Official Luthiers Forum!

I guitar I own, has had rippling across the width of the sides at the lower bout...since I got it. I recently saw another guitar by the same maker, recently made with the same condition. I'm wording if anyone here has insight or first hand knowledge as to what directly causes this. I want to avoid this if
I can, I've been lucky so far.

sometimes it is just the way the wood is. What type of wood? My experience has seen this happen because is differences in the wood across the piece. Grain variation , sometimes you can see this is Mahogany , EIR not so much , but if you see a strong grain variation you may get that in your bend.
Using super soft helps , and often too much water will do more harm than too little.

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Thanks John.....the the one I own (6 yrs now) ,is a Brazilian deep body. Not sure what the recent wood / build was.

Would it be fair for a builder to notice this in his work at hand...and proceed non the less, finish it and send to customer, with this condition existing as part of the hand made experience?

M.

This thing happens virtually every side that is bent. It's just the amount or severity of the cupping/corrugation that varies. If it's mild to moderate, most modern makers will sand or scrape the side until it's flat. In many old instruments it appears that they didn't bother trying to get them flat. They just accepted that it was part of the process.

I don't accept it in my builds. I scrape the sides flat, and/or glue wood side strips inside to help flatten them.

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John

To me, it's one of those things that shouldn't matter but does. To make the sides dead flat you either make the middle or the edges thin, depending on which way it's cupped. It does make binding and finishing easier, but at the expense of a bit of structural strength. Hopefully not too much, usually.
I flatten mine with a hard block and 100 grit on the expensive ones, and have at it with the drum of my edge sander for my student line. I do it after excess routing, before binding.

Are rippled sides acceptable?

The thing is that no one decides what is acceptable except for the builder and his/her client. My instruments are near flawless or they don't leave my shop. Years ago, I wasn't as picky but my base price was significantly lower. And when I was selling instruments at material cost to gain practice, I was even less stringent and simply didn't have the skills to achieve the quality I can now.

The bottom line is if a buy isn't satisfied with a product then they should return it or at least negotiate the price.

For your own frame of reference in terms of building, I would try and get the sides as true as you possibly can - otherwise, when the finish goes on your work will look handmade and not in a good way. The sides catch a lot of light reflection and so I find rippled sides very noticeable.

I appreciate all your thoughts on this. For me it's unacceptable...I wouldn't like it if I were buying one again...and wouldn't feel good about having to present this flaw to a customer (when that time comes). So...I'm looking to understand this thing now.

Thank you.

Michael