A network for historic guitars and vihuelas

thickness of back staves in baroque vaulted-back guitars

Hello, I am delighted to join the EGV community !
Do you have any recommandations for the thickness of back staves in vaulted-back baroque guitars ? The museum instruments seem to have rather thick staves (2.5 to 3.0 mm) when fluted, however could we work some maple or rosewood staves as thin as lute ribs, down to 1.5 mm or so, when not fluted ? Would the vaulted back be strong enough (assuming the joints are reinforced with paper/parchment/fabric) with such thin staves ? Thanks for any views/recommandations. Kind regards

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Permalink Reply by Nicolas Eterradossi on January 2, 2017 at 18:41

Best wishes for 2017 to the EGV community.

Actually I had not read for quite a long time Peter Forrester's paper "XVIIth century guitar woodwork", published in FOMRHI quarterly (Julyt 1987) n°48 pp 40-48, which paper happens to contain the answer to my question : "the Italian 'bombé' backs are thin, around 1-1.2mm in ivory, ebony and the red wood used by Sellas".

Kind regards

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Permalink Reply by Monica Hall on January 2, 2017 at 19:19

That's interesting to know. Thanks for sharing the information with us.

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Permalink Reply by Antonio Hernández on January 8, 2017 at 2:32

Hello Nicolas

Could you indicate to what instruments are you referring to?

Regards

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Permalink Reply by Nicolas Eterradossi on January 8, 2017 at 12:50

Hello Antonio

thank you for your enquiry. I am interested in Italian baroque guitars with a vaulted back, from the first half of the XVIIth century. Peter Forrester's paper in volume 48 of FOMRHI discusses both flat- and vaulted-back XVIIth c. baroque guitars, from French, Italian or German origin. The instruments discussed are listed in the paper. You can access it online with the link = http://www.fomrhi.org/uploads/bulletins/Fomrhi-048.pdf