Juntunen Guitars

I like working with sitka, I'm not sure of how it will sound on an archtop but I didn't have the money for a european spruce top. I've only built one other acoustic instrument and that had a sitka top, I liked the sound of that better than englmann or adirondak plus it's stiffer and I like the idea of its strength. The leveling was pretty easy with the granite plate, I would just set it on it and find out where the top was rocking the plane down the high ends until it got to the point where it felt like it was getting suctioned down onto the granite. I've used my ibex finger planes mostly, I only used the scrub plane to work down the neck and tail end roughly then I took over with the finger planes. Did you do an X-brace or tone bars for your tops?

I like sapele a lot. The last board I had I sold to a guy I know who made an electric jagstang styled guitar out of it and it wasn't heavy at all I didn't think. I know taylor uses it for their acoustics but I think it's plywood that they use, at least my GS mini is 3 ply sapele/maple/ sapele. The stuff I have had is pretty light and it's around the same price as african mahogany where I get my wood, about $4.25-$5.00 a board foot. I know I can get a pallet of 100 BF or 8/4 african mahogany for around $500 and the sapele isn't to different from that. I don't really see how it would be a bad wood to use. I compared a sapele acoustic to a honduran mahogany acoustic back in the spring and they sounded pretty close to the same. I'm not sure how it is in factories though since there isn't much freedom in shaping the braces to make a better sounding acoustic, which may be the issue with the guitars Martin is building like what was said above.

Here's a few pictures of where the top is at. I should mention that I carve across the grain to try and keep the wood from possibly slitting or tearing out. Starting to look good. I like carving, I think it's fun to go from having a block of wood and shaping it into something different and watching it transition from a piece of wood to a finished project.

Used the timesaver to bring down the tops thickness. And the fun begins, I've found I really enjoy carving. The plane in the picture is a scrub plane, they have a curved blade and it REALLY hogs out wood quick. I use that, my block plane, finger planes and a special gouge from capeforge. I was new to capeforge so I was happy to see when the gouge came that it was sharp, I actually cut myself unpacking it because I wasn't expecting it to be that sharp and I've been told they go for ages without needing to be sharpened and that they will sharpen them for you for free, best $86 I've spent on a tool for a while. I use a 10" pin guage from woodcraft to check where I'm at with the carve, just pushing it down on the top and matching it to my plans. Edit: I guess I forgot to rotate the picture with the pin guage so sorry for the upside down picture.

Flattening the bottom of the top with my block plane. Granite plates or wide jointer tables help with this to check for rocking since they are super flat. Using a safety planer to bring down the edge to just above its final thickness. There is about an inch of a flat edge around the top and back and this helps as a reference for the carving.

You can get plans through stewmac.com for some basic electrics, acoustics, archtops, mandolins, etc. You can also get tools and some woods from them, a warning on their woods though is that they cut it to a bare minimum of having workable materials and cut them to match their plans so say you get plans for some guitar they don't have plans for and buy wood from them it may not work out. Technically you could build a guitar with simple tools such as scrapers, rasps, files, hand tools but it's nice to have a few power tools. Either way you are looking at spending several hundred dollars in tools for some basic ones, power tools obviously cost more. Some hand tools cost several hundred for one tool. The books recommended are good books. The book I started with was http://www.amazon.com/Guitarmaking-Tradition-Technology-Construction-Steel-String/dp/0811806405 it is a book on building acoustic and classical guitars with mostly hand tools and the only reason I had it was because it was given to me for free otherwise I would have bought the books mentioned above. I found it very helpful for building electrics too because it covers mostly everything to do between the two types of guitars. Like others have said though the search button is your friend, you truly can find just about anything you will need to know on here. I'd would look at some builds by RestorationAD he usually covers about every step there is in the guitars he builds and if you want he builds pickups you can buy too. Just browse the "inprogress and finished builds" topic and you will find a lot of info.

Thanks, I will remember that.

For some reason two threads started so I'm going to just keep posting to this one... Mods is there any way to delete the other one?

I started building a Benedetto style archtop acoustic. This is my first archtop so it will be interesting to see how it comes out. I already ran into one issue with the back woods from LMI not being thick enough but I was able to revise my plans to make it work. Top: Sitka spruce Back and sides: Flamed maple Neck: Maple Fingerboard: Ebony Tailpiece: Ebony Headcap: Ebony I haven't made many decisions yet on hardware. I will probably use some Gotoh tuners but I know the nut will be bone. Here is some pictures.

