Nossaman D

[Ron Nossaman]

> Looks great Ron. Sounds like some very favorable feedback also. Must 
> feel as good as it sounds!

Thanks Terry,
I'm very pleased with how it worked out. I wouldn't mind doing a 
couple of these a year.


> I'm generally aware of bridge mass loading, but belly rail? Is it the 
> case that the original construction had a low-mass/thin belly rail and 
> you wanted to beef it up? Was this done by increasing the thickness of 
> the belly rail by adding dense wood to the belly side of the belly rail? 
> Or how? Brass/lead weights?

Very scientific. I noticed some time back that tapping on the belly 
rail where the soundboard glues on (soundboard out) produced 
different pitches depending on where I tapped it. The lowest pitch 
in the treble half of the belly rail was at the jag where the 
dampers end, even after I had braced the rail from behind. It looked 
like an energy sink to me, so I screwed a chunk of brass underneath 
to see what it would do. The tap tone went up in pitch, so I left it 
on. It seems to help sustain.


> I don't suppose any of that would benefit the 6" x 8" solid white ash 
> belly rail on my Knabe? Every time I look at that thing I realize I'm 
> not the only one guilty of overkill!   ;-)

I've overkilled a thing or fifty in my day too, but there's a pretty 
good chance that it will be just fine as it is. Tap on it with 
various things and see what it says. Then clamp a small F clamp on 
it (vertically) and tap again. See if the tone changes dramatically. 
It did on the D.

Ron N