book-matched top v. 1-piece top

D

dhoenisch

Guest
Hey all, I know this would probably be best in the Luthier Lounge, but I am no, nor will I ever be a luthier. I am a tinkerer and one that likes to make non-playable instruments playable, so I thought it best to post here.

I posted a couple weeks ago about purchasing a Grizzly uke kit, prying off the laminated top and adding a solid spruce top, mainly for practice and just out of pure curiosity as to how it will sound over it's original top (for which I have already assembled one). My question is, is there any tonal advantage with a book-matched top over a 1-piece top? I ask this because I ordered and AA set (I know, not really great quality, but the price was nice) of Engleman Spruce for a classical guitar from LMII a couple years ago for another project that I abandoned. Well, one side will fit on it's own, and I can use the other half for a different project. I was just wondering if there's an advantage of using one over the other.

Thanks,
Dan
 
For a larger instrument like a guitar, you could have variations across the soundboard if you used one piece since you would need something twice as wide. Even so, I don't know if there is much of an advantage tonally. For something as small as a uke I don't see any real downsides as long as the grain is similar from one side to the next.
 
A one piece top will be fine, and it's actually fairly traditional for soprano and concert sized ukes.
 
Thanks guys. I was hoping there'd be no real difference on a soprano. That's what I'll do.

Dan
 
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