hello everyone,
i've been kicking around the idea of building an acoustic with a set a sympathetic drone strings, preferably in the style of John McLaughlin's Wechter-made Shakti, but possibly in a harp guitar format like Todd Mosby's Imrat guitar if that is a more facilitative format.
this is the best resource i've found thus far, although its diagram-less explanation of the bracing is somewhat less than clear to me.
http://www.wechterguitars.com/custom/article-shakti.htm
does anybody have any experience or ideas about drone guitars? any musings are welcome at this point.
this is what i've got so far:
i prefer smaller bodies, but im assuming an ooo is out of the picture for volume considerations (?). i'm leaning towards a dreadnaught. shakti is a j-200, but i have no means of bending jumbo sides, portroppo. i imagine that the upper bout and part of the treble lower bout will be rendered acoustically dead by the drone bridges' supports. ideas?
the 7 drone strings are positioned obliquely to the main strings. the bridge with tuners (zither pins perhaps) is located on the upper bass bout. the anchor bridge is around the waist of the treble side. both are cut through the soundboard and supported by end/tail block style structures beneath (?). the tops of the supports are slightly largely than their bridges, and taper so that the part contacting the back is smaller. additionally, two grafts run on either side of the soundhole parallel to the strings.
on shakti, the soundboard's bracing is patterned after a fan bracing/kasha derivative because the main strings are 10-47's. i have heard very mixed things about kasha bracing, and question the ability of fan bracing to withstand this sort of application. im leaning towards x. thoughts?
any ideas are welcome
thanks,
gazaa