08/26/2024
Acousonix: A Language of Tone Wood Applications
Selecting quality materials is essential for achieving a world-class build, adhering to the principle that quality in leads to quality out. However, many tone wood grading systems lack oversight and standardization, exempting them from these considerations. Furthermore, conventional methods appear illogical concerning tone or stability, as they heavily rely on appearance and species titles for their evaluations.
These observations prompted several decades of research within our shop, leading to numerous breakthroughs. Notably, two critical advancements were the establishment of a unified rating system and a standardized method for selecting plate thicknesses, which are currently protected under issued patent #11668678, (materials selection system and methods for constructing musical instruments).
Although these combined methods were powerful, they had certain shortcomings that needed to be addressed. Specifically, they failed to completely consider the issues from a tri-dimensional perspective, their musicality stretch was incomplete, and they did not provide a comprehensive approach for managing wood in its entirety, not merely as tone wood but as a precious resource.
Over the pandemic, with an abundance of time, the goal was to remedy these issues. Through the use of the Tone Wood Management™ and Sound Profiling™ software, the database approach built a formidable library of new guitar builds, vintage guitar specs, and what is likely the largest database of musical-grade tone woods. This transformed the issue from a math problem into a programming issue. Once the outlying issues were isolated, the remaining obstacles were remediable internally through programming. This was a significant advancement not only in evaluating tone woods but also in understanding their role as musical instruments through the application of programming. This has always been the ultimate objective.
One of the principal outcomes was the Acousonix™ Sonic Calculator™ (Patent and Trademark pending), which places decades of data-driven lutherie science at your fingertips. It not only provides a precise rating baseline but also includes a tempered mode, enhancing its sonic accuracy. Furthermore, its stiffness calculator utilizes the compressed tri-dimensional tempered mode, allowing superior control when selecting plate dimensions. And lastly, the calculator is offered in both imperial and metric-based calculations for ease of communications between luthiers worldwide.
The Acousonix™ Sonic Calculator™ places the power of tone wood control in the hands of the end user, making it an exceptionally valuable resource. For luthiers, the benefits are evident, but for wood sawyers, it enables direct communication with customers, maximizing the potential of your tone wood inventory.
For more information, visit acousonix.com.
