New X7 Acoustic possibility

In pursuing my ideal CF nylon string guitar I'm selling two Emerald customs and talking with Alistair about a new type of top--your thoughts are welcomed.

I'm thinking of an X7 build, short scale, acoustic, with slot head tuners, veneer, and an active Barbera pickup. The tricky part is that I want a new top.

The CF nylon string instruments that I've played and purchased compete with a quality wooden classical guitar in terms of tone, but are wanting in terms of projection. I believe that a different top needs to be developed.

I'm not sure what that new face needs to be but I have an idea and I'm wide open to other thoughts on the matter.

My bright idea is a thinner CF top with bracing made of hollow CF tubing. I don't know what Alistair will think of such an idea, but I've started a chat and we'll see what he thinks.

And away we go.............................

[Explorer]

As I mentioned in another topic, I believe that the stiffness of CF around the rim is what prevents volume under lower tension.

The Composite Acoustics Legacy model sounds like a wood guitar, done through bracing, but that's with steel strings.

I'd be thinking about making a composite top with more flexibility around the edge, composite meaning more than one material. There have been layered tops from Ovation and others, and the classical builders were laying down a honeycomb structure between two wood layers, getting stiffer with less weight like a torsion box.

There's got to be data on flexible composite structures, as CF is used for sports prosthetics like S-blades for runners.

[esimms86]

So Emerald tops are not yet at their maximum ratio of thinnest:strongest already? Well, the string tension required for nylon strings is obviously less than that required for steel strings so perhaps there is some room to make the top thinner.

Alistair's experience with Formula One racers tells me that his breadth of knowledge re: CF flexibility is clearly extraordinary.

I've been looking at the classical threads and ran across a statement that there are some wooden guitars, with lattice bracing, as thin as 1 mm. I am amazed at the statement and have asked for reference to such a guitar.

If a 1 mm works for wood it should work for CF. My impression is that CF guitars do not require much in the way of bracing and are strong enough to handle the tension of steel strings, but in my estimation most CF nylon string guitars do not project particularly well. But thinning the top to 1 mm, with some form of bracing might make all the difference in the world.

Just a thought.

It is with some chagrin that end this thread with an epiphany noted in a new thread: The Emerald Flamenco guitar.