Fulks Run, Virginia: Where the river is clean and there's chicken on the que!

The Semi-Hollow Arch Top Electric: Under Construction

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Design begin: February 1998

Status Spring 2000: Hope to get this baby boxed up and ready for electronics before the summer humidity sets in!

Primary materials: Sitka Spruce top with center wedge of curly red maple. Curly spalted red maple sides and back.  Three piece neck, mahogany sandwiching East Indian rosewood, integrated with mahogany sustain block. Cocobolo bindings.

What's Unique About this Design: In simplest terms, a modified Spanish footer integrated with the sustain block to create a thru neck-sustain block system.  Hopefully, pictures will tell a thousand words.  For the guitarist first understand this, the neck is not dovetailed or bolted to a footer block. Next understand that a "sustain block" running through the center of the "box" is commonly used in semi-hollow electric design to help firm the soundboard to reduce or eliminate feedback.  In my design, the neck is glued on top of the sustain block and carved at the footer to accept the sides as described below. The neck wood is continuous from the scarf joint at the head to just behind the mounting area for the string stop piece.  The footer is carved with a slot on one side to accept the bass-half of the sides and a "ledge" on the treble side to accept the treble-half of the sides. This design makes a little extra room for your left hand under the area of the fretboard beyond the 14th fret. 

Future pics will reveal a "thousand words" about this design.  For now, some pics of early construction stages. Sorry, I wish I had a camera as sharp as my #5 Record Plane.  You should at least be able to understand the "essence" of this instrument:

Sequence: Molds and jigs:

• Sides and primary mold system. Features include upper half that detaches from the base in order to use the base as a holding cradle for carving the top and back. Base is two layers of particle board thick, with cutout in the center to allow for top or back to lay face first while carving out inside of top or back. Notice the ledge upon which the sides rest.  Plus, left/right side removable cutaway supports for cradle so that it may support both the top or the back for carving.  Threaded rods and spool clamps will probably be added to the mold for clamping the sides to the top (facedown)...and then clamping the back to the sides.
• The top half of the mold removed with sides intact. Thus, allowing the bottom half of the mold to be used as a carving cradle. Thermometer and hydrometer accompany the storage area.
• A mold to help shape purflings for the f-holes. F-hole template at top.

Sequence: Carving the arched back:  

• The back blank is made from 1" bookmatched halves of highly figured, spalted, curly, red maple.
• Arching templates from the Benedetto book were used to map contour lines (see picture of top with mapping).
• Before drilling a gazillion holes. The router was used to cut the depth along the outside edges of the back.
• The drill press was used to drill a gazillion holes to specific depths within each set of contour lines:
•  Back and faceplate. Spalted curly red maple I purchased through a friend locally (Rockingham County, Shenandoah Valley, Virginia). I got wood for two more like this!
• After some time spent chiseling and planing away the gazillion holes, only the bottoms of those holes along the contour lines remained. Getting close. Notice that the holding cradle is the lower half of the mold system for the sides mentioned above.
• The exterior of the back is carved and moved to a holding board so the top can be held in the holding cradle.  Ooops! Tape in the cutaway reinforces a crack that developed and that will be reinforced later from the interior, maybe to be seen by only the most nitpicky craftspersons (like me and the guys I learned from)! Focus your attention rather to the beauty and wild patterns starting to show in this highly figured piece.

Sequence: Making the carved arched top: 

• Contour lines were mapped to the top using the arching templates from the Benedetto book..
• Having gained great confidence in the hole drilling technique, a lot of time was saved in carving the top by first drilling only one set of holes along each contour line. No holes were drilled in the area between the lines. Then, between drilling each set of contour lines, the router was used to cut the contour shelf to depth. 
• Six ledges at 1/8 inch increments result. Note in the area of the cutaway two wood screws holding the removable support for the cutaway area. For carving the back, this piece will be removed and a symmetric match installed on the other side.
• Violin and palm planes are the main tools used to produce final contours. The bottom of the holes makes an excellent reference point in the planing process. Use a steel bit and watch the hole decrease in diameter as you approach the bottom of the hole.  Note the curly maple centerpiece sandwiched between Sitka Spruce.
• Very critical for this design is accurate planing of that area of the top upon which the end of the fingerboard will rest (from 14th to 21st frets).  As the top will be "inlaid" onto the top of the neck-sustain block, the slope of the top under the fingerboard must be as close as possible to the same angle of the neck.  To help we use some basic geometry. The sustain block with wedge cutoff to later accept the neck, is inverted and used as a guide to help finish plane the top. 
• A depth stop jig is used to drill holes to consistent thickness in order to begin carving the inside of the top.  Another helpful hint from the Benedetto book.
• Strapping tape is used to hold binding strips for gluing into the f-hole.
• Top is now ready to cut out holes for control knobs, jack, and 5-position switch.

Sequence: Neck-sustain block

• Neck and faceplate (not attached). Note the three piece neck, two 1/8" by 3/8" epoxy graphite reinforcement rods, and custom selected bookmatched curly maple faceplate. A scarf joint attaches the head to the main length of the neck. A mirror was used to select a pattern in a piece of curly maple that would yield an interesting bookmatched figure for the faceplate. The faceplate is not attached yet. 
• The sustain block begins with a block of wood roughly the length of the body.  A wedge is cut from the top of the block at about a 4 degree angle to accept the neck.  The joiner is a big help making a square block.
• After gluing the neck onto the block, the neck-block system is fitted into the sides. This is what I call the "modified Spanish footer" for those of you familiar with classical guitar construction.  A slot accepts the bass side and a ledge accepts the treble/cutaway side.
• Next, the top of the system is carved to match the underside of the top. 
• "Wings" are added to the block to widen the areas where hardware (pickups, bridge, stop piece) will be mounted through the top.
• The neck and sustain block now carved to match and accept the underside of the top.  Soundholes cut to help reduce weight.  I expect these holes will also affect sound in some unknown, but hopefully positive way!  Yes, this is experimental and I love it! 

Archtop Electric Links

• Archtop Electric
• Inside the Archtop Electric
• Archtop Electric Construction Notes and Pictures.

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

• Back to Chuck's Home Page
• Introducing Lady Sprite (January 2015)
• Meet DragonHart (May 2013)
• Electric Archtop (Semi-hollow electric, 2000)
• Octave Mandolin (Spring 1992).
• Steel String Cutaway with Custom Rosette (Spring 1985).
• Mando Uno: Mandolins (Feb 1983).
• Classical Guitar: Rosewood with Heart Rosette (Summer 1982).
• Classical Guitar, Walnut, Chuck's First Guitar (Summer 1981).
• Appalachian Dulcimer (Spring 1981).
• A few things in this old page not included above: rosettes, tools and finishing.