Glue It, Carve It, Sand it, & Forget it!

We have arrived at the point of gluing the back braces followed by carving the braces and then sanding them to perfection before you forget it and move on.
This is one of the fun parts of building an acoustic guitar which I always look forward to doing. I take my time because I enjoy this so much and it helps to give the back of the guitar a good response that some will tune to a specific musical note.
This channel provides free lessons on building acoustic and electric guitars. In addition, we will feature videos relating to guitar maintenance, repair, and the development of jigs.
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[@hoytbasses]

Hi Monty: I really enjoy your videos. Were you a teacher in a former life? You certainly are good at sharing the ‘how to’s ‘ in addition to the ‘why’s….. (I’m a retired woodworking/guitar building teacher and counselor, so I can usually spot another teacher a mile away :-))
I thought I might share a couple things I do slightly differently when carving the braces: 1: I rough in the brace profile prior to gluing. Essentially i get that nice gothic arch shape using a very simple jig I clamp into the vice and mostly use my little lie nielsen violin makers plane to do the shaping. So when the brace is glued, the amount I have to chisel while glued up is far less. I do the x braces and transverse tone bars as well. So after the plates come out of the go bars, I’m just refining the braces to their final shape, and on the top, I’m much closer to voicing the braces than if I started with rectangular stock. And 2: because I’ve been accused many times of being a world class klutz, my dedicated brace shaving chisel is a 35mm wide chisel that I have ground the corners to about a 1/16” radius and polished so the corner of the chisel can’t gouge into the top. It certainly has decreased the amount of old sailor words I’ve used when digging into the soft top by mistake. Carry on and I look forward to your next video.

[@MontyMcKinnon]

Guilty as charged. I did teach for 10 years and out of a staff of 140 I was the only one allowed in the wood working shop unsupervised and I never got into any trouble. Lol I like your ideas of shaping the races before putting them on. I didn't do that because of the gold bars that I use are 3/16 of an inch in diameter and they would have a hard time staying put, and I have been considering a Jigs, which I think I may be able to use with the router table in order to make these along with a fix to be able to accommodate using the same kite rods as gold Bars, with a little attachment on the braces. Your comment about the chisel in the corners is excellent. I certainly do that with my scraper when I'm going to remove a neck or something of this nature and I didn't do it with this set of chisels, because they were expensive, and I just couldn't bring myself to rounding the corners. But that's certainly is an excellent solution. Thank you for the suggestion. .

[@hoytbasses]

Aha…gotcha! My go bars are the 1/2” wide stewmac bars, which work fine for my little trick, but I can see that being harder to do with narrower bars. And my brace chisel is a pretty ancient Marples I bought in the late 70’s. Once I could afford some good chisels and after gouging too manyguitar tops off to the grinder I went..
I laughed out loud reading about gettingroyal dispensation to go into the wood shop. For most of my career I was a therapist with troubled kids/families. The first 10 years at the high school I was the school social worker. I’d duck into theshop to get a lungful of sawdust when I needed a break. When the shop teacher was getting ready to retire, I applied for and got his job( the principal had seen instruments I built. The only proviso was I wanted to teach guitar building….so the last years of my career were just a blast!

[@JohnandCaraRetiredTravellers]

Whoa fast Mr. Monty! Great editing! I really like the jig with the braces might be my favorite one! I cringed watching you shave down the braces 😂!
Love the intro song we used that in our Nashville video.
Another great job! ~Cara ❤

[@MontyMcKinnon]

Wow, thanks! Any new vids in the works?

[@MichaelBuilds]

That was some fast work in the beginning there lol. I’m reading that book as we speak and I LOVE IT so far! 😊

[@MontyMcKinnon]

Faster than a speeding bullet. Lol

[@mcconkeyb]

😃

[@tomalexiou9573]

Hello Monty, please tell me: can you make the go bars for gluing the top and back bracing or do you buy them from Stewmac or another supplier? Thank you for another great video here on TH-cam.Your enthusiasm for all things guitar building is inspiring!

[@MontyMcKinnon]

Yes I can. Thet are actually "kite" rods. I don't see the company listed in my suppliers. Strange I do believe the word wind in is the name. They are fiberglass and work well. I'll look tomorrow so email me at [e-mail] and I'll try to find it in the morning for you.

[@vperalta]

Monty, the round device used to brace the back; is that something you made or is that a purchased product? Also what is it called? Thanks from North Carolina - Vic

[@MontyMcKinnon]

It was made but there are several companies who sell radius dishes. The back is a 18foot radius.

[@user-mg4uz1xy9p]

Hello, can you share the name of the background music at the beginning of your video? Thanks

[@MontyMcKinnon]

Catch Up - Dan Lebowitz I think this was it. Found it in the YT audio library. Let me know if this is the one.