About This Course

Almost inevitably, there will come a time when you have to replace a guitar top. The reasons for doing so can be many and varied, but if the rest of the guitar is sound, an efficient way to a good outcome is by doing a drop-in re-top. The guitar top is cut out, leaving the bindings intact and a new top is dropped into the hole that remains. The process requires some precision routing and a steady hand, but Australian luthier Trevor Gore shows in real time, as if you were looking over his shoulder, all the steps necessary to achieve a perfect outcome with least risk. The result is an “as new” guitar with no refinishing of the back and sides. The process is tailored to guitars built using the Gore and Gilet methodology, steel string or classical, but the concepts can be adapted to other building styles.

Learn about:

• The tools Trevor uses
• How quickly a bolt-on, bolt-off neck can be removed from a classical guitar
• (As an aside) how to remove a bridge without heat and moisture
• How to rescue a rosette
• Routing off the old top
• Cleaning up for the new top
• Fitting and gluing down the new top
• Routing new purfling channels and fitting and gluing new purfling
• Levelling the purfling ready for refinishing
• A method for fitting a new classical guitar bridge using a process that avoids ANY micromovements of the bridge when clamping it down