Modifications to an outside mold for a classical

[Peter borth]

I am beginning to see the wisdom in using an outside mold for my classical guitar. I am otherwise following the one in the C & N book in which they do free assembly. I think the mold will maintain symmetry better and keep the sides from splaying too. I am hand bending the sides. I assume I will need to cut out a section at the top of the mold to accomodate the heel block and let in the sides in the heel block slots. Is this correct? Also not sure how this affects the correct neck set angle. Thanks

[Waddy Thomson]

If you are working with a work board or solera, you will need to determine your neck angle before you make the board. The neck portion will have to be sloped to establish the determined angle. The final angle will be determined by your expected height of strings over the sounboard at the saddle (usually 10 - 12 mm) in combination with the thickness of the fingerboard + frets + action above the fret at the 12th fret(measured from bottom of string to top of fret). One other factor will be the amount of dome in the top at the location of the bridge, if you dome the top.

One other thing. You can use blocks to keep the sides aligned, without having to make a mold. Not saying a mold is bad, but it can be challenging to get it right. The blocks, usually L shaped can be simple, made from plywood, and simply screwed into place. The sides can be clamped to the blocks. This is just one example. I used wing nuts and slots instead of wood screws.

[Michael Lewis]

Waddy, that is an elegant set up.

[Clay Schaeffer]

Hi Peter,
You can use an outside mold in tandem with a solera by cutting out the neck section of the outside mold, as you mentioned. I have done it this way, and I believe Daniel Friederich does something similar. The "L" blocks also work, and allow you more latitude with the plantilla, as does hand bending. If you want to try different plantillas for your guitars the "L" blocks might be a better way to go.

[Waddy Thomson]

Nothing wrong with an outside mold, by the way. It just locks you in to one shape. The Bogdanovich book has some info on making outside molds in conjunction with a solera. Not a bad method, just more difficult to accomplish. My solera is my work area. Everything takes place there. It doubles as my go-bar deck:

and as my body holder for routing bindings.

[Bob Gramann]

If you have only one outside mold, it locks you to one shape. It generally takes me two hours to build an outside mold. I make a new one each time I want a new shape. At this point, I need to figure out where to store them all. One of my students used one for a classical along with a solera. He made it with a removable block at the heel. It attached firmly to the solera giving him tight control over the shapes and angles.