When your journey takes you through unknown territory it is easy to become frustrated, disappointed, and maybe even hopeless. You can suffer through and learn from your own mistakes or you could make things a little easier by employing a guide, someone or something that knows the way. First time guitar building isn’t nuclear physics but it is challenging. I’ve been reading whatever I can find on the web and I’ve watched a few youtube videos. Most of the information is helpful but of course there’s a ton that doesn’t really apply. My favorite acoustic guitar building website so far is authored by J. Sevy and can be found here http://gicl.cs.drexel.edu/people/sevy/luthierie/guitarmaking_guide/building_flattop.html .
My old guitar has a flat top and a rounded bottom, kind of like an old girlfriend from way back when and also pretty much like every other acoustic guitar I’ve seen. I want the tailgate guitar to be a little different so I’m taking inspiration from Mr. Sevy and I’m going to build my guitar with an arched top. I figure a little extra effort will make the tailgate guitar nearly perfect, kind of like my wife... I don’t know what kind of math it takes to figure out lengths of ellipticals, curves, domes etc. so I applied the KISS theory and built a guide . A template to help get the arch right. I started by gluing together the guitar back pieces. Since the back is thin and somewhat flexible and the correct width I held it’s edge against a board and tweaked it with my hands just a bit to create a long gentle curve. Then I marked the curve with a pencil and used a jigsaw to cut it out. Now I have a board to serve as a template to guide me in constructing the internal bracing for the top of the tailgate guitar. If the bracing has the correct arch, so will the top. I simply held the guide against the bracing that I had already built and sanded down the high spots until the whole thing matched the guide. Of course this is required along the whole length of the brace.
Other guides that I will need and have built are the side bending form and the body outline form. There’s no way that you can “eyeball” this stuff.
Guides are good. I like guides.
“Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path”
Psalm 119:105
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| I used a jigsaw to cut out the curve. This just became my guide to help me get the internal brace arching just right. |
Chuck.
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2 pieces of the black walnut cut to the proper
length and glued together. Imagine each half
as pages in a book. If you flip one so that it
covers the other they will be in the same position
that they grew in the tree. I "turned" the page
to create the lighter colored sapwood stripe
down the middle. I used the walnut as a guide
to draw the curve on the board below.
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| This is the body outline form placed over the black walnut back. |
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| The guide is placed on top of the brace and I sanded down the high spots until all of the contact points just touched the brace. |
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| This is the form I will use to bend and shape the sides of Tailgate Guitar. Notice how it corresponds to the body outline forms, which are just the pieces that fell off when I cut out this shape. |
