Official Luthiers Forum!

I think a lot of us have started building classicals with a Hauser plan, often the 37 Hauser plan sold by LMI. The top thicknesses specified in the plan are quite thick, and I have seen it speculated that he must have had quite a floppy piece of spruce to work with.

I built my first with Engelmann at .095, and the second with Italian spruce at .090 (it was stiffer and denser). My starting point was from David Schramms recommendation of .090 on his online apprentice course.

Both guitars turned out well, and sound amazingly alike. I'm curious as to what you all have been successful with top thickness wise, as I don't know whether to leave well enough alone, go thicker, or go thinner on the next build!
thanks for sharing any of your results,
Mike

I recall RE Brune discussing that Hauser usually used thick tops. After a Bream concert, Brune wanted to measure the Hauser that Bream was playing, but Bream did not cooperate, perhaps because Bream did not own the guitar, but was borrowing it. You might try contacting Brune through his web site and ask him for references to an article on Hauser top thicknesses.

I think that particular guitar is the Rose Augustine 1940 Hauser.
I've handled that guitar, It is quite light, rather Spanish in character (E.I. rosewood back and sides) in contrast to the '37.
When I made my '37 replica I pretty much went with the top thicknesses as stated. Hauser made a thick top on this one with smaller fans (contrast this to the Torres approach, thinner top bigger fans).
Anyway, the results were very good and the guitar (according to my brother who eventually bought it from me) has continued to develop nicely over the last seven or eight years.
I doubt if the original top was "floppy", but some quite stiff German spruce is also rather light in weight (low density) so that might have indicated leaving it thicker.
Also remember that Hauser was building this one for Segovia, a monster player by any historical standard, with huge hands and lots of strength.
A thicker top would better guarantee that the guitar would retain it's quality of tone under the heavy assault that Segovia was capable of,
in contrast to many of the clients we build for.