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Hello, my next dream is build Archtop after I finish OM and my 2 question is:
1. is there any special tools to build an Archtop other than usual to build classical or accoustic???
2. what the best wood for back & side and soundboard,
whether there is a building back & side sets with a mahogany and what the topwood matching and how the sound quality (because I have mahogany back&side set).
thank's...

1) Well, you will need the tools to carve the back and carve the top - usually chisels and small (curved) bottom planes and scrapers. Other than that you should be fine if you have built "flattops." The neck joint may be a challenge, if you have only made bolt on necks, and you want to make a traditional dovetail joint for the Archtop.

2) The traditional materials for the archtop are curly maple for back and sides and spruce for the top.

Good luck!

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

thank's Steve... haha... "beer good"... yah... here beer alcohol free now...

do I need this tool: Thickness Caliper or whether without this tool I can work...
thank's

Terry, yes you need some way to measure the thickness of your plates. You can make a caliper yourself with a dial gauge for the job or something similar. You can also get pretty close by using the drill press method of drilling to preset depths. Sorry, pictures are faster. Here you go:

http://rabbit-rabbit.org/guitarArchtop1-A.htm

http://alexanderguitars.blogspot.com/2010/01/arch-top-beginnings.html

http://educ.jmu.edu/~dehartcg/se_archtop.htm

Also, on this forum, the Padma has a nice thread showing how to carve the plates etc. You should check that out.

I made my first archtop with mahogany B&S. It's been the main acoustic instrument of a very busy Boston session musician for something like 25 years now, so I'd say it can work...

Look up the article in American Lutherie (iirc) on 'Curtate Cycloid' arches. It works.

I highly recommend the Benedetto book for archtops.

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The member formerly known as erikbojerik....

thank's Erik, yes I"ve bought the Benedetto Archtop book, and for the standard wood for BS is Curly Maple and Top is Spruce, but aside from Alan Carruth, did you build with BS Mahogany and how the sound ? is it produce mellow sound???