Brian's Guitar from Conception to Birth or How to Build a Guitar in 62 Easy Steps!
35 Carve the Top
Flat-fronted guitars are absolutely acceptable (ask any Stratocaster player). But carved tops are much more visually exciting (ask any Les Paul player). Honestly, would you rather play with an A-cup or a Double-D? There are various methods in achieving the final product, and after some internet research, we chose to use the angle grinder technique. It’s pretty aggressive, but if you have a steady hand and an eye for visualizing things, you should fare well. If you’re not that confident, you can use a violin maker’s finger-plane. It’s much slower going, but it will lend more control. If you haven’t done this before, like me, practice first. Our quilted maple top cost about $100 for the one piece of wood. This (less than beautiful) practice mock-up was made from a $6 piece of poplar. Get familiar with the technique before you go butchering up the real thing. Since we still had all of our templates, it only took a couple of hours to put together the inexpensive replica. Install a 40 grit flap sanding disk into an angle grinder. The idea is to use steady pressure and long flowing strokes. In the second photo above, you can see the somewhat uniform paths the grinder takes. This is the steady hand and visualization part. An angle grinder spins at about 10,000 rpm’s; there will be sawdust flying everywhere. Protective eyewear is a must and a dust mask is highly recommended. The grinder takes off a lot of material quickly, so concentrate on your work, take frequent breaks, and don’t sneeze while grinding. Complete the entire mock-up so you get a feel for the differing angles of the guitar front and how to hold and move the tool.
Once you think you’re ready for the real deal, lay out the limits of your carving using a pencil and a ruler. This is not an exact science, a rough sketch is all you need to keep you on track. Our guitar has placement dowels located in the underside of the top. If yours has the same, be mindful you don’t carve that area exposing the dowels. During our trial run, we found that it was difficult to keep the side edge a consistent height. To address that issue, we rabbeted the edge with a 1/2" diameter bit with a 3/8" diameter bearing. This gave us a 1/16" ledge of a consistent height around the guitar. While grinding, you just have to concentrate on coming right up to and just short of that ridge, and then stop. Our trial run also told us not to wrap the rabbet around the horns of the guitar. It is very difficult to grind inside the horn. The sanding disk is almost perpendicular to the wood so you can’t mind the ledge very well. We drew the offset on the horn in pencil and will tidy it up later by hand.
Firmly clamp the top body panel to your workbench. I found a scrap of 1x material underneath would keep me from grinding my workbench accidentally. The edges of the guitar are somewhat concave. Start on the edge with your long, flowing strokes. Don’t work too much in one area; reposition your work frequently to slowly creep up on the overall final shape. Remember to stop just short of your routed ridge. The center of the guitar is convex. Use a random orbit sander load up with some 60 grit to make that transition. Don’t carve the center area where your pickup bezels were drawn on; that area should remain flat. Take off the last little bit of wood around the edge by hand with 60 grit sandpaper. Finish things up by going over the whole top with the orbital sander and some 60 grit to remove any burn marks, then with some 100 grit to smooth things out. We’ll save the final sanding for later. Be patient and you will be rewarded with a curvaceous top that will send your flat-chested girlfriend home weeping with jealousy.