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Hello there

What is your recommandations for the final thickness of the back, for an OM guitar ?
(Macassar Ebony).
Thick ? 0.120 ? (3mm)
Slim ? 0.100 ? (2,54mm)
other ?

Please explain your choice.

Thanks a lot

Guillaume.

So much depends on your build philosophy. I use pretty light but very stiff bracing on my backs and leave them quite thin - I would take a typical macassar ebony set down to about 0.080" or possibly lower depending on the set. I think most people would recommend thinning it to at least 0.095"

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Simon Fay

I'd say .100 or there abouts, due mainly to weight issues.

I once made a cocobolo back .130 planning on thinning it later, but forgot. You'd be surprised how much weight that .030 adds, it's very noticable. Likely I will thin the edges at the binding on that guitar and do a bit of back scraping too, to thin it further.

How about some pics of that wood. We'd all like to see what you are up to Guillaume.

Interesting name, where are you from? Let me guess: France? Actually my clan came from Northern Ireland, Antrim, originally spelled Dickie.

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

I thank you for your nices answers.
For the moment, I can't put some pictures of that set, but I'll do it later, for sure
And yes, I'm french, I live in Bordeaux.

For the moment I have a 00 wertern red cedar/ Sonokeling in my stash.

Guillaume.

Other experiences ?

Ebony tends to be heavier than most woods. I try to go about .085-.095 on most woods and a bit under that for ebony.

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Peter M.
Cornerstone Guitars
http://www.cornerstoneukes.com

0.085 for the back !
Very interesting answers I was starting to do 0.120

.085 is closer to where it probably should be..

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

My last 2 mac ebony guitars had backs around 0.085 to 0.09

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