MIMF

Hello, everyone.

I am finally making progress on my archtop rebuild project. After getting the rims to fit the form by adjusting the bends, I can get going. I cleaned up the insides with a sharp scraper. Then I glued in some cloth bias tape strips. The big progress was gluing in the kerfing. I'm hoping this looks good.
Here's a closeup. That's mahogany reverse kerfing on my maple rims. The kerfing arrived today and it's already in! Cool.
Since this was once a completed guitar I needed to put the kerfing in higher than the rim edges. I'm redoing the binding so I put them in a little higher than the tail block. I'll trim to fit when the top and back are ready.
This was my first time doing this and I must say I was a bit excited to be doing real work on a real guitar. It won't be my first full build but I'll take a 0.5 build.

How does it look? All feedback, even critical, will be very appreciated.

Thanks,

-Eric

Looks really good Eric. It is important to have the neck block on centerline and perpendicular to the centerline when you reglue the top and back plates. Ideally, you can also achieve this with the tail block too. That will help you keep the neck alignment on centerline, and the bridge will land on the centerline of the top plate, etc.

My outside mold opens at the centerline, and you'll want to carefully mark the centerline on the neck and tail blocks. if it doesn't want to sit square on its own you can slip some thin shims between the mold and outer surface of the sides to nudge the blocks into alignment.
Hope this helps!
//mike

Double post!!

What I might have done, since this is a rebuild rather than a restoration, is eliminate the existing binding, reduce the height if the sides (older guitars tended to have deeper side depth than the 3" that is considered typical now), and installed the kerfing flush with the top of the sides. I would bring the top of the neck and tail block down to suit. That would have allowed routing a new binding channel, which might be cleaner than trying to reuse old stuff. Just a thought that occurred to me

To level the tops of the kerfing you can use a long stick with sandpaper on one end, the other end rests on the opposite side of the body, and that lets you develop the levelness of the top of the kerfing so you get a great glue joint.

Mike Conner wrote:Looks really good Eric. It is important to have the neck block on centerline and perpendicular to the centerline when you reglue the top and back plates. Ideally, you can also achieve this with the tail block too. That will help you keep the neck alignment on centerline, and the bridge will land on the centerline of the top plate, etc.

My outside mold opens at the centerline, and you'll want to carefully mark the centerline on the neck and tail blocks. if it doesn't want to sit square on its own you can slip some thin shims between the mold and outer surface of the sides to nudge the blocks into alignment.
Hope this helps!
//mike

Thanks, Mike. It seems very square in the mold. My mold does open at the center too. I have to make a new neck since the old one was destroyed. The neck dovetail joint is my reference point and allows me to align everything else.

-Eric

Brian Evans wrote:What I might have done, since this is a rebuild rather than a restoration, is eliminate the existing binding, reduce the height if the sides (older guitars tended to have deeper side depth than the 3" that is considered typical now), and installed the kerfing flush with the top of the sides. I would bring the top of the neck and tail block down to suit. That would have allowed routing a new binding channel, which might be cleaner than trying to reuse old stuff. Just a thought that occurred to me

To level the tops of the kerfing you can use a long stick with sandpaper on one end, the other end rests on the opposite side of the body, and that lets you develop the levelness of the top of the kerfing so you get a great glue joint.

D'oh! I am replacing the old binding but I didn't think of reducing the height of the sides. That makes a lot of sense and I think I'll still do it. I want to be able to cut a clean channel that cuts into both the top/back and sides. The guitar does not have purfling and I'm adding it. That solves the top/back part of the channel. This guitar is deeper than 3" a bit and I think now I'm going to reduce the depth enough to catch a bit of the sides. What you suggested would have been easier but I think I can still reduce it just enough to get a clean channel. If I add purfling on the plates and the sides I think it will work.

Thanks for the suggestion, that's a good solution. I'm also planning on adding an end graft because of all the holes for the old metal tailpiece. That was also destroyed and I'm going to make the common wood one a la Benedetto.

-Eric