Come and learn how to build acoustic guitars, jigs, shop tools and all kinds of fun stuff. Building a guitar is not that hard. It's just cutting, gluing, and sanding. Basic woodworking. I know you can do this. On this channel not only will I show you HOW to build a guitar, I'll teach you WHY things are done the way they are.
So, if you're a beginner you came to the right place. You will get a good solid education in lutherie. If you're already making money selling guitars, you'll probably pick up a few new ideas and techniques. Either way, I hope you subscribe.
Laminated sides will have roughly the same acoustic properties as all wood sides since the back and sides have very little impact on the sound and serve as structural elements more than anything else. The back and sides will be muffled againtmst your body anyway and if you think about it all the vibration is transmitted to the top.
I just started making ukulele’s a year ago. I am making a baritone ukulele and it has double sides. It is very rigid and kept its shape out of the mold.
All solid guitar with sikta spruce top and mahogany back and sides vs solid (top-back) guitar with sikta spruce top and rosewood back and side , which one i should go for at same price? Does only laminated sides make that difference?
is double sided guitar referring to the side is made of the same material glued(laminated) together, then with a pre bended solid kerfing strip glued on the inside to build up glueing surface for the top n back?
I think the laminated is great, as long as you use good materials. I've seen lamited with resin with only two layers making a very strong, great sounding guitar.
A quality laminated side has ~1.5mm outside sheet (not a 0.6mm veneer facing as in cheap guitars.) The backing sheets/ply are chosen for their weight and rigidity. Example, Rosewood might be backed by spruce. The 'cheapness' of laminated is in the reduced labour time not necessarily on material quality or cost. Torres made a paper mache back and side guitar over a century ago to illustrate the point. The top is the primary factor for tone followed by the fretboard (especially in steel strings, compare a maple Vs rosewood fretboard with steel, do the same with nylon...).
I was genuinely interested in your subject here, but left the video early because the music was too loud and irritating If you reissue this with no foreground muzac then I would subscribe. Thanks anyway
nice job randy .aer you schalic wash coating the top and sides to prevent the CA glue from bleeding into the end grain if so what cut of schalic do you use
Laminated sides - ok, but laminated top and back... Is it so expensive to glue a top or a back from 4, 6, 8 pieces of wood in width? I'm remaking my old post-soviet guitar (more for a carpenter experience), and I glued top from 8 pieces, back from 6, and I don't see any troubles with that. If we look at an acoustic guitar as a wood product, it needs not so large volume of wood. I'd better replace rosewood fretboard with maple or walnut one... Even beech, let it be! But laminated top and back...
The Vintage Yamaha Red Label guitars made in Japan were all Laminated and they sound fantastic. So, the materials used are just one factor of building a great sounding guitar. The skill, techniques and experience of a lutherie play a crucial role in guitar building.
Also many of the early Japanese imports had spruce in all three layers of the laminated tops -- makes a huge difference in sound compared to later imports with some sort of cross grain mahogany like wood in the center layer (which really magnified the more haphazard assembly of later models until automation of some processes began helping the consistency).
Cracking and loosing shape is a problem but I believe the sides need to vibrate and too thick doesn't allow that but eliminating kerf strips would make things easier. .
Great content!! Question: if maximum rigidity for the sides is optimal, then how much does the type of wood or even solid versus laminate, impact the sound? If it isn't vibrating it would almost seem that there would be a negligible difference. Also in laminate construction for the back of a guitar, how much does the type of wood used on the outer layers impact the sound! If the inner layer of laminate was similar would there be a noticeable difference between Rosewood and Mahogany? Would the timbrel characteristics of those woods still be present in a laminate construction using those tonewoods assuming the top wood was identical?
The famous Spanish luthier of classical guitars Antonio de Torres Jurado. Made a guitar with cardboard back and sides, considered one of the greatest sounding classical guitars of all time and it's in a museum. He's considered the greatest luthier of classical guitars of all time. The back and sides do influence the sound but so slightly compared to the top which is 90% of the Sound. Many classical guitarist prefer a laminated back and sides for Better Sound. I have a Martin dx1 with hpl back and sides and I prefer finger-picking with it over something like an HD 28 which sounds muddy and muffled to me.
Thanks Brother Man , I been searching for Info on Sides of an Acoustic. I will be Building My Own soon and a Viola as well. This Video was My Eureka Moment. TY again and GOD BLESS YOU...
So, should a laminated sides guitar (laminated with 2 sheets of solid wood) not have any kerfing? It's easy to look inside a guitar and see the kerfing, but you can't tell if it's laminated or not unless the specs say so.
Hey Randy, what if you used 3 pieces of the same woods for the sides instead of 2, but each piece was a little thinner so that the total thickness was similar to the double sided option? Would 3 pieces be as beneficial as 2 in that case?
that's interesting, i just watched another video about kerfing and had a look at my guitars and all of them, except my epiphone AJ220 have the cuts inward, the epi though has the cuts facing the sides...like you have here.
any idea what martin means by high pressure laminate? i always assumed it was what they swept up off the floor on friday mixed with glue. i ask cos i have a martin OOOX1 and out of the 11 guitars i have at the moment, including gibson, maton, larrivee the martin is amazing, of the 50-60 guitars i've had since 2014 the martin blows them all away. but martin have no explanation of what HPL actually is.
Laminated back and sides will have very little if any impact on the sound of guitar while providing far better strength and duribility, solid wood will want to warp while laminated wood will be much more stable. I would still stick with a solid wood top though since that's where all the magic happens.
Man that was crazy! I got cut twice on my old table saw. One turned into a trip to the ER. Turned out okay both times, but in both instances, I was rushing to get done. Hard lesson to learn, but it made me much more aware of what I‘m doing. Glad you didn‘t get hurt. Thanks for the video!
Did I miss the explanation of "double sides"? Is it just the use of laminated curfing? I almost expexted it to be a type of lamination like a doubletop.
This was no doubt one of the best, and most informative videos, that I’ve seen. After liking it, I subscribed to your channel, and I’m ready to learn ol’ Obi-Wan. Thank you for making this!
Spencer Acoustics how do they get laminated wood so thin build cheap acoustic guitars? When I see plywood at lumber stores its not thin like laminated acoustic guitars. Just wondering?
