Archtop Guitar Manual

11

AArrcchhttooppGGuuiittaarrKKiittss..ccoomm

MK16EN_V102.0

1166--IInncchh AArrcchhttoopp GGuuiittaarr KKiitt

BBuuiillddiinngg MMaannuuaall

This Page Inten5onally Le& Blank

22

33

IInnttrroodduuccttiioonn

Thank you for the condence that you have put in my products!

This is a kit for building a 16 hollow archtop guitar. It looks quite tradi/onal, butthere are some details that make it unusual and some among them make it easierto build than conven/onal archtop guitars:

The neck uses a tenon-mor/se instead of a dovetail. Thus, it does not have a sepa-rate extension as most archtop guitars have. The tenon itself is unusual too: unlikemost joints of its kind (perhaps all), this one does not need 1ng at its le side.

The inner surface of the top has been simplied right below the braces. That allowsme to supply carved braces that t perfectly without having to spend a lot of /meworking on their underside.

The tailpiece is a0ached to the tail block through a bolt that locks into a metalpiece embedded in the tailpiece. This eliminates the need for a tailpiece bracket.

The volume poten/ometer is disguised under the ngerboard. This is made easierusing a special ebony piece that is glued to the ngerboard and to which the pot,in turn, is glued

The fret ends are not visible, as the fretboard has two binding strips made fromthe same material as the fretboard itself.

The pickup ring is ebony; it ts the top perfectly and at the right angle. This is so-mething hard to nd even in top-class instruments.

Most parts are made using CNC technology. All the wooden pieces except the ker-fed linings have been manufactured in my workshop in Spain. Metal parts andelectronic components are all top quality, some being imported manufactured pro-ducts.

Please note that this kit may be slightly dierent from what is explained in theseinstruc/ons. Also no/ce that this is not a complete kit; below, youll nd a list ofaddi/onal materials that you will need for its comple/on.

Although the materials in this kit are all high quality, we cannot guarantee thatthe resul/ng instrument is, as skill levels vary. If you have already worked withwood and take your /me following these instruc/ons precisely, youll end up with aquality instrument that youll be proud of. Good luck!

44

Check the contents of the box now. They should be as follows:

1 An arched carved top made of Spruce, Maple or some other wood.2 Precut braces, Spruce (2)3 A carved back made of Maple or some other hard wood4 A set of prebent sides (2)5 A shaped neck block made of Sapele or Khaya, which includes a mor-

5se for the neck6 A shaped tail block made of the same wood as the neck block7 Enough length of kerfed linings (around 110 or 2800 mm), made of

the same wood as the neck block8 Enough length of Spruce side reinforcement strips (at least 36 or 900

mm)9 White plas5c binding strips (2)10 A semi machined neck, usually made of maple. 11 Peghead face veneer, quite probably made of Ebony12 An Ebony or Rosewood fretboard, ready to be glued to the neck and

sanded13 Strips for binding the fretboard, made of the same wood as the fret-

board (2)14 A Stainless Steel compression truss rod, cut to size and threaded15 A truss rod cover piece, made of maple, the same thickness as the

truss rod channel in the neck16 Fretwire (at least 63 or 1600 mm)17 A bag with a semi machined bridge, made of Ebony or Rosewood,

composed of a foot with its base adapted to the top and a compensa-ted saddle. The bag also includes the posts/thumbwheels and an auxi-liary nut

18 A semi machined Ebony or Rosewood tailpiece, with an insert for at-taching it to the body

19 A semi machined Ebony or Rosewood pickup ring, with its base adap-ted to the curvature of the top

20 An Ebony or Rosewood nger rest21 An Ebony or Rosewood truss rod nut cover22 An Ebony or Rosewood neck cap blank23 A mold template24 Peghead sides waste material (2)25 A CDROM with this manual (high deni5on version) 26 Truss rod adjustment nut, barrel nut and washer27 PTFE tape, for the truss rod28 Screws for truss rod nut cover (2)29 Plas5c rod for side dots30 Pickup ring screws (4)31 Tailpiece bolt32 Finger rest a6achment screws (2)

IInnttrroodduuccttiioonn

33 Finger rest spacer34 Finger rest reinforcement strip35 Blank bone nut36 Strap holders with screws and felt spacers (2)37 Maple veneer for shims 38 Magnets (8)39 Cups for magnets (4)40 Mold dowel pins (8)41 Mold tail reinforcing cap42 Long bolt (M8), with nuts and washers43 Miniature Poten5ometer for gluing under the ngerboard44 Adhesive Felt for Poten5ometer45 Jack, wiring and connectors (3)46 Jack reinforcing plate47 Wiring guides (2)48 Nylon 5e

This kit does not contain the following:

Pickup: Most conven5onal humbuckers t the ring supplied with the kitand the hole in the top

Machine heads Strings Glue and nishing supplies Case

You will nd these parts in most lutherie suppliers; there is a very completelist at h6p://buildyourguitar.com/resources/suppliers.htm

If you nd some error in the content of the package, or if you need somespares, please contact me at [email protected].

55IInnttrroodduuccttiioonn

Ques5ons...?www.archtopguitarkits.com/Kits/FAQ16_EN.html

Cannot iden5fy those parts...? You'll nd photos atwww.archtopguitarkits.com/Kits/Parts16_EN.html

Before You Start

Control the rela5ve humidity at your workplace, which must be bet-ween 40 and 50%.

Dont do anything without having read carefully the instruc5ons in ad-vance. Try to complement it with the sec5ons in the books that are re-ferenced at the end of this manual. Previous experience with at topor even solid guitar kits is great.

Keep your edge tools well sharpened.

Some power tools are very dangerous if used improperly, but thesame can be said of many manual tools. Read, understand and followall the safety advices included with both.

Be careful with adhesives and other chemicals. Read, understand andfollow the indica5ons in the product MSDS (Material Safety DataSheet).

Wood dust can be a health and re hazard. Always wear a mask, espe-cially when sanding wood, and use extrac5on equipment.

This kit includes some powerful magnets that can be dangerous inmany dierent ways. Read, understand and follow the magnet han-dling safety advices at the end of this manual.

This manual includes metric and inch measurements. I have followedthe simple default criterion that, when a measurement is men5oned, Iuse the intended value (what I was aiming at) rst, whatever its units.If necessary, the transla5on to the other system follows, but no5cethat in most cases it is an approxima5on. Feel condent to use any ofthe two, as the transla5on error has been chosen to be below othersources of error.

66 IInnttrroodduuccttiioonn

Molds are used extensively by guitar makers everywhere. They are used to eec5vely support thesides in the right posi5on during the rst stages of the building process. When I decided to make this kit, my rst worry was how to avoid the maker the pain of making amold. A&er giving it a lot of thought, I didnt nd how an inexperienced maker could build a guitarlike this without using one. Experienced makers could do it somehow, spot bending the dicult tobend curly woods and working with a lot of care, but even they avoid what some call free buil-ding. Yes, now you know: you will have to make a mold. However, it has some details that make itquite simple and easy to make, without compromising its func5onality or toughness. I have tried mybest to make it one of the best molds that you can nd, with details such as the magnets that willsurely be adopted by other makers in the future. And, last but not least, its construc5on may be asmuch fun as the construc5on of the guitar itself.

SStteepp 11:: BBuuiillddiinngg aa BBooddyy MMoolldd

77

88

Tools and Supplies

You will need at least two power tools: a Router with a Pa6ern Bitand a Jig Saw. The Pa6ern Bit has a bearing above the cu6ers, sothat it can follow a template, eec5vely copying it. If the cu7nglength is not enough for the material that you are using, then youwill have to work in two or more passes but, apart from that, al-most any commercial pa6ern bit will do.

I recommend that, if possible, you use a Drill Press instead of Por-table and Manual Drills, but you will need these also.

I have used the following manual tools:

Cabinet Scraper Chisels (miniature 2 mm and 12 mm) Clamps (at least 15) Engineers Square Pain5ng Brush Pencil, Marker Straight Edge Saw

And the following supplies:

Mold Template, #23Magnets, #38 Cups for Magnets, #39Mold Dowel Pins, #40 Tail Reinforcing Cap, #41 Long M8 Bolt, #42 Epoxy Glue Polyurethane VarnishWood GlueWaxed Paper Sandpaper (P120)

SStteepp 11 -- BBuuiillddiinngg aa BBooddyy MMoolldd

Procedure

The thickness of this guitar at the sides is around 66-68 mm. Wi-thout the top and back glued, the sides and blocks (neck, tail) willbe around 10 mm less due to them having a thickness of around 5mm each. Thus, the sides will be 56-58 mm tall. The mold must bethinner than that, so that it can be used to glue the back (andeven the top, as we will see) to the sides while these are placed in-side it. However, it must not be too thin, as it wouldnt supportvery well the sides and it wouldnt work well for clamping theblocks while they are being glued to the sides. With all this inmind, we will make the mold around 50 mm thick. Fortunately,there are standard thickness of MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard)stock that coincide more or less in most countries, and permit toarrive there easily: use one (or 19 mm) and two 5/8 (or 16mm) MDF lamina5ons. If you dont nd those thicknesses, you canuse some other combina5on, even using the template itself, butthe following instruc5ons describe three-layered molds. Every-thing will be ne if the total thickness is somewhere between 50and 54 mm.

