2 Questions: top and back radius and side bending

[tugboat]

A newbie here in the beginning throes of planning an acoustic guitar build! I'm in the middle of a scratch built Korina doublecut Les Paul Special and am having a blast building it! I'm on a big acoustic guitar kick right now so I'm thinking about doing an acoustic for my next build. I already have a good OM style guitar (Taylor GA4) so I'm thinking about a dread, the front runner being a J-45. I'm not a D-28 fan but I need to try a few D-18's before deciding.

So on to my questions. Regarding the top and back radii. Are the tops and backs themselves radiused or is the radius put into the bracing, with the top and back staying flat, which bend the top and back to the correct radius once glued? If the top and back themselves are radiused are they radiused after taking down to final thickness? Meaning, if I take the top down to .110" (which I believe is a common thickness for an Adirondack top) is the radius applied after I take the top down to thickness?

Second, since I'm leaning towards a J-45 I haven't seen any kits that offer pre-bent sides. I've seen the heating blanket method and am method where you soak the sides, and with a jig using a pipe and a small propane torch, you manually bend the sides, re-wetting periodically, and then tie the sides into a mold to dry and keep into final form. I'd like to do this without buying unnecessary tools if possible and the pipe method looks intriguing. Is this method reasonable to do for a first timer?

Hello Mr. boat and welcome to the Forum.
In response to your second question, John Hall/Blues Creek Guitars/tippie53
can provide you with just about any kit you could imagine at a good price.
Now the free support and advice he gives? Priceless.
On the left side of this page you'll find his block ad, phone and link to his website.

-tommy

[Ben-Had]

The radius is put into the bracing. The top and back are thin enough to bend to the gentle curve.

[tugboat]

Thanks for the replies! Great news on the side bending. That's the only thing I'm not quite sure how to do and if I could get a kit with pre-bent sides that would help a lot. On the top, I've heard about people shaving the sides of the soundboard and other things to the top so I was double checking to make sure I understood everything correctly.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Welcome Tug,
Paruse the forum and alot of your questions will be answered before you ask them cause we've all been there at one time or another and already asked them. Tommy sent you in the right direction!

Kevin

[tugboat]

Already tried that on the J-45 kit and didn't find anything. :)

Doing a lot of work on my Electric with hand tools (planes and chisels especially). Hope to have sufficient practice with the hand tools to do well on the acoustic!

[tippie53]

we do custom kits all the time. I will be producing a J style kit . Contact me and let me know what you would like.

[tugboat]

we do custom kits all the time. I will be producing a J style kit . Contact me and let me know what you would like.

Cool! Thanks John! I need to get through my electric build but I may give you a call once it's finished!

[tippie53]

thanks Tug I will be here