Construction Question

Jazzaferri

Pliage is the process of pre - bending the soundboard (and I would assume the back if pertinent) before attaching the braces. There appear to be several different methods of shaping the top before attaching to the braces.

If the soundboard is shaped by gluing it to shaped braces this is NOT pliage. Michael Dunn for instance does not use pliage. From discussions with Michael he doesn't use it however it does make for a strong stiff top.

frater

Let's be clear: there are a lot of guitars out there sounding great without the pliage (and some that don't sound so great even with the pliage!) ... but original Selmer used it. So if the goal is to replicate that sound (which is not what Dunn is after) , it's pretty obvious to me that incorporating the pliage is a priority. Then, you must be able to do it RIGHT and that's a horse of a different colour...

MichaelHorowitz

What I've noticed is that guitars that have a real pliage (vintage Selmer, Dupont VR, Bob Holo, Barault, etc) have a very fast, springy attack. You barely touch the string and the notes pop out. Guitars with forced tops (nearly everything else including Favinos, all other Duponts, etc) have a higher threshold and require a bit more force before the note sounds.

I'm not entirely sure were Busato falls in the pliage/forced top spectrum as I believe they were forced, but radically so. They are about the most extreme bent tops out there, and they essentially replicate the look and sound of a pliage done with a hot iron ala Selmer. Both Busatos and Selmers have the bridge sitting on the apex of the top. The bombe is just huge on these guitars, like a mountain! Just about every other guitar has the bridge sitting on the downward slope, with the apex being closer to the sound hole. Forced tops usually have a much more gentle bend...

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Jazzaferri

Michael

While I haven't had nearly as much experience with a broad range of guitars I have to say that they don't get any more responsive than either of my Dunn's, neither of which has a pliage top.