Standard MDF stock is a material that swells a lot when we6ed. Ifyou use it, you will have to protect it somehow. I suggest that youuse polyurethane varnish, as described later. You can use moistureresistant MDF instead, but it is not as readily available as standardMDF.

Before you start making the mold I would like to men5on thatthere exist the open and closed varie5es. Open molds are formedby two halves that are a6ached by toggle latches or a similar me-chanism, and allow easy removal of complete glued soundboxes(top, back and sides), if this construc5on method was used. Closedmolds cannot be disassembled and are used to glue the back (ortop) to the sides, but closing the soundbox using the mold is notrecommended, as there is no guarantee that the guitar can be ex-tracted without suering damage. The mold described here is athird kind, midway between both types. It can be opened at thetail, but not at the neck end.

99SStteepp 11 -- BBuuiillddiinngg aa BBooddyy MMoolldd


Separate the two parts of the template cu7ng the tabs and smoo-thing them with a chisel and sandpaper. Work with the outsidepart, which is the real template; the inside will be used later.

A6ach the template to one of the thin (5/8 or 16 mm) MDF bo-ards, using a few clamps. Drill the six holes in the stock as in thetemplate using a 5/16 (or 8 mm) pilot point drill bit; try to keep itperfectly upright (use a drill press if possible).

Using the dowel pins instead of the clamps, trace the outline ofthe template on the board.

Remove the clamps and cut it with the jig saw, following the pencillines, inside and outside, and leaving a li6le to be trimmed by therouter later.

Do the same for the other two boards. Eventually you will havethe three lamina5ons and the template. Dont discard the threecentral sec5ons.

1100

SStteepp 11 -- BBuuiillddiinngg aa BBooddyy MMoolldd 1111

I will show you several ways of rou5ng those lamina5ons to get anaccurate shape. For the rst method (rst and second pictures),join the three lamina5ons, using the 8 mm dowels supplied withthe kit and, on top, the supplied template. Dont use glue yet.Now use the router with the pa6ern bit to copy the template tothe mold lamina5on above.

I have used clamps and a heavy chunk of wood to x the lamina-5ons to the table. The idea here is to use the template rst andthen remove it, using each routed lamina5on as a template for theone below it. This is a simple method, but you will have dicul5estrying to keep the router straight, because the narrow mold wallsare not a steady base for it.

The second method xes that problem with the stability of therouter. It involves the use of a rou5ng table where the router isplaced upside down, in this case with a Flush Trim Bit instead of aPa6ern Bit. I consider that a rou5ng table is not dicult to make;you may even nd commercial units that can be adapted to agreat variety of routers. If you plan to rout a binding channel foryour guitar with a minimum guarantee of success, a rou5ng tableis the easiest way to go. By the way, I was only posing for thephoto. Otherwise, my hands would be farther away from the bit!

Rou5ng tables are not available to everybody, so there is anotheralterna5ve: use the central part of the template. Screw it to one ormore of the central pieces that you sawed from the boards andyou will have a wider base for rou5ng the outside curve.


Rou5ng the inside will not be possible unless you make the centralbase smaller, leaving enough room for the router bit.

Whatever the method, you may cut more than one lamina5on ifthe bit length permits it; if not, you may need to remove the tem-plate and use the area that has been cut on the lamina5on aboveas the new template, placing and removing lamina5ons similarlyfor the central support if you use it. This is only a guide, and whatyou do depends a lot on the bit dimensions and other factors.

1122

Now that you have cut the three lamina5ons, get the middle lami-na5on and, using a chisel, cut four recesses at the points shown.

These must allow the placement of the magnets supplied with thekit. Their external surface must be as close as possible to the innersurface of the mold, but not protrude above it. Warning: thesemagnets are excep/onally strong and can be dangerous if yourskin is caught between them. Wear gloves and work with onemagnet at a /me, keeping the others at a safe distance. Read theimportant safety rules at the end of this manual!


Magnets??

The waist spreader in most molds is based ona turnbuckle screw that pushes upon thewaist. While it is not dicult to make, you willneed to cut two addi5onal blocks that act asintermediary between the screw and thewaist. There are other designs; the one shownhere, used by some makers, is elegant andsimple.

However, neither of these designs will allowyou to close the soundbox with the waist spre-ader inside, at least in guitars with limited ac-cess (f-holes instead of round hole, forexample). I considered that a necessity for aguitar built by someone who cannot retouchthe sides in a bending iron. These magnetsmay not be as powerful as turnbuckle screws,but wait 5ll you see them in ac5on!

Now glue the three lamina5ons together; use wood glue (I usedTitebond), spread it well with a brush, use the dowel pins to keepthe three lamina5ons aligned except the pin at the tail end and, -nally, clamp everything.

Be careful when gluing the lamina5ons, as they may slip, losingtheir alignment. To avoid that, do it in two or three steps, usinggradually more clamping force. Try not to use a lot of glue to avoidooze-out, especially around the recesses for the magnets. If youlook at the photo youll see a lot of clamps; you can do this withless, but my recommenda5on is that you have at least 15 youllneed them later.

SStteepp 11 -- BBuuiillddiinngg aa BBooddyy MMoolldd1144


When the glue is dry, remove the clamps and check the ver5calityof the inner walls. This is very important at the neckblok area! Co-rrect them with a cabinet scraper, also removing the dried gluefrom inside and outside.

Use a saw and a small chisel to shape the area at which the routerbit couldnt arrive, opening a small recess for the cutaway side.


Trim the excess o the dowel pins.

Glue the supplied tail reinforcing cap.

Trim it and then apply two or three coats of polyurethane varnishto protect the mold from water spills, as MDF swells a lot whenwe6ed. Try to avoid varnishing inside the cavi5es for the magnets.If youre using moisture resistant MDF, you may skip this step.

1166


We will install the magnets now. There are eight, separated byplas5c pieces. They are magne5zed so that its their faces that areNorth and South. While they are all in a row, write their polaritywith a permanent marker (there's a 50% probability that you get itwrong, but it doesn't ma6er)..

All the magnets in the mold must show the same polarity outside,N for example. Get four magnets and, working one by one, sandtheir S surfaces (P120) un5l they are rough. Use a good epoxy toglue them in the mold cavi5es, S face down. Use a plas5c straightedge to verify that they are ush with the inner surface of themold.

Work now on the remaining four magnets. Again, work one byone, sanding the N faces this 5me. Epoxy them to the four sup-plied cups, N face down. With these precau5ons, the fragile mag-nets may s5ll collide, but there will always be a wooden cupbetween them.

1188

Drill a 5/16 (8 mm) hole at the tail end for the M8 bolt (#42). Becareful to make it straight, especially if you need to drill from bothsides.

Trace the center line at the neck end. Use the hole for the dowelpin as a reference, as it is located at the center line of the instru-ment. Mark it permanently making shallow cuts with a ne saw.


Similarly, draw the center line at the tail end, but this 5me cut themold along it.

Now the mold can be opened at the tail end. It is 5me to glue thelast 5/16 (8 mm) dowel pin in its hole. Apply glue to a half of itonly, so that it is glued to one of the sides of the mold. Avoid con-tact with the other side using a piece of waxed paper or similar.

With the dowel pin glued, youll no5ce that both halves dontclose completely. There is a narrow gap le& by the saw, which youmust close now. Glue the correct thickness of cardboard or woodto one of the sides, again using waxed paper to avoid it gluing tothe other side.

A&er the glue is dry, trim the glued pieces and retouch with polyu-rethane varnish. Finally, install the M8 long bolt with its washersto close the mold.

1199SStteepp 11 -- BBuuiillddiinngg aa BBooddyy MMoolldd

2200

Now that you have nished the mold, put the sides in it, using afew spring clamps and the magnets. If your clamps do not haveso& jaws, use small wood pieces in between.

You can leave the sides in the mold for a long 5me, but theyshould stay clamped to avoid distor5ons. No5ce that, as the tailarea is not trimmed yet, it cannot be clamped adequately: I re-commend you to follow the order of opera5ons in this manualand start working on the sides now.


USING THE MOLD TO FINE-BEND THE SIDES

If you nd that the sides don't t well inside the mold, leaving morethan 1/8" at some places, wet them well inside and out. Clamp themto the mold using as many spring clamps and wood intermediaries asyou need to get a good t without distor5ons or cupping. The wetwood is very so& and can get impressions quite easily, so try to usesome so& material between the intermediaries and the sides. Oncedry (typically one day), work on them soon or you'll have to repeat theprocedure again.

Wet sides can damage the mold, and that's the reason why it must bevarnished. But the mold can cause damage to the sides too, the mainreason being the magnets having lost their chrome pla5ng due to colli-sions with other magnets. The oxide in the magnet will contaminatethe sides and you will get a nasty black spot. If you see that the surfaceof the magnets is chipped, cover them with tape whenever you placewet sides in the mold.

2211

SStteepp 22:: PPrreeppaarriinngg tthhee SSiiddeess

The sides, as supplied, are already bent. It is not easy for a supplier to do that, because bendingcurly woods is far from being a simple procedure, especially at the cutaway area. In fact, it can getso frustra5ng that I am sure that this is one of the aspects that any archtop guitar maker with pre-vious experience will value most for this kit.

