Official Luthiers Forum!

No Secrets -Its a mess! Same as the lancelot-I try to do it outside if I can.

Me too

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

I am building one from the Benedetto book, luckily I have some friends to guide me. I bought an extra plan from Stewmac, which had extra dimensions that the book does not. I made all the jigs, a jig for clamping the sides in, a top and bottom. I shaped drilling holes then used a safety plane and small curved bottom plane, but in discussions with a maker he said he uses an angle grinder with Arbor-tech turbo plane. I then drilled the inside holes, bought the Turbo plane! I wish I did that before shaping the top! It took about 30 minutes to roughly shape the inside to 8mm, so I have about 2 mm to go. I have a set of profiles copied from the plan and book, and compared mine with a friend who has built 3. Some minor shaping in the waist to go.
Bending the quilted maple ribs is going to be a challenge, all who have done this say it's very tricky and will get some cracks.
I have also built a 335 copy but 20 mm thicker. I'll post a few pics when I can get some light on it.

I have always had more trouble bending curly maple than quilted maple.

No matter what you bend (with a few exceptions), bending the sharp cut-a-way takes the patience of a plaster saint......

Cyanoacralate (thin) is your friend when it comes to fixing the inevitable cracks.

The biggest help for me in bending the tight cutaway was going to double sides with a lower grade Maple on the inside. You can bend them together but each side is only about .050 or less so there is a lot less risk of cracks. I still get a little kink sometimes but have been able to sand it out and it is usually near the edges.

Super soft II first always.

My solid bending form is also the laminating form.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.