“FREE THE SOUNDBOARD” expresses our aspiration to open up the possibilities of what the acoustic guitar can become.   

Traditional acoustic guitar design remains stuck on solving the same old problem of "how to build a guitar with the lightest possible soundboard without having the guitar implode due to the tension of the guitar strings.”     

Structural considerations have to come before tonal objectives in any design where the played strings rely upon the soundboard to maintain tension. 

The TurboTail eliminates this need by transferring the string tension from the bridge to the tail block.

The TurboTail is a simple, elegant device that diverts the tension of the guitar strings from the soundboard to the structural tail block of the guitar. All of the vibrations of the guitar strings are still transferred directly to the soundboard. But the tension load is diverted to the tail block, leaving the delicate soundboard free to vibrate optimally.

The result is that the guitar soundboard can do what it was intended to do: Amplify and temper the vibrations of the guitar strings without having to provide a structural anchor for the strings.

A Guitar soundboard without the TurboTail acts as a structural shear panel. This means that the soundboard’s most important job is to avoid collapsing due to the intense stress exerted by the taut guitar strings.

Guitar strings are like tiny steel cables. The total tension of six steel guitar strings ranges between 140 and 190 pounds, depending upon the string gauge (12-string guitar tension can exceed 300 pounds.) That's enough tension to lift a heavyweight wrestler off the ground. Imagine what your guitar could sound like if the soundboard didn’t have to do all this heavy lifting.

The TurboTail makes guitars more efficient. Expert luthiers admit that the current design of the acoustic guitar is terribly inefficient. It is estimated that only about 5 percent of the energy produced by the picked, or strummed, strings actually arrives at our ears in the form of sound. Ninety-five percent of the vibrations is consumed as heat friction - is absorbed into the wood of the guitar - or even the player’s body.

Thus, any improvement in efficiency is great for guitars. A more efficient guitar produces more sound for the same amount of effort .In fact, a more efficient guitar can even be smaller, which means that it’s more comfortable to play, as well as being lighter and more portable.A more efficient guitar can use lighter gauge strings to produce the same volume of sound.Lighter strings are easier on the fingers.Plus, lighter strings are easier for bending notes, performing hammer-ons, pull-offs, or fretting difficult chord shapes.

Skilled guitar builders benefit from installing the TurboTail on their custom guitars because it allows them to lighten the soundboard far beyond what has ever been possible.

With the TurboTail, every guitar builder can approach soundboard construction as a purely sonic issue.The builder is no longer required to design the soundboard to handle structural loads first and, only as an afterthought ,design for the desired tone or “voice.”

This means that instead of installing “top bracing” to handle structural loads before installing “tone bars” to optimize tone, the installation of top bracing can be skipped altogether. Every single piece of wood is tonal; Not structural.

With the TurboTail a luthier is free to create a guitar however he or she desires, without the need to compensate for structural loads as an over-riding concern.

For a fuller explanation, read our blog post: Can the TurboTail Impact Guitar Building?

The TurboTail can benefit any acoustic guitar. Of course, the most dramatic results are achieved when you install a TurboTail on a lightly braced guitar, especially a guitar that is so lightly built that it is experiencing structural failure due to the effects of string tension. Such ultralight guitars were a "structural impossibility" before the TurboTail. The only way they can exist is by the structural support of the TurboTail. Such delicately built treasures offer the best projection, bass and sustain, as well as note separation and clarity.

If your guitar is built like a fortress, the results are more subtle. However, sustain, note clarity, as well as bass response have been improved on every guitar that we've tested. If your guitar shows signs of soundboard deformation, or a rotated bridge, the TurboTail can correct these problems immediately, while adding volume, bass, and sustain at the same time.

Yes, it's true! With the TurboTail, even a super lightly built guitar with a feather-light soundboard can withstand the tension force of the heaviest gauge steel strings for decades. This even includes Classical guitars.

With the TurboTail, you can install steel strings on any classical guitar that has a truss rod. The truss rod helps to stabilize the neck, as well as making it possible to adjust the string action.

Here is our current list of classical guitars with truss rods:

Cordoba: All models

Godin: All Models

Lucero: All Models

Takamine: . Some models. 132sc series has truss rods in models beginning  in late 1980’s.   

Kenny Hill: all models since 2000

Kremona:  some models

To find out more read our post on steel strings on a classical guitar.

When the tension of the strings is diverted from the soundboard to the tail block, the risk that the guitar soundboard will experience any temporary or permanent deformation or lifting of the bridge (“bridge belly”) is eliminated.

What's more, any past soundboard deformation or bridge lifting can be corrected by installing the TurboTail on a guitar with a warped soundboard. When you install the TurboTail on a guitar with a warped soundboard or a lifting bridge, you will see immediate improvement.The bridge will be held tight to the soundboard, the way it was when the guitar was purchased. The soundboard will be closer to the shape that it was designed to have. Over time, the soundboard will return to the shape it had the day it left the workshop.

With no tension on the soundboard, it is conceivable that acoustic guitars could last for centuries.

A standard tailpiece secures the ball ends of the strings well behind the bridge. The longer the distance to the tailpiece, the lower the break angle of the strings over the saddle. A low break angle diminishes the power of the vibrations being coupled to the bridge and soundboard, since the strings have less downward force on the saddle.

By contrast, a TurboTail maintains a steep break angle of the strings over the saddle to the pinned or pinless anchor locations. This way a strong coupling between the strings and the saddle, and ultimately the soundboard is preserved. If you listen to our demos of tailpiece guitars versus the same guitars with the TurboTail installed, you can easily hear the difference. This is not subtle, or theoretical. You can hear the difference blindfolded.