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Hello everyone, so I am finally moving forward on my first ever build. I decided to make a Selmer Maccafferi Jazz guitar and have been planning out the build before I even cut a single piece of wood. I've come to a bit of a snag as what would be the best approach to construct the top. Now following procedures in the book on how to make these guitars, once the set has been thicknessed, the two individual halves are then put on a heated bending jig to create the "Pliage". Once the bend's have been put into the tops their glued together. Simple? Sure, but since I don't have access to a thickness sander and I heard you don't want to run your tops through a bench planer, If I so decide to thickness my top at home, to me it sounds like the process would be to glue the halves, hand plane the thickness as described in Cumpiano's book, then bend it on the heated bending jig. However if I decide to do that, then that option dictates the type of glue I can use to join the top with. In Michael Collin's DVD set he made a mention that Polyurathane glue could be used to join the top should I want to bend them together, since it has a higher heat resistance than tightbond. However I wanted to get other opinions about poly glue before I decide what to do. Plus I got to make sure that even if poly glue is a viable option, that it works well with Redwood since that is the top I have chosen to make (read somewhere on this forum it requires a little more TLC when gluing than spruce or WRC).

Alternatively I guess I could have LMI thickness sand the top set when I order it that way I don't have to worry about hand planing all together. However it would be nice to learn to thickness but at the same time reduces my chances of botching a perfectly good top. My only worry is what would be a target thickness to have them sand it down to. I read that you want to keep Redwood between .120-.125" which I'm assuming is final thickness. I read in another thread, someone mentioned that you want to first take it down to .160 after joining, put in the rosette, then take it down to .130, brace it put it on the box then thin the edges to .120 after the box its closed but before the binding. All seems pretty specific and very helpful, I am just curious to how that would apply to a top that has a bend to it? Probably won't be able to plane it once its bent, which leaves to hand sanding. So considering that, I'll have to factor that in as far as what thickness I would have it sanded down to.

So as ya can see I am a little bit perplexed as what would be my best option at the moment, having never done this before. If anyone can chime in, that would be much appreciated.

Grego!

Greg,

The whole Selmer top is designed with spruce in mind, why don't you go with spruce for your first? That will avoid so many complications.

I made my Selmer top by joining the two halves, then bending them with heat. Used Titebond no problem, but I guess it depends upon how much heat. I use poly glue for other applications, and it works well, but it does require moisture for a full cure, so don't forget to take that into account.

This works, but there is springback. Traditionally, they would have been bent separate, then joined, which makes it more complicated for a first timer builder.

To complicate it even more for your, there is much evidence that Selmer actually scored the back at the point of pliage, to help set the bend. I tend believe this and plan on doing that in the future.

Bending with heat makes for a more subtle pliage, and if you look closely at the originals, the pliage is a little more crisp.

Some builders just use radius forms, focused at the bridge, some build flat.

You have a lot of questions and are trying to work out your process. I'd suggest getting some cheap wood from the lumber yard and practice before applying any effort on your "real" wood. Its an inexpensive way to get some valuable experience.

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Yeah, I pretty much figured that was designed specifically with spruce in mind seeing that locationally it was much more obtainable than other woods such as Redwood or WRC. Still I am kinda curious to how RW would cater to this kind of guitar, plus its a beautiful wood and seems to have some good tonal qualities. Is it the best for the job? probably not, but it would be an interesting experiment to find out.

So you were able to bend the joined top with Titebond? What I plan to use is the bending box that Michael Collins has shown in his book, just double wide to accommodate the joined halves. It will be using Heat Lamps, cooking for 10 minutes to add the bend. I'll be over bending the top so there isn't too much springback has been bent. So my concern is if the heat from the lamps will be too much for the Titebond to keep its bond. Thats why I was considering the PU glue, since it has a higher heat tolerance and that just seems like a glue joint that I don't see needed to be de-bonded like a fretboard or neck.

I'll be going after the a subtle radius as opposed to a crisp pliage, after seeing the finished guitar in Michael's DVD series, I think I like the look of it a bit better. So using the heat forming box as opposed to a bending pipe will give me the results I am after. I'm actually going to be hitting up a lumber yard this weekend for some Douglas Fir, so I might try and find some wood to give this test a try on.