Building an Archtop Guitar (Complete)

Updated version! Includes everything from the first video but has all the steps I've taken since uploading that one.
williamottoehs...
My website for more stuff!

[@chuckfcarr]

Your headstock is so damn gorgeous. And the volute!!

[@baldeep119]

agreed!! Well done, Will.

[@XLBiker13]

Wow, while you would assume the amount of work involved is considerable this video really puts that into perspective (and its time-elapsed!). Such a remarkable time commitment when it comes to doing this right. LOVED watching this. Your craftsmanship and handiwork are exceptional. What and amazing and gratifying process. Thanks.

[@evilcowboy]

Yeah I agree, hand carving of the arch top and then sawing out the F holes by hand. My God, this has to be about 5 times harder than a solid body guitar.

[@melvyntan1273]

Thank you so much for the video. The backing track is awesome! It fits the video so well! Please keep making videos!!!!

[@geebee3d]

Excellent work and wonderful craftsmanship. It's nice to see people still doing things with hand tools, as opposed to CNC machines and the like. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but I would hope that some of us will be able to show our children and grand children the old ways of doing things, just because. One quick tip for you, if you get to build another one, as well as for anyone viewing this who is thinking about building an archtop. When carving the top and back, carve the concave interior contours first. The exterior remains flat and it's easy to hold your work piece to the table. When you flip it over to carve the exterior contours, it is still relatively easy to hold the piece to the table. I've done some A style mandolins that way and found that it works really well and results in lots of stability for carving the top.

[@willehster]

Hey thanks so much for the feedback! And I appreciate the tip too it’s always important to learn how other people work. In this case though, I’m not sure it would work better to switch the steps. The spruce I used to carve the arch from were wedge shaped when I got it, so the center was thicker than the edges. I would’ve had to establish a flat along the bottom as reference and then flip it over and try to balance it on that thick center seam. What I did was instead was cut out a small support ring that the outside edge of the arch rested on. Then when it’s resting facedown, the arch itself was still up off the work table and it was all still held flat. I even put some wood shavings underneath it to help support the arching as I carved the interior. Still appreciate it though! You’ve given me a bit of new info to consider when it comes to archtop carving!

[@Haassan1]

I came here because I wanted to know how an archtop is made, but I actually knew it all along: a lot of fucking work.

[@demotester3095]

Great video! The speed is perfect to see details but not beeing bored.

[@CMRWoodworks]

Awesome build!

[@jonathanoakey4745]

Thanks for publishing the video, it was very interesting. I've recently started building electric guitars and had been wondering how an archtop is made!

[@ericrose3877]

Will, Of course, the sense of satisfaction you must get, easily transcends the CNC programmable archtops that certain makers use. The only question I have concerns the discussion of 2 or 3 piece laminate tops versus the single, or book matched top we see here. That is: the possible cracking or warping of a single/double guitar is more likely when a player takes an instrument like yours to areas of different humidity, dryness,altitude etc. subjected to it, causing changes to it, unless measures are taken to ensure it from unwanted changes in these lovely guitars. I haven't read the other remarks below yet. Can your tell your audience what preventative measures should be taken to protect your instruments,other than keeping it in a humidity/temperature controlled room, for it's preservation? It may be on your website. Many thanks for an absolutely astounding show of craftsmanship.

[@critstixdarkspear5375]

Thumbnail for this is amazing. Until I read the title and noticed you were checking the profile I thought you had collapsed on the bench and given up on life😂

[@willehster]

my video editing skills are too good. all the mental breakdowns are off camera XD

[@billgarbus4027]

awesome video! thanks for sharing it! good luck with your career!

[@GuitaraddictsWorkshop]

I'd love to try building an arch top some day!

[@thedancingpostman]

Very cool, that's a beautiful guitar.

[@usuariodelgoogle]

You're a pro. Thanks for sharing. What is the name of the long gouge you use? Do you recommend any brand?

