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I've seen LOTS of back and forth over solid vs laminate back and sides. I tend to side with those that think that you can do excellent laminated back and side guitars that can be virtually indistinguishable from their solid counterparts all long as you build them equally otherwise. I think a lot of laminate back and sides seem to suffer in other areas because there's some cost cutting going on. But Yamaha produces amazing laminate B&S guitars, well amazing guitars overall. But they don't seem to cut too many corners on their laminate back and sides. And if you drop in bone nut and saddle tonewise, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference with their all solid counterparts.
Anyways, all of that to say, that while there's lots of back and forth over laminating the back and sides and whether you can get the equal tone, what about a laminated top. Now part of the problem is that a laminate is not a laminate is not a laminate. Companies do very different things when they produce guitar parts that all get called laminates.
Lamination is the technique/process of manufacturing a material in multiple layers, so that the composite material achieves improved strength, stability, sound insulation, appearance or other properties from the use of differing materials. A laminate is a permanently assembled object by heat, pressure, welding, or adhesives.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamination
Eastman produces their double top guitars, which in my mind is unmistakably a fancy laminated top. Two pieces of wood sandwiching another layer. Not sure I've seen any other company making a laminated top with solid back and sides.
Still, it seems like they are not great sellers, probably because there's significant market confusion about what they are buying. Any guitar 'expert' will tell you that the one thing you want in a guitar is a solid top. But from the reviews I've seen, folks think the DT models sound quite good. I wonder if Eastman is the exception that proves the rule.
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