Welcome to my Archtop Guitar Project Blog

The Archtop, or "Jazz Box", is a unique style of guitar. It has a complex design, and a sound that one might say can only come from such a design. Having never built a guitar of any kind before (unless you consider a ukulele to be a guitar) I have decided to jump right in up to the neck and start with the archtop. When I tell this to people, the normal response is something like, "have you ever built a guitar before?" or "so, you have a pretty good idea how to do this, right?". My usual reply is, "nope". I do, however, make a point to assure them that I have built many kinds of things, using many different materials, and I consider all constructions to have a logical and understandable process.

So, if you're interested in "newbe" projects like this, then grab a fresh cup of coffee or tea and follow along. The earliest post shows the design I'm going for.

**UPDATE TO INTRODUCTORY TEXT** You will see as the posts progress from earliest to newest that a few modifications and compromises have been made. As with all learning experiences, this project has allowed me to work out any problems with a design that have not been foreseen on paper. I also welcome any input from readers/followers who have some experience in either building or playing guitars that will point out potential problems.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Neck compromise.



Well, for a number of reasons, the neck I'm building is ending up going slower than I had hoped, so I decided I would use a pre-made neck. It was rescued from an acoustic, and I modified the bottom end to have the overhang. I didn't get much in way of pictures, but essentially what I did was remove the old fingerboard from the existing neck (very careful prying - very anxious was I), and take out the truss rod. It had been oriented with the adjustment at the bottom end, so you could work with it from the sound hole on the acoustic. In my case, I want the adjustment at the top end, to be hidden under a truss rod cover. Obviously, my guitar won't have a convenient sound hole down at the bottom end of the board.

I had to extend the cut for the truss rod out beyond the nut region. I looks a bit of a mess right now, but that will clean up and get repainted. After some effort to ensure that the gluing surface was flat and true, I got my courage up and splashed on the glue. In this case, I didn't use the waterproof Titebond I had been using for other parts, mainly because it's quite possible the fingerboard will need to be removed at some point or other.

I wanted the head stock to be "my own", so I re-cut the top end into a new shape. It isn't the shape I originally designed, because it wasn't wide enough.

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