Official Luthiers Forum!

I learned the wobble technique from Kent too, it does work.
I have have as thin as .050 on a steel string test guitar with Carbon fiber bracing long ago. I learned somethings about "just rightness" if you will. I removed the top after a few months as I just didn't like it.
Here's a photo

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Leaving a little more wood in the top often makes them sound better - but not as loud. Finding the balance between sound quality and sound volume is what I work toward. I have dabbled in some of the analytical methods, but at this point I still mostly rely on my ears and fingertips and the way the wood responds to being flexed in various ways.
I think a certain variation in quality needs to be accepted by makers. Not all Stradivarius violins are equal. Some are better than others (most are pretty good!<g>) We want our next instrument to be better than the last, but at some point our next simply becomes our "next". It is then that you can build with a relaxed attitude and the confidence that the finished product will be as Robert Lundberg put it "good enough".

For me, I don't worry so much about the long grain stiffness, more the cross grain. I find floppier cross grain goes great on the smaller sizes like O and OO and stiffer tops on OM and OOO. But that's just me in general-some restrictions apply, see store for details, not available in all areas...........

I've started doing the 'sheet metal' test, and for me it makes enough sense that I can call top-tuning done and move along. Also mark the spot I'm holding onto so I always hold the top in the same spot.

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Peter Havriluk