Official Luthiers Forum!

This is a topic that came a bit in answer to the recent comments done in the "Rational for triangulating Braces" topic.

There it was said that there are two schools: one that makes the top a bit thicker with smaller braces, the other doing the oposite:

-what made you decide going for one or the other (Plus/Minus)?

-In which way does this change the way you "voice" and work with your board?

-Is there some kind of typical effect on the sound that can be recognize when doing one or the other?

-Is this related with the way in which your instrument will age (I heard some luthiers like to make instruments that sound great straight away while others like their instrument to need to age more before to really open up)

cheers

In my years as a mandolin builder there were the same two schools of thought. I always built mandolins from the thick school. I ended up looking at the thinking instead of the construction. Many players prefer what I came to call the "instant gratification" tone in their instruments. Most builders went that way building right to the edge of imploding the instruments. I found most of the thin side instruments to be loud, but thin sounding. My instruments always took more time to break in, but everyone said they sounded FAT.
While I've mostly built guitars a bit on the thicker side, I have built a few with thinner tops, and while they sound VG, I prefer thick. I have never been concerned with weight. Or making the loudest guitar. Fingerpickers don't need loud. Medium works just fine...
A friend of mine has a guitar (I won't name the maker) that has a very thin top. It's very loud, but to my ears, is brash, tinny, and is a bit irritating to listen to. It has headroom to spare (red spruce) and dynamic range that goes from a whisper to ear piercing. He loves it, but to my way of thinking it has way too much of all of that, sacrificing tone. I just prefer FAT...

+1 on what Haans wrote.
Thinner tops tend to distort more with time as well, and are more sensitive to RH changes.
The way you voice your top is ultimately yours entirely. Once braces are on, the process is exactly the same. The thicker top will have more strength, hence the shorter bracing, that's all.
As Haans pointed out, a thicker top will sound more "masculine".
The thing about instruments opening up is often a bit of an exageration. Although a flat-top guitar will change drastically in the first few hours, sometimes days, after it is strung up for the first time. I heard carved top instruments can take a bit longer to "open up".
While it is true that an excellent sounding guitar will mature with time, an average instrument is not going to magically become outstanding with age, even with hard playing, full on Tonerite and so on, although it may become marginally better.

_________________
Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/