Jim's second archtop guitar

[Jim Hepler]

Here's some specs:
15 3/4" at the lower bout
Sitka spruce top
Curly maple back and sides
Cooked maple wedge in back (my back wood wasn't quite wide enough)
Cherry binding
Rosewood fingerboard and bridge
Cooked curly maple and cherry neck
25" scale
Thuya headstock veneer and pickguard
Kent Armstrong suspended pick-up
Single volume control

Thanks for looking.

-Jim

[Chuck Raudonis]

Beautiful work. I really like the look of the wedge in the back. It might be there because it is expedient, but I think it really looks nice.

Chuck

[Jim Hepler]

Thanks Chuck. I'll try to get some better pictures up. I can't see the details on very well on these - for better or worse. It's definitely not perfect, but it's definitely smoother than my #1.
-Jim

[Pete Halliday]

Very nice guitar! I am curious, though, what is your source for the cooked maple?

[Jim Hepler]

Thanks Pete. I bought the cooked maple at a local store called Windsor Plywood. It's a chain in Canada. Individual stores here seem to carry different stuff, and they don't always have it. The stuff I have is flatsawn 1" western soft maple. It's curly and quite pretty. I used some on some solid bodies that I posted on the old forum. The wedge and the neck pieces are flipped sideways and cut off the narrow way so that they are quarter sawn. My friend John Cross, who posts here from time to time, has actually successfully cooked his own in his oven using a turkey bag. He may be along to give some details about that. I should also mention that John helped out a lot with the side bending and fretting, and general good advice, including introducing me to this forum.

[charlie wood]

Jim - Charlie here - nice to see another Canadian here - nice work on the archtop! Really quite sweet - how does she sound? I realize it takes a while to open up but some times you can hear sorta what they are gonna sound like from the initial sound....
PS where are you in Canada? Im on Van Isle....
Cheers
Charlie

[Darrel Friesen]

Great looking guitar Jim. The tailpiece looks a bit thick for my taste, but that's just me. Nicely done.

[Jim Hepler]

Thanks Charlie and Darrel.

Charlie, it sounds pretty good to my ears. Acoustically it is a lot louder than my first one, and has that bright bite that archtops have. Plugged in it has the nice fat jazzy sound I expected. The B string is a bit hot and the G a bit soft, though I have experienced that much worse with some other pick-ups. I guess next time I might go with the same pick-up, but with adjustable pole pieces. By the way, I'm in Alberta. I believe there are at least 2 more Canadians on making archtops on this forum.

Darrel, I appreciate the feedback on the tail piece. I don't think I've got that design quite where I want it yet. By thick, do you mean how tall it is straight up from the soundboard, or how wide it is?

I forgot to mention in my first post that the finish on the body is shellac, and on the neck is tung oil. It's still nowhere near perfect, but it's my best finish so far.
-Jim

[Darrel Friesen]

I mean tall as in straight up from the soundboard Jim. Just personal preference and could be the camera angle too. Just used to seeing the tailpiece being a little less chunky as in the Benedetto style, not to say that everyone should be following his designs. I'm in Alberta as well Jim. Calgary to be exact.

[Jim Hepler]

I see what you mean Darrel. I'm inclined to agree with you. I'll certainly play around with all 3 dimensions more on the next one to try to make it a little more graceful.

[Patrick Hanna]

Hey, Jim, I think it's a VERY nice guitar and I think the narrow wedge in the back looks great. It's almost as if it were a purely visual choice rather than a necessity. Very nice work. Regarding the tailpiece: No need to wait for a second instrument to refine your design. You only need to wait until the next string change. If you really want to have a thinner tailpiece, go ahead and get it fashioned now. Swap it out at your convenience. In fact, I did exactly that on my archtop. Great work, man! Keep them coming.
Patrick

[Jim Hepler]

You are right, Patrick, I could redo the tailpiece, but at some point I have to call these things done. Like the french polishing folks say, "It's never so much done as just abandoned." Besides, it's going off to my brother in a couple of days, where he will put it to good use in spite of its flaws. I also like the little wedge, partly because I actually did it in a sensible way which is not the way I usually do things, so it sort of represents an improvement in my woodworking chops. You probably can't tell from the picture, but it comes to a point right at the top end of the body.

By the way, thanks to everyone for the encouraging and thoughtful responses.
Jim

[BillHepler]

Brother Bill (the recipient of this fine guitar) weighs in:
I'm still playing around with this lovely looking guitar. I've played a little with it run through an amp, and it has a nice warm sound. Usually, I just play it accoustically. I've still got the original electric strings on that Jim setup in the first place, but I'm going to try it with accoustic strings to see how I like the sound.
There is an interesting and unexpected side to this guitar - I've been learning to play somewhat in the Flamenco style - that is strumming with three fingers & thumb both up and down - and this guitar works quite well for this compared with the other steel string guitars I've tried this on.
The bright archtop sound suits this style pretty well.

[Mark Langner]

Jim,
Sweet instrument. I actually like the chunky look of the tailpiece.

I am very fond of wood binding - my latest build (soon to be shown here) has walnut binding. Your binding looks pretty thick - is it multiple layers? If not, what is the thickness and how did you manage to bend it? I have trouble bending any wood binding thicker than .1" and have not had good success doing multiple layers.

[Jim Hepler]

Mark,
The cherry binding is thinner than the sides. I can't tell you exactly how thick it was, but probably around 1/16". I bent it on a hot pipe without too much trouble. I just tried to get it close to the shape of the sides at the tight inside curves and gently curved the outside curves and held the whole thing in place with tape when I glued it up. There are also a couple of strips of purfling on the top which are made of commercial veneer. I didn't do anything to them but just wrestle them into place. That's probably what you are seeing that makes the binding look thick. (Sorry about the low resolution photos.) The only thing I have found (this is inexperience talking here) about bending wood bindings, or sides, for that matter, is that it's important to have wood that doesn't have much run-out. Thanks for the kind words. Looking forward to seeing your guitar.
-Jim

[Mark Langner]

Thanks, that helps a lot. Higher res pictures would be good but there is a balance to be found here between resolution and file size.

I agree completely about run-out - especially at the cutaway. That's where all the splits happen (runout).

ml