|
|
Joined:
January 2007
Posts: 672
Location: New South Wales, Australia | I sit here looking at the screen and wonder to myself...should I ask another dumb question or just forget about it.
Well I'm gonna ask it and damn the consequences.
What's a laminated top, does it make any difference soundwise, and how do I tell if I have one. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
September 2006
Posts: 10777
Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | Plywood! |
|
| |
|
Joined:
January 2005
Posts: 4903
Location: Phoenix AZ | Most of the non-USA made models, and a few USA ones, use laminated tops. If done well they can sound pretty nice. Dave |
|
| |
|
Joined:
November 2004
Posts: 308
| Adamas has a laminated (graphite/birch/graphite) top, right? |
|
| |
|
Joined:
September 2006
Posts: 10777
Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | Originally posted by ozwatto:
I sit here looking at the screen and wonder to myself...should I ask another dumb question or just forget about it.
Well I'm gonna ask it and damn the consequences.
What's a laminated top, does it make any difference soundwise, and how do I tell if I have one. On the serious side...
Does anyone know how many layers, the thickness, etc, of the Laminated tops on Celebrity's?
I'd like to know, since I have two.
So, amongst the jokes could someone actually tell me the REAL answer? |
|
| |
|
Joined:
July 2002
Posts: 1900
| Call Ovation for the Celebrity factory specifications. They might differ a little from model to model, but it's not going to be rocket science. However, the Adamas tops are an entirely different laminate and there is definitely more information available for those.. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
January 2005
Posts: 4903
Location: Phoenix AZ | We kicked in the top of an MOB at the last factory tour. I'm a little foggy, but I "think" it was three layers. The bottom two running at an angle for strength and the top one just a very thin verneer. As far as thinkness, maybe a tad thicker than a solid top. But certainly it didn't look to me like anything Home Depot would sell.
Many of USA Collectors series have ply tops. Those exotic looking tops (bubinga, birdseye maple, etc.) and actually verneers. The exoctic wood itself would be much to fragile as a solid piece. I had a be-maple topped adamas 12 string that was one of the nicest sounding 12's I ever played.
Laminated sides/backs are quote common in wooden guitars in the lower price ranges. Usually mahogany. Some of these sound really nice. Taylor Big Baby for example I think even has a laminated top and it sounds amazing. In the ukulele world, laminated woods are also very common. Lower price range will be full laminated and again, many of these sound great. Some have solid tops, and then of course the more expensive ones are full solid. But price and material alone is not a gaurantee that the instrument will sound superior.
Dave |
|
| |
|
Joined:
January 2007
Posts: 672
Location: New South Wales, Australia | Unfortunately, for this ill informed member, it is rocket science :) Until last week I thought my 1860 had a solid spruce top but someone told me it was laminated.
It's black and has a beautiful shine to it. I can see my reflection in it so did this guy think it was laminated because it's shiny or did he just not know what he was talking about? |
|
| |
|
Joined:
January 2005
Posts: 4903
Location: Phoenix AZ | 1860 should be a USA made custom balladeer. Shallow bowl non-cutaway. I "think" it's supposed to have a solid top. I could be wrong. The important thing is that you like it.
Dave |
|
| |
|
Joined:
September 2003
Posts: 9301
Location: south east Michigan | We kicked in the top of an MOB at the last factory tour. I'm a little foggy, but I "think" it was three layers. I don't have the MOB top from last years tour anymore. We made a stop on the way home at Niagra Falls. We threw that shiney blue top in the river and watched it go over the edge of the falls.
However... I still have the top from the booted Celebrity from two years ago in my garage.
Long story short (to late for that), 2 layers. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
July 2003
Posts: 1922
Location: Canton (Detroit), MI | Remember that some of the "panelmaster" Collectors are laminated top, also. I have a 2002 Collectors, with the African Cherry veneer, and it sounds WONDERFUL. You wouldn't know from the sound.
Roger |
|
| |
|
Joined:
November 2005
Posts: 4833
Location: Campbell River, British Columbia | Originally posted by Slipkid:
We threw that shiney blue top in the river and watched it go over the edge of the falls. Litterbugger!
I remember the pics though, they were cool. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
January 2007
Posts: 672
Location: New South Wales, Australia | Originally posted by Tupperware:
1860 should be a USA made custom balladeer. Shallow bowl non-cutaway. I "think" it's supposed to have a solid top. I could be wrong. The important thing is that you like it.
