Official Luthiers Forum!

Actually, an archtop only has two braces, and the neck seems to have a lot more leeway to miss it, and it might still work.

_________________
Why be normal?

Yeah but that arching

And carving the arch as you approach your target thickness must cause some high anxiety.

I've got Benedetto's book now and I bought 3 Euro Spruce wedge sets so I need to jump into this one day.

I've built about the same number of archtops and flattops, and there's some truth to that. Building an archtop has a lot more elbow grease involved, but there's no fancy fitting to the sides or the bridge like on a flattop. Building a really good archtop or flattop probably takes the same amount of effort and skill (I don't know first hand mind you...). But I do believe that doing an archtop as your first guitar takes a lot of guts.

Dave

On the two bass archtops I built, I used Scalloped X bracing as well as an upper brace as per Bill Moll's generous advice. So three braces!

My first guitar that made it all the way to finish and strings is a zebrawood 00:



I had a kit guitar before this one but it didn’t finish the race.

Brad


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

_________________
Insta - https://www.instagram.com/cbcguitars/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/cbcguitars

That's another impressive first guitar there Brad.

Love the zebra and bear claw vibe.

_________________
Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

My first guitar, full of all sorts of misteps, but still my favourite as far as sound and playability. I'm now working on numbers eight and nine. One day I may make one error free. LOL. If nothing else, it is a a great hobby.

_________________
The long way around is often the fastest way there.

This was my first. Black walnut reso with spider bridge and a Beard cone. Scoop cutaway too.

A scoop cut on a first build entitles bragging rights.

Bob

Well done. Any buzzes??

Ed M

I like the fan pattern soundholes matching the coverplate. Very cool...

Dave

Nope plays clean all the way up the neck

Being pushed for time and being in a keto fog, here's the link to my first from 12 years ago.
http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=25901&p=349340#p349340

_________________
The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

That took a long time

I'm a perpetual novice and had lots of help with my first. I finished it at the end of 2013. This is a more recent picture:



I'm in the process of touching up the French polish on the cedar top, neck and headstock:

Very nice! I like the term "perpetual novice" too, though the pictures seem to be at odds with that term... Good looking guitar.

Dave

Thank you. I kicked this build off in 2009 and finished it in late 2013. I was building with a partner who had all the tools and a couple builds under his belt. I'd also take it with me to visit Tim McKnight every June. He would point out my mistakes and give me advice but send me home to fix it.