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Is there any good info out there on how to make a wedge style body. I'm mostly interested in knowing if the back is radiused and if the sides get tapered as normal. I know there's a taper from one side to the other (hence the wedge). I'm referring to the taper in the upperbout area.

Thanks In Advance.

Don,

I've only made one guitar with the Linda Manzer wedge and did it with my normal domed/radiused back and with a back to front side taper as per normal. The method I used went broadly as follows:

I built in a side to side taper of 15mm from treble to bass side at the waist. This meant that the centre line of the back of the guitar (front to back) would be 7.5mm lower than the treble waist edge and 7.5mm higher than the bass waist edge. I bent the sides (with no taper - ie the same width for the whole length) and joined them to the neck and tailblocks and put the rim set in the mould. I put a pencil mark on the treble side at the waist that gave the side height as the tailblock centre height plus 7.5mm and a corresponding pencil mark at the bass side wiast 15mm lower. I then tilted the rimset in the mould until the two pencil lines were at the top of the mould, clamped it in place and drew a pencil line on the sides around the top of the mould. I then shaped the rimset sides and blocks to give the back side to side taper. I could then draw on the usual side profile that allowed for the backs curvature and desired slope/taper from back to front of the guitar and shape the sides accordingly.

Hope this makes some sense. I'm sure there are lots of other ways to do this.

I really like the playing comfort you get with the Manzer wedge:

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

Thanks Dave. Things are clearer now. Nice instrument, by the way. How does it sound?

Don,

Glad you understood all that

I like the sound of this guitar. You can hear a sound clip here.

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

Don't want to hijack, Don, but it seems you got some good info.

Fine-looking instrument, Dave! Love that finish. What is it?

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now known around here as Pat Foster
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Nice, Dave! What Setup did you use to record?

Thanks.   

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Don Sharp
Got Brazilian?
http://www.sharpguitars.com

Don,

I've just remembered that Dennis Scannel (TrueNorth Guitars) has a photo documentary of building and instrument with a Manzer wedge on his website here.

Pat,

Thanks. The finish is pre-catalysed lacquer (over Z-Poxy on the b/s) levelled hand rubbed back with wire wool to try and get a finish like Lowden. Using a Fuji turbine hvlp system I've mamaged to get it down to 3 or 4 coats. The neck is Tru oil over Z-Poxy.


The Other Don Sharp

It was recorded with a single AKG c1000S microphone pointing at about the 16th fret into a Fostex FD4, mixed down with flat EQ and then turned into .mp3 format with Switch.

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

I built a wedge about 25 years ago that had the treble side shallower, to give my belly more room.

Here are two pix of extended endentions to the side of the guitar against you chest to make it more comfortable. I have a slight pigeon chest and finally cutting the area out in one guitar told me I could do it to all others. Guitars are not comfortable against my chest. My main instrument is the keyboard!
cheers

I did mine by creating a side shape template so I could prep the sides before bending. This was done by propping my mold with the needed neck and tail block thicknesses shimmed above it then sloping it to get the thicknesses desired at the lower bout treble and bass sides. Once I had it like I wanted I took measurements down to the dish at 1" spacing and transfered this value to the template. I added about .1" to the values and plotted the shape on the template to leave a little fudge factor for sanding. It took a lot more time to figure out how to do it and set up than actually making the templates.

Check here for photos of it http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=22685
This topic has some info also http://luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=22794

I will repeat the process in the near future to create a OM wedge for one of this years builds.

Fred

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866