Rogflys

Today I attached the back to the sides. The blue tape along the sides is to protect from glue squeeze out. Prior to gluing, I marked the centerlines on the top and reference marks for easy placement with the glue. A bead of Tightbond around the rim, then position the back.












The clamping device I use is called a "go-bar deck". The poles are fiberglass sticks that flex and provide a constant pressure. The bars are easy to put in place, and easy to move around, if need be. It is MUCH easier this way than to use a bunch of clamps.


The go-bars remain out of the way, allowing easy checking for position. Also they do not push the pieces out of position.

The go-bar deck will be used again when I glue on the soundboard, in a similar fashon to here. It was also used when gluing the braces to the soundboard.

I previously mentioned that I am using a laminated back and side set. The sides come prebent to a fairly standard archtop shape, which fortunately is very close to the mold shape that I have. I fitted the rims to the mold and shaped up the neck and tailblocks and glued them in. For the picture I removed the glued pieces form the mold.

Then the linings and side braces are glued in. The linings provide a gluing surface to attach the top and back to the rims of the guitar.

The linings are made of a strip of wood (mahogany) that is cut every 1/4 inch. The "kerf" cuts allow the strip of wood to bend to follow the curves of the guitar. I also glued in the side braces, which are just small strips of mahogany every 4 inches.



I did not have enough clamps to finish all of the lining, so will do the other half tomorrow.

Back in February of 2007, I started building my second Archtop acoustic guitar. At the same time I was building a Martin OO size guitar for my son. Progress was going fine on both until a slip with a plane damaged the maple back on the archtop. I was glad that I had not spent a big wad of money on the maple (Home Depot), but the project got shelved. I did finish the guitar for my son, and gave it to him for Christmas 2007.

The soundboard is bearclaw Sitka Spruce from SE Alaska, with Bubinga back and sides, and Mahogany neck. Sprayed aerosol lacquer for the finish, and strung up with rope core strings.

Reed plays it once in a while and I enjoy playing it, and occasionally I use it at church on Sundays.

The Archtop, however, sat on the shelf until it was put on the moving truck to our new home. So I have been looking at it, and have decided that it needs to be completed. Here are a couple of pictures of the carving process to get the top where it is.

This is the wedges of spruce glued together ready to start carving.Then I use a planer in the drill press to cut kind of a topographic map to lay out the arch.Then use a small plane to do the actually carving of the top.

And sandpaper to make it smooth.

There is also the process of digging out the bowl on the inside. For this I use a depth gauge and drill a bunch of holes, then back tot he plane to remove the remainder of the material.

For the replacement back and sides I have decided to take a little detour. Rather than a carved back, I have ordered a laminated back and side set from ACME-Archtops. Although I would enjoy the process, it saves me from carving another back. There will be plenty of work to do, and I am sure other things will get in the way, but I am back to a project! And the beer was bottled on Tuesday.