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The Kasha Guitar
John Lewis Kilgore11/19/2012PHY3091
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Michael Kasha
●Physical Chemist
●One of the founders of the Institute of Molecular Biophysics of FSU
●Worked with Luthier Richard Schneider in designing the first Kasha guitars
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A Need for Improvement?●Kasha noticed inefficiencies of the guitar from an instrument he bought for his son in the 1960s
●Classical guitars only convert around 5% of string vibrations to sound. (Majority is lost as heat)
●Traditional design has trade off between sustain and volume.
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Kasha's Goal●The goal was to create an improved design that converts 7 to 8% of vibrational energy into sound.
•Focus was on five key area's of the guitar:• Neck• Bridge• Soundboard• Bracing on soundboard• Bracing on back
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General Physics of the Guitar●String stretched between two fixed supports(the nut and the bridge)
●Fundamental frequency of the string is determined by string weight, tension, and length.
●The string itself is responsible for very little sound production
●Majority of sound comes from vibrations given to soundboard through the bridge
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Kasha Guitar: Neck●The Kasha guitar features a heavy, rigid neck
●This prevents loss of string energy due to vibrations in the neck
●This energy can now be used to excite the soundboard
●The weight of the neck increases treble response..
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Kasha Guitar: Bridge
●Uses an impedance dependent bridge●It has a wedge shape instead of rectangular shape●Wedge emphasizes bass at one end and treble at the other●Designed to have as little mass as possible to increase responsiveness of string's vibrations.
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Kasha Guitar: Soundboard●Thinner bass half and thicker treble half to increase response●Soundhole is moved from center to upper right area●The upper right area is “silent” part of soundboard●This creates a much larger vibrational area●It also allows space for midrange frequency bracing
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Kasha Guitar: Soundboard Bracing
●Kasha bracing reinforces bass and treble area differently●Allows bridge to move in rotary as well as up and down.●Heavy bracing gives good tone but low volume●Light bracing gives poor tone but high volume●Kasha guitar has heavy bracing for low notes and light bracing for high notes.
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Kasha Guitar: Soundboard Bracing Cont.
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Other Types of Guitar Bracing
Left: Fan Bracing PatternRight: Lattice Bracing Pattern
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Kasha Guitar: Back●Back of guitar is also designed with a bracing pattern to increase sound.●It uses tonewood in a similar method to the way a diaphragm of a speaker works.●Also similar to speaker, different sections for different frequency ranges.
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Reactions to Kasha Guitar
●First drastic changes to the instrument since around the 1850s
●Hand built and only made by certain luthiers
●Expensive and hard to find
●These are all reasons why it is not as popular of a design as others
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References
http://www.guitarmasterworks.com/about-guitar-acoustics-101.html
http://www.jthbass.com/kasha.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Kasha
http://www.dreamguitars.com/sold-guitars/1739-boaz_majkowski_kashaschneider_concert_guitar_lisa_5/
http://www.maxkrimmel.com/Guitars/Kasha/Kasha.html
Reber, James. “Unplugged: The Physics of a Acoustic Guitar.” American University.
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Questions/Comments