Bookmatched?

[Brick]

Hey just curious as to what the difference between a flametop and a bookmatched flame top was, thanks

[rock-lobster]

if it is bookmatched, the wood is split down the middle and one half is put on each side of the top. if done correctly, it will be the same on both sides. some flamed tops won't be listed as bookmatched but are. it's rare to find one that isn't even attempted to be bookmatched.

[docjeffrey]

 

if it is bookmatched, the wood is split down the middle and one half is put on each side of the top. if done correctly, it will be the same on both sides. some flamed tops won't be listed as bookmatched but are. it's rare to find one that isn't even attempted to be bookmatched.

 

 

These days that's true, but if you look thru Beauty of the Burst, you'll see lots of Les Pauls that are not bookmatched during the late 50's There are a lot of tricks that luthiers can use to match tops besides strict bookmatching, but classic bookmathed tops is like lobster described where you split the wood down the center and then open it up like a book to get symmetrical figure and grain.

 

You can also flip each piece 180

[DaveAronow]

if it is bookmatched, the wood is split down the middle and one half is put on each side of the top. if done correctly, it will be the same on both sides. some flamed tops won't be listed as bookmatched but are. it's rare to find one that isn't even attempted to be bookmatched.

 

Yes. It is quartersawn wood( you can also use other cuts as mentioned above) which is wood that looks like a wedge taken out of a round tree as opposed to flatsawn which looks like a slice shaved off the side of the tree leaving a flat spot on the side of the tree.). Now you take that wedge, split it or saw it into two more wedges, and as you open it up like a book, hence the name bookmatched, you get two pieces with the almost exact grain pattern on each surface that look like a mirror immage of each other. The grain pattern is exactly the same or increasingly less so, depending on the width of the blade used to saw it in two. Just a difference of as little as 1/16 of an inch in blade width may cause the pieces to be less than perfectly bookmatched, but usually they are close enough that they are still considered so.

Now there is nothing wrong with a one piece top that is not book matched especially if it covers the entire top, back, or whatever you want, without having to use two unmatched pieces with a seam running down the middle. Its just that pieces that big with good figure all the way across, are much more rare, and expensive and really acomplish nothing other than looks. Nothing wrong with two unmatched pieces with a seam either, but they are much easier to accomplish and ,therefore, usually much less expensive, and consequently considered to be much less of a big deal and alot of people find them less attractive. This is why a one piece highly figured surface that has no seam can actually be much more expensive and collectable, because they are so much more rare.

 

Now, the last point about bookmatching before the babbling is complete (you will now know more than you ever needed to know about bookmatching, or even cared to) is that it came about in the world of hollow bodied acoustic/stringed instruments such as classical guitars and violins, to try to get a consistant grain pattern across the top which is the soundboard of the instruments and is where most of the tone, sound and soul of these instruments comes from which is not the case in solid bodied electrics.

A bookmatched laminated top on a solid bodied electric simply has no effect on the tone of the instrument or a negligable one at best. Electrics get their tone from a much more debatable and argued over combination of a multitude of factors, but bookmatched laminate tops is about at the bottom of the list. It is simply more a matter of aestetics with electrics.

Anyway, with hollow bodies, the object is to try to get the grain to match the same pattern of tight growth rings vrs wide growth rings from one side of the top(soundboard) to the other starting from the center and working your way out to get the mirror immage. The centers needed much tighter grain for strength than the edges did. Tighter grain= stronger. The center contains the bridge which is where all the pressure from the strings ends up and therefore needs to be much more sturdy than the edges. The edges of the tops, in fact, are prefered to have wider grain spaces so that the instrument will be free-er to vibrate more and allow the whole top to move up and down sortof like a drum head to project more tone/ volume.

This is why a ONE PIECE top that has these grain pattern characteristics that go from wider grain at the edge to tight grain in the middle back to wider at the other edge are so much harder to find, and can be highly sought after, highly collectable, and also highly expensive.

 

I think that is just about all you will probably ever need to know about book matching. Hope this helped and didnt make you want to slash your own wrists to end the babbling.:blah: