Posted by Shaymus
on January 7, 2005, 8:50 am
67.97.242.34
Here's a little note of interest -
I had been touring around for the past couple of years and found, after playing in a lot of crowded Indonesian clubs, that my guitar started to sound a bit sweeter than usual. I started to think about what might be going on that would cause this. After doing some experimentation in my lab back in the states (I'm a research biologist), I found that cool humid clove smoke, when infused into dried wood, imparts a characteristic into the wood that causes it to vibrate a little differently. In Indonesia, tobacco is more expensive than clove, so most folks there smoke clove cigarettes, and fill the bars with clove smoke. Anyway, after a long set of experiments I figured out a way to "cure" the inside of my guitars with a mix of clove and some other scented barks. The smoke and vaporized oils appear to actually stabilize the wood, and causes it to "open up" and become more tonally complex. I also ring out chords up and down the neck while it’s curing, causing the soundboard to resonate at different frequencies. This also seems to open the wood up along a wider frequency range. A cool side effect is that after being cured, the guitar sort of “breathes” when you play it; causing a sweet clove/cinnamon bark smell to emanate from the sound hole while it’s resonating. Anyway, I don't suggest you go out and do this to all of your guitars (I went through a bunch of trial and error experiments until I got it right), but it is interesting to note. Cheers, Shaymus.
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