SStteepp 22 -- PPrreeppaarriinngg tthhee SSiiddeess

Tools and Supplies

Prepare to collect as many Miniature Spring Clamps as you can, forgluing the kerfed linings to the sides. Some makers use clothespins instead, but most 5mes the spring is not enough for the job.Some others use modied clothes pins (usually with a rubber bandwrapped around them) that seem to work ne.

You will need a Drill and some Drill Bits (see details at the Proce-dure sec5on). Also a Chisel, Saw, Pencil, some Spring Clamps and agood quality Machinist Square.

There are other more special tools that you'll probably need, des-cribed in the Procedure sec5on.

You will need the following supplies:

Sides, #4 Neckblock, #5 Tailblock, #6 Kerfed linings, #7 Spruce side reinforcement strips, #8Wax paper Sandpaper (P80, P120, P180 and P220)

2222

SStteepp 22 -- PPrreeppaarriinngg tthhee SSiiddeess 2233

Procedure

The rst thing that you will need to do is nd a good at workingtable. Place the sides inside the mold, at on the table, and clampthem using the magnets and some spring clamps.

Watch the gap between them at the neck area. Contrary to the tailblock, this doesn't need to be very narrow, but you can trim it any-way following the procedure shown in the pictures, using a machi-nist square and a block plane. You'll avoid tearing out the wood(end grain is frail) if you start from both ends.

The block plane is not included in the list of tools; you may useles, sandpaper, etc.

Note: A&er making the guitar for this kit I discovered that the neckheel was not tall enough to cover the en5re joint between the sides atthe neckblock, unless a very thick heel cap was used. If you look at theneck in your kit, it has a taller heel to avoid this problem.

Addi5onally, I don't want to give you a heel cap that is much thickerthan what is necessary, so, if you don't plan to bind the back, don'tmake a lap joint as shown at right, because the neck cap won't coverthe end grain of the cutaway side completely. For unbound backs, usea miter joint.

[See also page 94]


The neckblock can be glued without much prepara5on using Tite-bond. You will need to sand or scrape the gluing surface at thesides, with the purpose of cleaning the quite possibly dirty maple.Do a dry run rst!

The blocks and the sides are both made from stock 58 mm high. However,we7ng and hea5ng the wood for bending may modify its dimensions. Addi-5onally, there will be some tolerances that you'll surely nd a&er you glue theblocks. This is why the nal thickness of the guitar at the sides may range bet-ween 56 and 58 mm.

Use a few clamps to press the neckblock while gluing, keepingeverything at.

While the glue sets, you can nd the points at both sides wherethey will meet at the tail end. Use spring clamps to adapt one ofthe sides to the mold without leaving gaps, and then mark thecenter point. Do the same for the other side.

Draw a line at the marks found, using a machinist square. Cut theexcess with a saw and rene it with a block plane (if not available,use a le or sandpaper).

2244


With the mold and sides rmly on the table, check that the joint isat the center of the instrument and that the gap is not wider atone of its ends, correc5ng the joint with the block plane if neces-sary.

With the basic joint already done, you'll have to rene it in orderto make the gap as small as possible. Use sandpaper, a small hardsanding block and a lamp behind the joint: you must not see anylight through it.

When sa5sed, join the sides with tape.

Note: For some tapes, when the tailblock is glued to the sides the pressureput by the clamps will cement the tape to the sides very strongly. You may da-mage the sides if you try to remove the tape without using alcohol or ace-tone!

Put them inside the mold using some wax paper in between. Sandthe gluing surface because, as before, the sides may be dirty.

Find the center of the tailblock and mark it with a pencil. Whenyou glue the block to the sides (using Titebond), keep everythingat on the table and the center marks aligned. Do a dry run rst!

No/ce that your tailblock may look dierent from the one shown here. Withthe new design, you may use addi/onal clamps (arrows):

2266

A&er sanding the inside of the sides (P120, P180 and P220), you'llinstall the kerfed linings. There are four lengths of this material inthe kit, enough for the en5re guitar and some le&over just in case.

Some guitars have uninterrupted linings from neckblock to tail-block. While this saves 5me at the factory, it is not an acceptablemethod. Without the side reinforcement strips, the sides wouldprobably rip open a&er a moderate blow, ruining them. If thestrips are there, but they don't cover all the width of the sides, thedanger is s5ll present, so the best solu5on is to interrupt the liningstrips with the side reinforcement strips.

Begin cu7ng 16 lengths of 17 teeth. The rest will be approxima-tely two lengths of 23 and two more of 20 (see diagram), but thismay vary, so wait un5l you have glued all the 17-teeth lengths.

With the supplied kerfed lining, each 17-teeth piece will be around113 mm.

Glue the linings (Titebond), clamping them with the spring clamps.They should be a hair above the sides. As always, remove the glueooze out.


Insert spruce side reinforcement strips between the lining pieces.You must not glue them yet.

When you glue the lining at the other side, use the strip as analignment. As before, don't glue the reinforcement strips yet.

At areas with high curvature, (waist and cutaway), you will have tosaw the kerngs almost all the way down before gluing. Other-wise, they will break.

Take each reinforcement strip and shape it as shown. If you usesandpaper alone it will be easier.

2277SStteepp 22 -- PPrreeppaarriinngg tthhee SSiiddeess


Glue and clamp each strip (use Titebond). Do it with the sides inthe mold, so that the spring clamps exert enough pressure toadapt the at strips to the curved sides.

Glue a couple of teeth to each strip at each side.

This came as a surprise. I hadn't used magnets in molds before,and I didn't contemplate the possibility of the magnet being rightbelow one of the reinforcement strips. However, it has power tospare, and will work well even in that situa5on.

You must make a tool for sanding the excess height at the liningsand blocks. It is a long piece of wood with sanding paper (P60 orP80), glued (I use double-sided tape) at one of its ends, as shown.You can improve it easily using hook-and-loop fastening.

2288


If you trace a line along the sides, you will know when to stop san-ding.

It is not necessary that you use clamps, just the magnets. Whenyou are sanding at a certain area, press the side against the moldwith your free hand; that will be enough.

The blocks must be sanded carefully. If you don't do it right, youwon't get a at gluing surface for the top and back. Also, you maydisturb the angle between that gluing surface and the sides, thatmust be a right angle. If that happens, you will probably have tomake tedious correc5ons to the neck angle when you glue theneck. To avoid that, press the neckblock and tailblock to the sidesusing a clamp. This is be6er and simpler than using a turnbucklescrew from block to block.

In ideal condi5ons, all the sanding will be limited to the blocks and linings. Ho-wever, it is possible that you have to sand the sides, making them narrower,due to small construc5on errors (typically, small imperfec5ons in the mold orin the gluing of the blocks). This is not a big problem for later stages, at least ifit is not much more than, say, 2 mm. If it happens, try to keep the sides thesame width everywhere.


A&er some detail sanding, this is the way the sides look inside themold right before gluing the top and back:

3300

Tops are usually made of so&wood. This makes carving them quite easy, especially when comparingthe curly maple used for the backs. However, they are trickier to make: they have pickup and f-holes, braces and more complex thickness gradua5ons. I have tried to simplify these tasks: theholes are open and the braces are extremely easy to t.

The braces deserve some more comments. The rst version of this kit had "integral" braces (carvedin the top). As the strength of a brace is highest when the grain runs straight along it, they were per-fectly parallel. However, most makers think that braces must form an angle with the direc5on of thegrain at the top; otherwise, there is an increased danger of spli7ng the top along their corners. Un-fortunately, this rules out the integral braces. What I have done is to simplify the inner surface ofthe top right below the braces, making it the same height at both sides of the brace. That way, I canmake them using a template, and they will t perfectly without any further adjustment.

Despite these simplica5ons, you'll s5ll have to graduate the top, but most of it will be done a&erthe soundbox is closed (see Step 7, Binding and Tuning the Soundbox).

SStteepp 33:: PPrreeppaarriinngg tthhee TToopp

3311

SStteepp 33 -- PPrreeppaarriinngg tthhee TToopp

Tools and Supplies

The top and back, as supplied, don't need much addi5onal car-ving. A cabinet scraper with a curved shape is a great tool whenyou dont have a lot of wood to remove (removing the machiningmarks, carving the recurve...). While the French curve scraper(rst picture, le&) may have some other uses, you may also use arectangular scraper with one or more corners ground, as the oneto the right.

You will need gouges and chisels. These are great carving toolsthat can reach inside corners, for example around the gluing areasfor the neck and tail blocks. Chisels are also great for trimming thebraces to their nal shape.

Youll need clamps for gluing the braces. Steel clamps of the requi-red throat depth are usually very heavy; it is preferable to use thelighter wooden cam clamps.

Youll have to sand also, manually or with an electric sander. Fi-nally, you will need some other common tools such as a pencil anda measuring ruler.

If you have built more archtop guitars, perhaps you have learnt toes5mate the plate thickness with enough precision simply usingyour hands. You can exercise this ability by having some wood pie-ces of known thicknesses at hand.

The tools described below will denitely make your work easier,but they are not necessary.

The best tool for carving tops and backs is a plane with its solecurved (le&).

