idmicheal

Any progress?

Usually when I carve out the inside I'll use a bigger, maybe like 13/32th, and then just whack a lot of material out with a chisel. But the particular piece of wood plays a huge factor in that. I started carving out the inside of the top I'm working on right now with a finger plane and it's such a fine-grained piece that I had to stop myself because I realized I was getting really thin. So I then used the frill press and found that I was right at 1/4", which is where I usually do my tops before I cut out f-holes. But I like your recurve; it's really clean. That is something I tend to struggle with.

I was just carving a top and thought I'd better check out how this is coming Did you just use really thin strips of maple for the inlay?

That taper is awesome! I've never really though about that, but I'm really interested to see how that turns out. How'd that poplar bend?

Pictures! Pictures! :overhere

Man, it's like a wood smorgasbord! By my count you'll have 6 different types of wood in this build, not counting stuff like linings. You'll surely have some major tone voodoo going on So what are you going to use those saws for?

Seriously! And we could make an organized run on GOTM and flood it with archtops I don't know if he still lurks around, but John_Abbett had this thread http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=42672 a while back and he was really generous with answering my questions. It was a really informative thread when I just started.

What wood are you using?

Yeah, it must just be the laminate over the truss rod

I've done both. Lately I've been using parallel bracing (tone bars) because I've been putting pickups in them, and I like the extra strength they provide when I have to route the top for a pickup. But I have done x-bracing. It was on my first guitar though, and after having gained more experience I know that I carved the top way too thickly on it, so I can't really give a legitimate comparison as to how x-bracing and parallel bracing compare sonically. I'd trust Benedetto's description. Have you decided how you'll brace yours? Do you have some of the smaller finger planes? I only have the largest (47mm body, 18mm blade) and sometimes I have trouble getting in really far down in the waist area and usually do the last littlbe bit with scrapers. I'm thinking of picking up one of the smaller planes though.

Are you going with a maple fingerboard, or there some other reason why the purple-heart laminates don't show on the front?

Looking good man. I'm glad more people are picking up archtops. I love carving too, but for my first two I just had an Ibex finger plane. Needless to say I ended up making myself a Krenov-style scrub plane. Your carve is looking good. I love the last few plane strokes when the curve starts to meld into the planed edges Good job leveling the bottom surface really well. My first couple I just thought "Nah, I'm going to carve all of that out anyway, I don't need to worry about leveling!" Yeah... That caused lots of headaches. Tell me what you think of that Stika. I used that on my first one and have been using European since. I think the European is easier to carve. It seems like the grain isn't quite as stiff. Keep it up and post often!

Yep, that's kinda how it goes. I love doing stuff by hand, it just feels so much better, and it's quieter I'd love to see a full build thread on the next one if you're so inclined. It's always great to see how other people do things, especially if you do it mostly be hand.

Well after some complications, it plays good. I had a brass nut on the truss rod which stripped out on the threads I had cut. Apparently my threading die cuts the threads steep and narrow, and the brass nut couldn't take the tension and stripped out. So I put a steel nut in and the tech I took it to was able to get everything playing really good. It's really loud acoustically, considering how thin it is. It can almost project as well as my 2 3/4" thick Gretsch. It sounds very Jazzy. Who'da thunk?

That is great! Was it a commission, or did you just go with an idea? The curves in the top are impressive! How did you get them so smooth with no tear-out or feathering? I haven't been around for a few months, too busy building, buy I'm really glad I spotted this one. Not too many of us archtop guys