Acoustic Guitar Construction

As a follow up to my earlier post, I contacted Brian Burns, thanks to Dave's suggestion. Brian directed me to his website, in particular, to a section of the website at http://brianburnsguitars.com/my-process. In addition to an overview of his techniques on that page, he provides links to pdf files that detail his tonewood testing, initial voicing, and final voicing procedures. The final voicing procedures include taping the back onto the top/sides and making acoustic response measurements. Pictures and data in the pdf validate that measurements made with the back taped on give results that are very close to results with the back glued on. (His taping method is very similar to taping commonly used for binding installation.) He also shared that "I teach guitar making on an individual basis here in my shop in Fort Bragg, CA, and online using iPads. My students range from beginners to professionals." I intend to use taped-on backs for future voicing; a great idea.

I'll be very interested in your results when you do that.

On my next guitar, I also plan to play around with taping the back. I would probably run some tape around the glued top as well as I notice a change between the box unbound and bound. I often use kerfed lining and always have place where the lining are just a touch proud keeping them from sealing.

Brian gives a complete set of his plans to his students so, even though I was there a day or so, I have those plans and I'm working up to making that my next build, and will use the tape on the back method when I get to that point.

I am going to use a bolt on neck however. I have not run across any ideas why I should not, and since I'm not a classical purist, it won't trouble me.
On that subject, what do you think about Mahogany for the B/S on a classical guitar?

Mahogany would be fine on a classical. It is not often used mostly because of tradition. Classical players are very picky on tradition. I make bolt on classical guitars (I also make traditional spanish joint). If you have not made a classical you need to watch the neck angle as it is the reverse of a steel string. The traditional spanish joint makes it easy as you can slip a 2 mm shim under the heel block right at the 12 fret when putting the back on to lock the angle. When the back is glued on the body and neck are face down on the solera. The 2 mm fret will assure a forward angle on the neck. Also as the large heel block inside gets tilted (just a touch) the top glued to the heel block is forced to be in plane with the neck.

The change in neck angle is the combination of two setup factors: The height of the strings over the top at the saddle location is lower and the setup action is higher. A forward angle is weird with a bolt on, but you can also just make the neck square and slope the fretboard thick at the nut and thinner on the saddle end.

Good tips, thx.