Ultimate Garage Band

I think laminate sides are probably no real loss for tone. I can certainly understand what a laminate would do to a top and see how it could affect a back, yet, of the 2 acoustics I own, one is solid all the way around and the other is laminate all the way around. The laminate is also only 3" deep and maple to boot, so it's quite weak on bass notes but it doesn't sound bad. I mean I've heard much worse full-size guitars that were just more cheaply made I guess.

that was a cool link. Thanks! I really can't put it anywhere on the neck heel. My hand is all over the heel when I'm up above the 12th fret. Maybe I can shoot it in closer to the neck and hit the neck block. I'll check it out.

By heel, I'm thinking you're meaning the bottom of the neck heel. This guitar has a logo there and I don't want to drive a screw into that. In the pic below I've poorly drawn it where I'm thinking of putting this strap button: Every time I try and imagine where I could put it, other than there, it just seems that it'll be in the way.

thanks!

For an HSH set up, I'd suggest a Carvin Bolt Plus kit. You won't find it on their web site, only the regular Bolt kit, but if you call them and ask for Sean or Charles, they'll set you up. Every option that is available for the factory guitar is available for a kit, so, for body woods, if you don't want the stock Alder, you could choose: Swamp Ash Mahogany Walnut Koa Maple and you could also mix woods like a Mahogany body w/a Maple cap. You could even vary the Maple cap by just getting Maple, 'figured' Maple, AAA Flame Maple, or AAA Quilt Maple. Or you could put a Flame Koa top on a Swamp Ash body; all kinds of options. For necks, you could get the standard Maple neck w/an Ebony fingerboard, or get a Birdseye Maple fingerboard, or Rosewood. You could get a neck from: Mahogany Alder Koa Walnut and you could do various laminations of those woods like a 5 piece Maple/Koa/Maple/Koa/Maple, etc.. On that neck, you'll have a choice of about 5 or 6 different fret sizes including a stainless steel fret option. You can go w/the standard pearl dot inlays, or abalone, or no inlays, or pearl block, or abalone block. You have 2 different kinds of tuning keys to choose from (I'd get the Sperzels), 3 or 4 different bridges, several wiring schemes/switches/pots, and I think 11 pickups to choose from. 3 colors of hardware and straplocks if you want them. They'll even finish the body and neck for you if you want from a solid color to a 3 color step stained burst. Go w/a stock set up and you're probably at around $450 or so and doing the finishing of the body and tung oiling the neck yourself. Option it to the hilt and have them finish it w/the most expensive finish and you're probably around $900. I'm guessing. When you're done, you'll have one of the best playing guitars you'll ever own. Here's my Bolt-T kit:

I see what you're saying, but it seems a solid guitar top would never move air at pressure rate near what a PA would. That asside, I want to make sure I understand your other comment. You're saying that a laminate side is preferred over solid? I'm not doubting it; it makes sense to me, I'm just trying to understand.

My Washburn EA17 has the bottom strap button/jack, but I don't want to use the tie around the headstock for the other end of the strap. That really gets in the way of my hand while playing. So I'm going to put a strap button on my guitar. I guess the obvious choice would be the neck joint but I'd rather go into the side of the guitar body itself. I know the side is not thick or strong enough to hold the screw so I'm guessing I need to shape and glue a small block of wood to accept the screw. My question is, does this block affect the tone/volume at all and if so how? If I HAVE to put the button on the neck base I will, but I'd rather go into the side.

I've recently purchased a Washburn EA17 and the body is only 3" thick and is made of maple laminate but I'm stunned at the tone and volume. No, it's NOT as good as a full size acoustic, the bass is lacking for sure, but it's fine for me to the point that my full size acoustic, which I discovered I never really got into 'cause it's so big, is now on ebay.

I've been thinking about that lately; a carved top and/or back and was wondering what the trade offs would be w/the thicker edges. I guess no worse than kerfed glue stips.

This Guitar has a one piece body. Another company worth checking out is Cole - Clark Guitars from their web site: "At Cole Clark Guitars we precision manufacture guitars to provide the optimum in sound quality and playability. The fact that we use modern technology should not be mistaken for a lack of respect for past methods. Acoustic guitar making remained relatively unchanged from the mid 1850’s Martin “X” braced design until now. The original “X” was modified in the early 20th century to accommodate steel strings, and the “14 frets clear of the body” design to give greater fret access arrived just prior to 1930. From then, not much changed. There have been a few excursions into alternate materials, “space age” laminates, odd shapes etc., but mostly acoustic steel string guitars have been made the same way for a long time. Players agree that timber is the material that sounds best, and timber is our medium. We combine the benefits of an integral neck heel with an accurately tuned face and back for exceptional clarity and sustain. The integral neck heel, while held in high esteem, has always been difficult to produce well, which is why most manufacturers opt for the more accessible but less efficient dovetail joint, screws or dowels, all of which are more at home in the furniture industry. Our ability to accurately make the integral neck heel enables us to manufacture with incredibly tight tolerances and this allows accurate assembly of our instruments. The violin makers of history understood the necessity of tuning the vibrating plates of an instrument ( the top and the back ). We carve our tops and backs to achieve the best possible sound, using CNC router technology for extreme accuracy. The results are instruments which perform like no others. Part of the design brief for Cole Clark Guitars was to make a better acoustic guitar. We have achieved this, with Patented methods which we also apply to other acoustic instruments such as lap steels." To me, the 2 biggest problems w/single piece construction are related in that one large piece of wood is much more suseptable to humidity and temperature movement than smaller pieces of wood glued together. This mean a guitar of one piece of wood would require more frequent action adjustments, and would have to be tuned more often. When the wood tries to move too much, it splits. This is the most fatal problem w/large pieces of wood. That's the trade off; glued wood is stronger, more stable, and last longer. Solid wood sounds better.