Official Luthiers Forum!

So I was pondering, as many have before, what would a solid rosewood topped guitar sound like? I was about to post the thought, but then I decided to search first, and found a post here where some folks were planning to try it and see what happens, but apparently never got around to it.

Oddly enough, after looking around a bit more, it appears Cordoba has one on the market called the Fusion 14 Rose http://www.cordobaguitars.com/14rose. And what do you know, people say it actually sounds good! Not loud, but not super quiet either. Warm and rich, they say.

So now I'm thinking I will go through with building one myself after all. Or at least add it to my ever growing list of instruments to build

If nothing else, it will be a fine piece of wall art. While I'm breaking rules, I might as well push it even further and not use a simple EIR top, but seek a set of dalbergia baroni (Madagascar RW) that is both quartersawn and has ink lines. Hopefully one good dark line on each half right around the edge of the soundhole. Around 14.5" lower bout, EIR back/sides, either EIR neck, or walnut to save weight, EIR bridge, ebony FB, curly koa binding, 1/16" paua purfling for the top, and various inlays of abalone, turquoise, and white and black and maybe also gold MOP.

I'll probably thin the top until it flops like paper, and lattice brace it with a pinless bridge. I think I want the soundhole in the normal place though, so maybe work into the lattice a prominent X brace, plus A frame in the upper bout. So in the end I suppose it will be mostly the spruce bracing supporting it, but hopefully the rosewood inbetween will provide an interesting tone of some sort.

So has anyone here actually built one before, and just never talked about it? Or is Cordoba the first to give any solid proof that it works?

Cordoba hasnt proven anything .... if you build something that looks like an acoustic guitar, out of wood of pretty much any kind, with a body, neck and strings on it, it will sound something like a guitar. You or someone else might like it, others not so much.

yamaha made guitars entirely out of bamboo, save the fingerboard and bridge ... I didnt care for it much, but someone did enought to buy it in the first place.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Using that QS baroni set sounds like a real waste to me. Perhaps do a prototype out of cheap Indian first?

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Build log

I have never heard of Cordoba guitars.

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

They advertise in AG ... girl looking all googly at some dude who knows two chords, and plays with his shirt off ... whatever turns your crank ....

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Someone just asked this on the AGF too.

I know Rodrigo Moreira made an all Brazilian classical. I didn't get to hear it but I have it on very good authority that it sounded surprisingly good.

But I don't think he's made a lot of them so I suspect the verdict was that traditional top woods work better for the sound that most people want out of a guitar.

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http://www.chassonguitars.com

I'd bet good money that the Cordoba is plywood.

I wouldn't use Cordoba as justification and I certainly wouldn't spend one of my Madagascar sets on an experiment, but if you're at the point where you're building consistently good softwood-topped guitars and have the cash to blow on this, I say "Do it" and satisfy your curiosity.