MIMF

Wow! Very exciting. Thank you very much, Charlie and all MIMF folks!

--Bob

I'm. in too.

Alan,
That's about the most thoughtful and useful comment I could have imagined on this topic. Thanks.
--Bob

Thanks Freeman. 3 beautiful guitars that I'm sure are a joy to play.

Thanks for the response Freeman. One other quick question - of those 3 guitars which has your favorite plugged-in sound?

Oh - just remembered one other thought. I built an arch top a few years ago and knew I would need to hear it played and make adjustments to bracing (since I had little clue about how stiff to make the top and no point of reference to compare the stiffness it had with any standard). I glued the top o...

Having built a couple of semi hollow electric guitars I think taking the back off would be a nightmare. ... And here is a hollow body with just two beams supporting the bridge and pickups. This guitar uses a floating bridge and trapeze tailpiece instead of stop bar. IMG_3525.JPG If you do build som...

If it's exclusively a test mule being made from an otherwise dumpster-bound guitar, and you don't mind replacing the back (maybe with a flat back) then the easiest course might be to route off the back. It would need a little creative fixturing to hold up the router as you route over the internal bl...

I've been very happy with a couple of recent purchases from certainlywood.com and dyed-veneer.com (B&B Rare Woods).
--Bob

by Alan Carruth » Sun Jul 23, 2023 2:42 pm I've been using the cycloid arches for some time; done right they seem to be very stable. I've seen too many archtops with the bridges cranked up to the limit because of the sinking top. Hi Alan. Yes! Curtate Cycloid arches are beautiful and work beautiful...

Yeah, hard maple lives up to its name for sure. Before I built that guitar I partially carved a hard maple back for a 17" Benedetto build. I screwed up so many other things on that guitar I finally gave up. I still have the rough-carved back hanging around somewhere. But I must be a masochist. ...

It's my first archtop and my second build so please be gentle. :^) I built it as an experimental platform and tinkered with it for a couple of years. At one point I removed the top and shaved braces (they're parallel). The acoustic sound got better. People often fret (pun intended) about carving an ...

+1 for the idea of a multi scale 7-string. I built a 7 string, short-scale (24.75"), archtop guitar and I'm still playing around with string gauges, trying to get a low B that sounds good acoustically. Plugged in (Seymour Duncan "Benedetto" floating pickup) it sounds quite good with a...

FWIW, a 1966-ish Gibson EB-2 I repaired was maple. Very thunky sound with round-wound strings through an old Ampeg B-15N.

My experience with original Endurovar was different from yours - even that stuff has a strong odor, to me. I built a roomful of floor-to-ceiling cabinets and finished it all with Endurovar (original). I pre-finished most of the parts in the shop and let them outgas for at least 3-4 weeks before asse...

I made an archtop with a bolt-on neck. I had to make a 2 ft. long Allen wrench that fit through the hole for the end-pin jack (for a floating pickup). Once I got that thing made it was easy enough to insert the bolts and tighten them through the end-pin hole.

Well, I appreciate having the chance!

Personally, I'd favor the desired arching over grain matching so I would not do choice #1. Between #2 and #3, #2 seems much more difficult for little advantage. The only advantage I can see is that you'd conserve wood. I used choice #3 on the cherry back of an archtop and it looks great. I never eve...

That looks really great! Check this place for your seventh string. I've tried several different gauges on my 7-string, ranging from .059 to .070. https://www.stringsandbeyond.com/singlestrings.html For example, here are phosphor bronze up to .070: https://www.stringsandbeyond.com/dphbracsist.html Or...

I have found this stuff to work very, very well:
https://www.precisebits.com/products/ch ... etcare.asp