What is a radius dish?

Radius Dishes are used to shape the top and back braces to the radius of your top or back and are also used to glue the top and back on to the sides of a guitar.

Why are guitar backs radiused?

Both the back and the top of the guitar will be domed. These domes are created by radiusing the braces. And that is where the tricky part comes in. Radiusing the guitar top and back means shaping them as if they were part of a sphere so that they take on a domed shape.

Are Martin guitar tops flat?

The term “flat top” usually refers to the acoustic steel string guitar, such as a Martin D-28, but is also applied to electric guitars.

What is a go bar deck?

The top and back of modern flattop guitars and similar instruments are not flat at all, but are spherically domed. These are generally used with a simple clamping fixture called a Go Bar Deck. Such a fixture is simple to make and use.

What is a go bar?

Go-bar clamping is a popular and fast technique for gluing braces, soundboards, and all sorts of shapes that are tricky to glue. Strong flexible “go-bars” are placed under tension between the top of the go-bar deck and the wood being clamped. “Gluing braces on tops and backs used to be a slow process.

Are Martin guitar tops radiused?

Martin does radius the bracing. Before the CNC era, the braces were clamped to a flat top, and would spring back a little, because the braces were not scalloped or tapered on the ends until after they were glued on. The advent of CNC-shaped braces at Martin changed everything.

Should the top of an acoustic guitar be flat?

The top of a standard steel-string acoustic guitar is flat or mostly flat when first purchased. However, most guitars will eventually buckle under the string tension between the neck and the bridge. Luckily, if your old acoustic guitar’s top begins to warp, a luthier will be able to fix it.