Official Luthiers Forum!

I am hoping that some of you can give me some advice on this. I am planning my first scratch built and want to include a cutaway. From my inexperienced view point, it seems that both types have some advantages and disadvantages in the building process. I have seen posts on both types, but not really one that addressed the two types and any disadvantages of one over the other.

Venetian (Curvy) - seems to be more difficult to bend, but I am assuming that a bending machine and blanket will take away some of that difficulty.

Florentine (Pointy) - seems to be easier to bend, but adds some difficulty to the assembly - I have seen Rod's tip in the tutorial section, but without a band saw it may be difficult to accurately make his jig and the correctly curved block.

All other things equal, I think I would prefer a Florentine, but I want to go into this realistically.

Would appreciate any feedback,

Greg

_________________
Greg Hatcher
North Carolina

Greg, I built my first with a Florentine cutaway. Didn't have a bandsaw back than at all. I shaped the internal block with round rasps and files, fine tuned with sandpaper. I also didn't have that clamping caul either. I just glued one side to the block first, than the other side.

_________________
My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Rod: Thanks for the reply. I have done my limited kit building with minimal tools, so I can give that a try. I am trying to step things up a bit and plan to use a solid form and radius dishes this time, so I guess I was looking for any roadblocks that I might encounter. But I think your method should work.

_________________
Greg Hatcher
North Carolina

I was also going to comment,

Make what you want. You'll regret it if you really want a Florentine and decide to build a Venetian because it may be easier.

It is my opinion that the Venetian cutaway is much easier to build. You have to get the bending right, and that's not to hard as long as you take your time. There are many builders who still bend the horn on a pipe instead of using a bending machine.

Florentines have 2 additional miters (which are not easy to get perfect) and if you have side purfling lines, than there is the addition of 4 miters there too, assuming you bind the point of the Florentine.

There certainly is a reason to charge a lot more for a cutaway, regardless of which one. The side bending of a Venetian can be taxing on the mind and stressful to say the least. The miters can also be as taxing.

_________________
My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

Guys: Thanks for the comments. This is the kind of info I was looking for.

Todd, when you say, "it does give you the option to bind the full side and main part of cut side, then trim the miters and bind the cutaway itself". I think you are saying to bind both sides of the point. I was wondering if that was the convention. From your comments, it is an option, but it can also help with dealing with the miters on the joint. I hope I understood that correct.

Greg

_________________
Greg Hatcher
North Carolina