Looks cool, I'll be following this. There was a guy on here once called "Bionic Dave" he built a few multiscale guitars on here but he got banned. I just found it kind of funny that the next multiscale project I see after him is by someone called "Bionic Machinist" Anyways, welcome to the forum!

This is a jumbo acoustic guitar built by a luthier I know, he asked me to sell this guitar for him. http://www.ebay.com/...984.m1586.l2649

Either way works for paint but with rattle cans you need to put double the coats you would if you sprayed it from a gun because it's so much thinner. I used grain filler from Cardinal for my last build. I found it worked best to brush it across the grain then use the tip of the brush to blot it down into the pores then I just scraped it off once it flashed off about 70%. Just a question but since wenge is dark anyways why are you painting it?

That's why you use dyes. I'd stick with the nitro if that's what the original finish is but it could be done to use acrylic. Just google basic color matching. Browns are what I have the most difficulty matching. You can get it easily by mixing the primary colors. Do a little reading. No one can tell you the exact amount of what to mix together because a brown by Fender could be different from a brown by Gibson. You just have to play with it.

What kind of paint are you using, how are you applying it and are you clearing it?

What have you done so far?

Test clear too. Im not sure if the ink from a picture would smear under a lacquer or clear coat.

I'd say leave it, worn through spots looks sweet and show its been used. If it's dyed get some ColorTone and mix it until you get what you are looking for be sure to test it on a scrap of mahogany though. You could drop fill the dye then clear over it or just mix the color into some nitro and drop fill the colored nitro. If it's painted then you do the same thing.

I use the stewmac table saw blade. My cross cut sled is just a 2x4 flattened and squared that's bolted to the miter guage. For the pin I took a nail and hammer it in above where the blade goes and filed it until it was small enough to fit the pin for my fret slotting templates. LMI sells a special pin that is tapered though I think. ' I get my slotting templates off a seller on Ebay for around $31 that are two sided. They are just like stewmacs.

No problem, glad I could help.

I use the digital lutheirs caliper stew mac sells, I like it because it has a couple extra fetures for fret work, before that I used a digital caliper made by general which was pretty decent. For doing measurments on necks and everything. I use those orange plastic ones with the dial on them made by general because I can modify the clamping parts to be able to get in around strings and stuff.

A friend put some Tesla humbuckers in his epi les paul this spring and they sounded pretty nice and they are pretty cheap too. I like seymour duncan though.

You can get some cool results with a torch or blow torch. I've used blowtorches to do a burst before.

Did you put a neck angle in this?

I've never had an issue with ash being bright. Are you using swamp ash and from where? I've been using white ash from my area and it has a nice mid rangy bass like tone to it when you use the right pickups in it.

Demonx- After seeing this build I was wondering why you posted your self doubts thread since your builds always look clean and well built. Andyt - Normally I'm not a tele fan but this one I found cool. Not only did it have a floyd and humbucker but it also had the distressed and worn look to the hardware which I thought blended in nicely with the snakeskin which I had never seen done before. BGHK6581- I voted for this one. I really like the look of plain wood and nothing flashy, I think they look a lot better than painted and super flashy guitars, good job. Mitch - I like that you used oak. For some reason when people use oak for something besides furniture it grabs my attention imediately. A luthier by me builds with oak all the time and his acoustic guitars sound fantastic I think. However I don't think I would have used this top, it's just not something I would choose. Don't give up building though it's sweet that you are building at 17. Hooglebug - I honestly didn't really care for this one. I'm not a fan of goldtops or the shape of this one guitar. Bukoffsky - I'm not sure why but this was just too plain for me. I think something about the headstock is why I think that. Postal - I love double necks but I've never been able to get into double neck V's to me the bodies always look small but it was still a sweet build. Sardine - Looking at the neck made me think "This is what would happen if Ovation met RAD" Looks really nice. I left the show in Red Wing before yours was played, I bet it sounded pretty good. Pauliemc - Reminded me of my Schecter and I enjoy Schecters, nice job. Oblaty - I've never really been a fan of those thin bursts and headstocks with only one tuner on a side but it looks really nicely built. Whalehazard - This probably would have gotten my vote if it had the Gibson style headstock. Gibson style V's don't look complete in my eyes without it. All these guitar this month were nicely built. I usually hate making these comments going over everyones guitars because it's hard to not sound like a dick or only pick out the things you don't like but a little constructive criticizum doesn't hurt anyone. Demonx my headstock was questionable to me at first. When I first sketched it out I wasn't to sure on it but the more I looked at it the more it grew on me. I've never been a fan of really intricate headstocks and usually prefer the more basic designs and this was also my first 3x3 headstock so I'm happy with it.