"Dual Thickness" carved archtop by Slaman

[Dean_G]

Hi ,
I have an archtop built by Slaman in 2005… It was and is kind of my dream archtop and it was built largely on the idea of Howard Roberts' "Black Guitar" that was essentially a highly customized ES150 he had got from Herb Ellis. There are significant differences with mine of course as we discussed many details that I wanted or that Slaman suggested at the time.
One of those is the carved top (back and sides are laminate). At that time he was creating some of his instruments with what he called a dual thickness top where the main carved part is sort of the belly/lower part and the upper bout area is left quite thick. The main acoustic resonance is from the center carved and tuned portion. The intent was for a working electric guitar but the acoustic sound, while not loud is extremely lovely to my ears and the upper registers ring with a nice sustain.
I am not a guitar builder, but I haven't come across any reference to this kind of carving construction elsewhere, nor any longer on Slaman's website although there's a picture of a model he calls a Jazz compact" which shows an in process top that is of the dual thickness.
For those of you who are into archtop building or knowledgeable about it, is this something other makers also do or is it an earlier Slaman thing? It seems the focus for awhile has been more reproductions of different Gibson models and such. I've attached photos. Please check it as thought this could be of interest here.

[Skip Ellis]

I seem to remember years ago reading where Merle Travis had Gibson build one of his Super 400s in a similar manner - only the outside of the top was carved and the inside left flat or only partially carved, somewhat like your Slaman. I think he was trying to reduce feedback and since it was really an electric guitar, he didn't care much about the acoustic qualities. I'll see if I can find out more about it.

[RJVB]

Why not contact Daniel himself? He's still active and replies to his emails - he seems to be the kind of guy who'll be happy to hear from one of his babies, and to tell you anything he remembers of them.

[Dean_G]

Why not contact Daniel himself? He's still active and replies to his emails - he seems to be the kind of guy who'll be happy to hear from one of his babies, and to tell you anything he remembers of them.

This is true, Daniel is a great guy and I have talked to him through the years. I was primarily interested in sharing this here and curious if other builders have used this technique. Just for discussion really. I have no concerns about it personally, it's exceeded all expectations I had 20 years ago.

[Skip Ellis]

I reached out to Eddie Pennington who's the 'go-to' guy for anything Merle Travis and he sent me the following:

"Yes Gibson made it for him with his ideas . It has an inch top with the outside carved in some beautiful flammed maple. Merle came up with the idea that an electric guitar would sustain better if the top was solid and drew it out for Paul Bigsby for the first solid body guitar. I have a 400 with the same top that H G Leach made for me and I used to play it a lot. I have dowel rods in my other arch tops and that works as good as the heavy top. I have two good size dowels on each side of my guitar under the bridge"

I think Eddie is mostly playing a Heritage Super 400 type thing these days.

[bluenote61]

I was primarily interested in sharing this here and curious if other builders have used this technique.

Different thickness over the top is well known by archtop builders especially for guitars which will also be played amplified. If done so, mostly the area around the bridge will be the thinner portion due to acoustic sound whereas the area around the neck will be thicker which gives the PU a fatter sound and is more resistant to feedback.

[Dean_G]

I reached out to Eddie Pennington who's the 'go-to' guy for anything Merle Travis and he sent me the following:

". . . . I have dowel rods in my other arch tops and that works as good as the heavy top. I have two good size dowels on each side of my guitar under the bridge"

I think Eddie is mostly playing a Heritage Super 400 type thing these days.

I did something like that with an old Lyle archtop adding sound posts to try an tighten up the somewhat woofy sound. I was playing with a very loud drummer at the time and it helped a lot.

Thanks Skip, for checking with Eddie Pennington, interesting info. I would imagine a large 400 size archtop carved thick would be pretty heavy wouldn't it?

[Dean_G]

Different thickness over the top is well known by archtop builders especially for guitars which will also be played amplified. If done so, mostly the area around the bridge will be the thinner portion due to acoustic sound whereas the area around the neck will be thicker which gives the PU a fatter sound and is more resistant to feedback.

That is definitely the case here, feedback is no problem. The guitar is also surprisingly light at just over 5 lbs with the Lollar CC pickup. It lacks the long magnets of the originals and is lighter.