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Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa
In order:[*]The layers in a laminated top are glued/pressed into shape
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I'm not sure if you mean that the lamination and arching steps are combined, but I suppose that would make sense from (at least) a mechanical and production point of view.
You didn't answer if arched laminate tops can be thinner than flat ones (and/or than carved arched tops). The top of that Troubadour guitar of mine seems under 3mm thick at the soundhole rim, given its price category it must be laminate and I presume that in that case it's probably of a uniform thickness throughout. IOW, it seems very thin.
It also responds well enough to brass-wound nylon bass string (= on the side where the brace has come loose) that I have half a heart to ask my luthier to remove the brace rather than glueing it back into place, and see how the instrument does as a nylon stringer before deciding what to do about the neck. The top has already warped on the bass side and the few siblings (with f-holes) I've seen auction records of went for 50-200$ so it's not like I'm risking a valuable instrument.
Quote:
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[*] in case you're unaware, aluminum orchestral strings enjoyed a brief vogue circa 1930
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I guess the war made an end to that vogue. I think I knew this.
BTW, "orchestral strings" reads as "strings for bowed string instruments" to me. And if memory serves me well, aluminium-wound strings exist or existed for violin at least. In any case I have a memory of trying less expensive strings that were supposedly very good but which I really didn't like (I can't say I like the current aluminium-bronze strings either).