Official Luthiers Forum!

I've been nursing a bad back, oh wait a bad black walnut back plate, for the small parlor I'm building and it finally gave up today. I thinned it too far but thought I could save and use it as an experiment just to see how a very thin back would sound. Today the humidity was again down to around 25% and the back and braces had reverse curved all the way to a concave back instead of convex. I was trimming the old braces off and the back cracked really badly (both along the grain and across) and I could see how really thin the top was and that there was no way it was going to make it.

So I'm putting it to bed and will search for a decent black walnut back set. The good news is that with that back it would have always been a compromised guitar waiting for a new back anyway. This way I can build it and have some confidence it will last a good long time. The bad news is I have to try and match the already constructed rims. Ce'st la vie.

_________________
Thank You and Best To All

Larry, that back set might have gone south on you, but you've got material for head plates, heel caps, pick guards, etc. You get the idea. And it won't be all that difficult to match a black walnut back to an existing side set. You will be fine. Sorry for your frustration, but everyone here has had to back up and re-start a component at one time or another. You'll be fine.

Yeah - don't toss it.
You can always use it down the road for something....

_________________
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Larry, how thin was the back when you finally scraped it? I'm always interested to hear/see how far the limits can be pushed before catastrophe ensues.

_________________
Brad

I saw .035 in a couple places, the places where it was .050 seemed just Ok, but marginal, and I was going to build to see what it sounded like (would still love to know) but when the humidity got to 25% it was too brittle to work with. Tried to thickness with a belt sander after trying for hours with a plane and various other tools. First time I had tried thicknessing anything.

_________________
Thank You and Best To All