curly maple

[rocket]

Hey all,,,, i finally finished the curly maple job and have some pics for you, besides looking pretty good it sounds ok too.
Some stats are:- b/s, curly maple
topwood, sitka spruce
neck, rock maple and purple heart
bwb purfling and curly maple binding
f/b, ebony
bridge, ebony
Headstock,finger rest,end graft, eucalyptus burl

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[Bob Connor]

Love your work Rod. It looks good enough to eat.

I particularly like the job you've done of the burst.

[rocket]

couple more pics, one of those didn't come out too good did it !

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[kiwinoz62]

Hey Rocket,
beauuutiful, love the headstock & finger rest.
where did you source the wood from? I'm looking at giving an archtop a go in the near future.
Nice job. . .

[needsmorecowbel]

Fantastic Job

[DarwinStrings]

Nice work Rod, great paint job. This forum gets me more and more interested in archtops, maybe I won't make one but might look at finding a old art deco National or something broken to do up one day.

Jim

Someone please turn up the Tele!

[rocket]

Wayne,, It's a veneer, got it from carbatech, a Rivergum veneer product.

[Nick]

Nice job of the burst Rod although I see you didn't fully burst the sides or carry the yellow for the length of the neck, but that's a 'traditional' burst & doesn't have to be followed of course! I still like the bursting you have done though. Any chance of a few close ups of that headstock? that veneer looks the dogs whatsits! I can't remember if this was a parallel or 'X' braced top?

Tim, I will attempt to answer the questions you have from my understanding of Archtops. Firstly the top is braced to support the arch to a very small extent as an arch is naturally strong shape & more than able to support itself usually but by cutting the 'f' holes we weaken it's integrity so the braces support this central section (between the 'f' holes) also it helps the guitar retain it's arch over a period of time (with constant downwards string pressure, the arch can flatten over time), in violins this brace (there's only one) helps give the instrument it's large volume (for such a small soundbox) and 'life' but doesn't have the same effect in the guitar version. They also aide in the propogation of vibrations through the top. The braces (as you would have noted in reading Bob's book) must lay directly underneath the soundposts of the bridge, this ensures that the string vibrations from the bridge are transfered directly to the braces & these, in turn, drive the soundboard's vibrating area as a whole. How the braces are 'layed out' determines the sound the finished guitar produces, a parallel braced top sounds more 'traditional' jazz sounding with a thinner, more focussed sound tending more to the treble end whereas the X braced top will be more rounded and 'mellow' sounding which tends to be a more modern jazz sound.
As to the bridge, yes it is 'floating', it is free to move which makes intonating a breeze as you can 'wriggle' it to fine tune the intonation.

[Craig]

Wonderful guitar Rod . Love all the aesthetic choices you've made

[rocket]

Nicko,, sorry mate i should have answered this earlier.
The belly is parallel braced, with this one i went a tad thinner and used the parallel bracing to compensate.
Cheers,,, Rod

[ozziebluesman]

Spectacular guitar Rod! Congratulations and takes for the thread with the pictures.

If I remember right, is this the curly maple and sitka from Stew Mac? I am considering looking for some wood to build an archtop in the future. What are you thoughts on the ply maple back Stew Mac offers with some culy maple sides as a first up project?

Cheers

Alan

[rocket]

Thanks Allan,, yes the back and sides are those from Stu-mac, the spruce is from Mathews melbourne, i did purchase a book matched set of spruce wedges from s/m for a future project, looks very nice too, and while on the subject of spruce, i also purchased some lovely Lutze from Shane Neifer,very tight grain beautiful looking timber, can't wait to use it, thanks Shane.
I've also purchased a laminated curly maple back and a set of maple sides from S/M for a hollow body electric i'm building at the moment, it should do the job ok but i think a carved back is going to give you a much better instrument if you are building an acoustic. If the thought of destroying an expensive piece of timber on you first archtop is a worry, you could use something much cheaper but still having good acoustic qualities such as figian mahogany, U.S. cherry to name a couple. One could even practise the carving process on some jelutong, never used it but believe it to be excellent for carving but unsuitable for instrument building, not sure on the price though.
Cheers,,, Rod.