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Ever have to make a 5 piece belly? I bought a long board of perfectly quartered Sitka. All rough. I cut 3 pieces to make a 3 piece for an arch top. I wondered what it looked like planed. A large color variance that I didn't see at all. I had to make a cello bass bar, and none of my regular stock is long enough. This stock is cut 1/2" shorter than I wanted, and should be just tall enough. Close enough. The board on the right had a very white area that wouldn't work at all. I cut 11mm off, It still showed, so I cut another bass bar off.

Then I had to cut the two others where the color shifted, so I could get the grain going all the same way. I didn't want to flip them in case the grain decided to be trouble. It looks very straight.

This is what I came up with. Not perfect, but it looks reasonable. I cut the close to the center Cherry back too. It was wide enough to cut the ribs on the side, but the center of the piece was not in the right place for a 2 one piece violas, but like this it will work great for an arch top. It has some striping too. They will go together nice.

I have a lot of things kitted up now.

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Why be normal?

Viols da gamba often used 5-piece tops in the larger sizes. The center piece, and the two next to it, were sometimes cut to 5mm thick or so, bent, and joined at angles to approximate the arch. Only the two outer pieces were wedges. I've read that some of the old instruments still have scorch marks on the inside of the pieces that were bent. Smaller members of the family could have three-piece tops, with a bent center joined to wedges.

A buddy of mine had probably the best sounding D18 I ever heard. It was a wartime model with the ebony reinforcement in the neck due to metal shortages. It also came from the factory with a 4 piece top--I guess they were using what they had at the time. Great guitar.

Dave

I have read that many of Torres' guitars have 3,4,or 5 piece non-bookmatched tops. I wonder if anyone would buy them if he made them today?

Ask Jose Romanillos who is selling $10k plus guitars made out of 3,4,5 piece tops. He has his reasons for doing it which is very interesting. In short, if I can paraphrase, take the best sections of what ever wood you have on hand, join them, and make a guitar top. Book matching is basically a cultural thing not what actually makes a great guitar.

Yeah I believe I have read that also. Correct me if I’m wrong but I swear I saw him in a documentary or something basically insinuate tap tone is buffoonery, hey I know sorry in advance

There is a documentary out there on him. I cannot quite remember what his method was for selecting the specific sections of the top wood.

Romanillos is probably one of the few people who could get away with making guitars with unmatched tops. He was probably influenced by what Torres did, considering he wrote the book on him.