Official Luthiers Forum!

If you are looking for a catchy name how about a Cathedral dome top?

It has historic reference as well as a classical sound to it.

That is what I would call it.

I love the looks of what you did there. Very unique

Cheers,
Bob

So many good choices here. You might consider a joining of several to form one simple name....... 'Puckered Parabolic Manta Top'

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

"Sine Wave"? "Transverse Wave"? "Forster Wave"? "Soundwave"?

Imagine the hours Martin's sales department spent coming up with "X-brace"! It may be that the marketing folks are the unsung heros of the guitar industry. Think of "Dreadnought", or "Moustache Bridge", or "Jumbo", not to mention the understatement of styles "0", "00", and "000". Particularly forward thinking was the Martin sales guy, who in the mid 1930s, came up with "Pre-War".

Sound wave or Wave Form top. Those are good

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

Puckered butt it is!
There's some great marketing ideas there for sure. Hyperbolic parabaloid may be what I was after though, as I'm trying to find out what this sort of shape is called. It doesn't recurve like a cycloid.

Here's another pic:

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nigel

http://www.theluthierblog.com

no idea what you ought to call it but it's a really interesting approach. i'd love to see an inside shot to try and understand how you brace it and i'd love to hear you talk about it's benefits. just spent a long time on your sight, really beautiful work!! love the arch tops!!! i'm going to be saving up for your book.

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http://www.wideskyguitars.com
https://www.instagram.com/wide_sky_guitars/

Did anyone mention the word 'recurve' yet? Nice butt, whatever you want to call it

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

I think Arnt nailed it. "Recurve top" - simple and understandable to most people, a familiar term with the arch top crowd. Among those familiar with old guitars Howe-Orme top might work, or even sticking with cylinder top, but I think Recurve top conveys the image to most people unfamiliar with the old designs.

Hey, Nigel,
I'm with Patch on this. I'd really like to see how you braced the top. I'm very curious. Do you have any in-process photos of that? I hope so. Thanks.
Patrick

Looks like a gaussian curve to me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaussian_function

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EddieLee

Nick, FWIW a cycloid doesn't recurve ...... each "cycle" is trough to trough (shown as "width" in the link). The recurve you're seeing in the drawings is actually small portions of the cycloids on either side.

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Dave
Milton, ON

Eddie is on to something. It does look like a Gaussian Curve

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

I've spent this winter and last putting together a new ebook about how to make them. I'm just waiting for the images to appear in my dropbox from young Seth (who's been doing photos for me lately), then it should be ready to go. The text is done.

It's a truly fascinating approach to making, a design that is ripe for experimentation. I really do consider it a once lost, now found "superior format."

18 months ago I finally bought a large bodied Howe Orme and it's simply one of the finest guitars I've ever played. And Im no stranger to good guitars...

I think the chap who mentioned Gaussian functions may be onto something too...

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nigel

http://www.theluthierblog.com

Hey forester is that some sort of pearl inlay around the truss rod access hole?

A normal distribution is a particular one dimensional application of a Gaussian function. However, we need a function that describes a surface, not just a line and Gaussian functions will do this also: The two-dimensional Gaussian function. Scroll down a bit to here and if you cast a guitar outline over the "blob" I think you could get pretty close to your shape, Nigel, if you chose the parameters carefully. So there's an exercise in surface fitting for you....

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Trevor Gore, Luthier. Australian hand made acoustic guitars, classical guitars; custom guitar design and build; guitar design instruction.

http://www.goreguitars.com.au

Were it my work, I would stick to "cylinder top", but I'm a traditionalist.
Very pretty, Nigel!

I still like Wave Form Top..... just me I guess.......

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

Nice work Nick.


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Ken

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Ken