Guitar Research
Level of Education of Students Involved
Undergraduate
Faculty Sponsor
Pete Johnson, Andy Richter, Rob Swanson
College
Engineering
Discipline(s)
Mechanical Engineering, Physics
Presentation Type
Poster Presentation
Symposium Date
Spring 4-30-2026
Abstract
To better understand the effects bracing structures have on sound quality in acoustic guitars we have been developing a model guitar in a finite element analysis (FEA) software based on physical measurements of the soundboard displacement. Our objective is to create a model that accurately recreates our experimental data. This model will predict how the soundboard displacement is affected by changes to the guitar bracing.
We employ two experimental approaches to study the resonant behavior of the guitar soundboard, each paired with corresponding FEA models. For the first approach we excite the bridge using an impact hammer and measure the resulting displacement of the soundboard, capturing its resonant frequencies. For the second approach, we drive the soundboard with a speaker that emits selected frequency ranges, allowing for a more precise examination of the soundboard’s response across different registers. To support these methods, we developed two models of the same guitar, each designed to replicate the conditions of its respective experimental setup. By comparing these models, we aim to better understand how the different excitation techniques influence the observed behavior of the soundboard and to use the models to interpret the differences between the experimental results.
In future work we will expand on these models by improving our material properties to better match the model to experimental data. Once we have a model that can reliably predict the response of a guitar soundboard we will use it to test how the guitars will respond to various changes in their design. Our hope is to determine which changes will have the greatest impact on the resonance of our soundboard (such as changing the bracing thickness) to implement those changes on one of our experimental guitars.
Recommended Citation
Martin, Thane T.; Cook, Ruth; Johnson, Pete; Richter, Andy; and Swanson, Rob, "Guitar Research" (2026). Symposium on Research and Creative Expression (SORCE). 1544.
https://scholar.valpo.edu/cus/1544
