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I don't think it matters. There might be, and likely is, a formula to consistently getting the "response" a player wants.

What is the definition of response? When I do this, it does that!

It is a very good term to persuade a buyer or gather guitar lust in a marketing tool. It is clever.

Lightly built is the sibling of responsive and has no definition by itself. It is a description to persuade similar to "fine wine". And it usually differentiates between factory made and us.

If the factory advertises a lightly built instrument it is an invitation to imagine it falling apart. But if an individual and highly skilled builder describes as lightly built then it can be taken to mean it won't fall apart despite being lightly built.

Here is MY definition of a good instrument in almost every category. Light in weight yet meeting all the other criteria to make it great.




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Ken

Lots of really good sounding old Gibsons are remarkably light. Also, one thing often said about Stradivarius' violins is that he used unusually light wood for linings and end blocks. Hopefully the plan you have has accurate small dimensions for the blocks and linings. Equally important would be selecting less dense wood. They knew how to make them light but durable at Gibson from the thirties to the late fifties. I expect that I will learn some secrets if I ever have one to take apart and repair. A friend who I have fixed other guitars for has an old light Kalamazoo (made by Gibson), maybe she'll let me be the one to fix the top cracks.

fwiw, strad used sodium silicate to harden his plates thus allowing him to make them thinner and lighter and those old kalamazoos had no truss rods and were ladder braced.

i have a 36' KG14 and the wood is so old it seems pertrified and so does the finish.