Single and double guitar candy slicers. Bigger means better?

Guitar candy slicer (a.k.a. string cutting) is a total must-have in candy making. Technically speaking, the guitar is a pretty simple device. It has no electronics on board at all, but in the hands of a skilled pastry chef, both single and double guitars can play the same «master solo». When an experienced chocolatier starts looking for guitar candy slicer on the web or in chocolate communities, he can come across such a fancy curiosity as a double guitar and wonder which one should he take and what's the difference?

Let's start off with that both guitars are the best at their job: they cut filling, biscuit, marmalade, soufflé, marzipan, ganache and other pastry stuff to the right pieces. There is only one constructive difference — the strings stroke. Double guitar allows you to do the cutting operation faster, because you need to place a filling on the bedplate only once, lower one frame with strings to cut the filling along and then lower the second frame to cut across. With the single guitar you need to lower frame with strings at first to cut the filling along, then you need to remove the filling with a metal plate, raise and clean the strings (or change the frame to one with another pitch), clean up the bedplate and place the filling once again so it can be cutted across with the strings.

Looks like the double guitar is an undisputed leader in here. Never jump to conclusions.

Time advantage quickly fades away when it comes to cleaning the guitar. A double guitar is inconvenient to wash in a tiny environment. In principle, it is inconvenient to wash. Firstly, it’s bulky and doesn’t fit into every sink (almost no sink), and secondly, it has a specific high bedplate with a grid-like strings perforation, which is much more difficult to clean and rinse than a single guitar’s frame with one-way-directed low holes.

Talking about size, a double guitar is usually larger than a single one. It is more massive due to the need of lowering two frames with cutting strings. The dimensions of the bedplate and the working surface are on average 1.5x larger, so if you cherish every inch of your workshop, we recommend you take a closer look at the single guitar candy slicer. By the way, a double guitar is heavier, so, for example, a fragile pastry chef-girl won’t be happy working with it.

The price point is trite as always. A double guitar is usually 1.5-2 times more expensive than a single one, because there is simply more steel inside.

So, the result: the double guitar really does the cutting operation faster so it’s better for larger manufactures, where confectioners do only cut, and someone else cleans up huge inventory and equipment. But for small manufacturing, especially if it’s located in a tiny room, this advantage disappears due to inconvenient cleaning and large sizes. A single guitar fits perfectly into such conditions in both sizes: a standard and a mini-version.

By the way, even top chocolatiers prefer single guitar candy slicers. Just watch how a famous chocolatier Patrick Roger nails it — truly a song.

While teaching students and developing recipes at our school we use single guitars: standard and mini-version. They are compact, reliable and easy to maintain. Great tools for both skilled pastry chef and aspiring home chocolatier.