For a number of years the concept of a double-top soundboard has been gaining appreciation and acceptance in the steel-string world. The Ryan Acoustic Parallel Plate (APP) is my take on this concept.

Its purpose is to reduce the mass of the soundboard in the area I call the Acoustic Crescent--that sweeping arc just behind the bridge. My idea was to leverage the marvel of this design only in this area where the lion’s share of the tone is generated.

Nearly light as air, this new plate bracing the soundboard is nonetheless stiffer than any traditional bracing scheme. This has allowed me to altogether eliminate every single soundboard brace below my EO X-brace.

I have chosen to make the “honeycomb” and “skin” entirely from wood to retain an organic and natural sound.

The engineering philosophy behind a double-top is simple--the two plates that comprise the APP are separated by an extremely lightweight honeycomb core with the two “skins”, one on each face, bonded to this core.

One of the “skins” is, of course, the soundboard after the plate is bonded in place. The resulting plate assembly is phenomenally stiff and light.

In my APP, the honeycomb is a laser-cut section of quarter-sawn spruce.

The Ryan Acoustic Parallel Plate will be standard on my new Grand Concert, the Paradiso. My traditional bracing is available upon request for this model. This APP system will also available on all my other models as well.

The bridge pins extend through the bridge, soundboard and APP to anchor the string ball ends against a laser cut ebony plate designed to be as small as possible.