Acoustic Guitar Construction

My approach to cleaning up squeeze-out when gluing the bridge has been to use a clamp similar to the bridge clamps suggested by Ken Cierpilowski. His technique used a wooden clamp bar on top of the bridge. That bar is tightened via screws through it and through the bridge, the soundboard, and the br...

It seems that there are three issues with the bridge you have: -- Intonation compensation may be difficult -- The limited spacing between the bridge pin hole and the saddle slot at the 6th string may cause the bridge to split along the saddle slot -- The limited spacing not only looks a bit odd but ...

I've often found that the first (and, sometimes, the second) application of Tru-Oil looks "splotchy" or uneven. The duller areas seem to occur where the wood absorbs the TO more readily than in other areas. Once I've applied three or more coats, the TO seems to form a surface film with a s...

A couple of coats of shellac does a pretty fair job of preventing wicking. I been using "super thin" CA to fasten abalone rosettes (and most of my bindings & purflings) and, after some issues with CA wicking in spruce, I started sealing with shellac. It works well.

It can work with 0.080" bindings, but, depending on the binding material, it can be a tedious process. With plastic binding or fiber binding or purfling, it's trivially easy. With wood binding, it depends on the wood, both the species and the runout. When I have an issue, I combine some time wi...

Dave: FWIW, an approach that I've used for bending bindings is to use the rim, before the kerfing is installed, as a form. I'll soak the binding in water (sometimes with a bit of SuperSoft in it), and wrap the edge of the rim with a 6" (+/-) strip of plastic wrap (e.g., Saran Wrap). Then I pat ...

The suggestion of "the larger the bit, the slower the speed" is to keep the velocity of the cutting edge, where it impacts the wood, within a reasonable range. And the diameter of bits used with trim routers can vary pretty widely -- say ¼" diameter to 2" diameter. With bits no m...