A different way to make a guitar top.

[woodrat]

In my trolling around the net looking for new guitar ideas I came across this one. A Czech guitar maker who makes quite a range of very lovely looking guitars. In his Bellisimo range he uses hide glue to veneer hardwoods like Rosewood or Koa over a spruce soundboard so that he gets the decorative effect of the exotic wood but still has the lightness and the other qualities of spruce. On the face of it it seems like a very cunning plan indeed.


http://www.rozawood.cz/masterworks/bellisimo.php

http://www.rozawood.cz/masterworks/special.php


Here is what his site says....

BELLISIMO "DOUBLE-WOOD" TOP

As you know, our BELLISIMO guitars have a “one kind of wood” look but they keep the beauty of the Spruce top sound. It is allowed by Roman’s original top construction.

The “usual” Spruce top is overlaid by a very thin plate of solid wood of the same kind as back and sides. But don’t be fooled! It has nothing common with plywood, because the top plate of wood is quarter sawn solid wood glued on the Spruce top and then sanded up to 0,5 mm thickness. These only two wood plates (Spruce and cover wood) are glued together with high quality hide glue and with the same grains direction. So the wood is working the same way as solid wood while the plywood veneers are glued with crossed grain directions.

This results in a very unique sound. The guitar still sounds as a Spruce top guitar but sometimes with more sustain, sometimes with more treble or bass response – depending on the kind of cover wood that is used.


...A penny for your collective thoughts...

[DarwinStrings]

Nice slots on his slotted headstock too.

Jim

[Kim]

They look to be very nice guitars, good styling all over. Spruce with decorative veneer on top is not that uncommon, I believe the term from the 70's was "acoustic ply". I know there are at least a couple of builders who use the process regularly when working with high figured redwood.

Cheers

Kim

[woodrat]

OK Kim...I see that that would be great for redwood. I have seen some of those mad figured redwood tops but thought that they would be a disaster waiting to happen but this technique would make that entirely possible.
Cheers

John

[Puff]

In accepted parlance laminated wood has the grains running in the same direction whilst plywood has it/them crossed. Laminated tops are very far from uncommon - the term "plywood" often thrown at them in a derogatory fashion in the same way that 'Tupperware' or 'plastic' is thrown at fibre reinforced construction.
The claim here that the face veneer is quartersawn, and may well be but I fail to see any reason for them to be, makes them a tad less usual I guess.
An equally 'decorative' face can be had from successive rotary cut veneers (with the log turned on its centre) bookmatched with one side of the match turned over for a near perfect mirror image.

[matthew]

...A penny for your collective thoughts...

I think those guitars are a tad decorative.

[kiwigeo]

...A penny for your collective thoughts...

I think those guitars are a tad decorative.

Yeah I agree....Im definitely not into decorative tops.