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So the two that I'm working on right now, my original plan was to make one a cutaway, and one without. Now I'm kind of thinking of making both without the cutaway. I used to think that a guitar is not a guitar without a cutaway, but now that I think about it, I don't really ever take advantage of the cutaway area. And isn't there a tone difference between the two? One is going to be for my dad and I know he won't care for a cutaway, but the other one I will try and sell. What is your take on this?

Thanks all in advance!

Either way is fine with me. IMO, the biggest advantage of a cutaway comes when you also use a low profile heel. Then you can play bar chords up to the 13th-14th fret, which isn't possible on a non-cutaway due to your hand running into the shoulder, or on a cutaway with a chubby heel that blocks the thumb from getting a good clamp on the back of the neck. When playing things that only require one or two notes at a time up there, I usually don't even notice whether there's a cutaway or not.

Appearance wise, it depends on the guitar. I generally don't like venetian style except on 12 frets, where it can be fully downward sloping rather than hooking back up in that weird blobby shape. Florentine style is much cooler looking, but clashes with some aesthetics. Full symmetrical non-cutaway body is just the only thing that looks right for some guitars.

Tone wise, it depends on the guitar size. I haven't built any cutaways at all yet, but I've never been able to hear any specific difference in tone on other guitars. I've never played a 00 or smaller with a cutaway though. When the air volume is that small already, I'd start worrying about loss of bass from taking a bite out of it. Scoop cutaway would be a good option then.

In terms of tonal impact on the soundboard, I'd think insignificant. Since I make tall and strongly anchored upper transverse braces, that area shouldn't be vibrating as part of the main active region anyway. Of course it should still contribute some tiny amount of high frequency sympathetic vibration to the mix, but nothing to get worked up over. I put inlays in the bass side shoulder area sometimes too, which also deadens it for the most part.

I've built two identical guitars one cut out one standard and while I understand that two guitars built with the same materials and same construction can sound different, I noticed no discernible difference in tonality. That is to say, they both sounded good. I actually really like it for 12 fret classical guitars for example. But classical guitars are rich in tradition and some people would never consider it.

I dont know how many guitars you have built( sounds like not many from your post), but one consideration of building a cut-away, that works, as it should, is the neck angle. many new builders have what is ( not correctly ) called the 14th fret hump, where the fret board " drops away" at the body.this is due to an obtuse neck to body angle. it makes a cut way virtualy unplayable past the body. Jody

Yeah these are numbers 2 and 3. I'm just getting ready to bend the sides, and I'm set on one being no cutaway. The other I was thinking to make a cutaway but now I don't know. My first was with a cutaway which was such a pain to bend by hand and I had to mess with the neck angle so much that it drove me nuts. Now I'll be bending by bending machine so that'll make the bending not as hard as by hand, but now to avoid problems with the neck angle, what should I be looking at?

I think its about 2-3 degrees, it is the reason many doe thier tops , martin uses a 28' radius I think. Jody

I think its about 2-3 degrees, it is the reason many dome thier tops , martin uses a 28' radius I think. Jody

I think the demand for flatop cutaway guitars is largely aspirational.
The buyer thinks "what if I become a guitar god and use the whole fretboard for amazing runs.."
Personally I don't think anything above the 15th fret or so sounds good regardless of how good the guitar is and prefer not to have a cutaway.

Esthetically, I prefer non-cutaway guitars. More Guitar = More Better.

The three chords I know are all in the first position, so I would never use one anyway.

I put a cutaway on my second guitar, just for the learning experience, but I doub't I'd do it again unless it was at a customers request (can I couldn't talk them out of it). And considering that I don't *have* customers, I don't see this being a problem...

_________________
Jim Hansen

How is a cutaway much harder then a non? I'm building my first two right now. One is a cutaway and the other is not. So far it hasn't been any problems. But I am about to close the boxes on them.

A florentine is more work and does take more time doing another block and perf/binding miters. And they usually have an up charge because of it. I'm finishing up one right now.

Thanks for all the input guys, and gals. Lots of great stuff here. I modified my cutaway from a pretty deep cutaway to one that doesn't require as much a bend. I like the look of it more and also is easier to accomplish.