How To Make The Top For An Archtop Guitar Using Steam Bending

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Making an archtop for a guitar - or for that matter, any other similar stringed instrument - usually entails a lot of carving and shaping. Wasteful and hard work! In this video, I outline the technique I use to heat bend tops for my guitars from thin (~4mm) thick boards, be that spruce, maple, mahogany or whatever. Making the jig takes a bit of time, but once made, it's relatively much quicker and simpler to produce archtops by this method than carving. I would mention that I based this method on a paper by Helen Michetschläger, a viola maker, that you can find on the web titled "Steam-bending fronts - a practical demonstration".

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30 июл 2024

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Комментарии : 30

@rhino2104 Год назад

Absolutely brilliant. I've been trying to puzzle out a way to do a bent archtop instead of carving for a bit now. I can't wait to give this method a shot.

@trueevilturtle 3 месяца назад

awesome video, hope to see more guitar building videos in the futrue

@patto2006 Год назад

Fantastic video. Would love to watch a full build video, that contain some of the specs and reasoning behind your design choices. Am sure It would be very popular.!

@tedrowland7800 11 месяцев назад

I am repairing a 1953 Silvertone archtop that I am convinced was steam bent. These were made by Kay and Harmony at that time. I am not sure if it was maple or birch, but it was not carved. What you are doing is beyond my skill level, but enjoyed the video.

@patrickmcvay2390 Год назад

I imagine that an arch top that is bent, rather than carved, is a bit stronger and sands to a better finish because the fibers conform to the desired shape and less end grain is exposed on the curved surface during subsequent shaping. It appears that an asymmetrical body shape just means double work on the frame assembly and shaper/interior form. Thanks for the information! Excellent instructional and beautiful guitars!

@Drewmo2000 Год назад

Thanks for your kind comments. Yes, the grain does all remain in the same plane, so I've had no issues to date with sanding and finishing that might otherwise be found due to end grain, as you say. One thing I have recently noticed using flamed maple for the first time is that you need to make the top a little thicker, maybe an extra 1mm or so, to allow for more sanding, as the same variations in the grain that cause the flaming effect also leaves the surface rather 'wavy' when it dries out, and so needs a little extra sanding to pull it back flat.

@Drewmo2000 Год назад

And also, yes, I've recently thinking about making an asymmetric shape using a second frame. The key thing here is to make sure that a similar profile shaping wedge be used so that the two sides meet together, which makes it a little more complicated. In that case the two halves in each frame could be used for the front and back.

@seankerrigan1627 2 года назад

Brilliant! Thank you so much for all of your efforts.

@larrycortner2210 2 года назад

where did you learn how to do all this? Im very impressed at your skill and tricks. thanks for posting

@4brewman 2 года назад

Thank you. Just what I've been looking for!

@christianboddum8783 2 года назад

A little complicated but very creative and cool ;-)

@cemagan9071 2 года назад

So cool, congrats

@stevepethel6843 11 месяцев назад

You made some beautiful guitar. God continued smiles on your skills

@glennpettersson9002 Год назад

Cheers for that👍

@shanelowe9933 2 года назад

Quite the timing, I was just wondering about this today. I'm coming from the worlds of banjo and bowmaking and there's a similar process to bending wood there. It seems to me one of the trickiest parts of the process is probably making sure that your form is identical on both ends. Any advice on how to make sure you've got an identical curve along the bookmatch?

@Drewmo2000 2 года назад

The former is made from two halves screwed together. Before screwing together, put the two halves side by side, and make sure they identical on each side and there is no height difference along the length. There is a bit of keeway when gluing the two halves of the top together to balance them also. In the end, you may have to sand away maybe 0.5mm or so to get the two sides to match completely, but that shouldn't be a problem.

@yellowcat1310 2 года назад

@@Drewmo2000 along that line, i had to replay that part where you put the halves together. with the seperator i wondered how you got them even. then i saw the littlewood tool with the notch to go over the feature stripe and the two sides should then evenly touch the top. very cool. an archtop is in my future, and i like this method so might do it rather than carve. so, i saw someone making a 12 string but only to the 12th fret, he might have went to 14. he said 12 string players never play those higher frets anyway. true? you have short neck 12 strings? i'm not a 12 string player so i don't know. interesting though.

@kokeskokeskokes Год назад

Nice jobs. Nice tools. I need the exact opposite, but I guess this is as close as it gets. I have a flat top guitar that was obviously left outside in a rain, bottom up. The back bulged outward to the point it cracked. I am thinking of removing it and ironing it flat. I'd have it replaced but it is a Brazilian rosewood as far as I can tell, and very old, so no replacements. Thank you for mentioning the plastic sheet, I may want to preserve the smell.

@ollimoore Год назад

If you haven’t already, let it acclimatise to a more normal humidity for a while before doing anything drastic. You may find that most of the problem resolves itself as the wood dries and shrinks, or possibly the ordeal will have left more permanent warping around the crack area.

@kokeskokeskokes Год назад

@@ollimoore Thank you, no problem. It looks like the damage happened long time ago though. I think I will have it fixed professionally.

@mikeesquivel4131 9 месяцев назад

Would you be interested in selling processed and dried pieces?

@thijs199 Год назад

making that form seems the hard part here. how did you get it symmetrical. is this something I might be able to buy?

@einsam_aber_frei Месяц назад

This is quite difficult to make! I thought carved top is hard, but this is even harder.

@Drewmo2000 Месяц назад

The initial making of the equipment takes time, but now I have everything, I can make four tops in one afternoon.

@malodesi Год назад

Thank you Algorythm! This is interesting!

@timhallas4275 Год назад

After watching this, I'll stick to carving a billet.

@primoroy Год назад

$5,000 in tools to build a $500 guitar? 😮

@Drewmo2000 Год назад

Not really $5000... The most expensive tool shown is my bandsaw, a recent addition to my workshop, about a quarter of that. But you don't need a bandsaw to do this. You can purchase 1/4" thick resawn tops from many sources - the spruce top on the guitar shown at the intro was from Stewmac, and cost about $25, and you can do all the fine outline work with a coping saw. The other tool being used a lot is a belt sander (about $150), but that's just because it's easier than a hand sander.

@primoroy Год назад

@@Drewmo2000 Not meant as a insult, it's a common joke, but you are correct about my lack of detailed knowledge.

@Drewmo2000 Год назад

@@primoroy Heh heh, no worries, the other guitarist in my band was forever telling me it was a lot easier to buy guitars from Guitar Center. But hey, personally I get as much fun out of making them as playing them😁