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Well I have asked a ton of questions lately and have had a ton of help. Today on the way out the door to head to work, I snapped a few pictures on my cell phone of the archtop. This is my first attempt at building an accoustic guitar of any kind, so I used all scrap woods to test the waters. There is still a long way to go, but here it is anyway.

Neck is gentlely pressed in (dovetail) but is not glued yet)


My favorite F holes are the over-sized cello versions used by Grestch.



This will have a rosewood tailpiece and pickguard to match the rosewood end-graft and fingerboard.



Back and neck: Old growth mahogany that I have had laying around for 30 years. Multiple piece back. Not center seamed cause it wasn't big enough for that. 3 piece mahogany neck with no scarfs.



My first version of a headstock. Not quite done with the details on the headstock, but you get the basic idea



I am just now working on making a router binding jig so that I can add (I think) binding to the body only. (Thats why the neck has not been glued). I have some strips of rosewood in the shop, so I may use them for the binding, otherwise I have plently of plain white and black ABS from restorations I do.




Hey thanks for putting up with me the past few months. I will post more pictures (from my real camera) during the finish process, but I wanted to share with you where I am at with this, so you understand the dumb questions.

Joe

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Joe

BTW: Thank you John Ressler and Steve W for letting me visit your shops and see some of your jigs. It helped allot especially with the neck work.

Joe

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Joe

Joe, nice looking work. I've a friend who built a mahogany archtop which sounded really nice.
Your truss rod nut cavity makes me a bit nervous, though.
Next time you can take out far less wood, and I would advise that for sure.

Keep us posted,

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Hi Joe
Wow - you have made a lot of progress in the past couple of months. You have had some great questions here during this process. Looks like you'll be teaching us before long - gonna have to make an archtop now
Thanks for keeping us posted

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John Ressler

I'd say you have done well by that scrap. It looks great, so far. Keep us in the loop.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I love scrap-wood guitars, and yours is looking pretty darn good. Keep it up!

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Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

Got any photos of the top bracing?

Barry,

Nope. After a bunch of questions regarding why I would have scalloped my X braces originally, I shave them down to look like standard braces. I sort of gave-in due to lack of knowledge to defend my work/choices. I did do a bull-nose (1/4 round) on each side of the braces tho. So for the most part they are a standard X brace with the intersection about 5/8" tall. They then taper to about 1/8" near the rim. I also made them out of Poplar which was another subject of discusion. I did fit them to almost a pefect fit with no spring added. I used the standard process of ensuring that the brace was under each foot of the bridge. Nothing to much more scientific than that and a few measurements. I then used tap-tones while reducing the height until I did not hear any further improvements.

I can tell you this: I don't know how it will sound, but it is quite loud and full when tapping on the closed box near the bridge. I was actually surprised.

BTW: I was the one asking so many questions over at the MIMF (traditional neck shapes, Gretsch guitars etc)...when I was pretty much told to stop asking questions and just build something. So that is what I did...with lots of small mistakes. Some could have been avoided and others that needed to be learned.

Joe

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Joe

It's looking good Joe. Keep it up!

Looks real good Joe !
jack

Joe my friend she's looking GREAT!!!! Building an archtop as your first is NO easy task...... Congrats, great job! (You get one more clapping hands emoticon when she's completely finished)

I like the owl's eyes and beak on the headstock.