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In my stack of Honduras Mahogany, I found some cutoffs that when surface sanded, will end up being about .050". I am going to be making archtops with the sides ranging from 2.25"-2.65" tall. I bent some test pieces and it obviously bends nice.

1) Is this too thin for sides?

2) Does the fact that I have a reduce height (compare to a flattop) help or hurt that fact that these are thin?

3) Once I add the linings, the space left on the sides is pretty small. If I use 5/8" or 1/2" lining, there could be as little as 1" left between the linings on the thinner guitars and 1 3/8" on the wider guitars. Does this make the thinner sides safer to use due to less unsupported wood (height)?

I did bend two pieces that were 0.070" and that seemed pretty nice to work with. Whats the drawback of trying to use these thinner pieces?

Thanks!

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Joe

Joe buddy the draw back would be a lacking of structural integrity.

I don't know about archtops but .050 is too thin for acoustic guitars. I would suspect that archtops are not different from acoustic guitars in this respect.

On acoustics I would not go below .070 and typically, depending on the wood and the bend I prefer .080 - .090.

Remember too that you will lose several thou with the finish sanding and scraping too. This would leave you in the neighborhood of .047 and that is pretty thin.

What you could do if you have enough zoot for 4 sides is take them to .040 and laminate two sides together. Or use another wood for the inside layer and again laminate two sides together.

Thanks Hesh buddy,

My thoughts were the same. If I can not use them as is for a single solid side, I would maybe use them in the future for laminent sides. I am wondering than if I could glue them flat and bend them after they are glued or would I have to do the more standard way of bending and gluing at the same time. (maybe a cold bend) ?

Anyway, I am wondering about the fact that the are so short in height, if that plays any roll in the discussion. Heck there is only about 1" left between the linings. I assume that could still crack there, but there is no where near the structural instability is would have if it was 4" tall.

All feedback is welcome.

Joe

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Joe

Too thin.

An archtop guitar is an acoustic guitar, BTW.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

agree to thin. cut them up and make purf or binding with them or can bend them with iron for rosettes.

I would use them. I do the double side technique. Usually I have my inside set around 0.04 and the outer set 0.06 before bending. My inner set is lower grade EIR I get from allied. They sell sides separately. I bend the left sides together and the right sides together, then glue together with epoxy. (Clamped to an inner mold)
I dye my inner set jet black after bending so the EIR doesn't detract from the main set and back. After sanding and leveling the total is typically around 0.085 or 0.09

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Andy Z.
http://www.lazydogguitars.com

Hi Joe,
Why not make your kerfed linings full depth? Use reverse kerfed linings and you will almost have a "stressed skin" construction, which will be very rigid. I believe Howard Klepper built a guitar using this method (correct me if I am wrong, Howard).