3322

SStteepp 33 -- PPrreeppaarriinngg tthhee TToopp 3333

These are mainly sold for violin builders, and are available frommany lutherie suppliers. You will nd them in many sizes, but thelarger planes (palm planes, le& in the picture) are unnecessary be-cause both top and back have been rough carved already. I preferto use a smaller nger plane (the one to the right in the picture)with a blade width of 12 mm.

As an alterna5ve to the method described, you may use a thick-ness caliper for measuring the thickness of tops and backs (right).


Top, #1 Precut braces, two pieces, #2 Side reinforcement strip material (for the pickup hole), #8 Glue (Titebond) Sandpaper (P80,P120,P180 andP220)


Procedure

Before doing anything, take your 5me studying the top. No5ce thefollowing:

The machine carving has been done with a square bit. Thismeans that you will no5ce some stair stepping especiallywhere the slope of the surface is higher.

The top has been cut approximately 1/8 (3 mm) bigger thannecessary, all around.

As supplied, the top has three dierent regions. The centralregion has a uniform thickness of around 6.5 mm (). Theother two are around 5 mm (3/16). There are two smootherregions at both sides of the central region, about 8 mm(5/16") wide, clearly visible in the picture. Those are the sur-faces where the braces must be glued.

The size and outline of the f-holes is quite tradi5onal. Youmay enlarge them either to change the overall shape or tomake more room if you want to install bindings. These holesfollow the tradi5onal rule that locates the bridge approxima-tely between their inner 5ps. When we men5on the bridgearea (and well do it a few 5mes), you will be able to locate iteasily if you remember this rule.

There is a par5ally nished aperture for the neck tenon. It isundersized: 1.5 mm (around 1/16) smaller than it should be,all around. You can compare its size now with the size of thecavity in the neckblock, which has the right nal dimension.

The inside of the top has been machined using an upcut bit. Thismeans that the edge of all the ver5cal surfaces will surely need ali6le cleaning of the dangling bers. Use a piece of sandpaper(P120) everywhere that you see them; forget the areas that showa lot of stair stepping, as they will be smoothed soon using othermethods. Be careful not to remove more than necessary, anddon't sand on the surfaces where the braces will be glued.

For all that follows, it is advisable to trace the outline of the guitarat the top plate, inside. This can be done easily measuring 441mm (17 23/64) from the end of the aperture for the neck tenon:

3344

This distance will be measured with the top as supplied, i.e., withthe undersized aperture for the tenon.

Once the end point of the guitar at the tail has been found, allthat remains is to use the mold to trace the outline.

Fine tuning the top has to do with giving it enough structural s5-ness and a long life free from deforma5ons, while at the same5me giving good tone and volume.

If you choose not to modify the gradua5ons that will be great forelectric instruments, but you will denitely get a be6er acous5ctone (and even its electric counterpart) if you modify some ofthem. In par5cular, the area right behind the bridge is thicker thannecessary. I could have made it thinner but then, if you decided tostart an X-bracing design of your own, that area would probablybe weak.

Removing the wood from that area is easy with a chisel, as shown.



If available, use a nger plane.

Very important: for all the opera/ons that follow, don't removeany wood from the smooth areas to the sides of the central region,where the braces will be glued later. You will need to carve quiteclose to them now; I recommend that you mark with a cu6er rstand then cut with the chisel, as shown.

When you work at the tail end, don't carve beyond the last CNCmachining mark.

3366

The nal gradua5ons in this area will be as shown here:

There is an area of 5 mm or a li6le more (5+ in the picture),then a transi5on area and nally an area of around 6.5 mm. Theseare inner gradua5ons; the nal tuning will be done later, when thesoundbox is closed.

Remove the stair stepping from everywhere inside the top. Here Iam doing it with a nger plane, but you may use many otherthings, electric sanders being a valid alterna5ve if you are good atcontrolling them.



Dont remove more wood than necessary. Also, it is very impor-tant that you work at a safe distance from the edge of the instru-ment to avoid modifying the at area that will be glued to thesides.

Again, use gouges and chisels for reaching near the base of thebraces (be careful) and around the neck block gluing area.

If you are new to carving wood, you will discover that grain direc-5on may guide the tool if the shavings are too thick, or if yourtools are dull. Tear-out as shown at le& can be avoided simply bychanging the carving angle or by adjus5ng the tool for a thinnershaving. I suppose that your tool is sharp as a razor is it?

3388


No5ce that we havent thinned the top ahead of the bridge. I havefound that this raises a li6le the feedback threshold but, if youdont care, thin the area similarly to what you have done behindthe bridge.

If you do this, you should leave a round area below the bridge, extendingabout 50 mm (2) to both ends, where the top must be around 6.5 mm thick.Dont be afraid for the edge of the pickup hole being too fragile at 5 mm (orless a&er thinning the outside): we will glue a small transverse brace there.

Next we will glue the braces. As men5oned, they are ready forgluing. The brace to the right (corresponding to the non-cutawayside) is marked "2". The other brace (cutaway side) is shorter andit is marked "1".

Check that there are no gaps at any point along the en5re lengthof the brace. Where there are faint machining marks, removethem very carefully, using sandpaper or, preferably, a razor blade.Glue them, one at a 5me. As always, clean the ooze out.

I have used four small and four large cam clamps. It can be donewith less, however. The braces tend to slip out of place whenclamped. To avoid this, press them in place by hand before clam-ping, and dont apply full clamping pressure at rst. Use whateverclamps you have available, but try not to use heavy clamps thatmay harm or even break the top.


A&er the glue has dried, begin removing wood from the top of thebraces with a chisel.

The central area of the top must be s5 from neck to tail. You cancheck it by pu7ng pressure with your thumbs, using the mold as asupport.

You will feel that the bridge area deforms more under the samepressure, the main reason being that it is at the center of the top.Carve the braces so thatyou can feel more or less the same s5-ness at the bridge and near the end of the braces at the tail area,where I am pressing in the picture. That means that the tail end ofthe braces will have to be thinner. How much thinner is a subjec-5ve ques5on, but this picture will let you judge how the bracesshould look a&er this ini5al carving:

The highest point is at the bridge area, where their tops should beat a height of around 18 mm (11/16") above the surface of thetop.

4400

Beam theory shows that the deec5on of a beam of rectangularsec5on is inversely propor5onal to its width and to the cube of itsthickness. Thus thick (tall) braces are great at suppor5ng the pres-sure from the bridge with li6le weight. Our braces are tall already,so we will shape them removing material from their tops, givingthem a somewhat parabolic sec5on:

You may want to remove some more wood making the braceslower. That's correct; in fact, if you have followed my recommne-da5ons you must have an ample safety margin.

Sand the braces and the rest of the top (P80, P120, P180 andP220). If you use an electric sander, like I'm doing here, be carefulwith the f-holes. Almost all sanders are too big for the central sec-5on between the braces, so you'll have to hand sand there.

Glue a piece of the same material that you used for the side rein-forcement strips (spruce) to reinforce the pickup end grain. Itmust go between the braces:

4411SStteepp 33 -- PPrreeppaarriinngg tthhee TToopp

4422

If you have used an electric sander, sand the top manually (P220)following the direc5on of the grain. Electric sanders usually leavevery small spiral marks, but even if they are invisible inside theclosed soundbox, a smooth surface is great at avoiding the dusts/cking to it.

There is a situa5on when sanding marks inside the soundbox may become vi-sible, and it is a&er you seal it with shellac (we won't do this). Some makersfavor this prac5ce because it slows the exchange of humidity with the envi-ronment.

Note that the contour line has disappeared in many places a&ersanding. You may trace it again, but only if you know posi/velythat you are going to install binding at the top/sides joint. Other-wise, be extremely cau5ous with the pencil: when you glue thetop to the sides, it will make the joint much more visible.


4433

SStteepp 44:: PPrreeppaarriinngg tthhee BBaacckk

The techniques and tools that you have used for the top will also work for the back. Being quiteclose to the nal gradua5ons, it will not be dicult to carve it in spite of curly maple being so tem-peramental.

4444

The back (#3) should be carved to a uniform thickness of around 5mm (3/16). Currently, it is around 6.5 mm (1/4"). Being hardwood, not braced, not having to stand a lot of stress and beingvery important for shaping the tone of archtops, we'll carve itmore exible. You'll have to remove wood from all areas, but becareful with the gluing surfaces for the sides/blocks. Thus, the rstthing to do will be to protect those areas from your tools.

To trace the outline of the guitar on the back, take the line whereits two halves join as the reference. For the sides, their mid pointat the tail end is evident, but at the neck end you'll have to mea-sure 27.5 mm (1.08") from the wall of the cutaway:

(Note: You can use the mid line at the mold instead)

The rst photo shows how to mark the sides with that measure-ment, using a machinist square. With all those references, andusing the sides already assembled inside the mold, trace the ou-tline of the tailblock and neckblock, as in the second photo. Nevercarve beyond the lines or too close to the edge of the instrument(third photo).

Curly maple is much easier to work if your tool goes across thegrain. In case of trouble, change direc5on. Here I am using a ngerplane, but you can use gouges instead.

SStteepp 44 -- PPrreeppaarriinngg tthhee BBaacckk

Near the tailblock you will have to remove more wood, crea5ng anabrupt transi5on.

Near the neck end, round the corner of the ver5cal wall at theneckblock transi5on.

