Official Luthiers Forum!

He definitely is. When I read his post about his 1st guitar, he was so thorough. I kinda mentally went through each step he described and I kept telling myself, "you know, I could do that". Eventually, I was convinced. And now, when I read his posts, he sounds like someone who's built 100 guitars instead of 13. He's definitely learned a LOT in a short time. And you can tell from his posts that he's passionate about his building.



You talking about his 45 degree grain orientation? He's pretty obsessive about that it seems.

As far as the paring chisel goes, I carved my first brace tonight. I have to say that although I haven't tried it with a straight chisel yet, that curved chisel is awesome! Feathering the ends is a complete joy. The bend in the chisel makes it so smoothe. I'm pretty "herky-jerky" when I turn a straight chisel belly-down. This thing is a breeze. I highly recommend it...FWIW.



Glad to hear it! I hope it sounds good. I plan on really "breaking it in" for my daughter. I'm a pretty decent classical player and I look forward to putting it through it's paces. I'm concerned about my top thickness though, after reading some of the previous comments. I've got the middle of the soundboard at about 3mm, tapering down to about 2.5mm at the edges. I hope it's not too thick. The note it taps right now, with the braces on, uncarved, is a D. I'm assuming that as I carve the braces down, the pitch will drop. My target is like a G???

Looking ahead, I'm thinking about the finish for this guitar. Originally, I was planning to try my hand at French Polish. But after reading AHix's endorsement of the Sutherland Welles product, I'm thinking of trying that. Here's a link to his post.

http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=39085

Has anyone used this? Looking for opinions and suggestions.

So, following the advice of more knowledgeable members of the forum, I've removed the bridge pad that I errantly installed beneath the fan braces. I simply cut through the pad along each side of the braces. Then I used my paring chisel to remove the pad.



The removal was easier that I expected. I got the chisel down to the glue and really just pried it up little by little. Came off pretty cleanly.

I also carved my first brace...the upper cross strut.



So...how did I do? Any glaring errors?

Last night I went ahead and carved the rest of the braces.





I still lack the lower transverse bar. This one, per the Cumpiano book, has to have a 33' radius applied. I'm still working on that. I've still got to make a radius dish on which to brace it.

I think you overdid the upper traverse brace.
The ends should be at full height 17mm (or around there) if you are talking about Torres.
He never trim the ends of the UTB and LTB to nothing.

Also for the LTB no radius needed just leave it flat if you are already using a doming on the lower bout.
Unless you are going the Hauser route which was built flat and he impart the doming via the curve bottom bridge.
Sorry if I sounded harsh but if you are building Torres, I think you should look at more authentic Torres bracing pictures before you attempt to do anything.
Cumpiano is not a good Torres reference if you ask me.

But nonetheless you have achieve a good progress so far.

_________________
-----
Sen CL Goh
http://senguitar.blogspot.com

I may have made a critical error and I need the community here to help me figure it out. When I made my solera, I didn't dish it out. My plan was to dish out the solera at the time that the lower transverse bar was installed because I was under the impression that this brace is what gave the top its dome. Thus far, I have glued all the braces down upon the flat solera. Should I have dished out the solera beforehand and glued the fan braces and V-braces using that radius?

Do I have to start the top all over??

Well, you can always go the Hauser route.
The fan braces are glued flat.
The doming is achieved by radiusing the bottom of the bridge and impart to the top when the bridge is glued.

Hmm well the other option is to remove the braces by planing them away and reglue the fan struts in the solera with doming already dished in the lower bout.
Another point you might want to think about is the neck angle of the neck.
The solera is the jig which controls the neck angle upon assembly and the doming (depth of the doming) is part of the equation.

_________________
-----
Sen CL Goh
http://senguitar.blogspot.com

Well, the solera I have now doesn't have enough length to do the neck. So, I'm going to the hardware store today to buy a sheet of MDF to make a proper solera. Removing the fan braces wouldn't be that big a deal. Making them is good practice anyway and I've got plenty of brace wood left to do it over.

Thanks for the reply. I think I'm going to take some time and make the solera properly, make the ribs for the solera, and make a bending mold while others chime in with their assessments. I'm pretty disappointed in myself right now, but I'll get through it.

Andy,

An important step is to draw out the geometry of how the top dome, neck angle, and fretboard (tapered or untapered) work together. Do a sketch of the guitar from the side, and you can see how there is an interplay between top dome, neck tilt, and possibly fretboard tapering in getting both the action at the 12th fret and the string height above the top at the bridge saddle to come out right. If your dome is absent, you can compensate with more neck tilt. The drawing will show you how.

_________________
Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu