Archtop Electric Guitar by Chuck DeHart

Carved arched top and back electrified for R&B, Rock, Rockabilly, Jazz or whatever pleases you. Featuring three-piece top with bookmatched sitka spruce and curly maple center; spalted curyl red maple sides and back; three-piece neck with bookmatched mahogany and rosewood center; cocobolo bindings; bound f-holes, bound fingerboard and bookmatched curly maple faceplate. The modified Spanish footer neck system builds into the traditional forms found in Robert Benedetto's great book, "Making an Archtop Guitar."

Double humbuckers, with five-position switch, give the classic arched electric sound. Pull out the tone knob for electic overdrive with on-board, passive Black Ice device.

I have had a lot of great times with this guitar. I recently recrowned and polished the fretwork, plus complete clean up and new strings.

It should be played more and I would accept a reasonable offer.

Thanks and Enjoy, Chuck. April 2016 web page rewrite.(Email me here)

Carving and building a guitar like this is every Luthier's milestone. Playing it means exploring the variety of sounds, tones and feeling you can release. This was my number one guitar for over ten years, before DragonHart and Lady Sprite. Keep it mellow and jazzy or grab some feedback and crank up the electric edge.

Be sure to see the "Archtop Electric Links", below these photos, to older web pages including pictures of the interior and construction with narrative.

Some other links at the Hollow Road Guitar Shop, Chuck's Instrument Website:

In pics below, the plate for the five-position switch is hand made from nickel-silver and engraved by Chuck. Select either pickup or with single-coil cut. Join the single cuts with the middle position.

See how the three-piece top shines in the lower bout and note the bound f-holes for beauty and long life of the top. The modified Spanish footer neck system allows for more room for the hand in the cutaway area than the more common dovetail neck.

The spalted curly maple and cocobolo bindings are everything that fine woods should be.

Full length pictures of the front and back below.

Fret markers and face inlay hand made from recycled piano key ivory.

Finished with Tru-Oil gun stock varnish as described in this article by Chuck. Tru-Oil leaves a soft feeling compared to lacquers and will never crack.

Front and back of the head, below. The face plate was selected from book matched curly red maple using a mirror.

Below right, the three-piece headstock is cut from the neck stock and then re-attached with a skarf joint.

Below, sides and back made from spalted curly red maple, a wood local to Fulks Run, Virginia.

Below right, note how the three-piece neck is laid onto the sustain block to form the modified Spanish footer. The top of the sustain block is fitted to the underside of the top sound plate and runs to the tail piece to support the hardware. The mahogany block prevents excess feedback and includes cutouts to reduce weight. The back is not attached to it.

See the sustain block and all about the inside here. Be sure to browse pictures and construction narrative here.

Some great 2002 pics by Diane Elliott (taken for JMUniverse, an internal publication of James Madison University)