First-timer Archtop Build

[sbeishline]

I used the 100grit sandpaper on a broomstick/dowel method to finish smoothing the neck transition and heel area, which I think worked pretty well:


Here are some pics at the end where I think it feels pretty good:


For fun, I ran some 400grit sandpaper over the headstock:


Not sure where I'll end up today or the point when the baby arrives, but I'm really trying to hightail it!

[sbeishline]

Prior to heading to the shop this morning, I ran to Harbor Freight to grab a set of brad point drill bits that had odd sizes. Being a tad wider than 3/8", I had to use a 25/64" bit. Its a great place if you're not looking for anything high quality- they have a huge selection and the prices are ridiculous. Glad it was open on a Sunday.

I was not looking forward to re-drilling the holes as this never tends to go easy, and I didn't want to ruin the headstock.

I did the same setup as yesterday. I started with one of the top holes. The entry wasn't smooth and I was not too happy. It dawned on me that I should fill the 3/8" holes with dowels for the brad point, just like when I needed to adjust the end pin jack hole in the body. The one benefit of having used the 3/8" is that we already had a 3/8" dowel since it's common:


The dowels didn't help 100%, but they at least allowed me to check the centering position before I plunged in. We also had trouble with the drill press table somehow coming out of level- ugh. Here's how it looked after the drilling massacre:


Biggest chip out was on the D string peg hole, which I tried to sand out with 100grit as much as possible. Here's the look (front/back) post-sanding:


Because of the incline towards the volute, I had to do some sanding in that area to allow the back portion of the tuner to sit flat against the back of the headstock. Here it still had a hair to go:


Fortunately with some sanding and the washers on the front, most of the war wounds are not visible to the eye. I'm satisfied with the outcome considering it was a battle getting to this point. Here's the final appearance with the tuners installed.



Once everything is ready to be finalized, I have a tuning peg drill guide and bit from StewMac for the back single screw. Hopefully after all, we won't hit any snags with the string paths running into one another.

*Learning point - save yourself unnecessary struggles and use the right drill bit size the first time.

[sbeishline]

After the tuners, I was mentally tired from the drilling debacle and physically tired from the sanding. But, time is of the essence with the upcoming soft deadline, and I needed to wade out of the muck and decided to keep moving on the tailpiece.

After yesterday's progress I was ready to cut out the general shape on the bandsaw:


The shape I traced was very rough and didn't have solid lines to which I could sand. So, I did my best to find a side I liked better and tried to keep things symmetric. There was a point I felt like I was chasing tails and used a metric ruler to try and map out one side to get closer to the other:


I tried using the contour gauge to help a bit, too:


Here's where I decided to stop and accept the imperfections, and appreciate the mark of the maker:


I'll probably make some some adjustments by hand sanding before its shape is absolutely final.

Next, I wanted to create an angle at the end of the tailpiece on the bottom side to hide the exiting of the adjuster cord.

To do this, I marked the area I wanted to cut off (the corner):


I then used a piece of cutoff from band sawing the milled blank to practice on the belt sander to see how it would go before using the real piece:


The practice run went well and I gave it a go on the real piece:

[sbeishline]

Here's how it looked afterwards:






Here's how it looks against the body:


This shows I was purdy close to my calculated mark:


Next I need to radius sand it to the 12deg radius, chisel out the string cavity (on top), and drill the string holes. I'll probably make some chamfers on the edges, too.

[sbeishline]

Current stage:

[Jehu]

*Learning point - save yourself unnecessary struggles and use the right drill bit size the first time.

... or use a tapered reamer to enlarge the hole.

Lookin' great!

[sbeishline]

... or use a tapered reamer to enlarge the hole.

Lookin' great!

Thx- needed that.

I got a reamer when I was doing the end pin jack hole, because the Benedetto book says 15/32"... But the jack is really a half inch.

I had it out today for this purpose and was fearful that I'd end up making the hole too large. I figured that (if drilling from the back) by the time the size you want for the back gets to the front, the back will be too big? I guess I don't understand taper reamers.

