Adding a Veneer Wood Top
by Brian Calvert
Adding The Beauty of a Flame Maple or Quilted Maple top is really not as hard as most people think unless of course your taking about a really thick one. First of all what you need are just the basic's in tools as picture below on the left, plus a cheap brush and a disposable cup filled with water to keep the brush from drying out between sides. This tutorial is based on using veneer which can be purchased through many different wood suppliers in the Library section of this web site. It is generally available measuring only 1/20" thick and very flexible.
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First of all match up you two pieces of veneer if your going for the book matched look and tape them together with your masking tape as pictured above on the right. Then lay your guitar body on top as pictured below on the left and center it along the seam in the middle. Draw a line around the body with your pen or pencil about 3/4" all around the outside. Allow a little more around the curve of the arm rest area located on the top bout of your guitars body.
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Keeping a steady hand and using a fresh exacto knife blade trim along the line which you just made and save the larger pieces of veneer as test wood for later when your experimenting for your finish. With your body laying on top of the veneer draw a line across the two pieces at the base of your body about 2-3" long for reference later. Make sure before drawing it though that your body is centered on the veneer. Now find and draw a line down the center of your guitar body and place a piece of masking tape on the side of the line closest to the top of the body as if you were playing the guitar as pictured below on the left.
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Now separate the two pieces of veneer and line up the smaller piece on top of the body making sure your little guideline mark is right against the bottom of the body and the veneer is pressed up against the masking tape which is running down the middle as pictured above on the right. Take a little masking tape and tape the veneer to the body in the middle in a way that it hinges on the center line as show below on the left.
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Gather up your cheap brush and your wood glue ( I recommend Titebond II ) and spread a nice even coat of glue on both surfaces. I always place a piece of newspaper or wax paper between the veneer and the other side of the body to avoid messy drips from happening as pictured above on the right. Now it's time to get busy and get board. Flip the veneer over on to the body and make sure that it stays right on the line you drew down the center as pictured below on the left. At this point the center line is the most important and yes the veneer is probably starting to wave or curl on you.
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Now flip the body over and place your bag of (gravel,small pebbles or sand) whatever on it to help pin the body down onto the veneer while the glue is drying as pictured above on the right. Before you ask, I generally use a 50 LB bag of sand but this time being so far from the beach opted to purchase a bag of gravel instead because it weighed the most and cost the least. Now it is time to wait about 3 hours before doing anything else. After the glue has cured take off the weight bag and score the edges continuously with a fresh tipped blade until the excess which you left before falls of completely.
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Now flip the body over and start to carve out the cavity carefully. I usually only cut on the down stroke and try my best to lean the tip of the blade against the edge of where ever I am carving. Do not try or worry about taking off big pieces at this point just take your time and be careful, as you can see above on the right I basically chip away till I can trim along the edge. When your finished carving out all of the cavity's take the other piece of veneer and line up your pen/pencil mark on the outside bottom of the body and press the rest of the edge up against the veneer which is already mounted as pictured below on the left. Then of course tape it to the other piece to hold it in place.
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Before you get started on this part of attaching your top, separate and redistribute the substrate you have chosen as a weight to hold down the top or the body into three or more parts. I personally use the plastic grocery bags you get at the supermarket and double them for this part. Once again it is time to spread out your glue on both surfaces as pictured above on the right. One BIG thing to keep in mind at this point is that it is imperative that you clear as much water off your brush before starting this process. (Think of it this way, WATER IS THE WORST THING THAT YOU CAN PUT ON THIS BODY AT THIS POINT!
I'll explain later...........
Once you have spread the glue around evenly Place the largest of your weight bags along the bottom of the body and let it hold down the curve of the arm rest for you as the veneer bends to conform. Place the smaller of the the three on the top area around the upper horn and neck pocket and the third (plus 4th if you made it) on top to generally just help add weight. Keep in mind this time we did not flip the body face down but rather left it face up so that the veneer could be bent into place on the contour as pictured below on the left.
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If your nervous about the top moving when you have placed the bags on top of it, go ahead and pull them off after about 6-10 minutes to check and realign the veneer if you think it may have slipped while you were placing the weights on. After 6-10 minutes the wood glue is getting read to really set but with some minor pressure you can slide the veneer around,just be quick as you really want the weight on it. After 3 hours take off the weights and as pictured above on the right your top is almost complete. Flip the body over and score the edges once again with your exacto blade as pictured below on the left. If the blade starts to drag replace it ( I used 4 fresh blades on this project).
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Trim out the rest of the cavity's just like you did before and your finished just as the body pictured above on the right!.
Now if you like you can take a sanding block and smooth out the edges using a fine grit such as 320 but lets first talk about water as I mentioned earlier. Chances are your going to stain the wood before you seal it with sanding sealer. This is fine but you might experience bubbles popping up from the veneer separating from the wood of the body. Don't freak out just continue on about staining and when your finished let the stain completely dry ( over night in an air conditioned area would be best). The problem is that water allows the wood to swell and separate from the glue if left unsealed. What you need to do to correct this problem if it should occur to your project is to let it completely dry, then lay a sheet of aluminum foil over it and spot bake the veneer back down against the body with an ordinary household iron set just hot enough that if you tap it with spit on the end of your finger it sizzles and evaporates ( remember to remove finger quickly, kids don't try this without your parents permission). Also if you need to completly abort the veneer top adding enough heat will loosen the glue to where you can peel it off in very lagre pieces.