Archtop Guitar Building Advice

[ozziebluesman]

Lately there has been some great Archtop threads popping up on the forum. It got me thinking and I'm keen to have a go at building one. I have sourced some nice blackwood for the neck, back and sides and Shane at High Mountain is cutting up a nice, tight grained Lutz and cedar top set. By the time the tops get here, I should be finished the Benedetto book that just arrived in the post.

I have just a few questions for the Archtop builders!

I would like to build a 15" lower bout guitar for the playing comfort aspect. Would I be able to use the Benedetto plan and scale it down? What scale length would be suitable for this size guitar? Finally, with the F hole, X brace design, is it possible to use another neck design other than a dovetail?

Cheers

Alan

[P Bill]

Alan,
Since the recent neck attachment thread, I've been thinking of ways to have a removeable neck on an archtop. It's a huge advantage. I just repaired the heel on my double bass after it fell over. It has a removeable neck similar to the ones you've seen Matthew do. But on an archtop the attachment is visible thru the heel. People accept this on a double bass, but I've never heard of it on an archtop. Who's going to be the first ?

[Clancy]

Dominic recently did a bolt on archtop neck by accessing through the endpin hole and Frank Vandenboom was going to do this also (don't know how he went).

I would suggest that you can you use any scale length you like, just design as you would for anything else - the critical distance from the neck/body join to the bridge for that scale length and make sure the bridge feet sit on the braces, whether they're an X or parrallel. A 15" lower bout is about the same as an OM which are X braced and generally use the 25.4" scale. Keep that or adjust slightly for the standard archtop 25" scale.

I would also suggest that you could keep the entire OM body shape with X brace. It's not like Bennedetto gives you a carving template to drill the depth holes - you have to work that out on your own anyway (or freehand it). Just keep to the general rules of thumb he gives regarding the plate thickness graduations.

As an aside, I'm shortish with the accompanying shortish arms, and I don't find the 17" archtop uncomfortable because the body depth at the lower bout is only 3" (as it is for the entire body), so archtops are actually narrower than most "flat tops" at the point you've got to reach over.

[Dominic]

Alan, good luck with your build. I finished my first archtop a couple of months ago and love it.

Firstly, the 17" plan in Bob's book is quite easy to play. Don't be scared of by the big body. It is slim and sits nicer on my leg than a drednaught. And I am not a big guy. But if you scale the plan you don't want to just take an inch off all around. You would reduce the upper bout much less than the lower bout. And you would also have to reduce the thickness of the plates a bit because they are smaller. This puts you into a design place with much less guidance than simply building to the plan. I would encourage you to stick with the plan, at least for your first one because as Bob says in his book, getting the right plate thickness and graduations is critical to getting a good sounding guitar.

Second, I made mine with a bolt on M&T neck. Worked great. I made a long extension allen key which goes in through the end plug hole. If its good for flat top why not archtop. I had to muck around a bit because the nut inserts had to be put through the f hole but I worked it out and it is quite simple with a bit of thought.

Happy to help with any problems you have as you go through.
Cheers
Dom

[sebastiaan56]

Ive seen dovetails on mandos as well Bill.

[rocket]

I think that the alternative to a dovetail joint such as a bolt on mortice and tennon is a good one, haven't used it myself, happy with the set neck using the dovetail, in the future i'd like to give the bolt on method a go. It does seem to me though that some people are steeering away from the dovetail, i wonder why that is? do some consider it difficult or is it too permanent a Joint.?
Cheers,,,,, Rod.

[ozziebluesman]

Thanks for all the advice! I like the idea of the tenon bolt on and make the tool to access the neck joint through the endpin hole.

Another reason I am wanting to build a smaller sized Archtop is the blackwood set is only suitble for a smaller guitar. So 15" it has to be.

I have considered this plan:
http://liutaiomottola.com/instruments/girasoli.htm and use the F hole version and the X brace.

Another plan I feel acorss recently is this one:
http://web.archive.org/web/200407271824 ... com/plans/

I have printed out the Girasoli plan and it looks like there is enough good information to build a guitar from it.

Have any forum members seen or built from these plans?

Cheers

Alan