Work with a gouge at the abrupt transi5ons near the neckblock.

4455SStteepp 44 -- PPrreeppaarriinngg tthhee BBaacckk

4466

This is the aspect of the area near the neckblock a&er carving it.

Here you can see the carved back, right before sanding. Its thick-ness is more or less constant, around 5mm (3/16") everywhere.The ame is more evident now.

Sand the back, using P80 or rougher and then going up to 220. Youmay use an electric sander, but the last step should be done ma-nually, following the direc5on of the grain. Electric sanders usuallyleave very small spiral marks, but even if they are invisible insidethe closed soundbox, a smooth surface is great at avoiding thedust s/cking to it.

There is a situa5on when sanding marks inside the soundbox may become vi-sible, and it is a&er you seal it with shellac (we won't do this). Some makersfavor this prac5ce because it slows the exchange of humidity with the environ-ment.

SStteepp 44 -- PPrreeppaarriinngg tthhee BBaacckk

This is the back a&er the nal sanding:

The ame is less evident now, but it will jump again a&er the nishis applied.

Note that the contour line has disappeared in many places a&ersanding. You may trace it again, but only if you know posi/velythat you are going to install binding at the back/sides joint. Other-wise, be extremely cau5ous with the pencil: when you glue theback to the sides, it will make the joint much more visible.

4477SStteepp 44 -- PPrreeppaarriinngg tthhee BBaacckk


4488

Probably this is the part that will take more 5me and eort from you. Necks have a lot of parts, andmust be built under very low tolerances. Despite the many steps, you will not face dicult pro-blems if, as always, you don't rush things and read everything very well before grasping a tool.

SStteepp 55:: PPrreeppaarriinngg tthhee NNeecckk

4499

5500

Tools and Supplies

A Cabinet Scraper is the best tool for removing the carving marksle& by the CNC machine.

You will need Chisels, Gouges, some conven5onal Clamps and afew Spring Clamps.

A Coping Saw and Files are the tools recommended for cu7ngwhat remains of the shape of the peghead.

You will need some small Drill Bits (read the Procedure sec5on fordetails) to use with a Hand Drill. A Center Punch made of harde-ned steel is the best tool for a6aching the barrel nut to the trussrod.

Adhesive Tape works ne for holding the bindings in place whilethe glue dries. You may use strong tape (lament tape, for exam-ple), especially if you are going to need it also for gluing the bodybindings. However, I will explain here the method that works bet-ter for the wooden neck bindings, for which you will need a fewmeters of Cord.

Cleaning the slots a&er the neck bindings are glued is a must. Youmay use a Fret Slot Cleaning Tool, available from some lutheriesuppliers or make your own.

Some opera5ons (for example, fre7ng) will require addi5onaltools please read the Procedure sec5on below.


Neck, #10 Headplate, #11 Fretboard, #12 Ebony binding strips, #13 Truss rod, complete, #14 and #26 Truss rod cover, #15 Plas5c rod for side dots, #29 Nut blank, #35 Fretwire, #16 Peghead sides waste, #24 PTFE tape, #27Wood glue (Titebond, regular and for dark wood) Toothpicks

SStteepp 55 -- PPrreeppaarriinngg tthhee NNeecckk

Cord, 8 meters/yards Sandpaper (P80, P120, P180, P220, P360, P600, P800, P1200)

5511SStteepp 55 -- PPrreeppaarriinngg tthhee NNeecckk

5522

Procedure

Before doing anything, take your 5me studying the neck. It ismade of three main lamina5ons, that become ve at the peghead.As other parts that you have seen before, it shows stair stepping.The picture also shows that the CNC machine didn't nish the peg-head transi5on completely.

The top of the peghead, where the maker usually writes his name,has not been cut. This is because the design of the peghead isusually one of the signatures of the maker. There are many de-signs for which the holes are not where I have drilled them, but Idecided to drill them anyway, as it is a process that can go wrongquite easily.

No5ce the channel for the truss rod. Its bo6om is semicircular, butit has the same depth everywhere. At the heel end there is a holefor the barrel nut. No5ce also that the area right below the nuthas two parallel pencil marks. They represent the two faces of thenut, i.e., the beginning of the peghead and the beginning of thefretboard.

The CNC machine could not remove all the wood from the tenon,due to the radius of the cu6er.

Our rst task will be to install the truss rod. Measure 1/2 (13mm) from the beginning of the peghead (the vertex of its angle)to the beginning of the access cavity; draw two lines (the sides ofthe cavity) at a distance of 7/16 (11 mm).

Clamp the peghead, not the neck: with the truss rod channelempty, it can break easily. The kits include the two waste piecesthat were cut from the sides of the peghead so that you can use aconven5onal vise, as shown in the picture.


With a narrow chisel and a hammer, cut the ver5cal wall at thebeginning of the cavity. Be very careful: it must be normal (per-pendicular) to the surface where the fretboard will be glued, notto the peghead.

Use a gouge to open the rest of the cavity. This opera5on and theprevious one must be done in several steps, each one deeper.

To check that you have reached the right depth, screw the brassnut to the rod (to the side with a longer threaded sec5on), put itin place and try to turn the nut with the supplied wrench; It mustbe possible to insert and turn it, but try to remove the minimumamount of wood.

Remove the brass nut and screw the barrel nut to the end of therod with the shortest length of threads. Check that the access atthe other end, brass nut and washer, is correct; when you are sa-5sed, peen the barrel nut to the rod using a hardened steel cen-ter punch and a heavy hammer. Do it at both sides of the barrelnut.


5544

Wrap the rod in PTFE tape and insert it inside the channel.

Note: Although the truss rod has 10-32 threads at its ends, it has been madefrom 5 mm instead of 3/16" (4.8 mm) rod. Anyway, as the width of the chan-nel is a hair above 5 mm, you won't probably nd problems inser5ng the rodwith the tape in it. If you do, le lightly each side of the rod.

Cut the cover to size, glue it above the rod (Titebond) and press itwith three or four clamps. Do the same for that sec5on of thechannel that doesn't have a rod below; for this, shape the base ofthe wood cover with some sandpaper un5l it has a semicircularsec5on (the bo6om of the channel is round)

Don't throw away the cover le over. We will use it later.


Once the glue gas dried, use a wide chisel and then a cabinet scra-per to remove the truss rod cover excess.


5566

Center the fretboard and place it above the pencil mark. This isbecause the nished nut, ini5ally 5 mm thick, will be a li6le thin-ner in the end due to sanding and polishing. Ideally, the nutshould t perfectly inside its channel; this is one of the placeswhere guitar making needs all your precision, so take your 5meposi5oning the fretboard prior to gluing it. Hold it with strongspring clamps.

Check the alignment once more, and then drill two holes at therst and last fret. They must have a diameter a hair below the dia-meter of a toothpick (I use a 2 mm bit not all toothpicks areequal, not even inside the same box, but they use to be a li6lemore than that).

Remove the fretboard and insert a length of toothpick inside eachhole. The fretboard should align perfectly now with just the twotoothpick guides and without the spring clamps.

The main problem to avoid when gluing the fretboard is neck dis-tor5on. As the gluing surface is large, you will have to use a lot ofclamps. These are usually heavy, so it is common that the neck isunder stress while the glue dries. A part of the problem can be at-tributed to the water in the glue (Titebond in this case), but thatmust be a much less important factor. In my experience, the bestway to avoid this problem is to let the neck rest on its side whilethe glue sets, using iden5cal clamps placed to the same side.


Try to 5ghten the clamps progressively, in several passes, as theglue makes everything much more slippery, even with the tooth-picks.

Clean the glue ooze out. Use a wet piece of cloth and then a chi-sel. Do it very well while wet and a&er it has dried: the bindingmust sit on at and clean surfaces.

Check the two ebony binding strips. One of their sides is at (thenarrow sides, the ones that should be glued to the neck, not tothe fretboard); the other may or may not be, so beware. Theymust be taller than the edge of the fretboard, but not much morethan 1 mm. Scrape them if necessary.

Apply glue to the binding (use preferably Titebond for darkwoods, or add two drops of black water dye to some of your regu-lar Titebond) and use a length of cord (8 meters/yards should bemore than enough) to clamp the bindings in place, applying a rmconstant pressure.

Don't use adhesive tape here: the cord is much simpler and itworks much be6er.

While the glue is s5ll wet, you can clean some or all the slots witha small tool that you may nd at some lutherie suppliers or atsome hobby shops, or even make yourself (as I did). If you are ca-reful placing the cord over the frets, you will be able to cleanthem all.


5588

A&er the glue is dry, remove the cord and clean the slots again ifnecessary.

Before sanding the fretboard, check its straightness with a straigh-tedge and correct if necessary with a cabinet scraper or sandpa-per (P80 or P120). Then sand the en5re fretboard surface un5lyou cannot see any router marks. You may use a radiused sandingblock (12" curvature radius) or a straight wooden block; avoidusing any so backing.

Always watch the ends of the fretboard at the rst and last frets: itis easy to sand them more than necessary. If that happened, itwouldn't be very no5ceable now, but it surely would show upa&er the fretboard surface was polished.

Sand the sides of the fretboard so that the transi5on between thefretboard and the main body of the neck is smooth. With a pencil,draw a line along it and locate the center of frets 3, 5, 7, 9, 15, 17and 19. These must be marked with single side dots. Fret #12must be marked with a double dot.


