# Gluing Bowed Boards



## Dwillnodoot (Oct 22, 2015)

So I am building my own electric guitar body and bought two eight quarter boards of ash to glue together for the blanks. The one was slightly bowed and to fix this I clamped both ends and the middle so that it sort of forced it into place while the glue set. The amount of bowing was minimal and the glue is strong but I'm worried about the internal stress I'm introducing. Is this going to be a serious issue when I take the blank to be planed and cut?


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## Tennessee (Jul 8, 2011)

It depends on how much bow you eliminated. I am thinking you butted them together to make a seam which would appear down the middle front of the guitar body?

8/4 should come in just shy of two inches thick. I usually plane mine down to between 42 and 45MM, which comes in from 1.6 to 1.75". Depends on what kind of look I am trying to achieve. So you won't be planing off too much.

To combat any warp, bow or other issues, my personal choice is to do a horizontal "sandwich", consisting of a front plank that I may or may not have glued up to the owners specifications then planed, a back plank, usually something like sapale or walnut or maple, with or without some kind of stripe in the middle then planed, and a much thinner center plank, which when the body is cut out, leaves this cool stripe around the perimeter of the guitar body.
I glue them up from back to front, laying the boards flat on top of each other with a thin layer of glue inbetween the planks, and then clamp it all around the perimeter and two center clamps. That then sits for two solid days to allow it to dry. Never had a problem yet.

But each to their own, and I think if you used a really good glue, like Titebond II or III, you should be able to plane it down to the desired thickness with no problems.


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