Official Luthiers Forum!

Hey everyone!
A couple weeks ago my father and I finished working on a retop job for a drednaught we built a year ago. It is a walnut/sitka body, with a mahogany neck. It also sports a pinless bridge, bridge doctor-esque apparatus, a fishman transducer, and a headstock inlay desinged by the owners girlfriend. I am very proud of this completion, and must say it's tone rivals that of any high-dollar model I have played. I have included pictures for your amusement, and (as always) am open to any suggestions, comments, etc.

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Jake Archer
~~Make a joyful noise unto the Lord~~

Very nice guitar Jake - you should be very proud!

Why the retop?
Peter

In response to Peter's question, we had to retop it because as it was our 4th instrument, we didn't understand the importance of taking time to make sure that the bridge plate was designed properly, nor did we understand that the bridge plate needed to be something denser like maple to work properly (we used mahogany.... poor choice). This resulted in a severe belly in the top, and eventual split in the grain. We had to unbolt the neck and rout the top off inside the binding (yes, the binding is still the original binding) and rebuild a top for it, which we french-polished. I am SO much happier with the instrument now than before.

Looks good

A little more detail on your drilled back braces?

Andy
I'm assuming that when you say detail on drilled back braces, you want more of an explanation than what I gave (which was nothing). Unfortunatly, i neglected to get pictures of those braces specifically, so what you saw was the best of it. We drilled them out because as novice luthiers we felt that making the braces lighter without comprimising strength would be a great thing for it structurally and perhaps tonally. However, at this point, I am unsure of the credibility of such a theory, and am now no longer doing the braces that way. My father and I are both the kind of people that once we get into something (such as luthierie) and build just one guitar, we feel that we are experts, and all these goofy theories and stuff that really have no proof to base them on start flowing out of us. However, 1 year and countless hours reading and researching and experimenting have placed us back on track and ironically back on a more traditional approach to many aspects of guitar making. I hope i have answered your question Andy, in all of my rambling.

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Jake Archer
~~Make a joyful noise unto the Lord~~

Yeah, just what I was asking really - suppose I should have been more clear!

The idea of drilling/recessing braces has interested me for a while, though I'm yet to try it. I think I'd have to do some structural experiments before actually building them in to a guitar however

That looks like quite the nice guitar, nice work! Whoever the owner is I bet he's pleased!

Josh

Hi, when you use a pinless bridge do you still use a bridge plate? and if not , how does it effect the sound of the guitar?

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We Bend the Wood, So You Can Bend the Strings