Official Luthiers Forum!

Have been considering the possibility of using a cylinderical shaped back rather then a spherical shaped. I wonder if any one does this and do they see any advantage either to tone or structure.Think it might be more stable in terms of body distortion over a period of time. On the other hand the back may not contribute as much to tone production. Looking for any positives or negatives.
Tom

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

I have not seen that this is any more or less stable than Spherical. Over time loads and stresses will change the guitar shape The best we can do is delay it. Tonally I don't think it matters.

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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

I believe Laurent Brondel has built that way. You might PM him.

Pat

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

So does Nigel Forster. He does cylinder tops too.
http://www.nkforsterguitars.com/

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"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

https://www.facebook.com/FenskeGuitars

The cylindrical back looks (and feels) very nice when done well, Laurent's are beautiful.

I use a graduated arching system on mine, with the upper bout totally flat and the lower bout very arched. My thinking is that the upper bout flattening over time contributes to higher action as the heel must move out if the guitar loses its arch there. With the flat back, it has no where to go. I angle the rims down toward the neck joint roughly around the waist and the flat plane shoots up from there into the arch dictated by the 3rd back brace, if that makes sense. It has worked well for me. I do leave the second brace at full height as there is some stress introduced when clamping the back to shape. Wanted to mention it as another option-

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Burton
http://www.legeytinstruments.com
Brookline, MA.

Here's a link to a recent thread over at AGF about the same topic...

http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/foru ... ght=arched