Acoustic Guitar Construction

Rusty,
I have purchased 3 "kits" from LMI and they do not size the sides for you. You have to cut them down and profile them yourself, even the prebent sides.
You have to follow some kind of plan and know ahead of time what your dimensions are suppose to be before you proceed with gluing parts together, but then you are finding that out now aren't you. Sorry for your troubles.
You will have to remove the kerfing, on the back only from what I can see, and it looks like your tail end is flush already, correct? You can probably leave the kerfing from the end block to at least the middle of the lower bouts.. You can chisel it off, take the sides down and then glue in new kerfing.
You can do it, it is easy, and you will learn some good chisel techniques while you are at it.

Kevin

Thank Kevin,
Yes My chizeling technique will be top notch by the time I have this kit built, but whats left of my hair will be gone for sure !! If only there was a little bit of info with LMI kits for beginners. When it said pre serviced it never occurred to me that I would have to shape the sides myself-but I know now. I had foolishly thought it was just a matter of using the mega mold to take down the back a little with the sanding bar but its not that simple.

Ok, so thats not so bad if I can leave on the top kerfing at least, and then about half the bottom will have to be removed ?
My top is leveled to the blocks so I assume thats ok.
My end block is high on the back and I had intended sanding it with the radius abrasive bar on the mega mold.
So, when I eventually get the shape using the method Ken mentioned earlier will I still be using the bar to sand off the edges or will it have to be scraped or sawn down to shape ?

Thanks


Rusty

Once you make the pattern and draw the line on the rim you'll have an idea about how much needs to be removed. A maybe coping saw? But take care not to take too much material off the blocks since they still have to be taller on the inside to accomodate the contour/dome of the back.

kencierp wrote:Once you make the pattern and draw the line on the rim you'll have an idea about how much needs to be removed. A maybe coping saw? But take care not to take too much material off the blocks since they still have to be taller on the inside to accomodate the contour/dome of the back.

Thanks ken, I was just about to start removing the kerfing and decided to ask one final question--for today anyway lol

If its a stupid suggestion or would be impossible just tell me .

What are the possibilities of building it at the dept it now stands at ? I would have a deeper instrument with maybe better-or worse-tonal possibility's and I actually saw a friend with a parlor recently that was around 4 inch deep at lower bout . I assume there would be other implications to consider but can it be done or is sticking rigidly to the plan a better option? Probably only a beginner would ask this question but here goes

Thank
Rusty

You certainly could make it a deep body -- you still have the issue of the profile not accomodating the dome of the back -- the wasit curve is not high enough, and check to see if the neck heel is long enough, but for that you can also add an extension heel cap.

You have the same issue as Mark
viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1159

Yes , A heel cap would be no problem but the side profiling is something I need to get my head around. I read the posts where Mark was having a problem .

I constructed a braces profiling jig as suggested by Dave and its the 28ft so I was going to do the top braces next--until I noticed my current predicament. I have the back plate braced already.

So, now to decide if I can manage to build a deeper body guitar but obviously figure out the side profile for my current measurements mentioned earlier

I think I would be more comfortable doing that given my limited knowledge of whats involved but I'm willing to learn and listen to whatever help I get here.

Rusty

Next step is to make the side profile template. There is nothing at this point that is stopping you from doing it the right way -- no guessing required. And why did you make a 28' brace pattern? Those old parlor guitars had flat tops just a enough contour so they did not look concave -- is that's what's on the drawing?