William Cumpiano Interview

[Michael Baresi]

My sincere thanks for this wonderful book.15 years ago I built my first guitar following it with no other guidance and I still play that guitar today.

[Eric Schaefer]

Cumpiano's was the first book I ever picked up on guitarmaking. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Cumpiano and Natelson! Thank you both!

[Brent Cole Sr.]

"Soundboards should be selected for predominance and proliferation of medullary rays (“silk”) over all other factors..."

Not sure I can buy this; some spruce sets I've had show perfectly vertical grain, but very little "silk. They also made great instruments.

On the other hand, I've seen AAA sets with gorgeous silking that seemed lifeless.
I passed those up, so I can't say what they sound like covering a box.

Tom, You are correct. What Bill says holds true only part of the time. And when he is writing to a rookie, he can't overwhelm the student and write of all the exceptions.
Not all trees grow with the heart dead center. In fact, most are not perfectly cylindrical.. The more offset the heart, the more it becomes impossible to get strong medularies. Actually strong medulariues show best when about 1 degree off perfect VG. Regarding the offset heart and dissecting block from a quadrant like that, I can't even begin to explain whats going on there.. But I could show.
As a full time soundboard producer for the last 22 years, I can tell which boards from trees will make the best soundboards And I can tell what what is just pretty.
A lot of the time, the boards that are not the prettiest are the best. But folks seem to want to shop and spend money for pretty. and that is why soundboards are graded by the looks of texture and color, and secondly by stiffness. Third is sound/tone.. Cross grain stiffness is not nearly as important as longitudinal stiffness. Seeing medularies pretty much assures strong cross grain stiffness, but not longitudinal stiffness.. And one can have GREAT soundboards without strong or even any medularies.

[Dick Hutchings]

Brent, where can I see your tops? I would love to buy some based solely on tone as you select it. I don't need any right now but hopefully I'll get to guitar number 3 someday.

[Rodger Knox]

Brent is a sponsor here, https://alaskawoods.com/
I won't get sitka from anyone else.