ArcFret
Curved geometry. Familiar under the fingers.
Inside the design
More than a support for the strings.
Acoustic Tubes are air channels built into a reinforced neck, with outlets beneath the fingerboard beyond the twelfth fret. These channels do not open into the main body cavity: they form a separate acoustic space, coupled to the instrument through its vibrating structure.
The reinforcement surrounds the channels. This arrangement preserves a very stiff neck while making its internal space part of the resonant design. In our workshop voicing, the outlets contribute tonal colour alongside the body's own resonances.
Many of our instruments also have an elevated fingerboard. This is a separate but complementary feature: it provides clearance above the top and helps access to the upper register, while the neck angle and bridge geometry are designed together.
Is a hollow-channel neck stable?
Yes. These are engineered channels within a reinforced structure, not unsupported holes bored through an ordinary neck. Reinforcement around the air spaces provides the stiffness needed to carry string tension and maintain the intended playing geometry.
What do the outlets add to the sound?
The channels have a different geometry from the body cavity and therefore a different resonant response. Our voicing uses that contribution to enrich the perceived overtone balance. The channels do not manufacture new harmonics; they influence how existing vibration is coloured and radiated. The result depends on the complete instrument.
Does an elevated fingerboard increase sustain?
Elevation changes clearance and the geometry of the neck-to-body connection. It can keep the fingerboard extension clear of the vibrating top, but height alone does not guarantee longer sustain or a slower attack. Those depend on the mass, stiffness, damping and coupling of the complete instrument.
Why not an elevated fingerboard on our flamenco guitars?
We omit it on our flamenco builds as part of a construction voiced for an immediate, percussive response. This is a workshop choice for that playing style, not a claim that every elevated fingerboard necessarily delays the attack.
Does every guitar sound the same?
No. The soundboard, body, strings and setup still shape the response of each instrument. Acoustic Tubes are one part of the construction, not a promise of an identical sound or sustain time.
The photographed instrument has its own specification. Decorative inlays and individual artwork are optional and quoted separately.
Considered together
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A complete soundbox. Light by design.
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Chosen together.
The right combination begins with your playing. Construction, materials and optional details are confirmed in your individual specification.