Official Luthiers Forum!

I haven't posted in quite awhile, as I've been tied up in other ventures. I have a question, and looking for ideas on how to solve this. My son is beginning to build. Everything was going well, Back came out great! However, when he sanded the sides and bent them, I looked at them, and he had made them too narrow. He only has just over 4" at the end and slightly less then 3 1/4 at the neck. This is BEFORE any sanding is to be done. No kerfing, etc.
Question. Is there a way to get back 1/4" around the rim? The bindings will hide anything visually, but structually is there a way?
I know we can build it narrower, but would rather not. Do we need a new set of sides?

You could glue your linings proud of the sides enough to get back about a quarter on each edge, then sand to correct geometry, then let the bindings cover up the gaps.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Precisely. Been there, done that.

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Alain Moisan
Former full time builder of Acoustics, Classicals and Flamencos.
(Now building just for fun!)

First of all, unless you are building a museum reproduction, or a guitar for sale to a customer, the actual depth of the finished guitar is not really critical - sure it will make a difference, but it will still be a guitar if it is a 1/4 less deep. It would still bother me, so... read on.

There is a way to fix this. Leave the linings a little more than 1/8" proud of the sides. When you glue the plates on there will be a 1/8 inch gap between the plate and the sides on the back and top. Then when you route the channel for the binding you will fill the gap with the binding. Make sure you leave some extra and sand down to the proper depth/profile. Voila.

Edit: Beat me to it. Nice to know we are all on the same page.

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

And don't forget just adding the top and back will add about 3/16".