idmicheal

Hello everyone! After reading here for more than a year I'm finally starting my first build!

I'm going to do a double-cutaway archtop. I took drawings from the cutaway side of my Gretsch and modified them for a 17th fret neck join.

I took over the kitchen table for the better part of a week while drawing up plans

And today I started making some templates from hardboard, which will then be transferred onto MDF.

And filing down after band sawing.

Hopefully I'll be able to get started on the actual wood before the end of the week! Needless to say I'm really excited to finally be starting my first build! I'd love and appreciate comments, tips, and criticism!

-IDM

p.s. Thanks to John Abbet for answering some questions in the awesome Archtop build over in the Acoustic & Archtop section!

- Edited to change pictures sizes to conform to forum rules -

Awesome! Thanks so much for the info!

I'll make some measurements on my plans and see if it might be possible to keep the braces wide enough to not have to mess with them, or maybe make them thinner. I would just be worried that if I widened the spacing on the neck side while still having them under the bridge feet they would start getting pretty darn close to parallel, but I don't know what that would do, if anything.

I just wanted to let you know that this is probably the coolest and most informative thread on the boards, in my humble opinion (although Blackdog's stuff is always killer).

If all goes well I should have a thread up in the In Progress section soon! I have a stack of wood acclimatizing in the basement and it is just calling my name!

Thanks again!

I know it's been a while, but I have a question and I'll give it a go:

How did you mount the pickups? I've been thinking and thinking about it and the braces just have to get in the way, especially for the neck pickup. It seems very unwise to weaken the brace by cutting slots to fit the pickup. I'd love to know how you mounted them.

Thanks for the help!

I haven't built a guitar yet, but I am going to build a "real" archtop as soon as I can. I've been reading Benedetto's book and DVDs and I think that it is totally do-able, even for someone inexperienced, if I just take my time and think it through. I actually drew up some plans today using the cutaway side of a Gretsch archtop that I have. I'm going for a double cutaway, but I ran into a wall with drawing the plans; as I was going to mark the 17th fret neck join, I realized that my Gretsch had a 25.5" scale and I plan on building a 25", so that is where I left off for the day

So what is the body depth on the 335?

No, six! I love archtop builds, or in your case re-builds!

Man, that is sort of tragic. I haven't started building yet (can't wait 'till I have time in the summer), but I'm sure I'll make more that my fair share of mistakes.

Thanks, for the help.

I'll look forward to seeing your next! Hopefully I'll be able to start my own in the Summer.

Ian

I know it's a bit late, but great build! Really informative, especially because I'm reading all I can about archtops. I do have a question though; how did you go about printing out the template you made from the Byrdland picture? I did the same with a picture of a Gretsch, but have no way to print something 16"X22".

By the way, this is my first post, so Hello everyone, and thanks for any help!

Ian

p.s. That setup you have fro routing bindings is brilliant! Would you mind terribly if I use your idea?