Official Luthiers Forum!

So, here's one of those posts that probably annoy the old pros here, because the answer invariably is "it depends" or "those are only a few of the relevant variables", but here goes anyway.

Assuming same wood - let's say average EIR for back and sides, and stiff moderately dense, quality Sitka spruce, and same size guitars (000 sized, 25.4 scale steel strings), what would you expect for the following building schemes:

1) Very rigid back and sides, perhaps on the heavy side, moderately thinned and scalloped top. (e.g. light but not too light)

2) Focused on building light all around. Back and sides quite light, top thinned to 95 thou, and scalloped. Light, light, light. Lets assume it's right on the edge of being structurally sound.

P.s. - lets assume light strings (and any other variables) the same on both -

What would you expect the difference in sound to be?

Hmmm - just reread my previous post. I didn't quite strike the tone that I was intending. In the interest of avoiding any misunderstanding, I wasn't intending to poke fun at the experienced voices who take the time to respond to questions which don't always provide adequate information. Thanks.

Corky-
You have several variables changing in your scenario...
Might be easier for the experts to reply if you separated the 'very rigid sides vs thin sides', 'light back vs heavy back', and 'moderately light top vs on-the-edge-of-self-destruction top'....
That said, I suppose that if there were a 'recipe book' for this stuff, we could just look in it without asking!

In the classical guitar realm, it's a bit easier since the Smallman-style can be stacked up against several different 'traditional' building styles. Still, no cookbook there, either.

Cheers
John