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First guitar build.
http://w-ww.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=54823		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  Ricklt [ Wed Mar 09, 2022 12:25 pm ]
Post subject:  First guitar build.
Hi all. My name is Rick. I don't think I've ever posted before, so this is all new to me. I'm getting ready to build my first guitar. I have all my wood ready to start. It's going to be a dreadnaught based on a Martin D28 pattern. Here's the woods that I have to use.
Honduran mahogany for the neck, back and sides.
Sitka spruce for the top and braces.
Brazilian mahogany neck and tail blocks.
Padauk bridge plate.
I haven't decided on the bridge wood yet, or the headstock veneer. I would like to do ebony for the bridge and fretboard, but I'm not sure. I have curly maple for binding, but I've heard that's so hard to bend that I may have to go with plastic binding, which I also have.
Any and all suggestions would be welcome.

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk
Author:  meddlingfool [ Wed Mar 09, 2022 12:54 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: First guitar build.
I wouldn’t worry about bending the maple. I like to bend the bindings and purflings at the same time as the sides…
Author:  bcombs510 [ Wed Mar 09, 2022 1:36 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: First guitar build.
Welcome!

Agree with Ed, bend the maple see how it goes. Fall back to the plastic if it goes badly. If you do end up with the plastic, just be careful scraping them, it's easy to go too far. The rest of your list looks good to me and agree on the ebony for bridge and fretboard. If you're trying to minimize tooling investment you can get a pre-slotted board from StewMac or LMI that is already slotted for your needed scale length.

I would encourage you to make a build thread over in the doc-u-build forum - viewforum.php?f=10130 It will make it easy to get help if you can show your progress along the way. I like to do that in the uke forum as I'm building mostly ukes these days. :)

Last thing, I see you're already using Tapatalk. That is great, much easier to post pics as you progress.

Good luck, it's going to be great!
Author:  DennisK [ Wed Mar 09, 2022 1:56 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: First guitar build.
High temperature with a wet paper towel on the hot pipe and curly maple bends like a noodle. Cupping is the problem with curly maple sides, but not an issue with binding. It does have a tendency to develop kinks where the short grain areas are more flexible, but that's mostly caused by applying pressure before it's up to temperature, and in the case of binding you can easily bend them back straight. One nice thing about it is that it's not very stiff, so as long as it's bent reasonably close and without kinks, it will squash in place with tape. Take the thickness down to .060-.070" if you want it effortless.

Super stiff woods like Honduran rosewood and purpleheart are much more difficult, because they have to be bent very precisely. But ebony is the worst. It usually won't bend nomatter what you do to it.
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