Let me briefly touch on less conventional types of laminated tops. That said, I have heard nice sounding ABGs with laminated tops. It is my observation that, if one judges acoustic bass guitars by how close they sound to pizz upright bass, that reduced sustain helps to move the tone in that direction. Less sustain generally provides more perceived separation of notes of chords and in applications where this is a desirable feature, such as in archtop jazz guitars and other applications where complex chords are a key tonal element, laminated top instruments are more well received. Painting with a broad brush, this means classical and steel string acoustic guitars. In musical styles and applications where sustain is considered to be a good thing, then laminated top instruments are generally perceived as tonally inferior.

is that the laminated top instruments offer less overall sustain. My general observation of sonic differences between instruments with solid wood tops and wood laminated tops with center ply at 90 deg. These two factors conspire to make instruments with construction that deviates significantly from the norm for the type to be perceived as sounding not as good sometimes. And it is certainly true that the musical material played on any type of instrument evolved along with the instrument, and exploits the features and works around the shortcomings of that type. What sounds good to folks most often is what sounds most familiar. to the outside plys? Could it mean a wood laminate where grain orientation was aligned for all plys? Could it include a center ply that is not wood at all, as in so called double top construction?Īnd then there is the issue of what the term 'sound as good' means and implies.

What exactly is meant by the term laminated top? Does it mean conventional wood laminates with the grain orientation of the middle ply at 90 deg. There are a number of variables here which should be considered.

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