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Bracing Above Soundhole
http://w-ww.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10102&t=991
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Author:  JeremiahB. [ Tue Feb 08, 2005 4:32 am ]
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I've heard several of you say that you brace everything flat above the soundhole, which is what I think I'm going to do. I have a question about that, but let me take you through the process I'm planning to use and see if this sounds like it would work. I'm planning to radius the entire top of the guitar, including the neck block to a 30' radius. Once radiused, I'm going to use a flat sanding block, to flatten the rim above the soundhole. I'm going to put sandpaper on the forward half of the block and laminate the back half with something the same thickness of the sandpaper so that the sanding block merely rides along the rim and doesn't sand anything behind the soundhole. Therefore, the sanding block will merely flatten the side-to-side curvature imparted by the sanding dish, but leave the front-to-back slope intact. Does this sound right? When bracing everything flat above the soundhole, do I use the dish to glue those braces above the soundhole in or do I use a flat surface (using the go bar deck)? If they are glued in flat, should I glue in the radiused braces (everything below the soundhole) first and then glue in the flat braces, or vice versa? Thanks.

Author:  Don Williams [ Tue Feb 08, 2005 6:41 am ]
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Go ahead and radius the x-brace & tone bars, leave the rim flat except impart a slight back angle away from the inside of the box to accomodate the top. Don't sand the 30' radius into the top using your dish. That complicates things way too much. A sanding block held at a slight angle will do the trick.
A lot of folks find it useful to do a slight taper on the ends of the upper face brace so long as the area under the fingerboard extension is flat.

Author:  JeremiahB. [ Thu Feb 10, 2005 1:01 am ]
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So, does anyone else out there use a dish to radius the top?

Author:  Mattia Valente [ Thu Feb 10, 2005 2:14 am ]
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I radius the top edge, and radius all my bracing to 25'. I leave the area above the soundhole slightly thicker (the top, I mean), and then essentially use the Lance method (check the jigs section, it's in there) so simply sand off that tiny fraction of an inch that's required to get the area under the fingerboard flat. Works just fine, and the dome sets the angle pretty much where it needs to be for me, or has on my last two guitars anyway.

Right now, I see no reason to change it, since I really like using the dish for gluing all my braces as well as my top (including go-barring down the L-shaped extension on my neck block, copied from Al Carruth, similar to the way Hank Mauel describes in his neck block making tutorial)

Author:  JeremiahB. [ Thu Feb 10, 2005 2:36 am ]
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So you radius all of the braces, even the ones for the fretboard extension? I also have a tongue on my neckblock which incorporates an "A" bracing pattern. Should I radius these braces as well?

Author:  John How [ Thu Feb 10, 2005 2:48 am ]
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When I sand the sides of my guitars in the radius dish I try to keep the headblock and top as close to a 90? angle as possible, that means that most of the wood removd from the sides is near the tail block. Then I do exactly what you are talking about, I use a flat board as a sanding block to flatten the sides and neck block from the top of the sound hole forward. When bracing the top I glue all braces except the flat transverse brace in the radiused dish then clamp the transverse brace flat using a backing cawl. This usually results in a very close to correct height of the fingerboard at the bridge position for me and an easy fit at the heel.

Author:  Mattia Valente [ Thu Feb 10, 2005 8:15 am ]
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I've glued all the braces on radiused, and the neckblock is also fully radiussed. Both methods work, as shown by the various different ways people here do it. I'm going to be trying an adjustable neck (Doolin inspired) soon, so I may have to change things over to simplify when I do. But for butt-jointed, set the angle bolt ons, this works.

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