BACK/SIDES

The back and sides of the guitar are often undervalued as
a contributing factor in the overall sound of the guitar.  The guitar
works much like a speaker.  It is a moving membrane (speaker cone
vs. soundboard) suspended by a rigid frame.  The guitar works as a
unit and the whole is greater than the sum of its components. 
Everything must work together. 
The primary purpose of the sides is to suspend the soundboard and
prevent energy from getting absorbed into other parts of the instrument .  The sides of my guitars are laminated with instrument-grade wood which makes them much stiffer and stronger than a solid piece of wood. This allows the guitar to function more efficiently and decreases energy loss into the sides.  Though it is laminated, it is important to distinquish this from other "laminated" instruments. Most low quality laminated instruments use very poor quality wood for their laminates and use species that would not generally be used in guitar construction. Similarly, many entry-level instruments are glued with non-laminate grade adhesive which can be very soft and will actually absorb sound/vibration. I use a very strong structural adhesive that is specifically formulated for laminating. Once constructed the sides are nearly indestructable. I only use species that would normally be used in guitar construction (e.g. brazilian rosewood, indian rosewood, macassar ebony, maple, etc.). To further stiffen the sides I use solid linings (the thin piece of wood on the inside of the guitar that joins the sides with the top and back) instead of kerfed linings commonly found in other instruments. The laminating process if much more labor intensive but well worth the effort.
The back of the guitar serves to reflect sound waves emitted from
the soundboard.  If the back of the guitar is not rigid the sound waves
will be absorbed by the back and will not be reflected efficiently.  The
result will be a guitar that is lacking in projection and clarity. 
            The doming of the back aims to eliminate standing waves.  A standing
wave occurs when the initial wave created by the soundboard interferes
 positively or negatively  with the resultant wave reflected from the
back.  The result of a standing wave could be a dead or amplified note,
depending on how the waves interact.  I aim to have a very rigid back
that will reflect energy efficiently and a pronounced arch to reduce
 the interference of initial and resultant waves. The back is laminated and there are no internal braces to interfere with the sound. I have found the tap tone of my laminated backs to be better than even the highest quality solid backs. It sounds counterintuitive but it is true. The back looks more like the back of a cello than a guitar with a very pronounced arched which serves to direct the waves toward the soundhole. The result is a much more immediate sound that responds easily to the player's attack.