Official Luthiers Forum!

How thin is too thin? I am building an OM sized acoustic at the moment and I thinned the sides down lower than I wanted. They are about .080 right now. I'm planning on adding vertical side braces to help strengthen them..but dang...I wish I had more meat!

Thanks in advance for any advice you might have.

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http://www.PeakeGuitars.com

you are fine.. no worries at all.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Just be careful cutting your binding ledges, so that you are scraping down the bindings (if at all), not sanding the sides to get things even.

Cheers
John

2mm, just under 80 thou is my standard side thickness before final sanding. I probably end up about 75 thou.

Colin

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

it depends on the wood.
mahogany i would take to 2mm but on my last malaysian blackwood i took it
down to 1.8mm overall 1.7 at the waist as it was very very stiff.

Its a bit like checking the stiffness on a top keep checking the flexibility of
the side till you get the right amount of "give".

It takes a while but before long you will be able to tell by feel if its the
correct thickness for bending without being so thin that it will buckle at the
waist.

Good luck,
Joel.

Parser...Fear not. I made the same "mistake" about 6 guitars ago and found a new confidence in how thin and light the backs, sides and tops can really be. Just make sure your brace material is perfectly quartered and stiff.

Pay particular attention to tops, however and learn how to evaluate their inherent stiffness before deciding on final thickness.

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com