[sgosnell]

Use the reamer from both sides. The holes will be slightly larger than necessary on both the front and back when the center is just wide enough to get the tuner through, but it's not much.

[sbeishline]

Use the reamer from both sides. The holes will be slightly larger than necessary on both the front and back when the center is just wide enough to get the tuner through, but it's not much.

Thx, sgosnell. Makes sense.

[Matt Cushman]

When adjusting your tailpiece cord, I recommend that you have your tailpiece a bit more forward so that there is not too much pressure pulling down on the tailpiece where the cord exits the end of the tailpiece. With your fulcrum on the guitar rather than on the tailpiece, the area where the cord exits the tailpiece is a bit weaker than a tailpiece with a fulcrum glued under the drilled area where the cord exits the tailpiece. The holes leave the area weak and the lower end of the holes have a habit of cracking or breaking over time. I think if you have the tailpiece in the "flying" position you should be OK. When I say "flying", I mean to have all the downward pressure on the fulcrum and as little downward pressure on the end of the tailpiece as possible. The cord made from steel or nylon will likely cut into the fulcrum over time but if there is downward pressure on the holes where the cord exits it could possibly destroy the end of your tailpiece.

[rlrhett]

What Matt said. Happened to a friend of mine... ;-)


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[sbeishline]

Thanks for looking out, luthiers!

What’s it like watching a rookie try to pull off this stunt?

[rlrhett]

I’m loving it! I wish I had the patience and focus to document a build like that. I see people document builds on YouTube and am amazed. If it were me I would have to mute the video —else I would likely get de-monetized for inappropriate use of language.


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[sbeishline]

Got to the shop tonight and wanted to start by radiusing the tailpiece to the 12deg radius.

Because the piece is small and the sanding block is 12" long, it's hard to use the sanding block on top of the tailpiece. Steve recommended holding the joystick of the sanding block in the vice and double-stick taping the tailpiece to a block of wood and that's just what I did.

Here's the sanding block loaded with 100grit paper in the vice with the tailpiece stuck to the block:


I transferred the centerline of the tailpiece to the top so I could align it while sanding with the radius block centerline:


I marked the top of the tailpiece with white chalk pencil so I could track the progress a la fretboard radius sanding:


Here's some progress after sanding a while:


The block to which the tailpiece was stuck had been sanding to probably 400 and was a bit slippery. I considered double-stick taping some sandpaper on the block for grip, but I ended up just double-stick taping my hand to the block and that worked well enough. You can see it in the following pics post-radiusing.

Here's it is after finishing:


I think I was pretty close to my goal of just over 1/4", which is similar to the Benedetto tailpiece you can buy unsanded or prefinished.

[sbeishline]

After radiusing I was ready to create the recess for the string cavity. I typically like the clean look of strings that are hidden underneath the tailpiece; however, I do enjoy seeing the colors of the ball ends of D'Addario strings. In the Acquired of the Angels book, D'Aquisto designed a lot of his later guitars with the cavity on the top of the tailpiece, so I guess this is my tip of the hat to Sir Jimmy D'Aquisto.

I first measured the string spacing at the bridge of the Godin Flat Five X, which is the nut string spacing I'm using (~ 2 3/64"):


Next, I traced out my cavity shape:


Then, I measured to ensure it would fit my string spacing requirements and it seemed like it would be alright (pic taken afterwards):


We debated on the best way to create the slop down into the cavity and determined that, once again, the Dremel in the Stewie router base would come into play. *So glad I bought that damn thing. I set the depth of the 3/32" inlay bit to about 3/32" deep, so I could creep up to ~1/8' deep (the width of the string end ball).

Next, I scribed the marked cavity line with a marking knife, so I could chisel after routing the deep end of the cavity:


I didn't take a photo, but I ran the Dremel pretty close to the deep end scribed line. Then I started the 2hr of chiseling/filing/sanding. Here are some highlights:


You can see I accidentally routed above the marking near the end on the right:


I wasn't worried, because I figured I this would be a good use for those needle files I got, and they worked great! Here's some further refinement:


It's amazing how much you can screw up, yet the refinement process evaporates any evidence of the craftsperson struggles.

