Need help shaping sides to back

[sawdustdave]

My plans call for sides which gently curve from neck to back, from just over 4 1/4" to under 4". I was told to worry about this after bending, so now I'm done bending the sides.

The side to top joint will be straight. But how should I cut/carve/shape the curved edge where it will glue to the back of the guitar?

Thanks!

Dave

[kencierp]

First I would be interested to know what the guy/gal that gave you that direction would suggest that you do now that the sides are already bent? Sorry but in my view that was very bad advice. It is simply far easier to profile the side in advance of bending using the inner most point of the waist curve as your guide. There's other factors as well to consider, what is the radius of your back braces? you can radius the back of the rim with our Mega Mold. Some use a radius dish -- place the rim in the dish and scribe the contour using a compass. The Stew Mac assembly manual has a method that approximates the contour. There's other methods I'm sure others will comments.

[sawdustdave]

OK, so here's what I presently plan on doing:

From the plans I marked all the widths, from the neck, lower bout, waist, upper bout, and tail. From these marks (making certain that I have the same placement on both ribs) I used a straight, bendable, piece of sheet metal to draw lines between the marks. Of course, after I did this I realized that I should re-do these on the inside of the ribs, but that will be this afternoon.

From the bandsaw I can rough cut the ribs, leaving material to plane to final curve.

The plans I'm following don't use molds, it uses a solara. And, the neck is not bolted or dovetailed, rather glued to the soundboard. The book is from an English luthier, and this is his method. I think that my next build will be with molds and I'll use what I think of as a more traditional neck mounting method - dovetailed or bolted.

As I look at how things are going, I'm pretty sure this guitar will be OK, but not really what I was hoping for. Going from a book, even step by step, leaves a lot out. Videos and forum help does really add to what I'm learning. But actually doing is where I'm seeing a lot of errors, omissions, etc. But, I'm learning, that's for certain!

Maybe number two will be in the spring. But first, I still have a lot of work to do here on this one...

Dave

[tippie53]

Ken and I agree that you do want to pre shape the sides before bending. I have to say that what you are doing is interesting . I don't think a sound board will take the full stress , you do need some kind of a neck joint to help carry that load .
Can you get more info for this neck structure ?

[sawdustdave]

OK, the book is by Alex Willis. The neck is supported by both the top and back, with wedges, if needed. I don't plan on needing these.

But, I'm almost to the point of starting the back/sides/neck completely over. The top will be fine. The neck, well, it won't be too bad to do again. Sides will be ok, as will the back.

I'm not adverse to starting over. Done this enough with other projects so I know that that is just part of the price one pays for learning. We do learn from mistakes - or bad information, etc.

Thanks to all!

Dave

[Jim_H]

Rick,

I can't speak for anyone else, but one of the things I appreciate about you is your willingness to say things like "I"m really not sure, but here is what I think". Or "So and so does it this way, but I'm just not sure how it works", along with an ample supply of 'this is how I do it and it works well for me'...

I think it's much more valuable as the 'learner' to have more experienced 'teachers' give me things to think about to lead me towards a goal, than to tell me as fact that "this is how it's done".

And as far as writing a book, I think you'd do fine, especially with your background in editing. =)

Just my two cents...

[sawdustdave]

I'll be off to the half-price book store today, I saw they had one or two books on lutherie.

The neck on this first build it glued to the top and back of the guitar, the "heel" is part of the neck and acts as what would be the neck joint in another guitar.

Since I haven't finished the top yet - not sure how to do the rosette, so I've only glued the bookmatched spruce so far - I still have options.

Dave

[tippie53]

I think you could write a great book Rick . I even have a title
6 strings on the outside make for a better guitar

Putting your neck out for more action

Or how about

A hole in the top and a strip in the back

gee this is fun

Wood at its cracked up to be