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I was thinking about the various methods of constructing double-tops and was wondering how most of the folks here do it.

Do you epoxy the top sandwich flat, then install the rosette, or rosette first and sandwich glued in a radius dish? I guess you would most likely need to cut the soundhole before gluing in the dish. Thinking out loud here....putting in the rosette first would mean a very thin rosette, so it seems glue-up flat first, cut rosette, and soundhole then brace in radius dish as usual.

After the sandwich is glued together flat does it still have plenty of flex to bend into the radius needed?

Thanks

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Gwaltney Guitars

Greg, Check out this link. If you do a google search you should be able to find some more articles
http://www.reynoldsguitars.com/dtop.shtml

There is also an article American Lutherie on double tops within the last 2 years, can't remember which one though.

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Matt Jacobs

"Don't tase me bro"

Hi Greg,
When I do a double top I build the top up in my 25 foot dish, then install the rosette. The top will flex into a flat state without too much force, so routing for the rosette is not much of an issue.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Greg,

There are a few tidbits on the double top construction available on the net.

Alan Dunwell gives a great tutorial on his site www.dunwellguitar.com under "Luthier Pages" Let's build a guitar.

Also, Tim Mcknight posted this: (can't remember where?)


Tim McKnight Wrote:

Yes, I am building Double Tops. Using many of Randy Reynolds techniques (as he shared the stage with Charles Fox at the Healdsburg presentation in 2005 that I attended and wrote the white paper that was handed out to the attendees). I use two thin top plates, Nomex core of .060", T-88 adhesive, .060" inner bridge and soundhole reinforcements. I do not use any perimeter wood core. Go bar deck to laminate all of it together using a 30' dish. The end product requires very light bracing and the results will bring a huge to your mug. Its a lot of work but well worth it.


I also have the great article Randy wrote for the GAL if you want.

Regards,

Ray

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Guitar Building = Continuous Improvement Process