Drill the holes (hand drill!) at the points marked, using a 1/16(1.5 mm) bit at a depth of around 3 mm (1/8).

Use superglue for gluing enough length of the white plas5c rod.A&er the glue sets, le them even with the fretboard surface.

Now you will sand and true the bone for the nut. This is the rststep for preparing the gluing of the headplate. The bone is pro-bably rough now, but it will shine if you sand it following the gra-des: P220, P360, P600, P800, and P1200. Wrap some tape aroundyour ngers to aid holding it against the sandpaper; always try tokeep its faces well squared.

Chisel out the ends of the binding strips at the nut.


6600

Sand one of the face-grain edges of the headplate on a at tableun5l you get the same angle as the peghead. This is important, asyou won't make any further adjustments to the nut channel. Thetwo faces of the nut should fully contact the end of the fretboardand the end of the faceplate.

Hold everything with strong spring clamps and drill two holes (2mm). There will be one near the nut; the loca5on of the otherhole depends on your design for the headstock, but you cannot bevery wrong if you place it at the upper corner, as shown. Use to-othpicks as you did when you glued the fretboard.

Note: Most commercial headplates have a width of 3. This is not enough formost archtop headstocks, that are a li6le wider, so many makers need to cutand paste peghead material. I have enough stock of 4 wide peghead vene-ers, and that's what I will supply with the kit.

Before gluing the headplate it is advisable to open the access holefor the truss rod nut in it. You can do it a&er it is glued, but thewood may get damaged especially where you have to cut alongface grain. I have an easy method for which you will need just a lit-tle white paint, that you will apply to the corners of the hole, asshown.


Plug the veneer into the guiding toothpicks and you will have thereference of where to cut.

Drill some holes and then work with les and chisels un5l you getthe access right.

Now you can glue the headplate, using Titebond. Use a at blockabove it to even up the clamping pressure (some MDF le&overfrom the mold...?). Don't clamp too strong or you may break thepeghead; it is be6er to use many clamps with a moderate pres-sure at each one. You don't want a lot of glue inside the tunerholes or the truss rod access cavity: use as li6le as possible and, asalways, clean the ooze out.


6622

Now it is 5me to decide your headstock design. It is not easy tond something really new that doesn't look odd. You have an ob-vious size limita5on, but there are other concerns; for example, ifyou are going to use the same design in the future, think very wellhow you will manage to rout the peghead binding channels. Also,study how you will rout the peghead shape using a template; per-haps it will not be possible if there are, for example, 5ght curves.In the end, if you don't want to spend a lot of 5me working on thepeghead, you will arrive at some simple designs, most of whichhave been used already. If that's your decision, I suggest that youtry to rene their propor5ons un5l you make them more personal.For this guitar, I have chosen a very simple design; if you want touse it as it is or modify it somehow, you may download it here:

The real dimensions of the rectangle that encloses the drawingare 140x230 mm.

We'll cut the peghead shape with a coping saw and then rene itwith les and sandpaper. If you print the peghead shape, cut itand then glue it to the back of the peghead, it will be easier.


www.archtopguitarkits.com/Kits/Peghead_16i.jpg

I am sure that you will prefer to use some kind of sanding druminstead of doing it all by hand.

A&er that, use coping saw, chisel, cabinet scraper and sandpaperto trim the ebony headplate to the peghead shape.

In the future, if you decide to use the same peghead design, you may want touse a router with a template. Unfortunately (for this opera5on), I have cut al-most the en5re peghead shape, and this makes it much more probable thatyou get chipping problems where the bit exits the wood. To avoid that, youmay use a spiral bit and a rou5ng guide (these bits are too thin for using themwith bearings). Or, if you use a pa6ern bit, remove as much wood as possibleat the end of the peghead where the bit exits the wood.

Next, drill the tuner holes for the headplate, preferably using adrill press (10 mm bit). It is very important that you use a backingfor the peghead and press rmly to avoid chipping the ebony. Ifyou want to reduce even more that danger, don't rely on yourown strength alone: use some kind of clamping between the peg-head and the backing.

Saw o the end of the neck and rene it with sandpaper using ahard sanding block.


6644

Now you will have to cut the corners at the tenon that the CNCmachine couldn't nish (there are three). Use a chisel and a malletand remove the wood gradually as shown in the rst two photos.

This is the tenon a&er cu7ng the three corners.

Finally, smooth the end corners to around a 1/4 (6.5 mm) curva-ture radius.


Before installing the frets, we'll sand and polish the fretboard.Many makers will polish it a&er the frets are installed, probablybecause they use some kind of glue for the frets that will mess upthe polished wood. I don't use any glue, and I've never had anyfret li&ing problems, but you may do as you like: there are manygood sources on the subject of fre7ng and there is not a best me-thod yet.

The fretboard should be already sanded to P80 or P120. Go gra-dually through the sandpaper grades un5l you arrive at P1200, al-ways using a hard sanding block. Watch the ends of the fretboardat the rst and last frets: it is easy to sand them more than neces-sary. Finally, polish it to give it a high luster. I use a small co6onbung wheel on the drill press, without any polishing compound.You may use some kind of wool pad and work manually or evenMicromesh to get the same result.

Clean the fret slots again; compressed air is great, but you can doit with a brush. The nished fretboard, right before installing thefrets, should look like the picture.

The fretwire in the kit is already curved to match the curved fret-board surface. In fact, it is curved more than necessary, becausethat helps the fret ends to seat be6er. Cut each individual fret sothat you have an excess of around 5 mm (3/16) at both sides.


6666

The fret ends must t over the bindings, so you must remove asmall length of the tangs there; there is a great tool for this atStewmac, shown at le&. If you don't have one, you can s5ll trimthe tangs with a le.

I like to use a le anyway to remove the small burr le& by the tool.

Try to keep as much length of tang as possible, but not so muchthat the binding may break or unglue when the fret is seated. Thisis correct.


The most conven5onal tool to seat the frets is a nylon or brasshammer. Hand press the fret at its posi5on and then pound it witha few sharp blows, working from the center to both edges. Theremust be a wooden block below the pounding area. Work on asturdy table, preferably right above one of its legs.

For each fret installed, bend down a li6le its ends with the ham-mer. This will denitely avoid any end gap between the fret andthe fretboard. Don't over bend: the moment that the fret starts tobend, you know that it has bi6en the fretboard. Finally, cut the ex-cess using the end nippers.

If you nd problems using the hammer (I don't think so) there areother alterna5ves (fret presses) at aordable prices.

A&er all the frets are installed, le their ends with a long metalle. Do it at a slight angle.

Wri5ng your name on the headstock should be the next step. Thiscan be done in many ways; I use mostly inlaid mother-of-pearl,CNC cut.


6688

I did that manually in the past; I used (s5ll use) 1.5 mm thick pearl,and cut it with a jeweler's saw. Then I traced the contour of thesawn pieces on the headstock and used a small bit in a small rou-ter (Dremel) to open the cavity. Finally, I glued the pearl in the ca-vity with a glue capable of lling the voids (I s5ll prefer pigmentedsuperglue instead of epoxy). I agree that this is an incomplete des-crip5on: whatever I could say in a reasonable amount of spacewould be incomplete, and you would like to consult other sourcesanyway. S5ll, if you don't feel condent, you may use a white-inkpen for signing the headstock if you do it well, it can be very at-trac5ve.

The cabinet scraper is the best tool for removing the CNC machi-ning marks. When you don't see them anymore, sand the neckwith P120, P180 and P220.

Use a half-round le for shaping the small area at the pegheadthat the router could not reach.

A&er all these opera5ons, this is the way the neck should look:


By Main Assembly, I mean closing the soundbox. It is not uncommon to have some problems a&erdoing this; typically, irregular or not quite ver5cal sides. Hopefully the mold design, with its unusualmagnets, will help you avoid these problems.

SStteepp 66:: MMaaiinn AAsssseemmbbllyy

6699

7700

Tools and Supplies

Archtop guitars are dicult to assemble because of the arching it-self. You'll need to make a at base like this, using MDF:

No5ce that it is a li6le bigger than the outline of the guitar. I re-commend that you make it without a cutaway, as shown. The legs(the three rectangles inside it) raise the plate about 2 inches (50mm).

My main at base has a cutaway, but it would be be6er without it.It can be used for guitars up to 18 inches. Instead of three it hastwo legs, glued and screwed, but is equivalent to what I have ex-plained.

SStteepp 66 -- MMaaiinn AAsssseemmbbllyy

I used a dierent at base for the photos that follow, shown atright. Despite the holes, it is the same idea.

Apart from that, you must also have four wooden blocks to beused as legs to raise the mold around 2 inches (50 mm).

You will need as many clamps as you have (plus two more), a ma-chinist square, a calibrated ruler and a pencil. Also chisels, cabinetscraper and saws, as always.


Wiring guides, #47 Jack, #45, and Jack reinforcing plate, #46 Back, top and sides Glue Thread Adhesive tape

7711SStteepp 66 -- MMaaiinn AAsssseemmbbllyy

7722

Procedure

The width of the neck where it joins the soundbox (14th fret) is 55mm. Thus, its mid line is at 27.5 mm (1.08") from the wall of thecutaway, as it was men5oned when we carved the back plate.Trace it, if not already traced, using a machinist square.

