It was sometime in my early 20’s when I was in graduate school that I created a fundamental method for myself and that was if you’re going to invest yourself in some activity, first get a book and learn about what you’re doing. Looking back, I think one of the first books of that sort that I’d purchased was the Complete Book of Running, and I ran for years afterward using the knowledge gleaned from that read…
As a result of this practice, my home library has quite of number of background books in such disparate areas as bicycle repair, blues music, civil war reenacting, wildflower identification, prairie restoration, all types of photography, and even dog training.
If you’ve been anywhere in and around this weblog then you will know that one of my keen interests during my retirement life is everything about guitars. As my opening paragraphs would suggest, I’ve dug around trying to find books about guitars to deepen my understanding of the instrument. Thus far, two of the more interesting books I’ve found include, Clapton’s Guitar and the Guitar, An American Life. They were both excellent reads covering aspects of the social/cultural/historical elements of guitars and to some extent guitar construction, but still fell short of really offering a deep understanding about the structure of the guitar, how it functions and how it affects playability. Nevertheless, I recommend both books as fun and informative time well spent.
Then, one day I was noodling around on my computer searching guitar culture and philosophy subjects and ended up on Ervin Somogyi’s website. Mr. Somogyi is a world renowned master luthier, in other words a guitar builder. I had previously read about his apprenticeship program in Fretboard Journal #36 so I was curious enough to explore his site a bit deeper. He had in one section some fascinating and articulate discussions about guitar culture, which I perused and in later meanderings discovered that he had published a two volume treatise on guitar building. The first volume was focused in detail on how guitars behave as a function of choices a luthier might make during construction. The second volume was explicitly step by step how to build a guitar.
The basic pair of volumes (not the leather bound version) was listed at well over $200 which was a bit too rich for me; however, I only wanted the first volume regarding how a guitar functions. I never intend to build a guitar so the second volume was of no interest. Fortunately, I found a used copy of volume one in a Canadian used book store and though it was still more pricey than I would have liked, I bought it anyway and am so glad I did because it is a classic exploration of acoustic guitar design and function written in an interesting and accessible manner.
All elements of guitar structure are discussed. For example, Somogyi evaluates in detail the various trees that are available for harvesting quality tonewoods or general structural elements such as the neck. I was fascinated to learn that mahogany makes a great guitar neck because it is an equatorial tree that possesses balanced longitudinal torque because of how the tree interacts with the sun in its particular region of the world. This matters because the neck is less likely to twist over time. Given that I recently had a twisted guitar neck repaired, I appreciated the discussion.
No subject about guitars is too esoteric and the end notes take up about 1/3 of the book offering even more detail. Subjects of discussion include the various ways in which a guitar top vibrates and how the bracing underneath interacts, or how the back wood of the guitar cooperates with the top wood to project sound outward through the guitar’s sound hole. Everything you need to know about intonation is detailed.
The aesthetics of guitar shapes are also considered which was illuminating to me. Take for example a comparison of the now discontinued Taylor 510 “dreadnought” shaped guitar versus the new Taylor Grand Pacific.
The 510 according to Somogyi’s view had very little aesthetic appeal. Though a good guitar (I owned one years ago) it was strictly utilitarian in appearance. The shoulders of the guitar are just plain horizontal and flat, the guitar has almost no curve at the waist… it’s basically just a box of wood with a neck and strings, lacking all elegance.
On the other hand, consider the Grand Pacific. It is a reimagined dreadnought-styled guitar, and its shape is much more appealing. In fact, Somogyi would point out that the Greek Golden Rule of Proportion was applied by reimagining the waist of the guitar to give a perfect ratio of top bout size compared to the lower bout. Further, the shoulders of the guitar add a subtle sloping drop which enhances its elegance giving it an altogether more appealing shape to the human eye!
In sum, if you really want to understand the art and technology of the acoustic steel string guitar there is probably no better book than Ervin Somogyi’s The Responsive Guitar. It took me the better part of the summer to wade through it because it takes time to give thought and consideration to his analysis, but it is a journey worth taking.
As a final side note it is worth mentioning that Mr. Samogyi frequently points out the relative “newness” of luthier built steel string acoustic guitars. For much of the steel string guitar’s history it was an artifact of industrial factory production. The development of custom made luthier guitars grew along with the relatively new tradition of steel string finger-style guitarists. It can be argued that American finger-style playing was historically rooted in older country blues, played on factory guitars; however, Somogyi points to a new aesthetic in finger-style that benefited from guitars designed expressly for that purpose. In a later section of his book he carefully points out the necessary differences in guitar design between flat-picked (plectrum-driven) guitars and finger-style played instruments.
Somogyi points to both Ed Gerhard and Martin Simpson as notable leaders in the new finger-style revolution. I had the great good fortune of hearing the aforementioned gentlemen play live and to spend some “quality” time with them afterwards discussing their guitar philosophy. It was through my association, in the middle late 1990’s, with the Manhattan, Kansas based Birdhouse Productions who hosted several outstanding acoustic guitar players.
Martin Simpson 
Ed Gerhard with his Somogyi Axe