How to make your guitar sound better Introduction A 'good' tone (or sound) of a guitar is a very personal thing, of course. Most of us agree that the sound of a guitar usually gets better with its price (but not always). That is why some people, if they can afford it, spend a fortune on 'that' particular guitar. However, it is important to notice that more than one half of the tone of any guitar comes from the guitarist, rather than from the guitar! Each guitar requires a very specific and dedicated touch to get the best out of it. It takes any guitarist a while before this skill is developed. And it is not something you are really aware of, it is almost a subconscious thing. This explains why most of the time, when you play a guitar that is not your own, it does not really seem to work out really well at first. You have to get used to the way the guitar responds. That may take days, or more. Interestingly, it seems to be largely a subconscious process. After a few days you're not aware of what exactly you have done to make the guitar sound better, but things have definitely improved! And that improvement is not due to the guitar, but to you. Nevertheless, the sound of a guitar may dramatically improve by some simple adjustments. We'll discuss them one by one. The Strings The strings on a guitar are of fundamental importance for its sound. I think that modern technology today has more or less eliminated 'bad strings'. All strings are basically good, however, some strings will sound better on a specific guitar. Again, 'better' is a personal thing, and something you have to find out for yourself. I always buy many different brands and gauges of strings and simply try them all out. I make detailed notes every time I change strings. Here's an example: "GHS Bright Bronze, custom set for Orkney tuning: 0.054, 0.036, 0.024, 0.018, 0.013, 0.012, on the Taylor 712. Sound very good! Very bright and metallic, long sustain. Easy playability, however, maybe somewhat heavier strings would be better, as these tend to bend and slip a little too much, and could possibly use somewhat more bass. The two plain strings were bronze coated, which looks very fancy." This way, after a while, I get a good idea what strings work best for me on what guitar. For example, my Taylor 712 seems to respond best to Martin 80/20 strings, gauge 0.013-0.056, or d'Addario Phosphor Bronze EJ-16, 0.012-0.053. My Ovation Custom Legend sounds best with Ernie Ball Regular Slinky Phosphor Bronze, gauge 012-054. And so on. Although some people prefer the sound of old strings, most of us will not agree, and find that new strings always sound best. So do I. In any case, even without paying attention to their tone, their intonation will degrade when strings wear out, which means that after a while it will be impossible to play in tune. So you have to replace them anyway. The Pitch Another thing you could try is tune your guitar a half or a whole note lower, and see how it responds. When I first did this, e.g., with my all-Koa Taylor, the effect was overwhelming. The guitar sounded great in standard tuning, but when I tuned it down by about three quarters of a note, it really started to resonate. The sound became incredibly full, rich and responsive. There can be two reasons for such an effect: 1. The reduced string tension on the top allows for more freedom in the guitar's vibration, and/or 2. The guitar's self-resonance frequencies are a bit lower than those corresponding to standard tuning. In order to figure out which of the two was the strongest effect, I first changed to thinner strings (0.011 in stead of 0.012), and tuned the guitar to concert tuning. This reduced the force acting on the top, just like in the previous case, but the frequencies remained unaltered. The sound became too thin. Conclusion: a reduced tension on the guitar's top was not what had caused the improvement in tone. Then I took thicker strings (0.013) and tuned the guitar a whole note under standard tuning. Now the force on the top was back to normal, but the frequencies were lower. The full and resonant character came back again. Conclusion: the guitar responded best to slightly lower frequencies than standard tuning. At the end, it turned out that the original 0.012 strings even sounded slightly better, with better playability, at the cost of a slight reduction in volume (which can be easily overcome by an acoustic amplifier). Since then, I always tune the guitar one whole note low (and use a capo if I play with others). You could also perform these experiments by tuning the guitar up. But don't overdo it, because tuning higher than concert pitch (EADGBE) will increase the forces acting on the neck and top, and the guitar may not be designed for that. It probably won't fall apart right away, but if you overdo it it may eventually lead to nasty things such as loose braces, a 'bellied' top or a bent neck. The Action The action of the guitar, as discussed earlier, also