Official Luthiers Forum!

Anyone got experience with arch top plans? I like plans to be precise. Big fan of the OLF series. Thanks!

Mike

Benedetto 17" plans from the usual vendors are excellent. I have also found ES 175 and L5 plans on eBay that were good. From Australia as I recall.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

And the Benedetto book is a work of art in itself! Highly recommended.

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

My 2 cents: Benedetto book AND the DVD's. I got the drawings after my 1st build but found that most of the info can be gleaned from book and DVD's

I have built archtops from the Benedetto plans. And I have the book, too, which is fun to read and look at. But about half the book is just marketing for Bob's guitars, which may or may not bother you.

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

Check out Waldron Music.

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Formerly know as Mandodiddle.

+1 on the book and DVD series. If you have experience building flat tops your first archtop will be a good guitar following his instructions.

I probably wouldn't have built one but a client talked me into it about 6 years ago and I got the book and DVDs and it turned out great. Now I am hooked on archtops.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

All of a sudden, I feel like a newbie. Yet, the archtop is a direction I've wanted to go in. I've built more than 20 acoustics, sold. Last 12 were with bevels. I guess I have some skills under my belt. What unexpected tooling, jigs am I looking at?

Strong right elbow (asuming right handed, of course)

I've never built one, but the Bennedetto book has always been my favorite building book. It is just so well thought out and put together.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Mike, the biggest single aid I can recommend is something like this, to work on arched plates as well as the assembled body.

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Dave
Milton, ON

Yep, the support dish was the first thing I made when I did my first.

The other thing is figuring out how to carve the plates.

Currently I am using a pin router to terrace the plates as described by Motolla.

http://liutaiomottola.com/construction/CMap.htm

Then do the rough shaping with a die grinder and convex flap sander. Finish up with small planes, scrapers, and air sanders. Very messy, loud, and violent but my old hands can't endure shaping the whole works with hand tools.

CNC is looking better all the time.

How do you shape the plates Dave?

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

...depends how "invested" you want to get. I built a simple side-by-side duplicarver (basically 1" doweling running in routed slots), which allowed getting close on the exterior & then constant thickness after smoothing (finalizing by hand)

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Dave
Milton, ON

Thanks Dave. That looks great. Can you wall it off and collect most of the sawdust without it shooting all over your shop?

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

...no.. (I used to hang sheets when I set it up but trust me ... dust/chips everywhere.)

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Dave
Milton, ON

I hear ya. I try to do my routing and die grinder work in the driveway outside my shop when possible.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

I concur on the Benedetto book being the one. However I'd be wary of his dovetail joint. He suggests commencing with a body mortise with a 1/16" taper and an _untapered_ neck dovetail which sounds to me a recipe for sticking. In Irving Sloane's steel string guitar construction book (I've been at this for a long time) he recounts an unfortunate incident in D'Aquisto's workshop where the neck locked in position before being fully seated. I don't know if A'Aquisto and Benedetto worked the same way but I'd suggest that a more conventional taper on both mortise and dovetail is the way to go. However I have to say it's one of the trickiest parts of archtop construction. I've only made one and I ended having to shim that joint before I got it right.

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"There is hope in honest error .... ". Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
http://www.ianchisholm.co.uk

I agree that the dovetail neck joint didn't make much sense to me as a woodworker as described by Benedetto. I switched to a bolt on that I access using a shop made Allen wrench tool through the end pin hole.
Point being You can use whatever neck attachment you are comfortable with. If you are experienced builder, you can use the Benedetto book for the arch top specific tasks (carving top, neck extension, floating bridge, etc) and your own techniques for generic guitar building (bending sides, linings, bindings, etc. )


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