Mar 2017

Fitting a cutaway to a Dobro

This resonator guitar is a workhorse instrument of a very well-known UK session guitarist. The guitar wasn’t an expensive one, but was well loved. The customer wanted to convert the guitar from full body to a cutaway to improve access to the higher frets.

First task was to plan the work. This would have to be a Florentine cutaway and as the guitar would have to be stripped, the existing binding (which was painted on!) was best removed, and the entire guitar rebound with ivoroid strip. The second f-hole would have to either be removed completely, or replaced with a smaller one. The latter option was taken after filling the remains of the existing hole.

One of the main challenges of a job like this is to find a design for the cutaway that is in keeping with the guitar – not too severe, and carefully proportioned. I created a range of templates for this until I found one that I felt fitted the shaping of the guitar.

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