Building A Custom Guitar: Two Acoustic Guitar Tops

I’ve got a couple of new acoustic guitars on the go.

make an acoustic guitar

This is the top. I’ve just glued the x-brace into it. I carve the braces by hand once they’re glued in. I can’t shape them first, as I make them tall and thin, coming to an almost-point, so I wouldn’t have a surface to clamp.

So I glue in the x-brace and carve it before any other braces are in, as they would only get in the way. You can see in the picture the pencil lines where the other braces will go.

I carve a radius into the bottom of the braces before gluing them, which forces a slight dome into the top of the guitar. You can see from the picture that once the x-brace is in, there is a slight curve to the top.

The rosette and soundhole are cut before the top is braced. I love the look of a simple piece of timber with a rosette and soundhole cut into it. You know it’s a guitar, even though it’s just a big square of spruce with a hole in the middle.

This sitka spruce top is destined for a wenge dreadnought. I don’t cut the shape of the guitar out of the top until it’s completely braced. I make my tops about two thirds the thickness of a standard guitar top, so each one is very fragile until the braces are glued in. With the shape cut out, the upper and lower bout areas have quite a short grain. They can easily snap if they are handled roughly, so it’s kid gloves until the braces are in.