Why are guitars wet or dry ?

constantine

Outside of spilling beer, why are some gypsy guitars wet? What is it about how they are built , the poly, the bracing?

Jim Kaznosky

Good question. I'm all ears.

MichaelHorowitz

Well, that's one of the questions luthiers spend their whole lives trying to answer. Dupont has that figured probably better than anyone as his guitars are THE most consistently dry guitars out there. Others vary, but dryness is not always a good thing either. Wet or "open" sounding guitars can be nice too, but like anything it is has to be done in just the right way. Conversely, some guitars are just too dry and sound brittle and thin, although that's rare. Generally most Gypsy jazz players prefer guitars on the drier side as they are so crisp, record well, and are easier to hear in a group setting. But the open sounding guitars have their place too. I think they got a bad rap because nearly every poorly made guitar is excessively wet with too much overtone ringing (especially the Asian stuff). But even the good vintage Selmers and Favinos can be wet but it's in a good way. No annoying overtones and just enough "echo" to make them interesting without turning your guitar into a reverb generator. I prefer the term "open" for these sorts of guitars. Because of the heaps of ringy, wet guitars out there most people associate wetness with inferior tone.

I doubt any luthier would tell you his secrets but wetness often seems to be caused by an overly thin top, miss placed braces or braces that aren't big enough, lack of or misplacement of tone bars, too much neck angle, overly high action, etc.

Hard to pin it down exactly, but guys like Dupont surely know as his guitars are always ultra crisp. Busato even more so....

Jeff Moore

I think Michael hit the big reason but there's bound to be more to it than I know.

If you use your thumb to distort (dent) the top (between the braces) of a Dupont or other high end guitar, you can't dent it much. The same trick on the lesser guitars will give you more distortion.
Also the braces (and top wood) are prone to sag on the cheaper guitars, whereas the great guitars built 60 and 70 years ago have yet to sag. Better wood (maybe thicker or well seasoned) braces.
My point is that the loose tops (via weaker or wetter or unseasoned wood) don't vibrate as a unit very well, hence a lot of overtones get going besides the fundamental sound of the note simply because the top is able to flop around more reflecting overtones. A tight top (like a tight drum head) will tend to accentuate the fundamental note being played more simply and directly = dry. Overall stiffness and lighness will make a difference too. Our poor little strings trying to vibrate a 6 pound guitar tends to result in the vibration getting diffused and distorted away from the fundamental.
There may be other reasons, but that's my story.

The backs of Gitanes and Ciganos are by contrast even tighter than Duponts, but the top is the big developer of the sound.
Changing bridges and strings only gets a marginal (still important) change in sound. A guitar body wants to ring its own way and defines the sound more than anything else.

With a stiff-light (well made) guitar the string can power the whole thing up quickly and accurately.