I ended up having a tiny bit of chip out here and there, so I ran it again on the radius block. This decreased my deep end wall height a tad, so I'll have to deepen it a little bit more to ~1/8" during the next session on Wednesday. Once that's done and sanded, I'll add the chamfers along the sides and finally, drill the string holes in their respective locations.

Here's where I stopped for the night:

[sbeishline]

Cheers.

[Zina]

This is going to be a great guitar. I love the violin/'cello touches (will you put in an âme too?), and those soundholes are truly elegant. Would you post a clip of how it sounds before you add pick-up and guard, please?

[sbeishline]

This is going to be a great guitar. I love the violin/'cello touches (will you put in an âme too?), and those soundholes are truly elegant. Would you post a clip of how it sounds before you add pick-up and guard, please?

Thanks, Zina!

No to the sound post. This is because of the physics of bowed strings vs. plucked string...sound posts are counterproductive for a guitar like this. At least that's how I understand it...

Sure, I'll post it all as I go along. I'm assuming I definitely won't get the guitar "finished" until things settle after the arrival of the baby. I decided to snag an ebony end pin to use for setting up the strings when getting the nut fit, as I won't be getting near the StrapJack/electrifying stage for a while (after it's completely finished).

I plan on french polishing, which will likely a few weeks. However, we'll get to hear it in action before I remove everything for finishing.

[John A.]

Thanks, Zina!

No to the sound post. This is because of the physics of bowed strings vs. plucked string...sound posts are counterproductive for a guitar like this. At least that's how I understand it...

Sure, I'll post it all as I go along. I'm assuming I definitely won't get the guitar "finished" until things settle after the arrival of the baby. I decided to snag an ebony end pin to use for setting up the strings when getting the nut fit, as I won't be getting near the StrapJack/electrifying stage for a while (after it's completely finished).

I plan on french polishing, which will likely a few weeks. However, we'll get to hear it in action before I remove everything for finishing.

What, you don't want to spray nitro around a newborn baby? Dilettante ...


John

[sbeishline]

What, you don't want to spray nitro around a newborn baby? Dilettante ...


John

So true. LOL

[Matt Cushman]

Drilling the string holes could be a bit tricky. In woodworking it is often best to drill the piece in advance of shaping. It is much easier to drill accurately while the workpiece is still square.

[TedBPhx]

I am far from an expert but I don’t see how to ground the strings with that tailpiece design. Is that not an issue?

[sgosnell]

It's not an issue for an acoustic-only guitar. For amplified, there is copper or aluminum tape available that works fairly well. The tape goes in the string slot and down the underside of the tailpiece, or wherever the ground wire comes out of the body. My impression, based on little other than a cursory reading of the thread, is that this is an acoustic archtop. If amplified, not having the strings grounded results in a lot of noise. I say that from experience.

[sbeishline]

Drilling the string holes could be a bit tricky. In woodworking it is often best to drill the piece in advance of shaping. It is much easier to drill accurately while the workpiece is still square.

Steve and I vocalized that exact sentiment last night in talking about it.

Because the bottom side is flat, we were thinking of creating a sandwich of small cauls to use on the drill press that we could slide along to keep the drill paths in alignment?

We'll see tomorrow night!

[sbeishline]

I am far from an expert but I don’t see how to ground the strings with that tailpiece design. Is that not an issue?

It's not an issue for an acoustic-only guitar. For amplified, there is copper or aluminum tape available that works fairly well. The tape goes in the string slot and down the underside of the tailpiece, or wherever the ground wire comes out of the body. My impression, based on little other than a cursory reading of the thread, is that this is an acoustic archtop. If amplified, not having the strings grounded results in a lot of noise. I say that from experience.

It will eventually be electrified. I've read a few varying opinions about whether it contributes to noise. I think I may try it without shielding and can figure out how exactly to shield it if necessary. There's a JGF thread on this topic that's been discussed before.