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#1
01-01-2013, 07:35 PM
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Help!
So I started building a classical guitar with maple back and sides but I must have thinned out the sides to much and there starting to cave in a little and didn't even think to brace the sides. So is there a way for me to put braces on the sides now that the top and back are on?
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#2
01-01-2013, 07:48 PM
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I think you'll get the most helpful response if you post this question in the "Build & Repair" subforum.
__________________
Simple music is the hardest music to play and blues is simple music. - Albert Collins
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#3
01-02-2013, 10:14 AM
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anything is possible. if you can't take the back off, you might try some magnets to help position and set your braces in place but this'll be a "hope it works" kinda fix. i'd imagine it would be very tedious and frustrating.
were it mine i'd take the back off.
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#4
01-02-2013, 10:44 AM
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As arie said, of course anything is possible.if magnets are not strong enough to clamp, which they probably are not, then you may be able to use a bar sort of like a go bar. But since your sides are fragile dont just go bar to the opposite side but rather set up appropriate cauls.
Just take your time and practice with many dry runs first. You can buy some powerful magnets from stew mac and you can embed them in wood cauls and they make great clamping tools a and or at least a good tool for alignment.
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#5
01-02-2013, 02:32 PM
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Sounds like you have a pretty serious problem. It will be next to impossible to add braces to the sides now that the top & back are on. Not sure what to tell you. If the sides are any thinner than about 2.2mm, then you definitely made them too thin and the guitar won't hold up for very long. Sorry
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#6
01-02-2013, 04:31 PM
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There are a few options that come to mind.
The first question is whether or not the sides are so curved along their width that they need to flattened while having reinforcements glued to them. If not, You could use hide or fish glue without the need to clamp them. Just apply glue, press into place, leave to dry. Another idea that occurs to me is to use CA glue and just press and hold the reinforcement in place until the glue sets, even if pressure is required to flatten the side. In hard to reach areas, you may need some sort of extension to reach - a stick, pencil... If the sides do need to be clamped flat while a flat reinforcement is glued to them, one approach is to apply controlled pressure from the inside out. One possible option is to make a simple device that will clamp onto a back brace, but allow a threaded rod to extend from it to apply pressure to the sides and reinforcement. Typically, one counters that with a clamp across the outside of the guitar. Another option could be a line of tennis balls on one or more rods that would allow some "spring" to provide clamping force. The "go bar" - thin stick bent into a space too small - has been mentioned. That would work with clamps strategically placed across the outside of the sides to prevent the force of the bars deforming (or cracking) the sides. An old fashioned approach might be to drill a very small hole through the side and reinforcement. Pass a small diameter guitar string through the holes to a backing/caul and use a guitar's geared tuning machine to wind up the string and pull the caul/reinforcement/side together while clamping. When finished, the small hole(s) in the sides, being only .010 or so in diameter are easily invisibly repaired. This was a method of fixing/gluing cracks and reinforcements that was semi-popular in the 1980's or so. You could also create a variation of it that used a rubber ball or tennis ball, instead of the tuning gear. Those are a few ideas. It's just a question of being creative.
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#7
01-02-2013, 04:34 PM
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Quote:
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