Archtop Guitars
Building an Archtop Guitar was my anniversary project, just something I always wanted to do but never got to. But now I'm hooked, on the building process, the esthetics and shape of them and yes, the sound of the amplified guitar. So I'll just have to keep on building them, but in my usual way that might be one or two a year…
Since I used Bob Benedetto's book to guide me, and I've also used the standard shape of the traditional Archtop guitar. Of course being a designer at heart I did have to tweak the shape and appearance just a little bit, like slimming down the bulbous -S- of the cutaway and giving it my own headstock. I also reduced the size to 16 3/16 across the lower bout. I used Macassar ebony bindings because I think they work better than plastic ones, they also look very elegant in dark contrast with the blond maple and spruce. In keeping with this simple elegance, I left the fingerboard unadorned. The tailpiece is sculptured in ebony and attached solidly to the body by a brass bracket. All the other fittings are also in ebony. The floating pick-up is a handmade Kent Armstrong with adjustable pole-pieces. Volume and tone control pots are the wheel type and fitted underneath the ebony finger rest.
Specifications and Dimensions