Are there some real studies

[hermithollow]

Torres - may - have built the paper mache guitar to satisfy his curiosity, not to prove to the world anything. I think later authors may have attributed more to it than Torres intended. But I could be wrong.
I built a few guitars with HPL back and sides to satisfy my curiosity, before Martin marketed them . They sounded O.K. but nothing outstanding. Martin started building them and felt they had some commercial value. I'm sure name recognition has helped sell a few.