Thank you for your comment. I took a lot of contemplation before I settles on "The Pragmatic Luthier", but it became the obvious choice when I recognized that my lifestyle and my work arena and the same. And then there's the hype , chest beating and cork sniffing that seems all too common in guitar making and many other art and craft endeavors, almost al of which, I heartily disapprove of.
Kevin, I've got a customer that wants a guitar with eastern red cedar back, sides & neck. This looks like a good option to add strength and stability to an otherwise scary choice of woods! Maybe laminate in some Osage Orange & Hickory into the neck? I wonder how a slow curing epoxy would work for laminating? Messier yes but no moisture added (no puckering from moisture)?!?!? BTW Greenfield Guitars (Canada) uses laminated sides on some pretty high end / pricey instruments as well.
Great video as always! I have moved to a full height lining with the kerfed side towards the outside of the guitar so that the inside of the guitar just looks smooth. Very similar procedure to gluing it on and I really like how the braces appear to disappear into the sides rather than just the lining.
Kevin, Life will be easier if you pre-bend the laminates and glue your uprights to a pre-bent section of the masonite clamping cauls as Bogdanovich demonstrates in his book and videos. I make all my sides this way. it has the added advantage of eliminating the interior upright braces which really do no more that prevent a crack from spreading. I've never had a crack form to begin with in any of the guitar sides I've made this way.
Great vid Kevin !! Thanks for the instruction. Slap me for saying but it looked like you lammed this side with the cherry or maple on the inside and walnut as the outside show lam. it seems opposite to the first side you lammed. I would like to be wrong about this??
Hey Kevin. I'm with you on this. The sides are primarily structure, connecting the 'drum heads' of the back and top. The discussion doesn't end there but there are definitely some big advantages to lamming veneers to make up the rims, as you say. One of those is you can use the outer layer to get visually artistic and keep some symmetry to the look of the guitar. Btw that yellow backdrop of the new addition looks great on camera. Have a great week sir!
Thanks. Very useful information about the different thicknesses. I will use that info when kerf-bending my thick sides. I may also add some heat from a silicone electric blanket. Regarding laminating, I don't see a problem with it. The sides don't vibrate, and the higher the mass of the sides, the more the Chladni lines of the top move outward, creating more radiating area, and so a louder, more responsive guitar. As for glue, many professional veneering guys use a plastic resin, which, containing no water, will not warp the layers. One such glue I found is Unibond 800 available from vacupress.
Thanks for sharing this information! I've been wanting to try some laminated sides for a long while and this video will get me jump started. I like the idea of laminated sides. Should be more stable, less crack prone, stiffer and easier to control the final shape and enhance the sound too. Anyway that is what I would think.
I've used the method made by Bogdanovich, which consists of 5 layers of bended masonite which acts as a modular mould for the sides to glue. The advantage is that you don't have to make super precise block shaping and also you can use that method to build laminated sides in the style of Smallman or Jeremy Clark's constructed sides
I considered a center layer with the grain running perpendicular to the grain of the other two, but to do that, I would have to glue up a board that is essentially 4-5 inches long with the grained 34 inches wide across the grain. Hm; maybe I should explore that after all. i can see that it certainly has value, especially with respect to stability.
Great tutorial on cauls and clamping, however you've obviously missed the application of the glue. It would be nice to add a supplement of that process. Otherwise great video!
Curious (and maybe you addressed it) why you wouldn't just make a matching internal "male" piece to match your outer form? You could engineer holes for you to clamp to the outsides at an appropriate angle, and not have the individual cauls slipping around.
I do make spreaders for my outsides molds, but they will not serve this purpose. What you're suggesting could probably be done, but I have found that when a clamping caul gets too wide, it actually loses ability to put adequate pressure throughout it's entire surface.
I’ve had some trouble finding veneer sheet large enough for sides. I have used your technique on a violin that I made. Still haven’t finished it so I don’t know what it sounds like.
If you can drum sand your own components, I think you stand a better chance, especially because the outer veneer can be made a little thicker than standard veneer and you can produce it from anything you want, book matched as well.
I glue the entire surface of the layers and spread it with a brayer, but I don't flood the surface because it causes the layers to slip out of alignment.
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You're helping me get up the courage to start building guitars.
Love all your content, Kevin - you have named yourself very well!!
Thank you for your comment. I took a lot of contemplation before I settles on "The Pragmatic Luthier", but it became the obvious choice when I recognized that my lifestyle and my work arena and the same. And then there's the hype , chest beating and cork sniffing that seems all too common in guitar making and many other art and craft endeavors, almost al of which, I heartily disapprove of.
