Wilborn Guitar Attempt

[scamp]

Looks great. That's some pretty thick sides. Usual sides are around .085" plus or minus .005.
You might not need as thick a kerfing. Think about the weight too.
Glad it worked out for you. Were you able to use the cross grained maple?

Actually for laminated sides it's not too bad.
Take a look at the laminated sides used by Chris Alvarado at Driftwood guitars
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoqebMnhELg
He uses two layer laminates. One 2 mm ( 0.08 inch ) and one 2.25 mm ( 0.1 inch ) for a total of 0.18 inch.
Bogdanovich guitars also use laminated sides ( 3 layers ) and are about the same as mine.
I indeed don't need as thick a kerfing but I probably will just use a standard kerf dimension.
And yes !!!! I was able to use the cross grain maple. Amazing

Also…. With regard to the weight…. If you can believe it Trevor Gore actually adds weights to his sides of his guitars to improve performance. The claim is weights in the sides will make the sides more reflective to top vibrations and actually increase the effective vibrational area of the top.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Interesting

[scamp]

Interesting

It is interesting. Very different way of looking at guitar construction.

I suspect that the reason the sides are typically 0.08 inches has more to do with the maximum thickness you can get and still bend the wood without cracking it. Most people it seems don’t think the quality/type of side wood has much of an effect on the sound.

There is, however, it seems a general acceptance that a lighter guitar is a better guitar. I believe this is driven by the fact that thinner backs, lighter bracing etc produce better sounding guitars in general and is the domain of custom high end guitars where the concern about warranty issues etc allows the builders to take more risk. This has caused some people it seems to be biased against and reject a heavy guitar without giving it a fair shake.

[scamp]

Finished laminating the sides and overall happy with results.
I must say I'm amazed at how much the epoxy bleeds through the ERW sides.
It takes a lot of effort to scrape/sand it off but in the end it comes out nice.
Below are some pictures of the end product as well as a photo showing the epoxy bleed through to give you an idea of what I'm talking about.
Supposedly you can reduce the bleed through by using a thickening agent with the epoxy.
I did add thickener to the epoxy and I could see it made it more viscus. Apparently not enough.

Laminated Florentine Cutaway Side.JPEG

Laminated Bottom Side.JPEG

Laminated Bottom Side with Epoxy Bleed Through.JPEG

Laminated Sides 1.JPEG

[scamp]

Finished putting together the assembly mold for the sides.
Took a bit of work but it should help keep everything properly aligned during the gluing process.

Assembly Mold 1.JPEG

Assembly Mold with Sides 1.JPEG

[Kevin Sjostrand]

looks like pore filling from the inside out!

you've really got it going on. looking good

[scamp]

It's going to be interesting when I am finishing the guitar and doing the pore filling.
Given the amount of epoxy seeping through the wood I suspect It might be a bit easier.
I'm glad I decided to use West System epoxy with the 207 special clear hardener for the lamination.
It's what they use for pore filling.

[scamp]

Finally got the sides properly trimmed and the glue mold tweaked for the final glue up.
Because the guitar has a Florentine cutaway the head block dimensions and alignment are particularly critical.
The body at the cutaway needs to be flush with one side of the neck and follow the edge of the neck for a few inches at the proper angle. If it's off it will be very noticeable. That means the location of the neck block and it's angle relative the the body/neck needs to be spot on. Using the mold to hold everything in place helps but it also can present some problems. if the mold is off just a bit it won't act as an effective gluing caul. Had a few places where I needed to put some tape on the inside of the mold to build up some areas to correct some minor issues.

Pictures are below. Tomorrow I take it out and sand down the side to the proper dimensions so I can start adding the kerfing and arm bevel supports.

Side Glue Up Final 1.JPEG

Side Glue Up Final 3.JPEG

Side Glue Up Final 4.JPEG

Side Glue Up Final 6.JPEG

Side Glue Up Final 5.JPEG

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Lookin great.
Here is a suggestion
When you're designing and making your neck, cut the heel width so it will be just slightly proud of the body at the cutaway once fitted, the you can file flush for a perfect fit. Doest that make sense? I'm talking like 1/16" or so proud. You'd do this best after the neck joint is perfect and best even after it's glued in.

I have done two this way. One was a bolt on neck on a cutaway dred and one was a dovetail (archtop with a cutaway)

Think it through and it's easier than it may seem.

Kevin

[scamp]

Thanks Kevin. Great suggestion.