X500 top

[Brad Little]

Don't have Hans' book handy, so curious, is the top solid on the X500? If so pressed or carved?

 

[AcornHouse]

It’s a pressed laminate. Only the X-700, A-350, A-500, and AA are carved tops, IIRC. (And some custom ones, I believe.)

 

[Brad Little]

It’s a pressed laminate. Only the X-700, A-350, A-500, and AA are carved tops, IIRC. (And some custom ones, I believe.)

Thought so, but somebody on another list said solid, pressed top

 

[SFIV1967]

Thought so, but somebody on another list said solid, pressed top

Same like some still claim 50ies Aristocrats have solid spruce tops...but they are also laminated.
Ralf

 

[Jeff Haddad]

Would tops of any guitars be both solid and pressed? It seems like a solid top would be carved and pressed would only be laminate.

 

[bobouz]

Would tops of any guitars be both solid and pressed? It seems like a solid top would be carved and pressed would only be laminate.

Oh yes, historically they've been seen often on acoustic archtop models. Even today, Guild manufactures the A-150 Savoy archtop (NS series) with a solid-spruce pressed top. Many moons ago I owned a 1948 Gibson L-48 archtop with a solid-mahogany pressed top. Kay & Harmony archtops also sometimes had solid-spruce pressed tops (owned a few of those, too!).

 

[GGJaguar]

Agree with bobouz. I have a K-21 with a solid top that is pressed into shape (sounds really good, too). I also had a Gretsch Synchromatic 400 made by Terada that had a solid, pressed top (sounded okay). I think Gibson even recently started pressing solid tops although in their marketing-speak they call them "formed tops". Their ad copy is pretty funny as it contradicts all their previous marketing efforts about how great carved tops are: This full-sized archtop is inch for inch the descendant of the legendary Gibson archtops of the 1930s, '40s and '50s, yet it surpasses even that lofty standard by employing a proprietary new Solid Formed™ spruce top and maple back, in which the grain of the wood is redirected into the arched shape, rather than severed as in traditional carving. The result is an elegant hollowbody archtop made from solid tonewoods, yet with a richer and more pronounced tone that lives and breathes like nothing you've ever experienced.