2 Body Layers And Bookmatching

[Christoph]

I want to build a replica of a guitar used by the Japanese artist Mana of the band Moi dix Mois. Some pictures can be found here:

ESP Guitars Japan - Mana

I've already built one of those, but since it was my first guitar, I made som compromises (like using just one piece of wood).

It is written there, that the original guitar has a top of hard maple and a back of alder. I suppose that means, that there are two layers of wood glued together. My question is now, how thick are the layers supposed to be? And how thick is the whole body supposed to be, to mount an original Floyd-Rose tremolo in there?

The other thing is, that I heard about bookmatching once. I think it means cutting a piece wood in two layers and folding it up like a book. Then glueing the pieces together at the small side. I hope you understand. However, is this just for optical reasons? Does it change the sound? Does it prohibit the wood from changing shape? So does it make sense to do that with both layers of the body or can i just use two planks and glue them together.

Thanks for your answers,

Christoph

P.S.: If you want to see my previous work, click here.

[wohzah]

First the thickness of the wood is variable. Since the two woods do have different tones it is more up to you. The more alder, the more alder the guitar will sound, the more or thicker the maple the more maple. Here is good sight to find out about tones of different woods http://www.warmoth.com/guitar/options/options_bodywoods.cfm

As for book matching book matching is when you cut from one board two pieces of wood that would have been on top of each other, so they have more or less the same grain pattern. Then you set the pieces so that they mirror each other. On a guitar top this means you take two pieces mirror them as explained and then glue them along the edge. This is then glued onto the back piece. This is very common with maple as it has an excellent grain, also bocote is excpetional for this. Also note you can cut a piece of wood as described to bookmatch or buy pre book matched pieces then glue them together. Often you will see pieces sold as bookmatched.

Also anyone may correct me if I am wrong

[Christoph]

But has the book matching any advantage besides the grain, which is just visual I suppose. And is it ok to use one solid piece or does the wood deform more then?

[wohzah]

I don't think bookmatching has a different effect than using a regular maple top (or anyother wood). You can use one sold piece and it won't deform anymore than with bookmatching.

Again someone correct me if I am wrong

[tubab0y]

Book matching is simply aesthetic.

[Geo]

Book matching is simply aesthetic.

Yeah, so if you're going to paint your guitar like the ones in the link, don't bother with bookmatching. And please don't use a piece with beautiful figure! (if you're going to paint, that is.)

[fryovanni]

Bookmatching is more for visual reasons. Depending on the grain orientation you may have a more or less stable set when glued. Technically the most stable orientation of grain will be straight longtitudinal grain in the longest length of the board(or body) which would be from the neck to the tail. Radial shrinkage and expansion is typically less than half(although some woods like Khaya, Mahogany and so forth are closer) than tangential. This would mean a quartersawn orientation would typically be the best choice for the next longest length (probably your lower bout). Finally the thinnest part of the board (thickness of a body) would be best orientated to the tangential. Straight grain quartersawn body blank would be the ideal by these rules of thumb. Note; a wood like Khaya is going to have a much closer ratio between radial and tangential shrinkage, this means rigidly adhearing to this rule of thumb is less important. A wood like Madrone for instance has a very low radial shrinkage, but its tangential shrinkage is four times the radial(and fairly high at that), this would mean you really want to pay very close attension to selection with this wood.

Peace,Rich