When I’m about to start a new build, before I step foot in the workshop, I work on my plan of attack for the build.
Normally, I have to put everything that needs to be cut with the re-saw blade on my bandsaw towards the beginning so that I can get that all out of the way before changing to my ¼” bandsaw blade that makes curved cuts.
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I use the re-saw blade for things like bookmatching top wood, ripping or re-sawing neck woods, sometimes cutting a slice off of a bigger piece of wood to use as a fretboard, etc. I also use it a lot to make thinner pieces of wood for the control cavity cover, truss rod cover, and headstock.
The re-saw blade is ¾” wide and makes a straighter cut and it can also handle thicker wood better than the ¼” blade can.
But I have to say, it is a pain to change blades on my bandsaw! The tension knob is on top of the bandsaw, which is above my head and it’s not easy to turn a tension knob above your head.
So I make a list of EVERYTHING that I could use the re-saw blade for and do that first. And I usually can’t do a whole lot of the build before some of those things are done anyway.
Then, once I’m done with all that stuff I can put on the ¼” blade and do things that are more fun, like cut out the body and headstock shapes.
By doing all the re-sawing up front, I don’t have to spend extra time and effort switching the blade back and forth.
In my next workshop I’m definitely planning to make sure to have room for two bandsaws – one with the 1/4″ blade and one with the 3/4″ blade, which will make things a whole lot easier!
Anyways, all of that to say this: I’m doing things differently this time.
What’s Different?
I usually buy boards of various woods and cut them down as explained above, but…
The top wood that we’re putting on this build came pre-bookmatched! Woohoo!
The white limba came as a pre-glued body blank and it’s even the right thickness!
All of the other wood just happened to work out for this build too, so I actually don’t need to change that blade this time, for once. I do need to rip one piece of maple for the neck, but that shouldn’t be too big of a deal.
Since this is the case, I’m able to re-arrange the order of my build process this time, which is pretty exciting for me (ah, the little things)!
So, here’s where I’m starting things this time.
The Top Wood
We re-confirmed that this was the layout of the top wood that we wanted to use.
This isn’t the bookmatch line that the wood dealer intended, and in fact, it’s not really a bookmatch at all.
A bookmatch is when you slice open the wood and lay the 2 pieces side by side (like opening a book) and the wood matches up in the middle and kind of becomes a mirror image. This is how most two-piece guitar and bass tops are laid out.
Here are some examples of a couple I’ve done in the past:
But for this one, we like the way it looks with the darker lines in the middle and not having a perfect bookmatch. It looks more raw and we think it’s perfect for this build.
Joining the Two Halves
The next step was to make the two edges where they meet in the middle straight (jointing the wood) so they can actually butt up against each other. If you notice in the picture of the myrtle above, there is a wavy gap down the middle to start with.
For this step, I placed a shelf board that I know has a straight edge on top of the two pieces and lined it up. I clamped the shelf board down and used a top bearing bit on my router, with the bearing running against the shelf board. This makes the wood below the shelf match the shelf’s straight edge, in this case making a straight edge on the two pieces of myrtle.
After that, it needed just a little bit of sanding. I clamped a sanding beam (which has sandpaper double-stick-taped to it) down to the workbench and carefully slid the myrtle back and forth on the table against it. If you’re not careful, you’ll end up sanding a curve into the edge and you don’t want that to happen.
Next I did a test clamping where I laid out the wood how I wanted it and started clamping it up without glue to make sure that there was no gap and that I knew exactly where I wanted each clamp and caul.
Glue-ups can get pretty stressful (for me anyway), so it’s a good idea to do a dry run and take the pressure off. It’s also a good way to double check that your clamps are in good working condition, because trust me it’s never fun to find out that they’re not while there’s wood glue tacking up between your expensive wood layers.
Everything looked good, so I wiped any remaining sawdust off with a microfiber cloth, added glue to the join line, and clamped it back up.
It’s probably good to go after a couple hours, but I always just leave it clamped up until the next day (and therefore make sure that any gluing is the last step I do in a day).
Cutting and Planing the Glued-Up Top
The next day I took the clamps off and since I didn’t have the re-saw blade on the bandsaw I was able to just jump right into cutting out the body shape. I cut roughly ¼” outside of the line because I prefer to actually cut to the line once the body and top are glued together and reveal a nice (invisible) glue line.
After cutting out the rough shape, I ran it through the planer a few times top and bottom to clean up the glue line and make the two pieces perfectly level with each other. My planer has a spiral cutting head so it leaves a pretty smooth surface and doesn’t tear out the wood much, if at all. No sanding before this picture!
Apologies for the lack of step by step pictures, but I did get some short video clips, making it all look way too easy.
More updates coming soon. Stay tuned.
Next post: Making it semi-hollow
