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I fixed the back brace that had a split. I can see the grain doesn't run the way it should. I think this is called runout or something? I also have plans to add a vertical brace to the back. This is because I want to add an inlay strip on the back to clean up that joint. I need some meat for the inlay to go into. I have those thin pieces of spruce, can I use that or should I get something else like the kerfed lining I put in?

This glue up was easy. The Gobar rods where able to stay on the brace even though it was rounded over. The only thing I needed to do was add some towels to the radius dish since the back did not match the profile of the dish. The towels helped even it out.

Got the tone bars glued in. I had some problems. The braces themselves were very slippery when I tried to clamp them down with the go bar rods. I moved into the house, out of the garage because I was worried the hide glue would get too tacky too quickly from the cold. Now the blue was too viscus. But I got them on their.

The small tone bars were left over scrap from when I rough shaped the x braces. I'm glad I kept them because I lost one of the ladder braces. The two old ladder braces I still had wound up being used for the two large tone bars. I knocked them down hight wise a little bit but they were still way too big when I installed them.

And when all was said and done the top finally split apart! I don't know if that was because it was too dry in the house with the forced air heating or if it was because of all the pressure from the go bar rods. Not sure how bad this is. I put it back in a plastic bag with some damp sponges. The crack is small but their was nothing their during glue up.

The old ladder brace was very hard to carve with the chisel. Small knots and maybe the grain runs a bit funky. I'm not an expert carver but the terrified wood pieces were so easy in comparison. And I defiantly need to get them roughed into shape better before putting them on. It would save a lot of time.

I'm going to see if the top closes up with the added humidity and then glue in the bridge plate. After that the top needs to be voiced. I've been watching a lot of you tube videos on the subject but don't really feel to confident. As long as the bracing doesn't fail when I string it up I'll be happy. This was never a great sounding guitar to begin with.

Just noticed the repair to the back brace... if the top is still off, I suggest capping the the repair with a thin strip of wood, bridging the repair to reinforce the brace, perhaps an inch on either side of the break.

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peter havriluk

the brace is a good idea. I did this although it didn't work out they way I wanted. I thought I'd cut some slots in some spruce and it could wrap around the brace. This just broke when I tried to flex it, even though I soaked it in water. Had a tough time again with the Gobar rods but I got a brace on their. One of the go bar rods split the brace where I made the cut. I guess that was a bad idea on my part trying to get it to wrap around the top.

Also before I glued in the tone bars for the top I removed one of my patches because I thought it wasn't necessary with the tone bars going in. I ripped a small chunk of the top out when I did this. Luckily it didn't go all the way through. I fixed this too. I shaved the piece of the guitar from the patch, leaving a little of the patch behind so I got as much of the top back in as possible. The pictures explain it.

I shaved more of the top brace down. Still trying to figure out the basic idea of voicing the top. I think I''ll take my time with this before proceeding further.

The top closed up for the most part. In one part the two half are no longer even, but I can just use a scraper to even that out. I don't know what the consequences are if the top is uneven but that was already the case anyway. I was happy with the voice job I did. It resonates much better after carving the braces down. My guy feeling says to go further with it, its still a really stiff top, but I think I'm too much of a coward for that. How much flex should the top have? it has a little bit going the short way. None when I flex it the long way.

Also I found out that the Guitar body no longer has the same form! It shifted. Not surprising since the top has been off for over a year. I think this is an easy fix though. You can see in the picture, the top of the soundboard is lined up with the top of the body where the neck would go and the bottom sticks out almost 1/4 inch. On the sides toward the base of the bottom, they are too far from the edge of the soundboard. about 1/8 of an inch.

OP in in for a storm of adventures if the neck angle isn't right, seeing as the body is wobbling.
If OP is planning on reusing the bridge position, it's entirely possible that the scale length isn't either what it was, or what it should be. A real PITA, but the time to discover that is before the top gets attached.

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peter havriluk

Didn't know I needed to figure out the scale length before the top was attached. I'd figure with a new bridge plate and bridge even if I had to move the position I would be able to without any problems. The neck is not attached to the body. I already steamed that out. Does that make a difference? Also the neck pocket definitely needs to be fixed up from the damage that occurred when I took it off.

My plan was to attach the top, fix the neck - set the neck angle, then measure out to where the bridge is supposed to be for the correct scale length. I figure it should be at or near the original bridge position. Is this not the best way to move forward? The top is not attached yet so if their is another method...

Okay so as I said the body of the guitar is deformed, it no longer has the shape of the top. This I figure is going to be a big problem during glue up and needs to be fixed. So I decided to make a form. Not one of your standard 00 or Dreadnaught forms that could be reused, sigh, this guitar top isn't even symmetrical, though its close. So its a custom form that will only be used once.

To make it I just traced the top out onto a piece of MDF. I Drilled a few holes along the inside and just connected the dots with a drywall saw. I need to get better tools. This worked well enough. The form was to tight and I did need to open it up a little with a file. Lots of trial and error. The top side of the MDF when I was cutting is the bottom when it goes on the guitar. I traced the top out upside down since it had braces on. Didn't think about this at first, as I said the guitar is not perfectly symmetrical and it was not close to fitting when I tried the other way.

But I did get it to fit on eventually. I was going to glue the top up using the go-bar deck I have extra long threaded rods so I can make the top deck real high. Now with this form it won't fit in my go-bar deck. I will need to figure out another glueing method.

One of the problems with getting the guitar to fit in the form was the kerfling. I put this on soon after the top was off so I guess this thing went out of shape rather quickly. The kerfling wanted the guitar to keep its present shape. I had to cut gaps where two pieces of kerfling were pinching together when trying to get the guitar back in shape. also some pieces just broke off. I heard lots of glue cracking as I was trying to get the darn thing into the form. I was sure it was the glue from the kerfling. the bits that broke off confirmed that. I did a good glue up job with those. the glue joint didn't fail, a piece of the old kerfling came off with the new.

Now I need to cut out notches in the kerfling for the braces then before glue up I'm going to study up how to set the scale length of a guitar. the last post that wasn't mine mentioned this is much easier with the top off. I need to figure out why and what I need to do.