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Has anybody done this before?
Opinions?

I guess you could make a one piece rim but I think you still need a tail block. Where would you put the strap button with no tail block?? Its also a place likely to get bumped a lot so some extra wood in that area is a good thing.
I've seen it done on mandolins or smaller round shaped bodies. I think it would be tricky to get a traditional guitar shape done in one piece. It could be done but I don't see any advantage.

I've thought about doing it and all it would entail. Having to deal with a side(or I guess a whole?) that is six feet long would be a little more involved but doable. It would clean up the look mostly and the trade-offs would be minor, I don't know why one doesn't see it more.

Like was mentioned, it would still likely require a tail block for re-enforcement. Obtaining sides(a whole, a side?) that long would be special order unless you processed you own.

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Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

I use 1-piece plywood siding in an intro woodshop class that I teach. We still use a tailblock for the reasons above. It does save time, with 1 less precision joint to make. A disadvantage is that the wood has to be pretty plain or straight grained, as there is no bookmatch at the joint. Up to now we've used ~0.07" thick ply, which can be bent with water, but is too light and floppy to be good for tone. I'm about to build a blanket bender to do 1/8" siding... an initial design is below.

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David Malicky

I have thought about this in the past but I do believe you would need a tail block for stability. One of the main reason I don't think anyone is doing this is because booked match sides give a guitar a more symmetrical look then a single piece of wood would. The same as a two pieced back. I have seen older guitars with one piece backs and I just like the book matched two piece look myself....Mike

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Another day, another dollar.

Peter Barthell of Sequim, WA builds all his classicals with a one-piece side. He's built over 180 guitars so he knows his stuff.

Being a new comer to the craft, and given my skills at bending sides of 32 inches or so, it is not something I would want to tackle now. I have to admit I really do like the pleasing symmetry of a good book matched back and side set and think I would prefer this to single sides or backs, but that is just a personal preference. I appreciate the question (and responses), and it is one that I, quite frankly, hadn't considered.

I don't like this for 2 reasons 1st the joint will look off as the joint itself will not book match and 2ndly it is not a good use of material , as a good quality 32 in board is easier and lest costly then a longer board of the same quality plus the handling of this will also add a labor cost. It also makes bending more tricky. As Todd points out , if you can't make a nice tail joint , practice a bit more. You also have the advantage of using a tail piece to hide the joint.
This is the same reason I am against 1 piece backs , The book matched back is far Superior to a 1 pc in most cases , Rarely will you find a high quality quarter sawn piece of wood that would be 18 inch wide.

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

A major departure from conventional construction. Seems to me there would have to be some sort of pay off. Ease of construction, beauty,better response as an instrument etc. Don't see any positives along these lines. I can't think of one reason why one would want to travel in this direction other than to say it's something no one else has done.
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

If you are building instruments with HPL or laminated bodies it might have some advantage. Less care might be needed in fitting a tail block, but leaving one out entirely I think would be a mistake.

I did it once and there is a long story behind it. Basically about 20 years ago I dropped my side neck assembly off the work bench onto the floor and the neck pushed right through. IT was a classical guitar with the sides already glued into the Spanish heal. So I hung up the rim on a hook in my shop as a gentle reminder to watch the where the vacuum hose goes while cleaning up

Anyway I was looking at it one day and realized I could make a cut out classical guitar out of it. So Thats what I did and to boot it was my first double top.

But the cool thing about this guitar is that right at the point where the end graft goes is a cool little figured curl in the other wise very straight grained cherry sides.

I don't recall it being particularly difficult to bend and this was probably only my 3rd or 4th guitar.

The bindings I did in two pieces.

I think the only advantages are fewer steps and speed of construction. Assuming one has a decent ~60" piece, it's more efficient to keep it whole than cut it in 2 and later join it back together. On the other hand, the joint is not hard to make, there's a lot of experience out there to draw on for 2-piece bending, and most people prefer a bookmatch for aesthetics. I've built both ways and still use 2 piece for my own guitars when I want a bookmatch. But 1 piece is faster, so I use it in my time-constrained class.

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David Malicky