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Mr Bones · 12-09-2007, 07:26 PM

Installment #2:
Carved the back of the maple top. I really didn't take that much off, but I just wanted to thin the maple a little to take some of the brightness off. In the past few guitars I've built, one of the biggest factors for the tone of the guitar has been how thick the maple cap was, and how much I carved off when carving the top. Carving hard rock maple is not fun, and I am not looking forward to the blisters that will come from carving the top on this one. Eastern maple is MUCH easier to carve. This is my thinnest maple top yet, starting out at 1/2". The only spot on this guitar that will be 1/2" will be right at the tailpiece block.

I used a straight edge between the glue areas of the maple to gauge how much I was taking off.

I drilled the hole for the switch cover, then cleaned everything up with naptha to make sure there was no dust inside the body or on the glue edge.

Clamping time. I made sure to get two clamps on the center block, and a long clamp where the tenon goes so that the area surrounding the tenon has a good connection.

There were inevitable glue drips inside the body, I tried to clean them up as best as I could.

12-09-2007, 07:26 PM	#10 (permalink)
Mr Bones V.I.P. Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: 225 Parsons Street Posts: 1,025 Thanks: 2 Thanked 20 Times in 7 Posts	Re: Building a Chambered LP Installment #2: Carved the back of the maple top. I really didn't take that much off, but I just wanted to thin the maple a little to take some of the brightness off. In the past few guitars I've built, one of the biggest factors for the tone of the guitar has been how thick the maple cap was, and how much I carved off when carving the top. Carving hard rock maple is not fun, and I am not looking forward to the blisters that will come from carving the top on this one. Eastern maple is MUCH easier to carve. This is my thinnest maple top yet, starting out at 1/2". The only spot on this guitar that will be 1/2" will be right at the tailpiece block. I used a straight edge between the glue areas of the maple to gauge how much I was taking off. I drilled the hole for the switch cover, then cleaned everything up with naptha to make sure there was no dust inside the body or on the glue edge. Clamping time. I made sure to get two clamps on the center block, and a long clamp where the tenon goes so that the area surrounding the tenon has a good connection. There were inevitable glue drips inside the body, I tried to clean them up as best as I could. Last edited by Mr Bones; 12-09-2007 at 09:41 PM.