What do you consider to be the biggest myths and biggest truths about guitar construction?

[Ratae Corieltauvorum]

In my experience if there are two woods that are the most similar yet worlds apart in terms of habitat and cost, it is alder and mahogany

[Ratae Corieltauvorum]

It's a real shame Andrew Coholic doesn't still frequent this forum, as he's probably the only one with experience of building carved tops.

 

On the carved/solid wood v laminate front, I always refer to Yamaha's extensive research into laminating, and how good the 70 FG and the like sounded. I recently bought a laminate/plywood bodied Squier (MIK - 1990) and it's light, resonant and plays very nicely, but as with everything else not all laminated wood is equal nor is all solid wood

[Freeman Keller]

There are several things going on here. Most of the time when someone refers to a "carved top" (and again, for U6crash definitions can vary) they mean something like an archtop guitar, a mandolin or a member of the violin family. They are almost always primarily acoustic instruments and the top is almost always thick piece of wood that has been carved and thinned by the builder - the important thing is the top is designed to vibrate and make sound. The closest I've gotten to this is an F style mandolin - for such a little instrument it was a heck of a lot of work

 

 

Obviously archtop instruments can have pickups added - look at the many great jazz guitars with some sort of floating pup at the neck (floating so it doesn't affect the acoustic sound)

 

Instruments like Les Pauls also have carved shaped tops but of course they are not intended to vibrate. I've built a couple of LP clones, again a lot of work but kind of fun

 

 

A third type of construction is a simple laminated top - you mention the '70's FG Yamies - the tops are about the same thickness as a "solid top" guitar but consist of three laminations - yes, they are plywood. They also sound amazingly good - I still have my 1970 FG-150 and its an incredible little instrument (their goes another myth).

 

 

Last are the laminated pressed top instruments like ES-175's and 335. They have curved tops and backs that look very much like a carved archtop but they are made by laminating three thin veneers (usually maple on the show face) under pressure and heat. The tops come out of a big hydraulic press in their final shape. This is supposed to be the press that Gibson used at Kalamzoo

 

 

These guitars were designed from the get go to be electric instruments - the semi hollow body does color the sound but they sound pretty terrible if they are not plugged in. Here are the shaped laminated plates and rims for a 335

 

 

Again, the woods, construction methods, bracing and all that other stuff contributes to the sum total, the guitar

[Ratae Corieltauvorum]

I was thinking of the very carefully carved tops and backs of jazz box type guitars, with those wonderfully small little planes, and tap testing and top tuning.

 

Here is one of Andrew's builds, he did many gorgeous guitars for fun, he is a woodworker by trade, family business in N Ontario.

 

https://www.guitarscanada.com/index.php?threads/a-break-from-solid-bodies.3466/page-3

[Ancient Mariner]

This is an interesting thread, and I'll happily agree that many of the 'myths' about guitar construction seem to have been just that, although some (like tonal differences from saddle material and construction on strats) seem to be more reliable than others. I seem to have picked up some unusul guitars along the way, including a Heritage Les Paul that was as bright as a tele and a maple necked strat that's fat & rounded. So much seems to be about the sum of the parts, rather than just individual components or aspects of construction.

[Freeman Keller]

Stunning. That fits my definition of archtop perfectly (and is a good example of why these things cost in the five figures).

[Ratae Corieltauvorum]

Good to see you Toni 👍

[Ancient Mariner]

Thanks Sean, it's been a while. I have to keep changing the pronunciation of your name when I read it in my head now.