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I'm taking the plunge and going ahead with making an armrest. I thought I would take pics and show you guys my progress. This is sort of an adventure for me.

To date I have laminated an inside lining out of strips of heat bent mahogany. I shaped that laminated brace and glued it to the inside of the rim, then glued the remainder of the kerfed lining to it.



Next I roughed out the bevel on the outside go give me an idea of where it is when the top is glued on. Tape marks the lower limit of that lining on the outside.

More pics as I progress.

Very cool john, when its all done if you'd like, I would love to put the process in the tools jig and techniques section? Been a long time since we've had any additions.

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Nice work John.

Looks like a Laskin style rest. I'm getting ready to try an armrest myself. Show us some pictures of the binding process when you get there. That seems to be the most difficult part of these things.

Josh

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Josh House

Canadian Luthier Supply
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House Guitars - Custom Built Acoustic Instruments.
http://www.houseguitars.com

Lance, I'd be proud to contribute something to the techniques section. It may turn out to be a here's how not to do an armrest, but I will share the experience for better or worse.

Josh Is this Laskin? I am wondering whose style. It will not be like a Ryan armrest that gradually starts from the waist,maxes out at the widest part of the lower bout, and then tapers to the tailblock. Rather it will curve in abruptly, then curve out abruptly.

John

Yea that is a Laskin style rest. I think he started making them in the late 80s if I remember right. He even holds a copyright on the design but is pretty free about letting other small builders use it. The armrest I am planing is more similar to the Ryan than the Laskin. But I am not going to have it start at the waist. It will be about the same size as yours. I plan to only bind it around the top and not bring the binding down around the sides. For the first few at least. My rest will not have the abrupt curves and will be simpler to bind (I hope). I have talked to some guys who have said your style is a major pain to bind. I talked with another local luthier Tony Karol (www.karol-guitars.com) last weekend and he told me a bit about how we does his. I plan to do one in his style. If you come up with some good ways to bind the style you are doing let us know.

I have a few questions.
-What kind (type of wood) of binding are you using?
-Are you going to leave the rest its natural colour or maybe veneer it? Laskin paints or stains his black and always uses ebony binding.

Anyway we all want to see it when it is done. These armrests add so much to the guitars. They are so comfortable when playing.

I plan to start mine in the next week or so. It will have an armrest and probably a ribrest as well.

Josh

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Josh House

Canadian Luthier Supply
http://www.canadianluthiersupply.com
https://www.facebook.com/canadianluthiersupply?ref=hl
House Guitars - Custom Built Acoustic Instruments.
http://www.houseguitars.com

Right now I am thinking about using some of that quilted sapele I built my last guitar out of. It has wild figure and joint lines are therefore pretty hard to find. My thoughts now are to just bind the arm rest first and then do the rest of the guitar, letting the regular binding dead end into the arm rest binding.

I know that this will involve some tough bending around that small radius on either end, and its an inside fitting job at that. Whew, I just thought about that.

Thanks for sharing John. It looks great so far. Can't wait for the progress reports!

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Dave Bland

remember...

"If it doesn't play in tune...it's just pretty wood"

John I think you are on the right track. From what I know you do need to bind the rest first. Then you bind the rest of the guitar.

Josh

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Josh House

Canadian Luthier Supply
http://www.canadianluthiersupply.com
https://www.facebook.com/canadianluthiersupply?ref=hl
House Guitars - Custom Built Acoustic Instruments.
http://www.houseguitars.com

This is great, I was going to post a question about making an armrest.Good job so far John and Thanks!

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

For anyone interested in Tony Karols way of doing armrests, and some general notes on how to do armrests, I have word docs and pdf files for download from my site Here
I had posted this a couple of months back, so all the new people who have joined may benefit from this.
Enjoy!
Tracy

[QUOTE=Josh H] John

Yea that is a Laskin style rest. I think he started making them in the late 80s if I remember right.Josh[/QUOTE]

I asked Grit once if his idea for the armrest was the result of a tragic router accident. I don't think he got the joke, though. I need a little portable video screen dedicated to emoticons!

Regardign Grit's copyright...all he requests is that you ask permission and send him photos when you are done. Seams like a pretty simple request for a pretty elaborate design idea. (Even if is was a slip of the router )

You are right Paul. I contacted Grit a few months ago about that and he just wanted a picture. I have email him a few times, seems like a really nice guy. Hmmm... I should see if he would give me a shop tour. After all he is only 3 hours down the road. Now I'm rambling, anyway....Most people who do his style acknowledge it as a Laskin style rest. which out of courtesy is a good thing to do.

JoshJosh H38562.8826157407

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Josh House

Canadian Luthier Supply
http://www.canadianluthiersupply.com
https://www.facebook.com/canadianluthiersupply?ref=hl
House Guitars - Custom Built Acoustic Instruments.
http://www.houseguitars.com

I'll certainly do that. Does anyone have contact info handy that they could e-mail me?

John