I made all the hardware yesterday and today and just strung up the 7 string i am making for Stan. YES! Building an archtop is a long and winding road but the trip is almost done for this bad boy. Sounds and plays cool so far, I’ll spend the next week or two tweaking and adjusting things. Still plenty of details to tend to on this one, but the bulk of the work is done. The first pics show how i make a pickup ring for the archtop. I have my arches rendered very accurately in the computer, and i can machine the bottom of the ring to fit the top perfectly. I even can slant it slightly so the top of the pickup is perfectly parallel with the string. Its made from flame maple that I stain black to match the ebony hardware, and is topped off with a coat of satin lacquer to seal. The tailpiece is done the same way.
Pics below that are the guitar all assembled, now time to play this thing all weekend!
