guitar_player

That was a guitar top? It sounded like a drum, that was surprisingly vibrant.

Most people have the misconception tap tone is a tone. maybe they should have renamed it.

Nice link. I believe he is taping finished tops including braces as that is when you tune a top and can get tone like that. Not mentioned in the broadcast.

Yes that's what I was thinking too, I was under the impression in the beginning that it was just the wood but before bracing it sounds nothing like that.

I bought wire from stew once.

*ONCE*

What do they do? *Straighten the wire* before they sell it to try and get you to buy their uber expensive fret bender? What kind of obvious scam is that?

Most manufacturers coil their wire in the first place- I've never seen straight wire *ANYWHERE* else. I will not order ***ANYTHING*** from stew if I can help it.

I use Dunlop wire from a "secret" source Matt probably knows about... Dunlop wire comes coiled which works well for a 12" radius.

Might want to check Grizzly. I've seen pics of the wire which was obviously coiled by the manufacturer- give it a try maybe- it's probably dunlop -dunno- (but not who I got my stash from.)

I wouldn't buy the Grizzly wire there was a post a little while ago about it being very soft compared to other wire for the price I wasn't very surprised, nothing against Grizzly though their a great company you just get what you pay for.

I had that problem once with a stemac preslotted board and fretwire. I now use warmoth's fretwire mostly because it's cheaper (a pack for one guitar will almost do 2) and have never had any problems with it.

It's possible especially if you use dowels instead of bolts if your painting no one will know. But why? If it's a decent fit there will be little to no difference plus you may need to shim the neck or replace it some time.

That's the cheapest I've seen but it doesn't even say what radius it is though, I made my own though.

I'm in southern New Hampshire and am in the same situation as you. I don't know weather you are building electrics or acoustics because acoustics are much more important to have humidity control around. I work in an insulated shop but it's only heated when I'm working. For electrics I really wouldn't worry too much about it. During the winter it's not as big of a deal as in the summer, if I build any acoustics this summer I'll probably buy a dehumidifier as of right now I am keeping the parts upstairs and only bringing them down when I work.

I was intimidated by the whole radius sound board when i first thought of building an acoustic. So much in fact that i decided to buiild an electric first. Once i got around to doing my acoustic, i was suprised at how unbelievably easy it was to do (much easier than spelling unbelievably correctly). There are alot of tutorials on radius dish making out there.

Yeah the radius takes maybe another hour and half of work and it's really just sanding the braces and lining. Only bad part is making the dishes but that doesn't take too long. Building acoustics are much more involved than electrics but a lot more fun.

For radiusing the linings I use the master templates for the radiuses with some sandpaper double taped on, I like that way better. With the dish I rough out the radius on the braces on a belt sander and clean it up with a piece of sandpaper on the dish. Then I use the dish for the go bar system (which is a great, easy, and cheap way to glue on the braces).

Ok, I have a related question. When you're radiusing a top, do you radius the inside and the outside surfaces? If so, I'm assuming the process it to thin the top, then radius it, then brace it, right? I'm kinda lost on this point.

-Dave

The top starts as a thin bookmatched piece and then the braces are radiused and then glued on and after they're glued on it makes it radiused

Woah woah woah! Light bulb. So you don't actually radius the top. You radius the braces, and then you bend the top over the radiused braces, right? Do you radius all the braces? It seems like it would be hard to bend the top in all four directions at the same time.

Yeah, you do all of them the top is very flexible because of how thin it is. The back only has 4 braces going one way so it's only radiused one way but then the back of the sides are shaped to a taper to radius it the other way too.

Ok, I have a related question. When you're radiusing a top, do you radius the inside and the outside surfaces? If so, I'm assuming the process it to thin the top, then radius it, then brace it, right? I'm kinda lost on this point.

-Dave

The top starts as a thin bookmatched piece and then the braces are radiused and then glued on and after they're glued on it makes it radiused

Too much? Did you determine that by tap tuning?

Too much because I just felt there should have been a little bit more brace left in a few spots but I did get both the top and back to have a great tap tone.

I had to make a new back, I tried gluing it the same way as the soundboard but it didn't work to good so I made a new one and tried using the go bars and it worked great. I made a jig to rout the binding and purfling channels, routed them, routed out the mortise for the neck, made the end piece, chiseled out a spot for it, and glued in the binding, purfling, and end piece.

neck:

gluing on back:

drilling tuner holes:

jig for routing binding and purfling:

binding and purfling channels routed:

slot for end piece:

getting ready to start binding:

all done:

I almost bought some but figured it had to be bad quality at the price. Instead of stewmac's wire you could try warmoth's, you can get 2 guitars fretted minus 2 or 3 frets from one of their one guitar packs. I bought a bunch when I was bought their nut file set.