Kevin, I've got a customer that wants a guitar with eastern red cedar back, sides & neck. This looks like a good option to add strength and stability to an otherwise scary choice of woods! Maybe laminate in some Osage Orange & Hickory into the neck? I wonder how a slow curing epoxy would work for laminating? Messier yes but no moisture added (no puckering from moisture)?!?!? BTW Greenfield Guitars (Canada) uses laminated sides on some pretty high end / pricey instruments as well.
Great video as always!
I have moved to a full height lining with the kerfed side towards the outside of the guitar so that the inside of the guitar just looks smooth. Very similar procedure to gluing it on and I really like how the braces appear to disappear into the sides rather than just the lining.
Kevin, Life will be easier if you pre-bend the laminates and glue your uprights to a pre-bent section of the masonite clamping cauls as Bogdanovich demonstrates in his book and videos. I make all my sides this way. it has the added advantage of eliminating the interior upright braces which really do no more that prevent a crack from spreading. I've never had a crack form to begin with in any of the guitar sides I've made this way.
Great vid Kevin !! Thanks for the instruction. Slap me for saying but it looked like you lammed this side with the cherry or maple on the inside and walnut as the outside show lam. it seems opposite to the first side you lammed. I would like to be wrong about this??
Hey Kevin. I'm with you on this. The sides are primarily structure, connecting the 'drum heads' of the back and top. The discussion doesn't end there but there are definitely some big advantages to lamming veneers to make up the rims, as you say. One of those is you can use the outer layer to get visually artistic and keep some symmetry to the look of the guitar. Btw that yellow backdrop of the new addition looks great on camera. Have a great week sir!
Thanks. Very useful information about the different thicknesses. I will use that info when kerf-bending my thick sides. I may also add some heat from a silicone electric blanket.
Regarding laminating, I don't see a problem with it. The sides don't vibrate, and the higher the mass of the sides, the more the Chladni lines of the top move outward, creating more radiating area, and so a louder, more responsive guitar.
As for glue, many professional veneering guys use a plastic resin, which, containing no water, will not warp the layers. One such glue I found is Unibond 800 available from vacupress.
Thanks for sharing this information! I've been wanting to try some laminated sides for a long while and this video will get me jump started. I like the idea of laminated sides. Should be more stable, less crack prone, stiffer and easier to control the final shape and enhance the sound too. Anyway that is what I would think.
I've used the method made by Bogdanovich, which consists of 5 layers of bended masonite which acts as a modular mould for the sides to glue. The advantage is that you don't have to make super precise block shaping and also you can use that method to build laminated sides in the style of Smallman or Jeremy Clark's constructed sides
I considered a center layer with the grain running perpendicular to the grain of the other two, but to do that, I would have to glue up a board that is essentially 4-5 inches long with the grained 34 inches wide across the grain. Hm; maybe I should explore that after all. i can see that it certainly has value, especially with respect to stability.
Thank you!
You're welcome!
Great tutorial on cauls and clamping, however you've obviously missed the application of the glue. It would be nice to add a supplement of that process. Otherwise great video!
Yes Iam very Impressed with that Kevin, Thanks for the demo' & sharing :))
Very interesting. I gotta try this. Thanks for sharing, Kevin.
Curious (and maybe you addressed it) why you wouldn't just make a matching internal "male" piece to match your outer form? You could engineer holes for you to clamp to the outsides at an appropriate angle, and not have the individual cauls slipping around.
I do make spreaders for my outsides molds, but they will not serve this purpose. What you're suggesting could probably be done, but I have found that when a clamping caul gets too wide, it actually loses ability to put adequate pressure throughout it's entire surface.
Thanks for this video. I’m curious about how you got the sides down to the target thickness? Did you start by milling from a board and then drum sand?
I produce all of my own parts, resewing from billets, then drum sanding this parts to dimension.
Hi Kevin
Do you think this would be a successful technique for use on a Venetian cutaway guitar? Or only a
Florentine style?
If you can develop the cauls to clamp the layers, i would think it would be far superior to a solid bent piece, with less frustration.
I’ve had some trouble finding veneer sheet large enough for sides. I have used your technique on a violin that I made. Still haven’t finished it so I don’t know what it sounds like.
If you can drum sand your own components, I think you stand a better chance, especially because the outer veneer can be made a little thicker than standard veneer and you can produce it from anything you want, book matched as well.
Did you add the glue? I did not see any squeeze out.
I glue the entire surface of the layers and spread it with a brayer, but I don't flood the surface because it causes the layers to slip out of alignment.
Nice! Mahogany inside like a German Steinway.?.
Please stop wiggling the camera around. I get nauseous watching and can't watch the whole video.
I'll speak to my camera crew.