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It seems like some guitars with a mahogany top sound kind of muted or thin or "more intimate" rather than projecting with punch and roundness... But I have a friend with an old martin 00 (I think) and it sounds pretty nice. What is the opinion of mahogany tops and approximately how thick should you expect an OM top should be... 0.110" ? (that is when it should tap nice...) ...or should I go with a spruce top instead...?
Steve

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Steve Sollod (pronounced sorta like "Solid")
www.swiftcreekguitars.com

Generally speaking, any hardwood top will end up having to be heavier than a softwood top if you build to the same stiffness. That's why mahogany tops tend to sound 'thinner' and so on: nice tone, perhaps, but not as much of it. Cedro can have density and stiffness numbers similar to some spruces, and might make a decent top that could look enough like mahogany to work. Othjerwise, if you really want mahogany, just find the lightest stuff you can.

I'm also curious about the thickness ranges people use, since I'd like to try a mahogany top for my second guitar. There was a post on a different forum (here) with a particularly stiff koa top that thinned down to .085 by deflection testing.

My mahogany back seems to be floppier along the grain than the spruce top at a given thickness, and I think I'm already past the clearest ringing tap point, at .105 thickness. Going all the way down to .085 seems like it would feel like a piece of construction paper. Actually, I know what it would feel like since the sides are around there, and they are indeed super bendy.

Is it better to let the top be floppy to get the weight down, and stiffen it back up in bracing? Or do most people stick with more comparable thickness between spruce and mahogany, and just have much heavier mahogany tops?

Mine is a j-45, not an OM, but I made it with the top at .120 with braces on the light side. I like the sound. I like the looks of the top finished very glossy, I didn't like it much with a satin finish.

I've got more Tops/Backs Matched pairs of "The Tree" at the moment and have always flirted with the Idea of Hog Top out of that Quilted Mahogany. I really would go with an OO size. I wonder if this would be a good candidate for Double Top construction?

One of few guitars I regret selling is my 1948 Martin 00-17.