Build Update - Top (and other) Questions

[DJ Parker]

Hello Everyone,

So, with the rosette complete the bracing is well underway on my first ever guitar top. While the glue dries I'm trying to think ten steps ahead regarding tools that I'll need and what step is next in the big scheme. With that said, I have several questions that you all I'm sure can shed light (and opinion) on.

1. General comment. I have found that the go-bars have a mind of their own at times and act like a coiled up snake ready to strike.
2. After purchasing spruce brace wood from a fairly reliable Ebay source, I am not 100% sure that it is not just very clear pine. How can you tell and feel free to get after me for using Ebay as a luthier material source. Isn't pine and spruce similar?
3. The pictures attached show a traditional L-00 bracing pattern. Any comments? Things to look for or avoid? The next top will be for a gypsy guitar and the bracing is really completely different.
4. Cleaning up glue when I did the backs was easy as the body was open. How do you take care of that when you close the box? Is there a technique that allows ample glue without too much squeeze out? Aside from the looks, does squeeze out affect anything else? I suppose that may be like Chevy's and Ford's. Some builders put the top on first some put the back on first. Is this truly just personal preference on guitars other than classical types which appear to have a 'foot'?
5. Looking out a ways, I plan on using either a truss rod that you access at the headstock or carbon fiber rods and no truss rod per se. Thoughts?

Well, thank you in advance. I'm going to now try to profile the bracing without profiling the top.

Regards,

DJ Parker

[Barry Daniels]

The go bars need to be shortened. They behave better when you don't have to flex them so much. Can't tell from your photo about top wood. Can you take a close up photo?

[DJ Parker]

Here is a pic of the brace wood. I got a box of it off of Ebay from Hippner Guitars and I am not implying anything here. I just don't know well enough to determine pine from spruce but I have done household woodworking and this sure feels and looks like pine.

And, I forgot to ask about an important part...What about the string holes? Do those get drilled out when the bridge gets placed?

[Chuck Tweedy]

Looks like spruce to me.
Spruce and pine smell very different. Pine smells like ... well ... pine.
Fir smells like cat pee.
And spruce has it own - very nice - fragrance.

[Darrel Friesen]

The pictures aren't the best, but the grain orientation on your installed bracing looks like it's in a flatsawn rather than vertical position in the second picture? And yes, the bridge holes get drilled through the plate after the bridge is installed. The actual bridge holes are drilled before you install. At least that's how I do it.

[Henry Dara]

DJ - Your go bar deck is too low. Not sure about others here but mine dont deflect more than 3 or 4 inches. They lose their clamping force as well when they are bent that much.

As far as store bought braces, I dont condone them. I need to split every brace myself to make sure they wont break later. The amount of work it takes is well worth the effort to never have to worry about a brace popping a year down the road. There is a good discussion in the archive where Mario Proulx takes on this subject, not sure if they are up yet. You can get the wood you need at Home depot digging through the 2x4, 2x6 bins. There was a recent discussion on this as well, but I cant find it at the moment.

Here is Mario's Youtube on making arching braces quickly: (Good music too)

If you plan on this guitar lasting years or decades, the little extra effort now will ensure a well braced top for years to come.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2Qeh9vj ... ature=plcp

Good luck!!

[Bryan Bear]

Nce to see you on to top making! Before you get too far along, make your bridge clamping caul now. It will be much easier to fit it to the bracing before you close the box. . .

[Steven Smith]

Nice work so far. Your bracing looks like spruce to me too as best as can be seen from a photo.

Definitely shorten the go-bars. It is a good exercise to put a small postal scale in your go-bar deck and see how much deflection is needed to get maximum down force. The deflection will be surprisingly small. Any additional deflection will simply be stored by the go-bar as potential energy that wants to release in the horizontal direction - turning your go-bars into little missiles, something you've already experienced