Guitar #3 - Electric Hollowbody With An Arched Top

[pauliemc]

Thats some nice figuring you have there. Not too much so its over the top, just about spot on for the design i rekon.

[Geoff St. Germaine]

Today we got all of the frets installed. We used the fret nipper to trim the fret tang from the ends of the frets and the thing worked extremely well.

The neck pocket is complete.

Next up is carving the neck and then it will be time to glue it in.

[Anthony]

Sweet baby jesus, it's beautiful. I want it. Ill trade you a pretty good kidney for it.

[Geoff St. Germaine]

Thanks Anthony! Fortunately, I have healthy kidneys.

[Geoff St. Germaine]

I got to my favorite part of the build - neck carving.

With all of my other builds, basses included, I've always gone for a shallow C profile. With this one, I'm trying about a modified V profile, as per the Martin D-18CW. I have to say that after getting it done, it is a very comfortable profile. Despite all the meat in the center of the neck, the V with the thinner neck at the sides feels like it should be quite fast.

I had neck profiles to work from, so I made the profile correct at the three locations I had diagrams for and then simply connected the spots and blended the heel into it.

I matched things up with my contour gauge.

I started with the profile at the 1st fret.

I carved the three locations with a rasp.

Next up was the heel. There's a lot to remove here.

This was mostly done with a straight gouge and a chisel to knock off some of the bigger spots.

Once that was done I sanded it with 120 and it should be ready for gluing. I later found two spots near the heel that are slightly raised, so I'll have to touch those up. You can see them highlighted with pencil.

I had to hold it into the pocket so see how it would look with the body.

[bob123]

gorgeous!!!

[Geoff St. Germaine]

It's glued up into one piece now. I away for another week, so no progress until this weekend.

I've roughed out the pickup cavities. I had a template for the cavities, but it's a little on the large side for the pickup rings I have for this guitar, so I'll make up a new one when I get back.

Here it is as one piece with the pickup cavities hogged out.

[ScottR]

This is going to be gorgeous Geoff.

There is one small adjustment I'd make if it were mine though. I'd work some small curves into the sides of the F-holes. Your design is all about smooth curves and flowing lines. The stark straight lines of the F-holes stop the visual flow, to me anyway. I think if you just added a little curvature the side walls of them they'd complement the overall design better.

My .02.

SR

[Prostheta]

It's a difficult one at this stage I think Scott. I would put my faith into Geoff's vision :-)

The ultra-slim waist is a severe curve which in some ways might play in with the severe angle of the f-hole. That and the line of the controls. I see the side angles of a trapeze marrying very well against the rear angles of the f-holes also.

[ScottR]

From what we've seen, putting my faith in Geoff's vision is a very safe place to put it. He's shown some beautiful work. The points you make about the line of controls and trapeze angles are valid. I was just thinking along the lines of adding some flair to the middle points in the F-holes, nothing drastic. The lines of the F-holes wouldn't change or move at all....other than to bcome gentle curves instead of straight lines.

And that's just what it's saying to me. It's probably saying something else to others...and what it says to Geoff is the only thing that counts!

SR

[Prostheta]

Hmm. It's always a difficult one. In many ways, f-holes are just mashed onto guitars from that of the violin family. They have far more in the body shape, details and proportions which complement to movement and changes in direction which a traditional f-hole has. At least in my opinion. The outline of most guitars are far simpler which alters the balance. The extreme of course is the thinline Tele which sticks out like a Polar bear's nose in snow. A dyed-in-the-wool traditional f-hole on an asymmetrical modern potato shape.

Just sounding off. I think f-holes demand more thought than most people give them which both yourself and Geoff are doing. Good to see something different either way.

[Geoff St. Germaine]

Thanks for the compliments guys. I think my vision is a little myopic sometimes, though. Sometimes more reactionary than well planned.

When I originally laid this guitar out with my buddy, it wound up being his call on the f-holes. I had a few templates, including a more curved one, similar to what Framus often used or Benedetto's La Venezia. My buddy went for the more angled one. I thought they both worked in different ways, and I think that the discussion you two have had reinforces that for me.

The two archtops I'll be building following my prototype will have more curved f-holes. I'm also likely going to build a couple of follow up instruments to this one and we'll have to see how the design evolves, as I already have some changes planned.

[Prostheta]

Design doesn't have to be completely premeditated....reactionary design decisions are just as relevant and those that have been laboured over, sometimes moreso sometimes less.

I like traditional f-holes and am using them on a couple of builds I plan to do once my work commitments level out. I've been playing with them in CAD, tweaking them a hell of a lot. The little details (as Scott illustrates) can be quite instrumental in how the f-holes look. I very much like the style I hammered out as a mix from various research examples where there is a small "over scroll" at the ends where the binding actually kisses the outer edge. I see f-holes both as a negative space and a positive space, so the shape left in the Maple is another design attribute to balance out with the rest of the body.

Sorry - not meaning to hijack. I enjoy design decision chats.

[ScottR]

Well there you go, the end user/customer trumps all. I'm looking forward to seeing the end product on this Geoff.

Pros, that is beautifully designed and executed.

SR

[Geoff St. Germaine]

That looks great Pros. I've seen some archtops with the f holes cut to be 3 pieces so that they close up at each scroll. I thought it looked neat, but the lack of a continuous shape looked a little off. What you have there fixes that concern by having the binding close up, and since the binding is light, like the maple, it retains a little subtlety.

I enjoy the design discussions, especially since I'm several thousand miles away from being able to make any progress on any of my builds.

[Prostheta]

Yeah, I feel that way when I have work commitments taking all my time and concentration from my important guitar work. :-)

I have an RD bass to pick back up and my own hollowbodies to crack on with. Perhaps if I can locate a suitable chunk of figured Birch for a natural-finished top I will revisit that f-hole design. I do like it very much. A complete pain to glue up though!

[Geoff St. Germaine]

Yeah, I agree with you there. Binding the holes on my prototype was a big pain. I was using 0.090" ABS plastic and on the other ones it will be much thinner plastic and wood fiber purfling, so it should be easier to bend.