[@lucianotartaglia4099]

Great, smooth work! Congrats! I don't like volute and headstock design, but is my only taste. Awesome work! 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

[@jazzizgreat]

Nice job, what make and model of guitar is this?

[@mikaylaboo1]

Very nice...definitely a labor of love.

[@marcosrobertsonofficial]

Good job!

[@bentoa166]

Great work. Thanks for sharing. Can ask why you decided to hand carve the top but CNC the back?

[@willehster]

i was at a school so they wanted us to get a grasp of multiple methods

[@hadleymanmusic]

The fuzz guitar or baritone sounds good.

[@markstaggs7342]

How much does these amazing things cost I love this guitar

[@willehster]

much appreciated but this guy was just a one-off. i built it while attending a luthier school in minnesota. since it’s one of my first guitars, i wont be selling it. too much sentimental value and faaar too many mistakes.

[@madferret2045]

@@willehster But if you were to put a price on your work, how much would you ask? Just out of curiosity.

[@willehster]

honestly i have no idea. raw materials ran about 7-800$ for everything and it probably took about 200 hours to build. again tho: it was all done in a school program and it was all a learning process as i went through it so that time frame isn’t accurate.

[@klaytontrujillo8428]

This is really cool. Your guitar looks beautiful. I'm just starting my second year at the same school. Any chance you remember the name of the piece in the background? I really liked it.

[@mikaylaboo1]

Where is your shop? I would love to come and visit your operation. You are definitely a professional Luthier.

[@willehster]

Haji al Kidya I actually don't have a shop yet. I just earned my degree in lutherie from a tech school in Minnesota. This is one of the archtops I built in class this year.

[@merlynschutterle7242]

@@willehster My home state! Take that Nashville.

[@lepistanuda]

the music you made was surprisingly nice. i imagine you'd like Sun Kil Moon, Richard Dawson and Robbie Basho

[@willehster]

Jep Hep as much as I wish I could take credit for the music I cant! It was some royalty free tunes that KZbin provided for me! I’ll try and find the artist when I’m not on mobile

[@ZootaAndrewMahera]

That's lots of hard work,no wonder its so expensive

[@themusiccovenant]

I want an all acoustic archtop guitar. That sounds like a L5 or Emperor. Do you have any for sale immediately? Price with delivery to dubai?

[@willehster]

I don’t have any for sale at the moment and won’t have a shop of my own to make and sell them for quite some time.

[@ClarkeGuitars]

Beautiful work - can I ask what the music being played is please?

[@willehster]

Honestly I have no idea. I googled royalty free music and picked the first album that happened to be the right length for the video. Also it just so happened to be acoustic guitar. Unfortunately the computer I edited this on has since crashed so I have no better answer for you

[@foolshorn]

nice work. what thickness do all the top,back and side components have?

[@willehster]

they’re not sized to dimensions really. every piece of wood is different so you have to size them according to the density, the stiffness, the tap tune (tapping and listening to it resonate), and a myriad of other requirements

[@jamesrichardfield-mitchell4447]

So where do you get dimensions from? Pick up hole sizes etc.

[@willehster]

www.stewmac.com/How-To/Blueprints_and_Plans/Benedetto_Archtop_Plans.html

[@jazzman1954]

Why have a flat top playing background music?

[@willehster]

cuz it was royalty free and not the focus of the video.

[@wholesalemonkeyfarm]

Beautiful work! I have a naive question... Aside from subjective reasons like "tradition" & "craftmanship" is there any reason not to use a CNC router for the archtop shaping portion? It appears that you're using something like a profile guide so the shape seems to be the primary consideration when carving (i.e. I don't see anything acoustic related in the process). Thus it seems you could design the profile in CAD and then just let a CNC router run it for the bulk carve then hand finish...

