Your Classical Guitar Input Here

Guitars and matches

by Helen
(France)

On a recent documentary on the guitar, I saw a guitar manufacturer hold a lighted match in front of the sound hole, tap on the body of the instrument and the match went out.

Now, it was an American folk guitar, not classical, unstrung and he did not tap hard. My question is - what did that prove and how does it work? The man seemed to think that was the mark of a good guitar. Thank you.

Hi Helen,

I must admit I'm not sure what this means and have never heard of it before. As this intrigued me I Googled some of your words and came up with this...

"In the video series "Handmade Music," shown on Do It Yourself Network, luthier Lynn Dudenbostel described a test for determining whether a guitar body will sound good in the finished instrument. The test is simple: place a lighted match in front of the soundhole, and tap the body firmly a little below where the bridge is supposed to go. If the air coming out of the sound hole blows out the match, the body's a good one. So I tried the test with my wife's cigarette lighter, and the body blew out the lighter."


You can see that page here...

I hope this was of help.

Kind regards,
Trevor M.