NGR/Cedar build

[Taffy Evans]

This guitar was finished late last year. It is made using New Guinea rosewood back and sides and neck, with a Cedar top. The inlays are mother-of-pearl and ebony. It’s a “000’ size guitar with gold frets and gold tuners. On this guitar, the sides were laminated as an experiment, which possibly accounts for the long sustaining notes and fullness of sound.
Geckos are regular visitors to my shop, but this is not one of them.
Cheers Taff

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Thanks for looking.

[56nortondomy]

Very nice Taffy. Great inlay.
Wayne

[Mark McLean]

I love the gekko! It immediately makes you smile and gives the instrument a fun and friendly vibe. The rest of the instrument looks great too.

[TomBicknell]

Very nice. I’ve got some really nicely figured NGR I’m itching to build with.

Did you laminate the sides with another layer of NGR, or something else?

[kiwigeo]

Normally with laminated sides the outer layer is decorative and you'd use a tonewood. The inner layer is usually a cheaper wood. I did a laminated side parlour and used IRW on the outside and maple on the inside.

Laminated sides serve two purposes....1. more economical use of quality tonewoods that might be in short supply and 2. to create an impedance to string energy leaking from the soundboard down the sides.

Very nice. I’ve got some really nicely figured NGR I’m itching to build with.

Did you laminate the sides with another layer of NGR, or something else?

[Taffy Evans]

Very nice. I’ve got some really nicely figured NGR I’m itching to build with.

Did you laminate the sides with another layer of NGR, or something else?

Hi Tom, I missed this post earlier. I laminated two layers of NGR. I'm not sure if I used the "quote" feature properly.
Cheers Taff

[TallDad71]

Nice work Taffy

Somogyi likens the acoustic guitar to a trampoline. Asking if you would rather build the frame out of steel or rubber. The correct answer is steel as it means all more of the energy landing on the trampoline will be used to deform the platform ans store the energy to spring you back into the air.

This is my understanding of why the laminated sides make such a fundamental difference to the sustain of your guitar.

I’ve always gone for 4ply laminated linings instead as these make a tremendous difference to the stiffness of the sides. Ultimately though the laminated sides must be better do you think?

[Taffy Evans]

Hi Alan, I only used the laminated side option due to making a blooper on one of the sets of sides, so, as not to waste them, I used one set as a lamination. I would sooner stiffen the sides using both a “boxed” Kerfed binding, as shown here, and heavier side reinforcement. The kerfing shown adds a lot of stiffness to the sides.

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Cheers Taff

[TallDad71]

I love your admission of making mistakes. I’m of the mind that whenever you see a feature in woodworking, it is probably a cock up that’s been made good or hidden.

I still make far too many ‘features’

This is my lining, super stiff when glued in place.

[TomBicknell]

Loving this discussion!

I saw a video recently of a luthier called Chuck Morrison explaining his use of 'full kerfed lining' - essentially kerfed binding that's the full height of the side, which he'd laminate onto the outer side kerfed side down, and then laminate a veneer on the inner solid side, partly for appearance and partly for reflective qualities. From memory he was using pine for the kerfed lining, with a rosewood veneer on top.

I think the idea was that it took care of the laminated sides and the lining all in one go, and it only required bending the outer layer of the sides, with the other layers just glued and clamped. It also made it relatively easy to run a single, continuous length of the kerfed lining and/or the veneer all the way around the sides, giving a strong connection between the two halves.

For some reason the idea has really stuck with me as an interesting approach. Here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9msh_4l0t6U

[TallDad71]

Thanks for that link Tom.

How fascinating it’s it to watch different construction methods. I’m not too sure that the words Scientific Method can be applied to his approach. How could he ever determine exactly which change has which effect.

Aesthetically he created something really interesting, but at 6 pounds of weight it seems it came at the cost of confirm.

My guitars tend to come in at 2/3 of that weight.

Still highly enjoyable. Thank you

[TomBicknell]

I agree, the weight’s a bit much, but I guess he’s trying out a few things at once. The experimental back and top bout bracing didn’t appeal to me much, but the sides seem like an interesting idea.

[TallDad71]

The sides are an interesting idea, I wonder about laminating them though. It must use up an awful lot of glue, and ensuring that both pieces are adhered throughout the whole of their surfaces, around all those bends must be very tricky.

I know if I was to try it, I would have a lot of gaps between the surfaces, almost untraceable but none of it good.

Just laminating my 4 ply linings leads to a number of dry spots. There only 20mm deep.

[TomBicknell]

If I remember right, he said he uses polyurethane glue that foams up a bit, which fills any little gaps and gets into the kerfing for a good hold.

[yakka]

here are a couple of well known Luthiers using both methods of Laninated sides

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBFfc1p ... namGuitars

https://www.instagram.com/p/CnVC3fkyy8g/

https://www.instagram.com/p/CnQkhWtrtrR/?img_index=1

[TallDad71]

here are a couple of well known Luthiers using both methods of Laninated sides

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBFfc1p ... namGuitars

Obviously a very talented Luthier.

I did baulk at the thought of using Indian Rosewood as a sandwich filling of a triple laminated side! Each to their own, but that could have been used to make something more beautiful instead!

I noted above that this would use a lot of glue and the video seems to bear that out, there really didn't appear to be that much squeeze out from the process, which means there's a lot of PVA filling the spaces.