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Desmond Double Top Guitars
Recently I have had the opportunity to study 3 Double Top guitars from 3 different up and coming German guitar makers. All 3 guitars had issues in their sound and 2 of them were geometrically messed up badly and need new fingerboards as well as some neck work to resolve the problems. This said, it was interesting to study these 3 Double Top guitars inside and out. I came away from the experience thinking that I can make a better sounding Double Top guitar than any of the three I recently studied here in my workshop!
I did NOT like the sound of any of the three German Double Top guitars! They were brash sounding, and DISTORTED sounding, HOLLOW sounding, and were very harsh on my sensitive hearing! I simply hated the sound of them all! That said, they were also "interesting" sounding, in some ways. They were very responsive and had lots of overtones and harmonics. I would say that the sound "exploded" from them. They could be LOUD as well. They were also extremely light weight guitars, all 3 of them. For the most part, they were beautifully made, bad sounding guitars!
I'm simply not convinced that Double Top guitars are as good as or better than conventional single top guitars! To some extent, I believe that guitar players are being brain washed by classical guitar dealers as well as Double Top guitar makers, that these kind of guitars are better than single top guitars! Bold statement, perhaps. But that is the way I feel about the DT guitars. BAD has become GOOD, and GOOD has become BAD, a sign of the times that we are living in I'm afraid.
Therefore, I have decided to do some experimentation of my own, and make a few Desmond Double Top guitars of my own design, not copying the DT makers who have already gained a level of prominence in this field. I expect to build these experimental Desmond Double Top guitars before year's end 2015.
Only then will I be able to come to my own conclusions about the Double Top FRENZY we seem to be in the midst of!
Robert B. Desmond
January 1, 2015