MIMF

I don't see why the belt sander wouldn't work, except for the heat issue. You might wear out a belt or two. What are you going to do about the neck pocket, assuming it's a Fender style bolt-on?

I like to have the recurve area of my tops and backs start off dead flat at the final edge thickness of 3/16". That makes it much easier to route clean binding channels and use body-shaped clamping cauls to assemble the box. Then I do the recurve after the box is together and the binding is on....

Thanks Paul.

Interesting! Thanks Alan.

Paul, tell me about the Gork's GoodFilla. How many coats does it take you to fill a medium grain wood like mahogany or sapelle? Does it sand well?

Bob is right, the bags are no good. Filter canisters are much better. I have one of these in my basement shop, and it really works pretty well: http://www.rockler.com/jet-vortex-dust-collector-1-5hp-w-canister-filter-dc-1100vx-ck I was concerned that it might just be spewing fine particles back into...

I know there was a short thread on this back in 2012, but I'd like to hear from anyone else who has had success with this product. I really want to like it, but after several tries, I'm just frustrated with it. Yes, it does eventually sort of fill the grain, but I have to put on like 10 coats with l...

Very cool looking tailpiece, Alan. So are there pins going through the ball ends of the strings to hold them in place?

I'm guessing this ended up being pretty heavy. How do you think that affected the sound, if at all?

This is one of the reasons I have abandoned the Benedetto cello style tailpiece fastener. I think D’Aquisto had a better idea, which was to make a 1/2 wood and 1/2 metal hinge. The top piece is wood and the end piece is metal. A steel pin runs through both to make the hinge. I’ll try to add a coupl...

Peter, did the drywall screw actually hold up to the string tension?

After thinking about your comments, I have attempted to diagram 3 different scenarios. This first is what I generally aim for as a builder, except that there is always a slight amount of "relief" introduced by string tension alone, unless you level the frets under simulated string tension,...

I found a good discussion of this issue as it pertains to bass guitars over on the talkbass forum - they call it the "ski jump." Hope I'm not breaking any rules by posting this cross reference: https://www.talkbass.com/threads/getting-the-facts-about-ski-jumps.1111265/ Still seems to me th...

I would be amazed if anyone could hear the difference, in an actual playing situation, between a straight nut and a perfectly compensated one on a bass guitar, assuming the frets and saddles are all in the right place and the nut is not too high. It might help with marketing, but I don't see it bein...

Beate, I still wonder if we're all talking about the same kind of "hump." Do you have any pictures of what you have seen on bass guitars? And is this something you would only deal with in repair situations, or something you would build in to a new instrument? In other words, is this in the...

This is one of the reasons I have abandoned the Benedetto cello style tailpiece fastener. I think D’Aquisto had a better idea, which was to make a 1/2 wood and 1/2 metal hinge. The top piece is wood and the end piece is metal. A steel pin runs through both to make the hinge. I’ll try to add a couple...

On second thought, maybe we are talking about two different things. I can see that if you introduced a significant amount of relief into the neck with the truss rod (I like mine nearly flat, but no matter), and then tried to bring the action back down really low in the middle of the fretboard, the s...

Thanks Gordon - food for thought. But if there is no problem when the neck is straight, and the truss rod does not affect the fretboard extension, I'm still having trouble seeing how introducing relief creates a hump. You've seen this happen on archtops?

I was advised by a guitar dealer whose opinions I generally respect that I should build in some "fall-away" in the upper fretboard on my archtop guitars. I understand why this might be a sensible precaution for flattop guitars, which often develop a "hump" in that area, but I can...

Thanks guys, that all makes sense to me. I guess I'll just keep doing what I'm doing. I do leave carving the recurve until after the box is assembled, which is also the way Benedetto suggests. But the recurve is "factored in" to my contour plan, so I know I have room for it.

Archtop builders- which do you carve first, the inside or outside arch, and why? Benedetto's book says the outside is first. That makes intuitive sense to me, and is the way I've been doing it. I know D'Aquisto started with the inside arch, but I don't know why. Does it matter? Obviously, either way...