Official Luthiers Forum!

Ok so to get things started on the new system (love it by the way) ...

I was working on a new top yesterday for a classical and after final thicknessing on the performax ended up with a top that was 2.3mm even , seems a little too thin. The top still rings but at a lower note, Haven't added bracing yet (it's been raining outside), so I'm wondering if I should go ahead and just finish the thing and see what happens.

The Hauser plans say that the *average* is 2.3, 2.5 at the thickest and 1.8 at the thinnest but I'm sure that's with a very stiff top, this one is englemann and isn't the stiffest top I've seen (it's nice though).

Comments?

Thanks

-Paul-

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-Paul-

Patriot Guitars

.110 to .120 sounds right to me... bd what is the humigity in the shoP?

That's about 0.0906 when converted to inches so it's pretty thin, on steel strings I start at .120 to .130 on average and then work down from there by hand once the top is braced (until I get the tap tone I want). I know classicals don't have as much pull on the top, but it still bothers me a bit. I'm going to brace it up and see how it sounds after that.

The shop is around %53 rh right now, I like to have it around 45-48 for gluing, the house is %51 so even it's not down far enough yet .

-Paul-

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-Paul-

Patriot Guitars

51% is most uncommon down here in Florida. I run the Air Cond. day and night( in the House) and it rarely gets down to 65% So I bought a Dehumidifier and I am emptying the bucket ever other day. Finally got it down to 50% some times a little less ( in the living room where my wood is stickered). But that's a big problem for me Local wise. I build or work on a guitar and these guys go out into 90% humidity(normal) then into an airconditioned club still at about 65%RH and the guitars expand. My shop is always around 40-45% thanks to the A/C and or heater. But once these Fl boys get their guitars they almost never see that dry air again. I have started exposing some of them to get exposure and then adjust for it.

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Dave Bland

remember...

"If it doesn't play in tune...it's just pretty wood"

But back to the thickness thing...I think your o.k. rmember the specs we all get from plans are for (usually) factory made Martins/taylors/ whatever. Most of those are over built because of warrantee issues. I was in Cancun a few years ago and got a chance to examine quite a few flamncos and classicals all were built very thin and the owners didn't expect them to last much more than five or so years.They were Built almost to failure.

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Dave Bland

remember...

"If it doesn't play in tune...it's just pretty wood"