Arch tops take a long time, it's more like carving a violin than other styles of guitar making. No running the parts through a drum sander to thickness the front and back. Gouges, curved sole planes and scrapers. Also need big calipers to measure the thickness in the middle.
Most commercial makers use a copy router to do the basic arching and hollowing and only do the final tuning by hand. Some makers specialise in arch tops and that's all they make
However I'm sure Mr B could knock up a course in no time when he's finished the finishing course ! Maybe Bagpress could find a CAD file and produce the arching templates
Some people call me a tool, others are less complimentary. Tools being useful things.
Dusted off my very first build and my only acoustic build. Many many eons ago. An archtop parlor size. All made from hand tools. The most diffucult build. Took more than half a year. I think I will refinish and mod this out with a floating minibucker.
Dusted off my very first build and my only acoustic build. Many many eons ago. An archtop parlor size. All made from hand tools.
There’s nothing like starting with something nice and simple.
sorry, *that’s* nothing like starting with something nice and simple.
😉
Online guitar making courses – guitarmaking.co.uk