Dry vs. Wet Tone

Bones

Can anyone weigh in on what construction aspects of a gypsy guitar make it more dry (less booming, ringing, overtones)?

Thanks

Jeff Moore

A stiff top, overall strength but especially light and strong top and bracing. Top stiffness both with and against the grain so it acts as a unit rather than reacting one way north and south and differently (weaker) east and west.
I only say this cause I read this in luthiers writings, so I can't discount luck, other variables, magic or secrets.

asd123321

The bridge is high, the top is arched and the braces are parallel not an x. The small opening can kill the bass.

Bones

A high bridge implies a decent neck angle, yes?

I wonder what is the range on neck angle. As I recall people have mentioned around 2.5 degrees.

Thanks for the replies

HCQ

Construction aspects aside, damping or isolating the tailpiece goes a long way in taming overtones.

I just did some DIY work on my Dell Arte Pigalle, (Music Link). Its an Asian guitar. There have been a few fixes to cut down on "wet" tones on other threads here. On my guitar, notes that match up to notes on opens string have a sympathetic ring to them. Additionally, these notes are louder because of these overtones.

The notes that noticeably do this are mostly on the high E string. B at the 7th fret, D at the 10th fret, E at the 12th, G at the 13th and A at the 15th.

Some folks recommended stuffing cloth, which I did, or putting some cork under the tailpiece.

Today I took off the tailpiece pulled the red leather off and replaced it with some black felt carefully trimmed to fit the tailpiece profile. I got the felt at an art supply store. its about 2 millimeters thick and fairly stiff. I chose black but its available in about a dozen colors.

Anyway, this really dried up my guitar without killing overtones completely. The wet notes lost about 80%-90% of their ringing overtones. They also have a much more similar volume as other notes when playing normally. I thank the folks here whose recommendations that led me to the best, easiest and cheap solution to a common problem.

The black felt looks great too.

Now, if they made it in Lake Placid Blue or Sea Foam Green......

Best,