Official Luthiers Forum!

Cockatoos are really good at shredding wood

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Ha! So are cockatiels. I had one house with seriously shredded trim around the windows.

It is exactly this option (laminated/double-back) that we suggested to the owner as a preferred alternative if he wished to retain the existing bracing design and similar appearance in terms of figure. A second option was building up a new solid wood back sans the relieved areas using a better seasoned, more sedate piece of stock for the plate. A third was conventional bracing and suitable BRW plate stock.

In all cases, we forecast the eventual cost of back replacement with new material would likely be less over time than the accumulated cost of ongoing repairs. The customer felt that the back was distinctive in terms of color and figure, so opted for grafts and a refinish on the back. It should be noted that evidence of some humidity cycling was seen in the instrument when it came into the shop, so not all the blame for the back failures lies with design or materials... every crack requires a start.

To be fair, we did see additional, more recently constructed guitars in from the same builder which utilized a similar back bracing scheme. None of these showed any incipient issues related to the particular bracing plan employed, but also, none were built using stump or other lower-grade stock.

All of this goes back to suitability for purpose and the need to dispassionately assess how likely timber which is had on the cheap/for free may eventually prove to be unaffordable in terms of warranty work or reputation.

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A constellation only takes shape when one maps the whole.
- Beth Brower