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I'm new here and am tired; been doing some thinking about soundboards and bracing, been doing more thinking about back and sides. What constitutes a great marriage of woods/parts? We all know the whole gambit of tops, we all know rosewood or mahogany to be the traditional back and sides. My concern is whether it’s the marriage of top to side or the soundboard and its bracing; Heck, I'm even wondering if bracing material means anything. The guitar performs in two ways:
chords, single note...

Hey jjsf,

Welcome to the forum.

Part of the fascination of guitar building is the almost infinite set of variables that we luthiers have to choose from when planning a build. Fortunately, I have found guitars to be very accomodating to a rather wide variety of choices, as long as good building technique is maintained. In other words, as long as I mind my technique, the results have always been pleasing. So I wouldn't worry too much about it. Get a good night's sleep and check back in the morning. I'm sure you'll find a goodly range of thoughtful advice when you do.

Best,

Michael

_________________
Live to Play, Play to Live

Weicome to the OLF jjsf, best of forums on guitar making, i hope you enjoy!

Serge

Whatever wood combinations you choose to build with the one thing you can be sure of is that it will sound like a guitar! I'd say, (and I'm always right ) that the top /bracing combination contributes about 85% to the finished tone of the instrument, back and sides say 10%, so you can see that the rest, neck bridge, fingerboard, finish etc, adds only a small proportion. That said, the builder provides the other 100%!

But of course you can't beat Mahogany/European spruce as a combination .

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Welcome,

Sounds like you've been staying up late thinking about such things. That's a good thing. I believe that if you want to do a good job building guitars you spend way more time thinking/planning than you do building, at least for the first few.

Michael is right. It's an infinitly variable art form. That leaves room for everyone to develope his/her own style and sound. And that's good.

Just remember: Concept, Design, Materials, and Execution is where it's at.

_________________
Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

Welcome to the OLF!

Mike
White Oak, Texas

JJSF,

Make a list of preferred woods and pick one out of a hat and if you love anything related to guitar building, everything will fall into place, you just need to start building somewhere and somehow, then putting all the love you got into it, it will look and sound great, believe me!

Building these guitars can either ruin you or make your days sane. You’re all right about the thinking process before building and the infinite variables. It's always interesting when you start to harness an understanding of something and then you’re left with a gazillion more mysteries. Let me put it this way:

Making a great sauce starts with the basics, making a great guitar is like making a      great sauce, but understanding what makes the sauce so great is to understand the      basics.

We got ourselves a philosopher! Great!

Man, if you think that way about making guitars, i'm sure the results are gonna be yummy!