How to make an Acoustic Guitar Mold | Building an Acoustic Guitar 

Love your videos mate. You have a great way of describing your processes. Thanks for posting them

I never saw a mold being built before. I’m impressed. You are a true craftsman.

Absolutely awesome and inspiring, thank you thank you !!!!!

Great information! Thanks!

Awesome video!

Awesome! Looking forward to more!

You're a life saver!! Love your video, perfectly explained!!

man I've been watching and learning from your channel since you started it! Truly inspirational dude thanks for passing on the knowledge

Looks awesome to me, and the spreader idea was awesome. gonna come back to this when I make my own mold.

Another fantastic and informative episode.

This is a fantastic informative video, great job Jeff👊🏼🥃🇺🇸

Excellent video

You are a true master mate. This is a very helpful video as i’m trying to build an acoustic guitar myself. Thank you and compliments.

Floating block is a great idea. In fact it’s the best way

Gunk.... definitely a technical term!

You're one step ahead of me!!! Just wrapped up my frame today... Spreaders are next.

Over 20 years both acoustic build and repair work... believe me - those spreaders really need to fit through the sound hole if shape is to be maintained through the plates going on the rim. For those that are not getting accurate or stable bends on their sides, you really want to work on tweaking your process. - either pipe or blanket bender - to get close enough that a single waist spreader gets the side in close contact along the entire mold. For those that have some issues there, a small upper and lower bout spreader will usually pull things back into alignment, but try to go into the profiling, side tape, and lining process with as accurate a set of sides as possible. On MDF - heavy, not very stiff, and will need some protection from water. 18mm Hardwood plywood - even the poplar-core stuff from Home Depot - is nicer to work with and about 75% of the weight of MDF, and only about $20 more a sheet (a mold with spreaders and . To get the same stiffness in the mold through the waist, MDF needs to be 3" wide, versus about 2-3/8" for plywood, as stiffness is about 50 percent of hardwood ply in-plane . Again, MDF is about 65 lb/cu ft versus about 38-40 lbs/cu ft for hardwood ply, so plywood molds weigh about half of what an MDF mold will weigh for the same stiffness (which is why you want a mold to begin with). You want to be able to easily hang the mold off a luthier's swivel-jaw reaper vise for linings, etc, so weight matters. You also want to be able to hand a mold which is in use off the floor and out of harm's way until the closed box is ready to come ou too the mold. A 5/8" hanger hole centered about 1-1/4" up from the inside edge of the upper bout profile and on the seam between halves of the mold keeps things out of the way of the carriage bolt/wing nut closure, and a modified screw-in ladder hanger bracket (heat the bent-up tip and bend such that there is just enough upward kick to keep the mold on the hander). Titebond is a good utility glue for this work - horrible for actual instrument construction (it hot and cold creeps, is challenging to regale without full removal, and has such poor initial tack that you'll have to either use alignment pins or clamp twice - ounce to get most of the excess glue squeezed out, and then again for alignment).

Cool idea with the floating blocks. If I was to build an acoustic guitar, that would be what I would do. However, I would have cut the hole for the turnbuckles out of the middle piece of MDF then drilling the outer ones before gluing together to save time later, but that's just me. Yours looks like they will do the job perfectly!!

Gracias muchas gracias por tus fabulosos videos. Esta tarde te he descubierto aquí y llevo ya unas horas viendo todo el proceso de construcción de esa guitarra acústica. A pesar de no hablar tu idioma me resultan muy comprensible! Podrías por favor hacerme una lista con las herramientas mecánicas (regruesadora, lijadora, cortes de cinta, etc) que has utilizado y sus costes? quiero montar mi propio taller amateur para mis propias guitarras ==== Thank you very much for your fabulous videos. This afternoon I discovered you here and I've been watching the entire construction process of that acoustic guitar for a few hours now. Despite not speaking your language, they are very understandable to me! Could you please make me a list with the mechanical tools (thicknesser, sander, tape cutters, etc) that you have used and their costs? I want to set up my own amateur workshop for my own guitars Thank you man

Nice Video! You might want to consider making the blocks small enough yo remove thru the sound hope. That way you can leave them in during the entire glue up of the body. Also the finish of the block , inside the form, should include the thickness of the sides as that will slightly change your radius.

Great video, I‘ll adapt this concept to build a 335😁 I would guess the floating block should work great

Really nice job. I'm thinking that the spreader blocks should not be an exact fit with the mold inside curves. There will be approx 3 mill of side wood between those surfaces, meaning they won't fit cleanly and there'll be uneven contact and high spots. Adding the leather padding will increase the error. It might be fine, I don't know( I'm about to start my first build too). Rather than cut the mdf on the bandsaw, then flush trim it with the template and router, is there some way to use a very narrow router bit to cut the the waste out and then use the waste to make the blocks? The router kerf and adding a layer of leather might leave a gap that matches the average side thickness. Hope that makes sense.

You can make the spreader slot without the bolt. It works just fine and might be easier to remove Also you can also create the slot by cutting it into the middle piece before the glue up.

I just finished one of these. I only used one set of spreaders though and placed them at the waist(narrow part) of the mold. I used 5/8" oak dowels through the spreader hardware. There should not need to be that much pressure on the sides. I used leather too.

does the piece at you cut off at 5:59 become the piece for your bending jig? Could you use that internal cut piece for the bending jig? What size of dowel did you use?

Any reason you didnt glue the layers first and then cut it out? To me it would seem it would save time rather than making 6 copies

I would have thought you'd have to allow for the sides thickness especially with leather attached. Thoughts?

Hi brother That middle piece of MDF for the turnbuckle would have been good to trace the loop of the turnbuckle on to it then cut he shape out then fit together. Just a thought, if it makes sense 🤔

It's cool. But I have a question. Is your spreader block gonna come out in the sound hole? Cause It looks to big to me. I'm just curious.

Any thoughts about copying plans? Most plans have a "do not copy" line on them. I'm just starting my first acoustic build and am wrestling with this idea. I think the "do not copy" is about copying and selling the plans. And since we are not selling the plans, just using them, I think it is within our rights. But I just would like to hear your take, if you would be so bold to tell us.

Any idea of where to get these plans?

Send more videos on how to make molds for hollow-body guitars and not guitars also

I think the floating turn buckle is a perfect idea..it will aloow it to self adjust up and down and side to side.. and will make it so the wood fits the mold perfectly.. Just one suggestion.... as far as glue goes .... for your instrument , use the original Tite Bond . Not 2 or 3.. youll thank yourself later on if you need to do a repair or a neck reset.. Titebond original is a standard nowadays with luthiers and factories for this same reason.... and stay away from hide glue ... fish glue is handy in non critical spots .. but you can usually use tite bond there too ..

Why wouldn’t you just take the paper cutout and transfer that to the MDF? Use the first one as your master and make the other 5 off the MDF master. I’m sure there is a reason, just not sure if I understand the reason.