Top & Back Thickness - Lap Slide Guitar

[Kim Strode]

I am re commencing work on a Lap Slide Guitar I started two years ago. The sides are Alpine Ash, while the top and back are Tasmanian Blackwood. I want to pick the brains of all those experienced builders of this style of guitar and get your thoughts on top & back thickness.

The top is currently thickened to 2.27mm, while the back is 2.55mm thick. They feel fairly stiff and am wondering wether I can afford to thin them down even further and gain a better sound response from the final guitar.

[Bob Connor]

Kim

The top of the first one was made from Surian at 2.4mm.

The second which has not been strung up is Celery Top Pine is 2.5mm but I thinned the edges of the lower bout down to 2.3mm.

A lot of it will depend how you brace it but my gut feeling would be to not go any thinner on the Blackwood top.

As for the back I would think that it wouldn't make too much difference on a lap slide as the back will be very effectively damped by your thighs. So the accepted thinking with normal that a thin, reactive back will surround the player whereas a stiffer back will project the sound further doesn't really apply in this case.

Regards

[Kim Strode]

Thanks for those thoughts Bob, much appreciated.

[ozziebluesman]

Kim, my weissenborn blackwood style guitars were 2.5mm top and back thinkness and very stiff too. That worked for me!

Cheers

Alan