Rosewood / Carpathian Phi Guitar
Tonewoods
This rosewood guitar is a lamination of Brazilian rosewood and East Indian rosewood. I found a source for Brazilian rosewood veneer that I laminated to thin EI rosewood with epoxy. The two side pieces were glued in a Phi shaped form. The back was laminated, joined, then the EI rosewood layer was thinned to the desired tap response.
The soundboard is Carpathian spruce, bound in flex strip abalone. The rosette is Brazilian rosewood with spirals of abalone, which are scrap cut-offs from curved rosette abalone strips.
Curly maple binding, ebony headplate and fingerboard, Brazilian rosewood bridge, and french polish finish.
Completed in 2012
Voicing and Construction
Top bracing has radial lower tone bars. Back bracing also has radial bracing which facilitates tap tuning.
Top was initially @ 2 mm, back @ 2.3 mm. After completing the guitar, I decided to reduce the perimeter of the top to 1.8mm.
Resonances:
Top monopole 182 , thinned to 172 Hz
Cross dipole 352. thinned to 301 Hz
Long dipole 376, thinned to 371 Hz
Back 214 Hz
Air 94 Hz.