Place the at plate on the table, and then the mold with the sidesinside. Place the magnets and a wooden s5ck of 389 mm (15.31")to press the end blocks apart.

Align the back using the line that you have traced and the middlelines of the sides and back at both ends. Watch the inside o&en,especially if you have carved the back very close to the end blocks.When sa5sed, clamp the back temporarily.

Glue a few stop pieces like these around the back, using super-glue.


For gluing them, I use a base (a cabinet scraper) with which I pushthe pieces up against the back; on top of the scraper there is asmall wooden s5ck that I use to push them against the side. Be ca-reful to glue the pieces only to the back.

This is the back with the glued stop pieces.

Now you can glue the back (Titebond). Use glue very sparingly, toavoid excessive ooze out.

If you use small wooden blocks under the clamps, you won't needas many. I have used a con5nuous block around the contour of theback, that is faster to set than individual lengths. It is more di-cult to make, however.

No5ce that there are a couple of clamps out of the con5nuousblock, pressing directly upon the back. These are necessary toguarantee good gluing pressure at the neckblock and tailblockareas.

When the glue is dry, extract the sides from the mold and cleanthe glue excess with a chisel. If the amount of glue was right, youshouldn't clean much more than what's shown in the picture.Learn as much as you can now: when you glue the top, you won'tbe able to clean the excess.


7744

A&er removing the stop pieces you'll have to trim the overhangfrom the back plate. If you don't have a rou/ng table or a similarjig, then I recommend that you remove the overhang using manualtools.

Don't leave this step for later: if you do, you will not be able to re-move the soundbox from the mold a er gluing the top!

A rou5ng table has a router below, with its bit protruding throughit. The soundbox is kept parallel to the table by means of three"legs" (modied spool clamps) that can be adjusted to any sound-box depth. They keep the guitar above the table at a height a li6lehigher than the maximum arching of the plates.

I use a long Flush Trim bit (bearing above the cu6ers). It cuts theoverhang fast and cleanly.

If you use a rou5ng table, you will have to take into account twovery important things.

The rst is safety: the bit is exposed, so take every conceivable pre-cau/on, including a hood for it (that I don't use, but I should).

The second is tear-out. As you know, hand held routers must befed against the piece ("conven5onal cu7ng"). This is safe for you,but not as much for the piece, that may suer tear-out. The sim-plest way to avoid this is to not let the bit reach full depth at rstat the problem areas, while s/ll keeping the conven/onal cu1ngdirec/on. Don't use old/bad quality bits either.


This may not always avoid tear-out, especially with spruce tops,that show li6le cohesion parallel to the grain. It will be more eec-5ve if you manually remove as much wood as you can from theareas marked "!":

The diagram represents the guitar on the rou5ng table, as seenfrom above while rou5ng the back. No5ce that he rota5on of thebit is an5clockwise, as corresponds to a router that is upsidedown.

If you want to avoid any possibility of tear-out, follow the feed di-rec5ons given by the arrows. Rout rst the "!" (climb cu7ng)areas, but be extremely alert and prudent: climb cu1ng is not safefor the operator. If you feel uncomfortable doing this, try the al-terna5ves explained above; at least, I don't think that you haveproblems now with the maple back.


7766

Glue the wiring guides at the places shown, using superglue. Passa thread through them and 5e and tape the end securely near thepickup area. This thread will be used to pass the wiring throughthe guides; if you don't tape it well, it may become extremely dan-gerous if caught while rou5ng the binding or bung the nish.

Shape and glue (Titebond) the jack reinforcement plate. No5cethat it is a laminate of two veneers with their grains at right an-gles. Glue it so that the grains of the three lamina5ons involved(the side and the two lamina5ons of the plate) alternate direc-5ons. Drill a hole in it for the jack. Don't use a bit of the nal dia-meter; instead, use a smaller bit and nish the hole with a circularle or a reamer.

Preparing the top for gluing will be a li6le more complicated. Therst thing to do will be to measure the length of the neck exten-sion. It must be around 91 mm (3.58"), but it may vary, perhapsbecause you sanded the neck end dierently.

Draw the mid lines inside the neckblock and at the edge of thetop, as shown.


Align the midlines at both ends of the instrument and adjust thedistance from the edge of the pickup hole to the outer surface ofthe sides. It should be the length of the extension that we foundplus 5 mm (3/16"). In this case, around 96 mm.

Glue a stop piece, as we did before for the back, to freeze the co-rrect loca5on of the top rela5ve to the sides.

Make a stack as you did for the back, but this 5me don't use theat base. Instead, put some wooden blocks under the mold sothat the back doesn't touch the table. Insert the sides in the moldagain, with the magnets.

Align the top again and glue the stop pieces around it, as you didfor the back. Before closing the box, be sure to sign the top and/orglue a label to the back (usually visible through the bass-side f-hole).

The magnets must be in place, but this 5me don't use the woodens5ck from block to block.


7788

Glue the top the same way as the back. This 5me you don't have aat base below, so youll have to nd a way of not marring theback, especially with the two clamps that press directly on thesoundbox. No5ce that I have used again the "con5nuous block".

When the glue has dried, remove the clamps and the end bolt ofthe mold. A&er that, you will be able to extract the soundboxquite easily. Recover the magnets through the f-holes.

Follow the direc5ons given above for rou5ng the plate overhang,now for the top. This is the new feed diagram:


It is very important that the sides are true. Work with a scraperand sandpaper un5l you feel (touch them with your eyes closed)that they are smooth and regular.

Remove the side wood at the body mor5se. Be very careful withthe edges of the top, especially at the bass side. Remove also theexcess at the cutaway side. Finally, use the rou5ng table to re-move the top overhang inside the mor5se.

Use a ne-toothed le to nish the cut areas.

If you join the neck now (don't insert it fully though), you'll see aguitar emerge for the rst 5me. No5ce that the tenon is slightlynarrower than necessary, so you'll probably need to shim it.



8800

Far from being a purely cosme5c add-on, the binding has a purpose protec5ng the edge of thesoundbox from small dents. This is more probable if the top, as usual, is made of a so& wood suchas spruce. Unfortunately, binding a guitar is not easy, even less an archtop.

Tuning the soundbox is one of the most ethereal steps at making a guitar. You'll nd makers favoringa lot of dierent techniques, leading to dierent nal gradua5ons. Each one has a concept of how acarved plate should be and work and, given the great results of so many personal approaches, Idon't believe that there is a magical "best" method for this.

SStteepp 77:: BBiinnddiinngg && TTuunniinngg tthhee SSoouunnddbbooxx

8811

8822

Tools and Supplies

Opening a channel for the binding in an archtop guitar is more dif-cult due to the greater arching of the plates. There are severalmethods for doing this correctly, usually involving the use of a rou-ter that slides on a ver5cal support while the guitar is kept hori-zontal by means of some kind of adjustable carriage. Thesemachines are quite popular now, and you may purchase one ofthem at some lutherie suppliers. However, you can use a rou5ngtable with similar results, provided that it is big enough for the job.Addi5onally, you may use it for other tasks, as explained in theprevious chapters.

As for the cu6er, you'll see me use the one from Luthier's Mercan-5le, which comes with many dierent bearings (Stewmac sells a si-milar one) . If you are going to rout just the top and back of thisguitar, there is a simpler solu5on using a ush trim bit, forexample the CMT 806.128.11. It has a diameter of 1/2" and a cut-5ng length of 1/2". If you replace its bearing (3/16" inner diame-ter, 1/2" outer) with one of 3/16" ID and 3/8" OD, you'll rout a1/16" channel which is perfect for the 0.060" binding that I supplywith the kit. Small diameter bits like this are great for this, as theylimit the damage if you don't keep the guitar horizontal above thetable (see the following sec5on).

Inch bits are harder to nd in some countries. If you have problems, you mayuse the CMT metric bit 906.190.11 instead, subs5tu5ng its 19mm OD bearingfor a 16 mm OD with similar results.

Apart from this, you will need chisels, sandpaper, cabinet scrapersand a small nger plane in case you have one. Nothing new at thisphase of the project.


Binding, #9 Closed soundbox Glue (read the discussion below) Tape Sandpaper (P80, P120, P180 and P220)

At the end of this sec5on you will nd the procedure for drillingthe hole for a6aching the tailpiece bolt. The necessary tools andsupplies are explained there.

SStteepp 77 -- BBiinnddiinngg aanndd TTuunniinngg tthhee SSoouunnddbbooxx

Procedure

As I said before, I use the Binding Cu6er/Bearing kit from Luthier'sMercan5le, using the correct bearing for the supplied binding: thekit, unless noted, has .060" (1.5 mm) thick binding.

The guitar is kept horizontal above the table using the same sup-ports("legs") that we used for rou5ng the top and back overhang,except that here we will use only two. The third support will bethe ring that surrounds the router bit. Obviously, you will have tomove the legs as you progress rou5ng the contour. Do it so thatthe surface of the triangle dened by the two legs plus the ring isas big as possible.

The cu6ers must project around 6 mm above the surface of thering (a li6le less than 1/4"). I personally don't nd it necessary toclimb cut to avoid tear out, even in spruce, but take your precau-5ons, as explained in the previous chapter.

