Official Luthiers Forum!

Going by the youtube clips, I can't say I like the sound of these things. Pretty to look at though.

How are these constructed?

and

Do you think you could improve on its sound while still using the exterior hardwood?

I'm pretty sure they're formica..............I mean "HPL"

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I didn't mean to say it, but I meant what I said.
http://www.brackettinstruments.com/

Just like any other veneer laminate top, but using a different wood for the outer layer. You can indeed improve on it by using a nomex double top, as in the famous DeJonge bubinga guitar

Or you can use solid hardwood. Love my Indian rosewood top But you can't just treat it like a drop-in replacement for spruce/cedar. Mine is .070" thick, 3 fingers and tone bars, and a large-ish bridge plate. Turned out to be a little under-braced and pulled up its belly a fair amount, but fortunately was stiff enough in front of the bridge that it didn't cave in. Pretty much just gave itself more of a radius, and seems to be stable.

Dennis, how did you arrive at .070" for the final thickness of the rosewood top? Did you do some deflection tests or just intuition?

Also, if you were to laminate it to some spruce would you make them an equal .035" each or does the lamination itself create new requirements, possibly thicker spruce and thinner rosewood?

Interesting that these are made of "East Andes Rosewood."

A quick Google search revealed that ALL matches to "east Andes rosewood" came back as links to Dean guitars.

I wonder what we actually call this wood?

Intuition. Shave it, flex it, tap it, weigh it, measure thickness every few passes just to make sure I didn't get any major thin spots. I wanted to get the weight down as low as possible while not feeling too floppy to use. Ended up at 216g after cutting out the soundhole. Tap tone was pretty much gone by that point, but that doesn't really mean anything since it comes right back after you glue some braces on.

I haven't worked with any form of laminate tops yet, so I can't really help you there. I'd say go thin on the rosewood, thick on the spruce, since it's mainly the outer surfaces that take the stress, so you might as well have the middle be made of the lighter weight wood. Then shave down the spruce layer until the stiffness feels right.

thats a real nice attempt Dennis.
could you post a pic of the finished guitar? i bet it looks great.

Curupay?

http://www.brazilianhardwood.com/products/flooring/patagonianrosewood/

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John