Dave Yeah, I like it Dave but it does have a cutaway even though the Ovation tribute site tells me different. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | I was lead to believe that most wood tops are of some form of lamination or another, and that "solid" doesn't necessarily mean "not laminated". For instance, a solid maple top could also mean three layers of maple, not one layer of maple on top of two layers of something else. Was I listening to someone who didn't have a clue about guitar construction? |
|
| |
|
Joined:
January 2005
Posts: 4903
Location: Phoenix AZ | As far as I know solid means solid. Go on any guitar factory tour and you'll see slabs of solid wood cut straight from the tree. They're about 1/4 inch thick or so. Once dried, they plane them down to soundboard thickness and bookmatch two halves side by side. Is the top ONE piece of wood? No. Two (or 3) pieces glued edge to edge. Hence the "seam" in your top. But I would not call that laminated.
Dave |
|
| |
|
Joined:
December 2003
Posts: 1889
Location: Central Massachusetts | I think in the solidbody world, people can (and do) call something solid even if the body might be more than one piece laminated together. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
April 2006
Posts: 2491
Location: Copenhagen Denmark | Hang on,let`s clean up the confusion,...
Two Halves side by side are " pieced together "
Multiple layers on top of eachother are "Laminates "
Cheap Guitars usually are Laminated,and if U`re lucky you might find one that sounds good,..
However,there are "Expensive Laminates" apart from Adamas,for ex. Gibson J160E ,which I consider one of Gibson`s best ( some however sport Solid Tops )
Advantage of a Laminated Top is ; it Retains it`s Sound,(unlike a Solid Top which can take up to ten 10 !! years to reach full potential)and ,as Dave explained,it can be equipped with a Real Nice Top Veneer... :)
Vic :cool: |
|
| |
|
Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 1380
Location: Central Oregon | Originally posted by Enfant Terrible aka V-Elite:
Hang on,let`s clean up the confusion,...
Two Halves side by side are " pieced together "
Multiple layers on top of eachother are "Laminates "
Cheap Guitars usually are Laminated,and if U`re lucky you might find one that sounds good,..
However,there are "Expensive Laminates" apart from Adamas,for ex. Gibson J160E ,which I consider one of Gibson`s best ( some however sport Solid Tops )
Advantage of a Laminated Top is ; it Retains it`s Sound,(unlike a Solid Top which can take up to ten 10 !! years to reach full potential)and ,as Dave explained,it can be equipped with a Real Nice Top Veneer... :)
Vic :cool: I have two laminated top guitars & they both sound pretty good. I had no idea that my ES-175 was a laminate until one of the OFC members told me. (Sorry but I can't remember who it was, it was years ago.) I looked & sure enough it's a laminate. I have no idea what is in the middle between the sheets of maple veneer but it sounds pretty good for a 54 year old guitar. To me, a little better than my 2002 Collectors, unplugged anyway. Plugged in it sounds like an ES-175 with one P90 & that's that. Not that that is a bad thing. The 2002 is more versatile plugged in but it doesn't sound like the old Gibson no matter what I do. It also doesn't sound like the deep bowl Custom Elite but that's ok, it sounds like a 2002 Collectors & it has the one of the fastest acoustic necks I've ever gotten my mitts on. Too bad my mitts can't make better use of it.
Btw, I want to take this opportunity to thank you all for not buying my 2002 while it was for sale. I sweated it out for a full week before I took it off the block but the last three days were nerve wracking. Whoever started that "Did you ever sell a guitar & wish you hadn't" thread nearly made me pull it a few days early. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
September 2006
Posts: 10777
Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | No experience here... But the Shade-Tree Mechanic in me thinks that Laminate would be less likely to crack?
I mean, that's what plywood is for, right?
Besides being Cheap!
Correct me if I am wrong...
[It ain't that cheap anymore... We just paid $13 for a 24" x 48" piece of that crap!] |
|
| |
|
Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 1380
Location: Central Oregon | I would venture to guess that's probably true OMA. The 175 hasn't cracked in 54 years so I don't expect it to. I'm sure it will outlast me. Of course it's 5 years younger than I am.... |
|
| |
|
Joined:
July 2002
Posts: 1900
| "..Solid Top which can take up to ten 10!! years to reach full potential.."
The top on my '92 1767 is quite bright and has no doubt reach it's potential. I tune it down to C standard and use D'Add heavys.. Quite a dynamic acoustic sound for a cutaway. It would interesting to experiment with some other heavy gauge strings. Might try some of the Martin bluegrass heavy's... |
|
| |
|
Joined:
August 2005
Posts: 3736
Location: Sunshine State, Australia | Originally posted by Tupperware:
Many of USA Collectors series have ply tops. Dave, do you know if the 2005 (Engleman spruce) is laminate? How can you tell? Is it obvious at the edge of the soundhole? Mine LOOKS to be solid. |
|
| |
|
Joined:
January 2005
Posts: 4903
Location: Phoenix AZ | 2005 is solid top.
I think the collectors guitars that are laminated are the ones with the more "exotic" tops like the angel step, bubinga, curly maple, african cherry, etc.
Dave |
|
| |
Laminated top -- dumb question
