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Sound Board Dimensions
Hi!
I'm going to be cutting up some Pernambuco and Amazon Rosewood for acoustics and was wondering is there a consensus of how thick, wide & long the back and the sides should be or does it vary for each builder on how thick they prefer the boards? The Pernambuco is flat sawn while the AMR is radial and vertical grain. Dreadnaught size? Classical OM? Thanks! Last edited by bond_fan; 04-24-2014 at 12:01 PM. Reason: Added text. |
#2
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i might suggest browsing these sites to see what sizes are being made available:
http://rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store/ http://www.alliedlutherie.com/ |
#3
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#4
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Generally, for backs you want 8.5 inches in width, 22 inches in length, and 4 to 5 mm in thickness for rough cuts. Sides, 33 inches should do for length and 4 inches for width, thickness 4 to 5mm is fine.
Check the dimensions of the guitar(s) you are interested in building and work from that, since there is considerable variation. Give yourself about a half inch extra width and a couple inches extra length for the back. Sides don't need so much extra width, since they will be bound anyhow.
__________________
---- Ned Milburn NSDCC Master Artisan Dartmouth, Nova Scotia |
#5
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These are the minimum dimensions I try to stick with.
Dreadnought Backs 8 X 21 Sides 4 3/4 X 32 000 (OM) Backs 7 3/4 X 20 1/2 Sides 4 X 31 Classical Backs 7 1/2 X 20 1/4 Sides 4 X 30 Thickness depends on the smoothness of a sawn surface, but I tend to err on the thick side. Rough sawn minimum for backs is around 0.160", sides around 0.140". Sanded backs 0.130" (Martin joining thickness for backs) Sanded sides 0.100" Quote:
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#6
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Thanks everyone for their replies!
There still isn't a consensus, but since I'm only keeping one set of each for myself and the rest for sale I suppose it's best to error thickness wise a bit thicker... My friend has both a wide joiner and one of those 20" belt sander planers, and his band saw is one of those really nice ones so we can almost cut to just the blade with and only have that much loss. I think we can get nice tolerances. I think I'll try to go with and not leave the thickness rough: Backs - L 22" x W 8" x T 4mm = .157 Sides - L 32" x W 5" x T 4mm = .157 That way a person has the option to make a dreadnaught or OM. The Pernambuco is 8" & 6.5", so I can even leave the full width, while the Amazon Rosewood has more constraints by width... |