New Steel String Guitar Project. Part 1: Bending the Sides

I'm starting work on another steel string guitar. This is a smaller bodied instrument, roughly the size of a Martin OO. It will have a red cedar top, figured black walnut back and sides, mahogany neck and a multi-scale ebony fretboard designed for DADGAD tuning. The longer bass scale will keep the 6th string stiff when it is tuned below standard pitch.
In this first segment, I bend the walnut sides in my very old press which is heated by three 200 Watt light bulbs. I think most builders use heating blankets as their source, but the light bulbs still work fine for me, so I have no reason to switch.

[@matthewstoner765]

That side's clamp is pretty slick

[@zimnickiguitars311]

Thanks!

[@fatdaddo]

Cool project, Gary! Looking forward to watching you build.

[@zimnickiguitars311]

Thanks a lot! More to follow in the weeks ahead.

[@mvecellio1]

Very nice versatile bending gig. I like then center support underneath the middle.

[@zimnickiguitars311]

Thank you. The center support is especially important with highly figured woods and if the shape calls for a tight waist. Without that support, the side might break at the waist. Not a good thing.

[@scottreeves1226]

The "0" of the model size is a zero. Some say aught or naught, as in double-aught or double-naught. Martin uses O, as the letter, so, for example, double O. I heard it myself on the tour. However, the type face is a zero. Just because perfectly clear is not the purpose, OM is the letters O and M because they indicate the Orchestra Model.

[@zimnickiguitars311]

@scottreeves1226 thanks!

[@jonahguitarguy]

Great video. When you make the bending forms do you use the exact size of the guitar template? Or reshape a little to compensate for spring back? I only ask because a "store bought" one from Blues Creek guitars, an OM size does not fit the template.

[@zimnickiguitars311]

Good question. I try to get the bending form close to the shape of the mold/frame into which the sides will be clamped. The shape of the bending form isn't as important as the shape of the frame, because the sides flex after they are bent. It is the shape of the frame where they are held, and where the linings are glued in, that really determines the ultimate shape of the body. Thanks for watching.

[@alsguitars5127]

Unless its the lighting the tail and neck blocks appear to be laminated of two different woods? What the reason?

[@zimnickiguitars311]

One school of thought says the tail block grain should be horizontal, so a split at the seam could not travel along the sides. Another school of thought says the grain should be vertical, so a split in one side could not travel to the other side. My thought is that by laminating two pieces of wood with the grain lines at right angles to one another, there is no worry about a split traveling through the block, regardless of its origin. Also, I feel that this lamination makes the block more stable with environmental changes and that is why I use the same method in the head block. I don't always use two different types of wood. Sometimes it is two pieces of mahogany and sometimes it's two spruce for the tailblock. The half of the head block that will be part of the neck joint is always mahogany though, because it doesn't compress like spruce.