New member intro

[filippo.ariani]

Hi, I'm Filippo, from Florence, Italy, amateur luthier. I registered as a member since 2019, but I had had to suspend all activites in the past three years. Now I have started with guitars again, so I finally introduce myself.
I read the Gore / Gilet book, which gave me a lot of information and new ideas. Because millions of people work wood better than me, I just play making guitars with carbon composite boards. Hoping to be able to make something lighter, more reactive and predictable than wood. Which I haven't been able to do for now.
As you can see from the photo (a new top inserted on a cheap Chinese guitar) I don't bother looking for traditional aesthetic solutions

[Mark McLean]

Hi Filippo, welcome to the forum.
The CF top certainly looks spectacular, and the pinless bridge design is cool. Tell us a bit more about the CF material. Is it made in a solid sheet? How thick, and how do you brace it? I would love to see some pictures as you are building. We like seeing some new ideas around here, so show us more.
Cheers
Mark

[seeaxe]

+1, welcome!!

Would love to see more detail of your build. I have used CF for truss rod/neck reinforcement and have one falcate braced with CF tow so I use it but not like you do!!

Different is always interesting.

Cheers from NZ

[filippo.ariani]

Hello, the CF soundboard is a double top, CF-honeycomb-CF, thicknesses about 0.2mm – 3mm – 0.2mm.
This guitar is a half-failed attempt to reduce internal damping. A lot of literature about composite materials in lutherie concerns attempts to replicate the combination of high strength and medium damping of spruce. For that purpose, I’d better buy a good wooden guitar and spend time playing… So I decided to hear what came out with a LOW damping material, hoping for a longer sustain.
At that time, I had not yet read the Gore-Gilet book, so I made two bad choices. First, I used a 5022 aluminum honeycomb for low damping, but it is much heavier than a nomex core. Second, I used a conventional kerfed lining, so losing energy towards the sides.
At end, it sounds quite similar to the wooden dreadnoughts of my friends.
Previously I also made an all-solid 0.6mm CF top, lattice braced, but it was very heavy and not good sounding.
Now, after reading the book(s) I am finishing a CF-nomex-CF guitar, with super-rigid lining. At first plucks, it seems better for sustain. Maybe the reduction of energy losses, made possible by the discontinuity at the edges, exceeds the higher losses for internal damping in the nomex core. When finished, I will post spectrograms and so on.

[gtrboy77]

Hi Fillipo,

I’m new here too. I didn’t know anyone made CF honeycomb double tops. What is your source? Also, how did you do any bracing inside the top? X-brace?