Acoustic Guitar Construction

The kit guitar I'm doing some learning on was provided to me with some of the body prefabricated, the sides were joined to the back, and it is up to me to adjust the bracing, cut pockets in the kerfing for the 'x' braces and shoulder brace, and cut away the top around the neck tang. Then assemble the top and proceed.

Now, the kit instructions make a great deal out of trimming and inserting a spreader at the widest spot of the lower bout so as to hold the sides vertical. This will be removed after the top is installed. Construction manual also tells me to be sure and glue the top most securely to the top of the neck block/ neck tang support.

I have two questions about these needs: First there is a whole lot of pressure being exerted on the sides to spread and hold them vertical, and second to glue the top to the neck block around the neck cutout I'll need to pull the support tongue for the neck up about 1/8" to mate with the top and clamp it into place while the glue sets. This is stress area number 2. And from the looks of things as I dry-fit parts, the neck/fretboard fits the body nicely when the neck block is pulled up against the top; the top of the neck block rotates forward and allows the neck to sit against the front of the body and the fretboard to sit up against the top nice and straight without trying to bend the fretboard upwards below the 14th fret.

I have no influence on either area of stressing the body, they're features of the body as delivered.

Is this any kind of routine? Seems I'll be assembling the guitar top to the body with what seems to me to be a lot of stress at the rim. The sides will always be trying to pull inwards and the neck block will always be trying to pull away from the top.

I had figured that the top shouldn't be trying to keep the sides from falling in and the neck block in place.

I will welcome any perspective that is available.

Thanks, folks

In a "nut shell" what you are describing is not how a guitar is supposed to be assembled. It seems you know that much already. Pictures would help. But, if I were you I'd follow the directions/instructions to a "T". The maker of the kit has come to some conclusions and has chosen not to share the process logic. There's no point in worring about stresses if the final results don't yield an aligned playable guitar. What you are about to do is no worse then the common hobby practice of jambing a poorly bent/formed rim in a mold with a bunch of turnbuckle clamps to crush it into shape -- some would have you believe that this is normal (it is not). At any rate those guitars do not self destruct and neither will yours.

Ken, thanks for the reply. I think your advice emphasized in red makes a whole lot of sense. I indeed have been diligently following the assembly manual, strange as it may sound to me, and as strange as the processes seem to my inexperienced judgement. You've very astutely described my reactions to the materials and instructions. The instructions will get me to the end but it sure will be an interesting trip. You've also offered a good conclusion to what I'm getting out of the manual; in great part do what the man says and trust the process. I'm very grateful for the affirmation that it is important that I follow the instructions and not try to reinvent any process when I don't have any experience with the endgames.

I can appreciate your comments about inexperienced builders forcing ill-formed parts into a mold. The guitar I'm playing, I made in a luthier's shop under instruction, and we never executed step b if step a wasn't right. I just kinda' thought that my experience was routine. Silly man. I didn't consider that folks would force-fit parts and create stresses. The body that I have from the kit was, in effect, removed from the mold while incomplete. I don't know how a well-made body would behave if it was removed from the mold at a similar level of completion, before fitting the soundboard.