I rout the en5re contour changing three 5mes the posi5on of thelegs. When you do this, the channel may show a small step ifthere is some error in your tool, for example, the legs not havingthe same height, the table not being at or something similar.Given that the third support is the ring itself, these discrepancieshave a very limited eect, and you will surely remove them with asecond pass of the router. Don't disregard these small errors: theyare the dierence between rst and second-class jobs.

You have several alterna5ves for gluing the plas5c binding. Weld-on 16 must the most common these days, but you may use UHUHart (similar to Duco). If you use cyanochrylate (super glue), bewarned that it is not as easy to use as the slower glues. With it,glue lines will be visible most 5mes, and puring lines won't be assharp and uniform as if you use a solvent-based glue.

I will use another alterna5ve: plas5c (from the same bindings, forexample) dissolved in acetone un5l it has the consistency of glue.Even if you use some other thing, you should have some of thismixture to join white bindings, as you can get completely invisibleglue lines. If you make a 50/50 mixture of UHU hart and this plas-5c solu5on, you'll get the (for me) best glue for gluing white bin-dings.

8833SStteepp 77 -- BBiinnddiinngg && TTuunniinngg tthhee SSoouunnddbbooxx

8844

Use tape for holding the bindings in place while the glue sets. Usea strong one, for example lament tape. Press it against the side,pull strong and then press it against the top or back.

Use a good amount of glue, and clean the excess thoroughly be-fore taping the binding in place.

The bindings are long enough to avoid using a joint at the tail.

When you arrive at a curved area like the waist or the inside of thecutaway, work the binding with your ngers un5l it has the correctcurvature, as shown. You may be tempted to use a heat gun to sof-ten the plas5c, but I don't recommend it: it is very easy to heat theplas5c more than necessary. With the binding in the kit, .060"thick, a heat gun is not necessary. No5ce that I am really using.090" binding here, and even at that thickness a heat gun is unne-cessary.

This is the top a&er binding it.


The back is bound similarly, but you have a joint at the cutawaycorner. Treat it the same way as the joint between the woodensides. Start installing the binding from the non-cutaway side andtrim the excess before gluing the other side. Try to use plas5c dis-solved in acetone or, alterna5vely, wet the joint with acetone be-fore gluing.

A&er the glue has set (a few hours should be enough), remove thetape. Do this carefully, at an angle, to avoid pulling wood berswith the tape; while you don't have to be as careful as with at-tops (you'll be carving a recurve later anyway), you may s5ll do alot of damage.

A rounded cabinet scraper is absolutely the best tool for removingthe binding excess. If, while using it, you no/ce that the surface ofthe binding gets rough, it is probable that the glue is not comple-tely dry.


8866

For you that have purchased this kit, there are two ways to see thetuning of the soundbox. The rst is to simply follow the guidelineshere or at some other place. You will get a great sounding guitar, Iam sure. Play it, alone or with your friends, and be happy. Skip thefollowing paragraph and enjoy.

The second approach is not as easy. Try to listen to what other ma-kers have to say about your work or theirs. Listen also to whatgood musicians, guitarists or not, have to say about your guitar.Compare it with others, even dissimilar: at tops, bigger archtops,whatever. Do the comparisons again with dierent strings, forexample bronze. You'll start to discover that you may have beenbiased, but you are not the only one. Be concerned that, quiteprobably, there won't be a general agreement on the tone of yourguitar. Be ready to hear contradictory opinions from respectedmakers or musicians. Humans don't agree even with themselves atdierent moments or situa5ons, and are easily impressed withother things not related to the tone of the guitar: learn from thattoo; I could tell you many stories about it. Make guitars, as manyas you can. Submit them to all those tests. With 5me, you'll deve-lop an objec5ve sense for evalua5ng a guitar, and you'll start tohear things in your unnished soundbox. You'll have sympathy andprobably will adhere to some (or all) of the tribes in this eld:those that work mostly feeling the vibra5on with the 5p of theirngers, those that mainly put pressure with their thumbs, theones that tune the plates while they are not glued to the sides,those that tune the closed soundbox, those who tap the plates,those who excite modes with pure tones, those who analyze theimpulse response, the chemists that try to nd the composi5on ofthe varnish, the botanists, even the mys5cs... feel free to listen toall of them: most 5mes there's something interes5ng there, some-5mes a lot, but try to take it with a grain of salt.

Start scraping the recurve for the top, as shown. You can do it witha gouge, a rounded cabinet scraper or a nger plane, as I am doinghere. Check the thickness near the f-hole: you'll be able to es5-mate how much wood you are removing from other places. Don'tremove wood from above the neck and tail blocks or from thecentral area of the instrument. Tap the top at dierent places asyou carve the recurve, ge7ng familiar with the change in tone asyou progress. For that, you will have to learn to isolate it fromother sources of vibra5on, especially the back and the main reso-nance of the air in the box.


Working on a so& pad will make it easier. The top will lower itspitch, and it will get denite, more musical, as you remove woodfrom the recurve. Stop when its thickness is around 3.5 mm, aschecked through the f-holes.

If you go below 3 mm or so, you'll hear that the tap tone starts tochange: instead of ge7ng more musical, it will start sounding dull.You must stop the carving before ge7ng there, so you must learnto start hearing that change in the sanded top. That's why youmust switch from edge tools to sandpaper when the recurve is atabout 3.5 mm.

Sand the whole top from P80 to P120, trying to keep it at a mini-mum out of the recurve area.

Do the same with the back. You won't hear this dullness here, sowork feeling the change in s5ness at the recurve, ini5ally a verys5 area that doesn't deform no5ceably under the pressure ofyour thumbs. Remove wood un5l you can feel it exing with a mo-derate pressure.


8888

Now it is 5me to drill a hole for the tailpiece at the tail end. No5cethat it will be a6ached to the guitar by means of a bolt that screwsthrough the top and into the tailblock.

The bolt must be approximately perpendicular to the tailpiece asthe strings pull towards the top of the bridge saddle. Thus, it is ne-cessary that the hole for it is drilled at an angle.

Start marking the loca5on of the bolt: draw a point on the top atthe central line of the instrument, 22 mm (7/8") from the edge.

Use double sided adhesive tape for s5cking a small piece of woodtaken from the truss rod wooden cover. If you threw it away, use apiece of wood around 5 mm (3/16") thick. Place it at around 50mm (2") from the edge (this is not a cri5cal distance).

Use a 5.5 mm (7/32") drill bit to make a hole in a piece of athardwood, around 1/2" (13 mm) thick. Place it as shown, res5ngboth on the edge of the guitar and on the former piece of wood.Place the piece so that you can see the mark on the top while loo-king through the hole. Ask someone to hold it rmly while you drillthe hole for the bolt with the same 5.5 mm bit. The depth must beenough for the bolt, around 45 mm (1 3/4").

Finally, sand the en5re soundbox to P220 un5l you see no scrat-ches le& by the previous grades. Do not sand too hard where thepickup, neck joint and bridge will be. Otherwise, you'll have tospend more /me to get a no-gap joint for the pickup ring, bridgeand neck.

At this stage of the construc5on, you will be able to correct the topfor any gaps that you no5ce between it and the bridge foot andpickup ring.


8899

SStteepp 88:: JJooiinniinngg tthhee NNeecckk

A good neck-to-soundbox joint is a combina5on of precise woodworking and careful measuring:don't forget any. When you are done, you won't be working on a neck or a soundbox, but on a gui-tar, so this must be the one of the main milestones.

9900

Tools and Supplies

A good chisel sharpened like a razor is the best tool for shapingthe neck surfaces where they contact the soundbox. You may usea rier at the latest stages of the adjustment, but sandpaper willdo ne. Carbon paper is a must. If you plan to make more guitars,get some sheets before they don't make them anymore.

You will need a long straightedge and a small ruler, but read theprocedure sec5on rst. There you will nd more informa5on onthe rest of the tools and supplies.

Procedure

It has been already men5oned that the neck tenon is a li6le narro-wer than necessary. For the dry adjustments that follow, use card-board or paper to shim the joint temporarily (at the treble side ofthe joint). Conrm that the mid lines for the top and the neck arethe same, give or take 1 mm.

The photos explain well the rst adjustments. You must removewood from the neck sec5on that projects beyond the tenon un5lyou get a decent t between both parts. This is a work of half anhour at most; if it takes more, then you are probably trying to geta good t, which you s5ll don't need at this stage.

If you haven't sanded the top in excess, you'll no5ce that the un-derside of the tenon is about 1 mm above the bo6om of the mor-5se. There is a similar gap between the end of the tenon and theback of the mor5se. No ma6er the adjustments that you do, keepthose gaps.

The rst photo above shows the removal of wood from the trebleside of the neck. That side will separate from the soundbox, asshown here. The bass side is adjusted to the top, as shown in thefollowing page.

SStteepp 88 -- JJooiinniinngg tthhee NNeecckk

Now it is 5me to check a few things. The height of the bridgeabove the top is one of them. For that, I use a jig similar to the onethat Benede6o describes in his book. It is a straightedge that restson the top of the frets and has a projec5ng piece at the end rightwhere the bridge must be located. The height of the projec5ngpiece is 1" but, for th

Documents

Archtop Guitar Manual