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

I honestly think that should be fine, unless the saddles on the TOM are totally smooth, but if they have any sort of notches at all that angle should work. Are you able to bring the strings up to tension yet? If so, just tension them and see how much pressure they are putting on the bridge.

I'm really curious to know what the wood combo will sound like. I'd think the ash would make it a bit Fendery (which is awesome) but I don't know what, if anything, the olive and walnut do. But keep up the good work. Very classy.

Love the body shape. It seems like one can get away with more interesting shapes for basses without it looking strange. So far everything looks very clean and precise. It's a shame you couldn't get that knot in the fingerboard to be at the 12th fret though

That's more what I was thinking. SR Yes. Do that. Looking gorgeous. I can't wait to work with something quilted someday.

Thanks, will do!

Thanks! I'm hoping a setup will make it a good player.

One last one.

I apologize for the poor lighting; it's a cold, rainy October... wait... it's almost June! It shouldn't be cold! Oh well, it was rainy today, so I didn't have the greatest lighting

Here it is! Finished! I haven't gotten it set up to my satisfaction though. A friend of mine teaches at a guitar shop, so he offered to take it in and have their tech set it up, mess with the truss rod, do some spot fret leveling, and cut the nut slots to the proper depth. So I guess do a full-blown setup. Yeah, I know that I'm lame for building a guitar without knowing how to set them up, but this one is for my Dad and I don't want to mess it up. I was trying to straighten the neck on it, but I was getting uncomfortable with how much pressure I was putting on it and it still wasn't straight, so I'm going to have a pro look at it. I'm just hoping that I didn't make it wrong and it won't be straightenable. And I know that it needs some fret leveling, because on the high E at about the 19th and 20th fret play the same note due to the 20th fret being high enough that it still frets there when I press at the 19th. But oh well, I'll learn how to set up the guitar I made for myself, because I'm not afraid to mess that one up.

I got this finished one day after the deadline for GOTM, so I got lazy and didn't put up pictures. I was finishing this guitar and my first guitar concurrently, so that one will show up in a few of these pictures. Truss rod covers. Rosewood pickup cover. These are kind of a pain. The cover of my pickup is slightly flared at the bottom, so it took me forever to file down the ring enough for it to come all the way up. I also has some issues with the endgrain cracking, thus the picture of the ring in a clamp, gluing a crack. I polished the guitars starting with #600 wet, then coarse through swirl remover Stew-Mac compounds. I didn't get a thick finish on them, due to just guess work on the spray gun feeding. I talked to my woodworker friend and he told me that he would've gotten this kind of finish build up in two coats, while I sprayed six. So the finish is thin, and there are a couple of spots on the tops that the grain isn't really filled with lacquer, but I'm happy for my first time spraying lacquer. No runs at least. Both guitars. I'll finish posting later. I have to go eat some Moroccan food