It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Subscribe to our Patreon, and get image uploads with no ads on the site!
Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
Comments
It needs to be able to change shape as it vibrates, it's not like a piston speaker driver, although some makers try to reduce the coupling of the bracing near the edge of the top to get a bit more overall movement.
Studies have been done on how the tops vibrate, and they have several frequency modes going on at the same time
this video has an exaggerated view of this:
to influence these modes and vibration patterns, makers plane some parts of the top to be thinner, and use different bracing patterns, and shave some parts of the bracing away, to fine-tune the vibration characteristics
Historically, luthiers have developed these techniques with solid wood tops. They will know what works and what doesn't.
It's not impossible to use these approaches with laminate, but the characteristics of laminate will be different, and also I doubt you could plane it in the same way - you'd hit glue layers I assume.
I'd guess that if a luthier had developed these skills from studying experts and experience, all with solid woods, then it would be a case of "starting over" if you tried to do this with laminate.
I would think that the manual effort and time spent on tweaking tops and bracing on "boutique" level acoustics would cost so much that the cost saving on using laminate would be trivial in comparison
Mass-Production line guitars would not have this kind of fine-tuning, and could be made with solid or laminate
I'd guess that some laminate might have good characteristics for vibration, but it would require effort and cost to source it and maintain consistency. It's possible that someone might come up with a design that uses laminate that sounds excellent.
In fact, there is a thing in classical guitars called the nomex double top, which is a 3 layer construction. It's much stronger, and the bracing can be reduced. Lattice bracing is possible (Not crystal lattice! ;-) )
I've got one of these, and have tried a steel-strung one, very impressive.
It might be possible to achieve something similar with laminate woods, I wonder if anyone has tried
I think Thomann have very good prices for their far-east-made guitars, I think a £200 Harley Benton would be £300-£350 with a different name on the headstock. QC is generally good, and they will sort things out when things go wrong.
However, with acoustics, trying one out is the best thing
Most Parlour guitars I have tried sound incredibly boxy, so definitely worth trying out, unless that's the sound you want. You usually need to pay more to get non-boxy-sounding ones
I'd say that choosing a parlour model over a normal small or grand-auditorium size would probably have at least as much effect on the sound quality as different brands or use of laminates at that price level.
Eastman sell 'Double Top' acoustics with a similar lattice. I've never played one, but have heard good things.