[@willehster]

wholesalemonkeyfarm Not a naive question at all! I enjoyed the process of hand carving the top so much. You're right I did use a profile guide to lay out a general shape and that could be done on a CNC. In fact that's exactly what I did for the back in this video. We drew out the arch in CAD and used the CNC to get a rough shape, but it's not carved to the final thickness. That can't be done by the CNC. One of the parts that I didn't show in this video was voicing, where you measure the thicknesses around the arch and dial it all in within .001-.002". Then you tap the wood, listen to it resonate, flex it see how it feels with the grain and then across the grain, remove wood in incredibly specific areas to bring out a nice resonant tone in the wood itself. That's a lotta shit to do. And the videos 15 min long already. There were a lot of things glossed over in this video. Like the drawing that was done in CAD. Took me half a semester of learning our CAD programs basics just to barely be able to draw up an archtop toolpath and get 1 back cut out to within 1/16" of its final thickness. All the time I spent drawing up the program for the CNC could've been spent having a blast with a sharp plane and a big gouge. It really depends how many you plan to make. The more you're doing, the more worth it the CAD work becomes. Personally, though, I enjoy the woodwork a whole lot more.

[@TimVeilleux]

Which school were you attending? Great work!

[@willehster]

there’s a lutherie program in Red Wing, Minnesota that i attended!

[@benmcdonnell4167]

Is the archtop flat on the inside?

[@willehster]

Nope! The Interior is hollowed out to match the curves of the exterior

[@frontbum420]

looks like a lot of work

[@martinlouden9005]

Beautiful, but disappointed to see the cnc machine making the back!

[@shecky308]

where are you,do you have a school...????

[@BrianJuntunen]

Why do you start out with such thick pieces?

[@willehster]

You need about an inch thickness to carve out the arching.

[@mikaylaboo1]

Will, are you using spruce?

[@willehster]

Haji al Kidya I am using spruce for the top. The back, sides and neck are all maple and then the rest of it is ebony.

[@tedrowland7800]

I expected so much more.

[@Compressthis]

Like purely for the white sox shirt. Jk good job

[@vaclavhanusekv1717]

C sharp major :(

[@fugalibrana]

15:07 Everything was fine until CNC appears and every handwork go to hell.

[@willehster]

So because I used a CNC on one single part of the build, all of the rest of my work doesn’t count? that’s an incredibly close-minded sentiment. Did you miss the part where the CNC only rough cut the arching? and i used finger planes and scrapers and hand tools to finalize the dimensions and voice the back? don’t really recall how well i showed that part but i thought i included it... I for sure didn’t include the hours and hours and hours i spent just getting proficient enough in 3d modeling software to be able to draw that back on the computer and plan the toolpaths and build the fixtures for the cnc and go through trial after trial after trial until it was finally ready to cut out the back i wanted. and not even to mention that i was doing all of this in a school, where the goal was to teach us a little bit about multiple different processes. there are countless ways to build a guitar, not one of them is right or wrong. the result is what matters. like it or not, a CNC is an incredibly valuable tool for any craftsperson. there’s no shame in using one to rough out material. planning everything on the CNC takes an incredible amount of knowledge and experience but the actual act of removing the raw stock doesn’t require intimate knowledge of the individual cut of wood or it’s correspondence with the rest of the guitar. basically? a CNC saves your hands and joints on wear and tear so you can continue enjoying the work for even longer. if you choose to be a traditionalist and keep things old school, that’s awesome. all the power to you. but don’t gatekeep others who are trying to learn viable processes.

[@markstaggs7342]

Some people are just plain old stupid this is a work of art

[@xldsyt]

And great chefs cook only over burning logs.

[@ZootaAndrewMahera]

The ending was anticlimactic

[@willehster]

welcome to life

[@ZootaAndrewMahera]

@@willehster you have great skills but i was hoping someone playing the guitar at the end :-(

[@willehster]

haha sorry i was just making a bad joke. check out my channel! i’ve got another video of this guitar and it’s sister being played by professional flatpickers Chris Silver and Mike Cramer