ratty, impressive vid man! I'm not really tempted to try hickory as backing... I prefer bamboo. I doubt there's any wood that's stronger in tension than boo, It won't surprize me if high quality 'nature's fiberglass' even beats real glass in tensile strength.
this happened on a 130# boo backed massaranduba:
it's still alive! it's a total miracle why it crysalled that much though. Tiller seemed to be perfect, set was really low considered it's drawweight and other variables; 1 1/4" of set, 1" wide max, 76" ntn, rounded belly.
Nick