Official Luthiers Forum!

Greetings, all! I'm new to the forum, and to guitar building, but I've been doing woodwork for many years. My strong point has always been inlaying and veneering, my weak point complex joinery, so building a guitar has always intimidated me. The two guitarists in my band have finally convinced me to give it a shot, and so far it's been a lot of fun! Between the excellent advice and inspiration on this forum, and the videos I can find on Facebook, I'm a lot more confident about the whole process now.

So I've got a handful of body blanks roughed out, just about ready for their veneers. As I said, I'm not all that swift on joinery, and for some reason I just don't trust my boards to stay straight without help, so instead of cutting these blanks out of a single block, or plate-joining them, I assembled the blank butcher-block style. So of course I'll be veneering the whole thing. I'm using old cherry that's been around our shop forever, because it's on-hand, and I'll be using maple for the veneers - probably 1/8" or a little thinner, so most of the body curves will be easy. The horns will need to be wet-bent, though. I learned most of what I know of woodworking from my father, who has done plenty of wet-bending, but I've got a question for you guys that he doesn't know the answer to...

For an edge veneer on an electric guitar, say a Les Paul shape, would you wet-bend the veneer to a form, let it dry, and then glue it in place? Or would it work to wet the veneer, then bend and glue it to the body all in one step? It's one of those things I may try, just to see what happens- but if anyone here has tried it out, please let me know how it went, and which way you prefer.

Thanks in advance!

Kase

I would most likely bend it on a hot pipe, like the rims on an acoustic.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

Trying to glue wet wood may not work too well.
I'd glue it when it is dry.

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I have tried that and it does not work. The wet wood does not allow glue to penetrate or adhere at all. Wood must be totally dry.