Solid vs non-solid tonewood?

[amptones]

hi i have seen this many times on electric guitars and acoustics and was wondering whats the diff between solid and non-solid wood use for guitar bodies?

 

[ShredCow]

whats a... non-solid wood? 8O

 

[tany]

liquid wood? 8O

i know! he's refering to GAS! hahah

 

[repulse87]

you guys know what he means. so much for helping.

 

[tany]

haha i dont.

 

[ShredCow]

neither do i, seriously.

 

[repulse87]

if you say so. sometimes i wonder if people here are gracious enough to help.

 

[ShredCow]

We always are!


If you give the right info... or at least, clarity your info! :wink:

 

[repulse87]

how is non-solid wrong info?

aren't multi-ply laminate tops non-solid tops?

 

[ShredCow]

hehehehe.... I have no idea, seriously, I never looked up the meaning of that term for acoustics.

Well, since you know, its good you can help then. Isn't the burning question answered?

 

[amptones]

yes repulse87 thats what i meant multi ply woods...how is it different frm solid boidied wood?

 

[tany]

multi means many. solid could be just one chunk of the wood, like most electric guitars, although some are like 3 piece wood, but there's just one piece wood.

 

[repulse87]

i'm not a total guru on this

solid tops are more expensive than multi-ply laminate tops. sonically, i can't comment on their differences, i have played excellent non-solid and solid tops.

for acoustics, laminate tops are more adaptive to climatic changes, whereas solid woods are less stable. my friend's eric clapton martin signature was damaged from the humidity in singapore.

just my 2 cents.

 

[ShredCow]

Wait... is the threadstarter asking the exactly same thing with regards to electric guitars too? Or you mean, solid body and hollow body or something like that?

Interesting interesting... needs to google on this but google turned up nothing in the past 5 minutes!

 

[amptones]

hi shredcows maybe u can try to look at some guitar selling websites and than look at the specifications of their guitars and u notice something like solid alder vs alder..for guitar body..

 

[thor666]

To be honest I don't understand the threadstarter, and neither do quite a few others. So don't blame those who want to clarify the question.

 

[ciel]

hi shredcows maybe u can try to look at some guitar selling websites and than look at the specifications of their guitars and u notice something like solid alder vs alder..for guitar body..

sometimes they mean a single piece of alder instead of a multi piece body not necessarly plybody. ply top is one thing its another thing to have an entire body made of plywood.

Most archtop and hollowbodies have multi ply tops due to the fact their are easier to shape.

 

[ShredCow]

amptones, I'm.... not sure if I have seen a "solid alder vs alder" description?

I understand if its an acoustic... but I haven't seen it for electrics.

Or do you mean, over different manufactor's websites? Some websites have "Solid XXXXX" while others just put the wood down as "XXXXX".

 

[amptones]

yes shredcows thats what i meant haha

 

[Crawldaddy]

Hmm.

Well I do know that certain guitars are made of not 'plies' like how the wood is comprised of layers or thin sheets of wood.

But rather, the body of an electric would comprise of 2-3 'blocks' of wood, which means that it's technically not 'solid' wood, which otherwise would lead one to think that the guitar is made of one piece of wood.

I've tried several plywood guitrs, and in all honesty I'm not psyched about the risk that someday any plywood guitar that I might have invested in would crack open at the sides due to dryness or some other ailment. I have seen at least 2 guitars which ended up that way.

Feel-wise I guess that those plywood guitars felt somewhat hefty?