Durability and longevity of HPL

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by Iain1231

How much does Taylor's laminate cost in comparison?

The cost of a Martin X series dread and a Taylor Academy series dread is basically the same.

I'd take the Taylor Academy any day over the HPL. The Academy is laminate all wood back and sides with a solid wood top.

[Dru Edwards]

Originally Posted by Rudy4

The cost of a Martin X series dread and a Taylor Academy series dread is basically the same.

I'd take the Taylor Academy any day over the HPL. The Academy is laminate all wood back and sides with a solid wood top.

+1. Taylor does a great job with laminate, which they now call "layered".

[hermithollow]

Originally Posted by Dru Edwards

+1. Taylor does a great job with laminate, which they now call "layered".

And hand builders use the term "laminated" to distinguish their product from plywood (or layered as Taylor calls it). God forbid that the buying public should not be confused!

[Robin, Wales]

I'm definitely in the 'not convinced' camp over HPL guitar tops. I recently had two Martin 0x1e guitars delivered to me - one through the UK Martin distributor and one through the German Martin distributor (so most likely different batches). Both had tops that sank across the front of the bridge:



And one had the neck on slightly twisted (but that's another quality issue!!!)

Martin adds additional 'bow tie' braces between the X bracing on their HPL tops and also a full width carbon fibre bracing bar behind the bridge - so I guess they have found issues with the stability of HPL tops in the past and engineered these fixes.

If you are looking at HPL for a take anywhere gigging/camping/travel guitar then I personally would look for another material. A nicely made wood laminate guitar would give similar environmental stability and produce a much lighter instrument. I expect that HPL's rigidity to weight ratio is less than a good 3 layer wood laminate. HPL guitars are heavy!

[AcousticWoody]

Personally, I wouldn't buy and HPL topped guitar either. I prefer HPL body and Spruce top.

[hermithollow]

It's been a few years since I built my last HPL instrument so I decided to throw one together. I want something to take car camping later this Fall.It will be a travel guitar slightly smaller than an "O" size with a normal scale length and a spruce top. The HPL I picked out of the scrap pile is a green pond scum pattern, so a little different than the usual wood grains you see. So far I've bent the sides glued on the end blocks and linings and cut out a top from a piece of Engelmann. I am going to keep it simple so it goes together quickly.