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Tips for Testing a Guitar with V-Class™ Bracing

We each have our own personal guitar test-driving rituals. By all means, when you pick up a V-Class guitar, do your thing. Play those go-to chord progressions or licks you love — after all, the guitar is there to serve you. But because these V-Class guitars expand the normal parameters of acoustic tone, they’re also deserving of a different type of “tasting” approach in order to fully experience their expressive range. Here are some test-driving tips to help you enjoy the improvements.

 

Find a quiet time and place at the store.

Music stores can be noisy environments, which is unfortunate when you’re trying to hear the tonal nuances of an acoustic guitar, especially as those notes bloom and decay. Many stores have an acoustic room or lesson rooms. If you find a private place, you’ll be better equipped to hear things in a new way.

 

Tune — or retune — the guitar.

The guitar may already be in tune in the store. But try detuning a string and then re-tuning it using a tuner or tuning app on your phone. Why? Because the more orderly response of the notes will be displayed visually. You should find that the “needle” or graphic display isn’t as jittery as it tries to locate the pitch because the note isn’t warbling or fluttering. With a V-Class guitar, these notes are more likely to lock into a pitch and not drift.

 

Start with a single note.

There are a couple of reasons to do this. First, it puts you into a listening frame of mind. It also helps focus your attention on the progression of a note — the journey it takes from attack to bloom to decay. It’s the sonic equivalent of a wine tasting experience. Also, pick a note that would traditionally sound slightly weaker or decay more quickly, higher up the neck. In the guitar demos our product specialists have done, they play the E natural on the G string at the ninth fret. Normally this is a weaker note on a guitar, in terms of both volume and sustain. Here, pay attention to the extra body and volume of the note, along with the extended sustain. One of the V-Class design’s strengths is the way it eliminates the traditional weaknesses of an acoustic guitar.

 

Play chord inversions higher up the neck.

In his demos, Andy Powers often arpeggiates several chord inversions that are especially vulnerable to warbling or beating on notes that aren’t completely in tune with each other. Try slowly arpeggiating these chords and let them ring out. The following chords are useful in demonstrating the effects of V-Class bracing.

 

 

Play first position chords.

The benefits of V-Class aren’t just up the neck; they’re right there in those chords we all know and love. Have you ever had the experience where you tune a guitar, then strum a chord and retune until it’s just right, only to move to another chord and hear a slightly sour note? On a V-Class guitar, slowly strum or arpeggiate those open chords — work your way through your G, D, E, C, and first position F chords and listen to the in-tuneness of them all. Now go ahead and play your favorite chord progression.

 

Hit those harmonics.

Of course you’ll nail the big three, at the twelfth, seventh and fifth frets, but on a V-Class guitar you’ll find that you can hear them at other points along the fretboard as well — a reflection of the accurate intonation. On one of our recent “From the Factory” podcast episodes, guitar reviewer Tony Polecastro works his way all along the low E string, getting a harmonic response not only on the frets, but even between them.

 

Bring a guitar-playing friend.

In last issue’s V-Class story, our artist relations rep in Nashville, Jason Herndon, testified to the impressive projection of the V-Class guitars. During a demo from Andy Powers, Andy had him walk about 25 feet across the room and listen to him play. He swore that the guitar sounded even louder than when he was standing close to him. Bring a friend and try it for yourself, switching places so each of you can have a chance to listen from across the room. What you’re hearing is the sonic result of overtones aligning better rather than fighting each other, so the sound travels in a stronger, more efficient way without the typical drop-off.

Thank you for reading.