C4, part 6

 

It's been over a year since I last posted about C4.  Everything I've written about C4 continues to prove itself as true.  And, I continue to learn about it.     

Because it was originally conceived of and built for nylon strings, the course spacing at the nut and saddle were extraordinarily wide.  I prefer a very tight spacing within a course, and a wider spacing between courses.  After the conversion to an all-steel string setup, the courses were too wide.  This week, I finally addressed this issue.  I tightened up the spacing at the nut for courses 1 - 6.  I've come to prefer a course spacing of just under .040" of an inch; for those of you in Europe, that's about 1mm.

I also tightened the course spacing at the saddle for courses 1 - 6.   

The other leftover issue from its nylon string period is that the bass saddle was too high for steel strings.  The saddle on this instrument is a split saddle, meaning that unlike other acoustic bridge saddles, this one consists of two pieces: courses 1 - 6 are on one saddle, and courses 7 - 9 are on another saddle.  I pulled the bass saddle and shaved its base by about .015 inches.  The action on the lower three bass courses are now far more comfortable and responsive.

In the time since the previous blog post regarding C4, it has been utilized on several album projects.  

C4's voice is different than the other contraguitars.  It is a bit thicker, with plenty of depth and resonance in the bass registers.  I still feel as if I am continuing to learn this instrument.

I've also been experimenting on it with hybrid tunings.  No doubt there will be more to come on this topic. 

-kk