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A nice take on go-bars

Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2021 7:27 pm
by Dave Bagwill
I was watching a vid on the construction of a 'gypsy' guitar and noticed what I think is an idea I will try. The go-bar deck with a difference. The pictures say it all. You wouldn't need rods of varying length; the rods don't bend and make glue clean-up difficult.
Whaddya think muchachos?

Re: A nice take on go-bars

Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2021 11:37 pm
by peter havriluk
Somebody is making way too much sense!

Re: A nice take on go-bars

Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2021 11:42 pm
by peter havriluk
That rope of LED's ain't too shabby either!

Re: A nice take on go-bars

Posted: Tue Aug 17, 2021 11:58 pm
by Dave Bagwill
Ha! Observant fellow that I am, I had not even noticed the LED's, which might be the key to the whole thing. :-)

Re: A nice take on go-bars

Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2021 12:07 pm
by Herman
Well Dave, to me it looks technically superior, but visually uggelly.
With the traditional rods, you have a sense of the applied tension.
With this solution it looks like it won't give you the feel of pressure.
Ah well, just a thought of one who just made a traditional go-bar deck and don't want to hear he made the wrong one. :o
Herman

Re: A nice take on go-bars

Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2021 12:17 pm
by Dave Bagwill
H - I reckon there is no 'right' or 'wrong' here. Just a matter of style. With this guy's way of doing it, you would be able to feel how much pressure
the bar is exerting, which is a good thing, plus the pressure is straight down, which is good also. Too, the easier access to squeez-out would be a plus for me. So I think it may have its advantages.
OTOH a million guitars have been made using flexible rods, so that approach obviously works!
I'm going to try his method because I don't like rods slipping off, I don't like having to have rods of different lengths, and I don't like that once in a while a rod tilts a brace so that it doesn't make great contact. I've had to re-glue a few braces for that reason.
Hey, as long as it gets the job done, a guy is free to do what works, eh?

Re: A nice take on go-bars

Posted: Wed Aug 18, 2021 6:59 pm
by Hans Mattes
Sorry to be a "spoil-sport," but, to me this seems like a questionable idea -- for (at least) two reasons:

1) it's not clear how to assess (or to appropriately control) the pressure exerted by the "go bar." I use ⅛" fiberglass rods* on my go-bar deck. They are about 20" long. When they bend (deflect) ½" they exert 4.4 pounds of force; when they bend 1.5" they exert 4.9 pounds of force (no, the don't obey Hooke's law). That means that in use they always exert a similar force so can be used as experience dictates -- no skill of adjustment required.

2) As I use go-bars to clamp both braces glued to top and back and to glue the top and back to the sides, I space my go-bars about an inch apart. That looks problematic with the arrangement in the photo.

Just sayin'.

* I made my go bars using the rods sold by Harbor Freight for fishing electrical wire. I cut the HF bars in two (they come around 40" long) and then I cap the cut ends with plastic tip covers from Amazon. Cheap and effective. I installed a piece of perforated masonite (pegboard) in the top of my go bar deck to prevent the top of the go bar from slipping. It works well.