has an effect on tone. Typically, high action and a neck that bends slightly forward correspond to a fuller, thicker sound. Low action and a perfectly straight neck correspond to a more brilliant, thinner sound. So if your guitar sounds too bassy and boomy, you may want to lower the action a bit. If it sounds too thin and tinny, try to increase the action somewhat, or release the neck a little by adjusting the truss rod. Of course, you will have to optimize for both tone and playability. Many modern acoustic guitars are equipped with on-board electronics, such as under-saddle transducers or internal microphones (or both), and even an equalizer. Whenever I perform, but also often when I play for myself at home, I have my guitar plugged into an acoustic guitar amplifier. That allows me to adjust basic sound properties with the tone control on my amplifier or my guitar, so that I can optimize the action for playability only, and not for sound. When I record, however, I never use an amplifier. The sound of the guitar can then be manipulated by microphone positioning, and fine tuned by equalization during the mastering process. Nut and saddle materials Many guitars have their nut and bridge saddle made of simple plastic. Better guitars usually use denser, synthetic materials, such as mycarta. Good quality cow bone is often used for high-end instruments, and even more exotic materials can be used, such as mother-of-pearl or fossilized ivory. Fossilized ivory is often considered the 'holy grail' for guitar saddles and nuts. However, this beautiful material, usually obtained from walrus ivory of many thousands of years old, is very expensive. I don't think it is really better than bone, just fancier. I would therefore suggest to take cow bone if you plan to change your guitar's bridge and saddle. It's fairly economical, and will significantly improve tone in comparison with plastic. Slotted Pin Holes Most steel string guitars have a bridge with six pins to hold the strings. See picture below. bridge with bridge pins Contrary to popular belief, these bridge pins do not have to withstand the full tension of each string. All they have to do is make sure that the 'ball end' of each string stays clamped around the bottom edge of the pin hole, so that the string cannot pop out. The actual force acts on the top wood, not on the pin! This is illustrated below. slotted bridge pin holding a string With such a setup, the bridge holes are simple tapered holes, whereas the bridge pins have a slot running across their length, to accommodate the string. An interesting modification, which may improve the sound of your guitar, requires some woodwork to the bridge. You have to cut slots in the wood of your guitar, so this may be something you want to leave to a professional. The idea is, to increase the angle the strings make over the bridge saddle. This will pull the strings tighter to the bridge saddle, which typically increases sustain and sometimes volume, and also increases clarity. The result of such a modification can be seen below. slotted bridge, with unslotted bridge pin For this setup, you will probably also use unslotted bridge pins. There is no need anymore to use slotted pins, because the strings will fit neatly in the slots that are now in the bridge itself. If you compare the two diagrams, you can see that the angle the string makes over support point on the bridge saddle has increased. And that is what it's all about. Bridge Pins The material of the bridge pins is also considered to have a significant effect on tone. Budget guitars come with pins made of plastic, the more expensive models have pins made of ebony or bone, sometimes decorated with a pearl dot, and some top-of-the line instruments may have bridge pins made of exotic materials, such as abalone, pearl, fossilized ivory, marble or decorated brass. It is true that the material that the bridge pins are made of has an effect on the tone of the guitar. However, I do not think that the general idea that 'more expensive pins sound better' is correct. Some of my guitars have bridge pins of fossilized ivory, which is a very expensive material, but they do not make the guitar sound better than good bone pins would do. From a physics point of view, the only properties of bridge pins that can have an effect on tone are their weight and, to a lesser extent, their hardness. As a general rule, heavier bridge pins will reduce volume, increase sustain, and make your guitar sound brighter, more metallic. Too much weight, however, will create a 'nasal' sound (a bit like a resonator guitar). Reduced weight of the pins will increase volume, decrease sustain, and produce a more open, 'boomy' sound. In the extreme case, the sound may become unbalanced and 'hollow'. Obviously, these effects are subtle, but they may still be significant. It all depends on your guitar. Guitars with a thin top and light internal bracing will respond more to the weight of the