Quote:
Originally Posted by Treenewt
I agree, but glue adds weight, too. I'm not saying you can't circumvent that, but I doubt Martin is at this price point. IMO, this is laminate soley for the sake of cost.
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The weight of the glue that goes into making a two layer laminate is miniscule.
If they decided to do laminated back and sides solely for the sake of cost, it doesn't seem likely that they would have chosen to use koa for the outer layer which is much more expensive than woods like Indian rosewood or mahogany. If the sole objective was cost savings they could have done the laminates using only relatively cheap woods. Then they would have then been able to sell the guitar for an even lower price, but it would have had a less distinctive appearance.
My guess is that they had a price point in mind and in addition they had made the decision that they wanted to use koa for the back and sides for its beauty and to make this new model stand out. Meeting the price point that's been mentioned in this thread would likely have been impossible using solid koa. So I don't see a problem here. Koa is one of the most beautiful woods used for guitars, there's no functional deficiency in having laminated back and sides, and Martin can make the guitar available for a relatively moderate price.