Thanks Dave and Hanns!
I'm a convert! It's amazing how much the flying buttress stiffens the guitar, you can just feel the stiffness when you handle it, I'm a believer!
Like you said Dave, it really is a no brainer, to transfer the string tension to the rim, such a great solution. I first became aware of the need for this on my long scale 12 str. When I would change from standard tuning to open G or D, I would retune the strings that change and then have to retune all the strings because of the tension change. Which tells me that the neck/body relationship was moving, and retuning all 12 strings, often more than once because of the tension changes is indeed a real pain. And my 12 has two cf bars and a hotrod trussrod in the neck, so the movement must be happening in the body.
Now the FB probably wasn't necessary on this little parlor, but it was a good place to get my feet wet.
The lower bout on this one is 13 1/4" Hanns.
I think I mentioned that I was going to try to get the back and top glued on here without removing the dovetail neck since it was tight. And as you can imagine getting all the angles right was a little tricky. So I had it going good with the top on and the flying buttress in place, neck line-up was good and angle was good. In fitting the old back into place I notice that the waist has spread a bit in the rims and the old back doesn't quite fit. So I wedge in a shim on each side between the temporary form and the side and pinch it in so the back covers nicely and glue and clamp it on.
As you can see, that sucker ain't getting away!
The next morning I unclamp it, great sounding thump, looking like a guitar. And then I re-check the neck angle, it changed. Too much angle. So I study and realize that when I pinch in the waist so the back covers nicely, naturally that brings the ends of the body up, changing my carefully sought angle. Now to fix that I think I'll try an old neck reset trick I'd read of where you "slip" the neck block on the back. Since the ends moved in when I pinched the waist there was plenty of overhang there.
So I get out the iron, start heating over the neck block and working the palette knife in, using a folded paper towel to keep the back from scorching. Get the end loose, pull up the towel and see that I've opened a nice new crack in the upper back also.
I clamp the neck down to the building board, reglue the back, pushing the new crack back together and leave it overnight.
Next morning, pull it off the building board, check the neck angle, all's good. Hurray! Success! Start thumping again on the box checking out the new bracing and start hearing a little rattle. Come to find, when I used the iron to release the HHG from the neck block it also released the upper back brace. It's still in place, but you can work a palette knife under it from end to end.
Reglue the brace, and now all is good! Sure had me chasing my tail there for a while though. Focus on one problem and fix it, not noticing that the fix is screwing up something somewhere else.
Ah the pleasures of guitar building!
Don't follow my path,
Joe
, thick cream sandwiched with a thin black, it's quite a step up on this old guitar. First I laminated the black and cream together, using acetone and sliding them through a binding laminator that stew-mac sells. Works pretty good.
