Official Luthiers Forum!

I'm going to be thicknessing the top of my next guitar shortly. It's a flame Redwood top for a classical (I guess it won't look like a typical classical, though) that came from RC Tonewoods. Gorgeous stuff. I've dealt with Sitka in the past, and don't want to make the Redwood too thin. Anyone suggest a good thickness to shoot for? I know it should be thicker than spruce or cedar, but I'm blanking on the numbers for thickness.

I think for redwood, going for a predetermined thickness is not such a good idea. If you know how thick you want to make a cedar or spruce top, you could make up a top and the flex it in you hands. Then make the redwood top and compare the stiffness to the other top. Keep making it thinner until it is about the same stiffness as the cedar or spruce top. Your hand flexing is probably a very good read on stiffness. If you aren't comfortable with that, you could also make a jig to measure deflection.

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