wwood

Thanks all for your replies. I'm gonna' spend another couple of days trying to press out the bow, hopefully that should see to it, but if not then I'll work it down to as flat a surface as I can by sanding as the bow isn't extreme enough to go at it with the trusty plane. The back is thickness ready so I'm good to go when happy with the top. I just flicked through a couple of books for some advice and noticed that Melvyn Hiscock had a similar problem when building his Tele (although it only had a 1/4" top...page 108 if anyone's interested) He jointed and glued the top to the back at the same time so this approach may pay-off if I can't reduce the bow any further. The piece was originally 3" thick and I had 2" re-sawn, split and thicknessed. The bow appeared pretty much the day after. I can only summize that it was either originally stacked badly or not dried out enough. I'll keep you posted on my efforts, this is hopefully going to result in a lovely carved top in the coming weeks. Thanks again to all, your advice has been helpful and re-assuring. Regards ww

Thanks for the reply mattia. When laid down flat on the cupped side the gap is approx 1/16" on each of the halves. I'd be much happier to get them flatter before joining them otherwise I think it may be best to join and glue them to the back all at the same time using clamps and heavy downward pressure (i.e. heavy weights) This sound like the best option to you? Regards ww

Hi, I've got a 3/4" bookmatched set of flamed maple which is ready to be joined and glued to the back Both pieces have a slight bow in them across the width. I've tried to straighten them by dampening them and resting heavy items on them and it has slightly improved. I'm sure with enough weight and clamping at glue time I can just force them flush with the back of the guitar but was wondering if anyone had any practical solution to cure the bow? Thanks ww

Excellent! Thanks to all for the replies, especially the neck maker! ww

Hi all, I'm trying to figure out how to create a particular scarf joint, well I think it's a scarf joint, it may well not be. Pic below: I've seen this joint on many kinds of guitars before but am unsure how to re-create it, as you can see it's kind of half eliptical. Any ideas appreciated. Thanks ww