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I am gearing up to build an archtop guitar and have a question. A coworker has quite a bit of Mahogany laying around and said he would give me a deal on some. He has several different sizes but mentioned pulling out a 3"X10"X10' board for me. If I can get my hands on it I thought about useing it in part to build the archtop with a mahogany neck, back, and sides. My question is how does Mahogany do for an archtop? I know the traditional wood for archtops is Maple and havn't heard of anyone building one from Mahogany. Anyone have any experiance or advice on going this rout? Am I better off saveing this for building a flat top down the road? Thanks!

I Wonder how mahogany bends? sorry i wouldn't know i am still building my shop and plan on a few carve tops first. I do plan on building some archtops, so i'm just as curious as you.

Very well. Look at a D-18. one of the most popular guitars of all time. Some of gibsons lower end archtops were made from mahogany during the 30's. Hog can make a very nice archtop.

Martin made some all-mahogany archtops (R-17?), and I believe Gibson made some all-mahogany archtops as well. A few years ago I saw a used Heritage archtop, all-mahogany, for sale at Elderly.

Ahh. I re-read your post and saw you were talking about B&S only, not top as well. The Eastman Jim Fisch series of archtops (the AR605 and the AR610) have mahogany B&S, so I don't believe they're that uncommon.

Yo duder, if you gotts the hog

Then go for it.

and...

Make the top hog too! Ya!

Me for one is getting tired of the sound of Euro spruce bouncing off of a maple back that Benedetto gets a gazillion $ for. Ya ...is a real nice sound...but after 50 years is time to move on don't ya think.

Gee even Bob said in his book that its ok to use hog and other woods. So I guess it must be ok, no?

Just do it!


blessings
Padma

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Audiences and dispensations on Thursdays ~ by appointment only.


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Mahogany for the top? Does it have the strength and stability to be used there? I was thinking about some type of spruce for the top mainly because other then cedar it seems to be the only accepted top wood. I know Bennetto also mentioned that any wood could be made to sound nice proveing the point by building a construction grade wood top and flat sawn maple back archtop. But in the long run how would Mahogany hold up? Also, would an all Mahogany guitar make for a muddy sound? This will be my first guitar so I base all my knoledge off what I have read up on but my understanding is a parrallel braced archtop has more power then the softer X braced. Would it be a good idea if I went all Mahogany to use parrallel braceing to open it up a little more?

David

I went with Mahog back, sides, and neck with spruce top for my second one and am quite happy with it. The mahogany was a dream to work with compared to the maple. Carving the back went very quickly and the sides bent without a problem. I'm making another maple one now but plan on another mahogany soon after.

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Keith Lally
http://krl-guitar-building.blogspot.com/

No ...who says so!

Lot of old Martins were hog tops.

If you do go hog on top, you just have to thickness and brace accordingly.

Me would suggest sticking with the parallel braces for a while... a long while.

Cedar is a nice top wood and me even hear tell some dudes actually use spruce, Now who wood have thunk.


Oh well
have fun building this.


blessings
Padma

_________________
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Audiences and dispensations on Thursdays ~ by appointment only.


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I used mahogany for the B&S on my first archtop, and also on my first successful archtop classical. That first steel string has been going strong for along time now, in the hands of Boston pro player Randy Roos; in fact, it's the only archtop he uses.

I made a 5-string fiddle once with mahogany for the top as well as the B&S. According to Haines' testing, Honduras mahogany is about on the average in properties between soft maple and spruce, so I figured that what you lost on the top you'd get back in the back. It didn't quite work out as well as that: it lacks a bit in power. But, again, I know that instrunment has been used steadily for something like twenty years, with no issues, so...

Keith/Alan its encouraging to know that this has been done before. I knew Mahogany was common for flat tops but unsure of Archtops. Makes me feel a little safer to go this route since it will be my first. I am going to follow the Bennedetto mold building this. Did either of you vary the thicknesses of the back or sides from tradional Maple dimensions? I would think(assume) that the sides would be a typical thickness but not sure about the back. How would you compare the sound of this combo to that of a traditional archtop?

Thanks for all the insight!

David

I'm not sure what to tell you about thickness. I got into making archtops long before Benedetto's book came out, and didn't really know what to do, so I just drew on my violin making experience. I 'tune' my tops and backs until they seem to work well together, and I think I probably make them a little thinner than is 'normal'.

Randy said that it took him three months to learn to play that guitar, because it was so different from other archtops. He finally realized that he had to approach it like a classical, and when he did he found he could get a whole range of sounds from it. In the end he got rid of a number of other guitars because he didn't need them any more. The cure for GAS?

Anyway: given that mahogany is generally a bit less dense and stiff than maple, I'd tend to work it a bit thicker unless you have some reason not to.