Tacoma acoustic bass re-top....

[Mike Kolb]

A young fellow brought-in his Tacoma ABG (pre-Fender) with a smashed top (he says it was the dog's fault, but...) anyway, he also brought the top set he wants installed. It's a gorgeous set of redwood, .110" thick and perfectly straight & clear. He wants the top (insofar as possible) to physically match the smashed original cedar top. So far, so good.

 

Here's where I'd like to pick your collective brains: I'm going to copy the Tacoma's A-frame bracing and was wondering what thoughts anyone would care to offer about adding any additional bracing to compensate for the softer redwood. The Tacoma had a huge bridgeplate, and I'll copy that as well, but would anything more be considered to beef-up the new top? Or do you think it's OK for a redwood top as it's designed?

 

My other question concerns the bridge. I'm going to brace the top with a 40ft radius and was wondering if there's any advantage in carrying that 40ft radius to the bottom of the new bridge.... or would 'flat' be preferred? Or is it a moot point?

 

Thanks for any info you can offer!  Hope your holidays were good and your weather isn't too bad. It's been raining like cats n' dogs here in Oregon... keep the powder dry.

[Rob Mercure]

Hey Mike,

While we've got this described as "acoustic" does you client play it as such or does he amplify it routinely?  If he's primarily an amplified player I'd tend to stiffen it for all sorts of reasons including limiting feedback.  If I understand your post correctly he wants to replace the top with a different species of wood?  "Redwood" to me is a much more brittle wood and if a dog walked through the old top (western red cedar I assume) them what sort of damage would happen to redwood of the same thickness.   Since "brittleness" is to me a greater issue than "softness" I don't know how you'd correct that with bracing - in fact as I define "softness" I don't know how to address that other than some sort of hard thick bullet proof finish.  I would think that a thumbnail would easily "engrave" the top - but whadda I know?

 

Finally quit snowing and''s melting off on this side of the world - waiting for the ice to melt off the fire wood pile where the wind whipped off the tarp so that I don't have to skin the ice off before it hits the stove.

 

Rob

[Mike Kolb]

Good thoughts, Rob. The customer plays both plugged & unplugged, but (from what I can see) he's not an aggressive player and doesn't use a pick, so the redwood should be "unengraved", at least for a while, anyway. I like your idea of a hard finish, though... he likes a matte or flat look, so maybe I'll look into a polyurethane or even an epoxy finish.

 

Any thoughts on trying to replicate the 40'-radius on the bridge bottom? The more I think on it, it seems like the right thing to do, but (as you say).... whadda I know? I usually glue my bridges flat to try to keep the bulge-factor down, but this box seems to be a different breed.

 

Ditto on the snow melting around here, too. Now we're in for some real chilly temps over the next few days... I'm in NW Oregon, about halfway between Portland and Salem, just on the valley side of the coast range. Sheridan, to be exact. Stay dry and warm.