There are some websites I don't have any of the links though. It would be a good idea to look around MIMF and the library there has tons of info on building acoustics. I would suggest getting some books, the one RDub mentioned is great and Build Your Own Acoustic Guitar by Jonathan Kinkead is great too. I am in the middle of building one now and before I started I bought and read every in print book about it, not that you would have to do that but has been helpful because now I know of many different ways to do things and can find the one I like best.

I talked to a guy today from craigslist who has a 15" Grizzly bandsaw. He measured the cut height and says it's 7.5". That enough for a 15" bookmatch.

I don't know if the wheels are cast iron, but I doubt it. It's a model they don't make anymore.

He's only asking $350. Says he paid $550. He says he barely used it(I'm thinking it was a mid-life crisis purchase).

Do you think I'd be wise to go for it, or will I be kicking myself later that I didn't get the more expensive one with the 10" cut height and the cast iron wheels(I can put it on craiglist later and upgrade too). The other one I'm considering is $895, so you can see my dilemma.

I would go for it $350 is a good deal, unless you see any need to resaw more than a 15" bookmatch, that could be a problem for larger acoustic backs and tops other than that I see no reason it would be fine for any guitarmaking.

I tried a stationary router just like you are thinking of and it din't work good at all the bit kept catching the wood and trying to pull it up so it just made a mess of the wood.

Nice bracing. Were those pre-shaped, or did you do them yourself?

Thanks I did them myself, there were a couple places I carved away a little more than wanted but they came out pretty nice.

Yesterday i shaped the braces on the top and back, today I cut the top races back for the lining, mortised the binding, and glued the top on. I routed the truss rod slot, thicknessed the back of the headstock, and glued on the veneers.

Shaping back braces:

Done:

Soundboard braces done:

Gluing soundboard on:

Thicknessing headstock:

Gluing on headstock veneers:

Gluing braces:

Neck rough cut:

Gluing the rest of the braces and bridge plate on:

Gluing the kerfed lining after shaping the sides:

Soundboard:

Lines drawn for braces:

Braces being glued on:

Laying out neck:

Gluing on head and tail blocks and kerfed lining:

All I've done in the past two days is rough cut the braces and sand a curve into them. Toady I got a lot done. I unclamped the sides from the mold, trimmed off the overhang, got them fitting right in the mold, sanded the back, glued all the braces on to the back, made head and tail blocks, and made all the kerfed lining. Tomorrow I will glue the head and tail block to the sides, shape the back braces and start gluing the soundboard ones.

Back cut out:

Gluing on first brace:

Cutting the kerfed lining:

Kerfed lining done:

Cutting slots for the other braces after shaping the first one:

Rest of the bracing glued on:

Sides in mold:

There is no reason you can't just rout a duplicate of the ones you have, while they're still taped together you can transfer the line onto the new one (you can see the line on the edge of the templates) and then use a ruler to make the line. As long as your carefl it should be in almost exactly the right place. When I got the templates I made copies of the right off and I only use the copies, that way if something slips or something and it accidentley gets routed into I can make myself a new one in 5 or 10 minutes.

Thats looking good GP. Do you have a close bond with your Estwing.....as it's in most of the pics...or is it there in case you get into trouble

Lol, I never even noticed that but it is in almost all the pics, I have a couple of them since there great hammers so that's what I use when I need one for hammering the nails, getting the rosette all the way in, and stuff like that.

Professional brick lol, set up an internet store with them.

I've seen stupider products being flogged online.

That's a pretty nifty rossette routing jig, was it from Stew Mac as well?

Lol

No, I made that in like 10 minutes, I had a piece of template material from stewmac sitting around. It works great though.

The brick still makes me snicker....hehe Good luck on this one

Thanks, I made made an upgrade to the brick though now I wrapped it in tape so it wouldn't crumble on the soft spruce so I guess that makes it like a professional brick or something.

Saturday I glued up the soundboard. Today I glued up the back (same way as front), bent the sides, and inlayed the rosette.

Gluing up the soundboard:

Waiting for pipe to heat up:

Side bent and clamped in mold:

Routing for rosette:

Gluing in rosette:

I wear a respirator, not a dust mask. The type with screw on filters. They're not expensive, more effective than dust masks, you can switch the filters (for paint/finish). And I have no problems with fogging with them.

That's what I use too I hate wearing dust masks they fog up my glasses and it's not like breathing actual air but with a respirator I never have any problems they never fog up my glasses and it's like breathing fresh air plus it's a one time purchase instead of having to use a new dust mask every time I use one. Now I just got to get myself to wear it more.