Article

Making a classical guitar top.

This article will show you the various methods I use to build the top of my classical guitars.

NOTE :Click on any picture to enlarge it.

The first step is to cut two thinner pieces out of a thicker board. In this case, I am using Sitka Spruce.

With a band saw, I slice two thin boards, from 4 to 5 mm thick (around 3/16 in.).

Then, on a planer, I reduce them to a thickness of approximately 3 mm.

The planer can be rough for such thin boards so I do the final thinning (down to about 2.5mm) on a drum sander (home made too!).

Here are the two boards, which will be glued together, bookmatched.

The thin faces to be glued need some preparation. They are placed in a special jig to hold them securely together. A level — with a sanding strip glued to one face — is used to sand the two edges delicately and make sure they are straight before gluing.

The two boards are then placed into another special jig designed to align, level and glue them properly.

Once the boards are bookmatched and glued together, the glue line becomes virtually invisible.

With a template, I will then cut the top to the final guitar shape on the band saw.

Here it is…

And here is the rosette that will be inset in the top, around the sound hole.

With a router and (yet another!) jig, I cut the channel where the rosette will be inlaid.

(NOTE: I forgot to take a picture with the real top so here’s one on a scrap piece.)

And here is the result.

Then, the rosette is glued in, using a go-bar deck.

The rosette glued in..

Once the rosette is glued, it still needs to be leveled with the top. I do this in a two-step process, first with a router and a jig to get as close as possible to the final level.

Then, I will do the final leveling with a scraper blade.

Once the rosette is leveled, I can proceed to cut out the sound hole.

Time then to make the braces. They are sawed out from the leftover of the board used for the top. The pieces are first rough cut on the band saw.

Then they are put through the planer to get the desired thickness.

On the inner face of the top, I will mark where the braces must be glued.

These marks also help me to cut the various braces to the right dimensions. Once cut to proper length, I will do their final shaping on a band sander.

The braces can then be glued to the top with the go-bar deck.

And here’s the final result!

I hope you enjoyed this presentation!