bridge pins than more solidly built instruments. The best thing to do is to experiment. If your guitar has slotted pin holes, you can simply remove the pins without the strings popping out. Otherwise, you can buy cheap, plastic pins (get the lightest ones you can find). This will give you an idea of how your guitar would sound in the extreme case of very light pins (or no pins whatsoever). Now attach some weights to the bridge of your guitar. A few coins attached with adhesive tape works fine. This is the other extreme, and the difference in tone will give you an idea of what the effect of bridge pin material is on your guitar. Then the choice is yours. Try out different pin materials, and see what you like best. Brass pins I think would be the heaviest, slotted pin holes without any pins at all would take you to the other edge of the tone spectrum.  Segmented Bridge Saddle A couple of years ago, I bought a nice acoustic guitar with an 'under saddle transducer' or UST. A UST is a piezo-electric strip that is mounted underneath the bridge saddle of the guitar. It transforms the string vibrations into an electric signal which can be amplified, just like an electric guitar. Unfortunately, my UST had a rather uneven response. Some strings sounded much louder than others, whereas the high E string did not have any volume at all. Piezo transducers are very sensitive to the force of the bridge saddle. As a result, when the bottom of the bridge saddle is not perfectly flat, some strings may have a lower response, because underneath the string there is a slight gap between the saddle and the UST. The action of the guitar was perfect, so sanding the bridge saddle flat at the bottom was no option. It would make the action too low. In stead, I decided to cut the bridge saddle into six separate pieces. In this way each string would make perfect contact with the UST, through its individual bridge saddle segment. It worked great! I obtained a good amplified tone and a very uniform response of all strings. Much to my surprise, I then discovered that the acoustic (unamplified) sound of the guitar had also improved! There was more clarity and a better tone separation. I imagined that the six individual saddle segments would reduce cross-talk between strings. With 'cross talk' I mean that when one string is played, its vibrations travel through the bridge saddle and let the other strings resonate too. With six separated saddle segments, this effect will be reduced, so that each string sounds more for itself. Particularly when playing fingerstyle, this creates a better tone definition and less 'blur' in the music. It's just an intelligent guess, but the results were so convincing that I cut the bridge saddles of my other guitars in six as well. Besides tone, segmented bridge saddles have other advantages too. It allows accurate and easy modification of the action for each individual string, without touching the other strings. If one segment wears out and the action is too low, you only have to replace that segment and leave the rest of the guitar undisturbed. If you make the top of your segments not perfectly flat but slightly slanted, you can even make small real-time adjustments to the action of each string, by pushing the segments slightly sideways. segmented bridge Use an Acoustic Amp The invention of under saddle transducers initially caused a moderate come-back for acoustic guitars after the electric guitar had taken over. Before then, the use of acoustic guitars in modern music had been limited due to their relatively low volume, and all the problems inherent to the use of microphones. Recently, acoustic amplification technology has made major steps forward, and today it is possible to obtain a very pleasing natural and acoustic sound from an electrically amplified acoustic guitar. This opens up important opportunities for all acoustic guitarists, and fingerstyle players in particular. In the old days, it was always very important for a guitarist to play in such a way that enough volume was created. When you play fingerstyle, however, creating volume is not that simple. It will always occur at the cost of tone, speed and intricacy of your playing. But not anymore! When you play over an acoustic amplifier you can obtain a nice, acoustic tone, and at the same time increasing your volume is as easy as turning a knob! These days I almost always play over an amp, even when I just play at home. This allows me to concentrate on tone, accuracy, speed and technique, without having to worry about volume. When playing at home, I usually set the volume of my amp such that is it about the same as my guitar, with just a little bit of reverb. This creates a nice mix of direct and amplified sound. As I like the sound of smaller body guitars, I crank up the bass just enough to get a nice, fat, solid sound. If you don't have an acoustic amp, try it out. Save some money, get one! It makes playing guitar a whole lot easier! BACK