MIMF

Another book that helped me get started:

Building Electric Guitars, by Martin Koch

That and the Hiscock book pretty much got me through my first build. The two books complement each other well.

In any event, we'd better get used to making guitars from recycled wood, because good new wood keeps getting harder to find and more expensive.

All resonances are 'standing waves'. There are a large number of them in any guitar top. The lowest frequency one is normally the 'loudspeaker' mode, where the whole top moves in the same direction at any given time. then come a couple of 'dipole' modes, where the vibrating area is in two parts goi...

Thanks for the information, Alan! I'm not sure that entirely clears things up for me, but at least it reassures me that it's not foolish to try something other than the standard "Benedetto" thickness profile. I know James D'Aquisto felt that a flatter arch yielded better acoustic tone (wha...

Very nice work, Brian! I like the woods and modern shape. Looks like we are both fans of celluloid binding. What made you decide to include the transverse brace below the bridge? The one I'm working on now will have a western red cedar top, which is a lot floppier than spruce, and I'm planning to ca...

The guitar I'm working on now is going to have a single sound hole in the upper bout, something like this drawing. I'm leaning toward some version of x bracing, possibly with one or more additional cross bars. I'm going to try carving the top closer to a uniform thickness in the vicinity of 3/16&quo...

Of course I realize the longitudinal string tension is the greatest stress, but it seems to me that a carved arch that tapers in thickness from side to side cannot be the most efficient or easily calibrated structure for handling that stress. Nor would something like your roof truss. Here you are si...

Cool, Micheal. Please post some photos. And a link to some sound clips would be great!

I’m thinking about the graduation of the top plate in an archtop guitar. The conventional wisdom (Benedetto, et al.) is that the plate should be thicker in the center (along the longitudinal axis), and thinner toward the edges, with the recurve being the thinnest point. The three rationales commonly...

Just a thought: how important is the acoustic power of an ABG? In an ensemble, on stage, more or less any bass needs amplification, even the Stoll or a double bass. If You practise, a well sounding instrument is more important than sheer acoustic power. Even my little SX bass does a really good job...

Peter, that sounds pretty darn good! And I love the headstock carving!

Still, I don't think I'd want to play it like a guitar.

There are a few - very few - instruments around which seem to be acoustically capable: the beautiful bass by Moll, the bass by Stefan Sommer (http://sonntag-guitars.com/deutsch/Archtops/Archtop-Akustik-Bass.php) and the bass by Daniel Furian (http://www.13instruments.com). Beate- Those are beautifu...

Not that I want to discourage you, but have you ever heard an acoustic bass guitar that really sounded good without amplification? I haven't. There is a reason double/upright basses are as big as they are, and they still need to be amplified in most situations when played finger style. Given that, I...

I don't think you're going to get much "acoustic" sound out of this instrument, mostly just a subtle coloration of the amplified sound. Given that, I doubt that removing more material from the center would have a noticeable effect on the sound. However, it would reduce the mass and stiffne...

If a 6 degree break angle is sufficient at the saddle, is it also sufficient at the nut? If so, then why are most guitars built with closer to a 12 degree angle at the nut? Also, why are flattop acoustic guitar bridges typically built with a much sharper string break angle over the saddle? I'm not a...

I'm happy to report that D'Addario phosphor bronze strings (13-56) work just fine with this pickup. I had to make a couple of small pole piece adjustments after the Martin Retros, but no problem. To my ear, the D'Addarios sound way better when played acoustically, and sound more like an acoustic gui...

Cool, thanks. A lot of times, I end up using oversized twist drill bits for countersinks. It works better than the "countersink bit" I have, but this one looks promising.

Hey Joshua- I bought mine from a vendor on Reverb.com. It looks like others are available there. Apparently they are being made under the Guild name (by some factory in China). I mainly liked the looks of it, as it seemed to fit this particular guitar, but it ended up sounding great as well. It has ...

Paul Reed Smith thinks the tuning machines do have an affect on the tone. He thinks that a lot of the new tuning machines have a lot of plastic in them, which sucks tone. The PRS tuning machines supposedly don't have that much plastic in them, and he thinks that improves tone. Well, I'd like to cha...

I guess if you're going to coat it with epoxy anyway, there is no reason not to use that. If it were me, I would put a coat of shellac on it. That's enough to keep the tape from lifting fibers (assuming you're careful with removing the tape). When I'm feeling cautious, I shellac the top and back bef...