Parlor Guitar

[John Reid]

Starting a new project. I’m trying a parlor build.

Sort of coming up with my own size. I wanted something in between two profiles I had: I traced the profile of a Yamaha parlor and also got a form from John Hall. The Yamaha was too small and the one from John was a bit bigger than I wanted. So, I drew the profiles on one sheet of paper and then kind of averaged the two shapes, as shown.

From there I made a bending form, and I just finished the other form to hold the sides.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Looks like this will be fun to watch.
I've never made a parlor guitar. I should do one someday.

[MaineGeezer]

sounds like a good project!

Just out of curiosity, how closely does your "derived" outline match this outline of an old Bruno I copied for my 2nd build?

Bruno Outline.pdf

[John Reid]

Ok, I just measured the parlor size I came up with.

I put my numbers on the outline you sent. My numbers are circled. Looks like mine is pretty much the same length, but wider at the upper bout, waist, and lower bout. Don’t know what that means, but there it is…

[MaineGeezer]

It means you're building it for a larger parlor??? <grin>

[John Reid]

Ahhhhhhhh! Makes perfect sense. :)

[John Reid]

Been a long time since I posted on this project. Decided to make two parlors at once. Things are now well under way, so here some picts.

I drew up some plans which are shown next to the form I made.

One of the issues I had with one of the tops is the warping shown in the picture. Didn’t know what to do. I lightly sprayed one side with water and that would temporally flattened things right out so I could work on thicknessing it. Then, after thicknessing, I gently ironed it and it stayed reasonably flat. Whew!

Last two pictures show where I stand now. The top and backs are braced. Next, bending the sides.

[MaineGeezer]

Ambitious, are we?

Are they intended to be identical (same wood,etc)? I wonder if there will be a noticeable difference in how they sound.

[John Reid]

I wouldn’t say ambitious. This is the second time I’ve made two together. When I was younger and did some work on my cars and I found that it would take me an hour and a half to do the brakes on one side and ten minutes on the other sides. The first side was sorting out what tools I needed and figuring out what to do. Same seems to apply here some. Also, I’m starting this hobby late (after retirement), so I’m trying to boost my overall experience level.

Yeah, they are the same woods, so I am curious how they’ll compare. The grains on the tone woods are noticeably different. One is much less dense than the other. The more dense grain has noticeably higher pitch when tapping. I had fun discovering that.

[John Reid]

I just bent the sides for one of the guitars, and after removing from the bending jig, found some splits. It happened to both sides at the same location, the upper bout bend.

The photo shows one of them, and you can actually see two small splits adjacent to the more obvious one in the middle. They don’t seem to go all the way through.

Any thoughts on what I should do? I’m thinking that since the cracks don’t go through, perhaps I can fill with sanding dust and CA.