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