Looking good Dave, watching you reinforce the cut outs made me think of watching Ken parker using handkerchief material on his neck veneer and wondered if that would work on your cut outs without adding too much weight too. Interesting bracing pattern very curious to how it turns out as I think my next build will be a semi acoustic 👍
Gibson hollow body arch tops have floating bridges and trapeze tail pieces. What makes it work is the angled neck that brings up the strings while still having low string action. Kind of a balancing act and a height adjustable bridge/saddle is probably necessary. I made a hollow body electric like that last year. It’s blue. Check it out.
Dave, I have a feeling that this will end up as your best build yet. The way you think things through as you go along, and in particular the bracing idea that will support a floating bridge. I’m so eager to see how this pans out. By the way, the dolphin idea is going to be a huge splash. 👍
Instead of Dolphin profile as a strength enhancer under, you may keep the size as oval and hollow dolphin profile inside of oval wood piece, it will be stronger and stop cracking of sharp corners of dolphin profile.
Will you need to make the bridge taller to insure you get enough tension or down force on it to keep it in place an play. Also if the bridge is taller will the finger board need to be thicker as well so that the strings will not be to far off the neck to make for easier playing.
There’s no reason I can see why an appropriately designed/engineered hardwood soundboard couldn’t perform just as well as say spruce. At the end of the day it’s just resonating with the frequencies of string vibrations. That doesn’t require a softwood. In fact I see why no reason why it has to be wood at all. Seems to me like you’re on the right track. 1 thing I’ve seen on some guitars is that they route a groove around areas of the underside of the soundboard, softening it locally, presumably to allow it to move more freely. See Martin’s GPCE Inception for some images of what I mean.
Interesting bracing pattern Dave. It reminds me a little of the falcate bracing used by Trevor Gore's high end acoustics 😊
I will have to check them out, thank you. Cheers Dave
Cool idea of the tension relief braces between the tail block and the end block
I think it’s going to work, we’ll find out. Cheers Dave
Looking good Dave, watching you reinforce the cut outs made me think of watching Ken parker using handkerchief material on his neck veneer and wondered if that would work on your cut outs without adding too much weight too. Interesting bracing pattern very curious to how it turns out as I think my next build will be a semi acoustic 👍
I shall to watch Ken Parker to see how he did that. Thank you! Cheers Dave
Gibson hollow body arch tops have floating bridges and trapeze tail pieces. What makes it work is the angled neck that brings up the strings while still having low string action. Kind of a balancing act and a height adjustable bridge/saddle is probably necessary. I made a hollow body electric like that last year. It’s blue. Check it out.
Thanks Robin, I'm thinking I may need to angle the neck back. I will check out your blue guitar sounds interesting. Cheers Dave
Loving this series Dave
Thank you! Cheers Dave
Very ingenious and interesting experiment on the bracings, can't wait to see the result but i'm quite sure it will be great !
It’s all an experiment, let’s see what happens. Thank you! Cheers Dave
I think it’s going to be so beautiful! So far, so good .
I hope so, to be honest my design skills are not that hot, fingers crossed it all comes together. Thank you for watching! Cheers Dave
@@DaveDickens No, Dave. Your design skills are hot.
Dave The bracing looks great and dolphins also look great!
Thank you! Cheers Dave
Dave, I have a feeling that this will end up as your best build yet. The way you think things through as you go along, and in particular the bracing idea that will support a floating bridge. I’m so eager to see how this pans out. By the way, the dolphin idea is going to be a huge splash. 👍
Thank you, it’s gonna be fun 😎cheers Dave
Instead of Dolphin profile as a strength enhancer under, you may keep the size as oval and hollow dolphin profile inside of oval wood piece, it will be stronger and stop cracking of sharp corners of dolphin profile.
Thank you, an interesting idea. Cheers Dave
The bracing solution looks reasonable. I’m looking forward to seeing how you voice the top!
Thank you, voicing should be interesting. Cheers Dave
@@DaveDickens The bracing is similar to the falcate bracing that Trevor Gore has done. Maybe he will have some suggestions.
You could have used linen and shellac to strengthen the sound holes. This is a technique used in violin and cello making around F holes
Thank you for the advice, I’m going to need to compile all the advice I’m getting into a document for future ref. It’s really helpful. Cheers Dave
Will you need to make the bridge taller to insure you get enough tension or down force on it to keep it in place an play. Also if the bridge is taller will the finger board need to be thicker as well so that the strings will not be to far off the neck to make for easier playing.
Thank you, this is really helpful! Cheers Dave
🤘💙👍
👍
There’s no reason I can see why an appropriately designed/engineered hardwood soundboard couldn’t perform just as well as say spruce. At the end of the day it’s just resonating with the frequencies of string vibrations. That doesn’t require a softwood. In fact I see why no reason why it has to be wood at all. Seems to me like you’re on the right track. 1 thing I’ve seen on some guitars is that they route a groove around areas of the underside of the soundboard, softening it locally, presumably to allow it to move more freely. See Martin’s GPCE Inception for some images of what I mean.
Thank you for your insight I agree. Whatever it will be an interesting experiment. I’ll check out that groove idea. Cheers Dave