okotok

Very Nice! I just built one from the same plan but made it somewhat larger 22" deep x 18" tall x 34" long. My wife wanted a nice storage chest for our bonus room upstairs and liked the look of th toolchest. I made it from walnut and lined the inside of the lid and the bottom with aromatic cedar. I also made only one sliding tray that is 1/2 the width of the chest.

I love using handplanes, but thicknessing thin, wide boards can get pretty monotonous. A drum sander would look real good in my shop!

Forgot to add that archtops are most commonly built with "F" holes, like a violin although the earliest Gibsons had an oval hole like mine or like a Selmer style like Django uses.

I appreciate the comments. I play this guitar a lot and really like the sound. It also has an electric pickup installed inside and not visible.

Django's instruments were not carved but had a bend or "pliage in the top. This guitar is based on the early Gibson archtops based on a violin style instrument and using Benedetto's plans as a base. The top was actually two 1" cedar boards joined. The back started out at 1" thick as well. The back ends up at approx. 3/16" thickness tapering to about 1/8" at the edges. The top approx. 5/16" in the center taper to approx. 1/8" at the edges or "recurve. It's carved by drilling out most of the waste and then using gouges, hand planes and then sandpaper.

Once again, thanks for the comments.