FUNNELbody® guitars

In Scheer, a small city in southern Germany, luthier Peter Gottschall builds his FUNNELbody guitars. Inspired by his long experience with recording studio, he has come up with brilliant new ideas for the construction of innovative types of guitars.

After the construction of series of prototypes, the new concept of instruments was born. Peter Gottschall has developed different varieties of this family of instruments, but they most have a funnel-shaped resonance body in common. This funnel is either formed by top and back of the guitar or by the top and an additional slanted resonance board inside the body. There are two soundholes pointing towards the player´s left hand, one on each side of the neck foot. The funnel thus formed acoustically amplifies the sound waves from interior.

Also, the whole static system is new: top and back are acoustically coupled together by the neck foot and the cutaway tips which are standing between top and back like columns. This ensures a statically and acoustically optimal connection between neck and body.

The result is audible: FUNNELbody instruments sound well equilibrated, with strong and clear trebles and well-defined bass sound. Even though these guitars have a relatively small body, sustain and volume of the sound are surprising.

Even more surprising is another feature of these instruments: The bass sound is literally "pushed out" of the large soundholes, i.e. into the direction of the left hand, whereas the trebles are preferentially emitted orthogonally to the plane of the top. Hence, bass and trebles are distinctly reflected into different directions which is nothing else than a stereo sound!

How works the bridghole-tuning at FUNNELbody®-guitars?

The bridghole-tuning is a method to adjust equally the way of frequency at this instruments. This principle is one more decisive step in the development of FUNNELbody®. The principle is simple. By several small soundholes in nearest proximity of the place of vibrations-transmission to the body (string/saddle), a minimal "acoustical short circuit" is produced. The result is that highest portions of frequency are produced at the nearby string. As the soundly character of the resonance body may be, the bridgeholes can be individually closed again with small foam rubber plugs, which anew changes the sound of the instrument. There are innumerable possibilities of closing and leaving-open at the respective strings.

If the holes are closed = warm sound, if open = more clearness.

One more advantage: By the number of bridgeholes the weight of the bridge is reduced, which opposes the suppression. Besides the bridge oscillates more freely, also if all holes would be closed by the plugs.

There is another way to change the sound: Closing one cutaway-soundhole with an foam, you get more bass in the low end, but less middles. A long foam can reduce the internal volume of the body. Very interesting with lots of possibilities. In short, you change the natural resonance.

Note, it does not work (insufficient) on traditional (mono) guitars, some is not feasible!