cordefactum Guitar Festival in May 2014, Belgium. See > www.cordefactum.be.
We plan the next LGR event in 2017 to coincide with the next round of research results from the LGR project. This LGR event will be held together with a Cordefactum Guitar Festival.
We have also launched a "Leonardo Guitar Research Facebook Page" where LGR Network Luthiers can post research-related items, pictures, etc. In this way, musicians and the wider public can keep up to date with the latest developments.
If you are a professional guitar maker (acoustic steel-string and/or nylon string),
and you would like to become an LGR Network Luthier, inscribe on this page.
More details and communication will follow your inscription. You can unscribe or update your data at any time, should you wish to do so.
Click here If you want to be listed in our database of luthiers who build with non-tropical wood.
This database will help guitarists, who want to have a non-tropical guitar made for them, find a suitable luthier.