Arched Plate Carving, Part Three: Barring the Top Plate, and Graduating the Back Plate

by Chris Burt

Originally published in American Lutherie #86, 2006

See also,
Measuring Archtop Musical Instruments by Chris Burt
Arched Plate Carving, Part One by Chris Burt
Arched Plate Carving, Part Two by Chris Burt


This is the final article in a series that takes you from creating your own database of instrument measurements to applying that knowledge to carving top and back plates. In AL#83 Chris described taking measurements of extant instruments. The next two articles covered joining plates, carving their outside archings, carving and graduating the inside arching of a top plate, and cutting the f-holes. Here he describes the barring and tuning of top plates and the graduation and tuning of back plates.

The next step is making the bars that stiffen the top. The grace of these slender pieces hides a significant amount of work. The information described here works equally well for the bars of any carved-plate instrument, such as violin-family bass bars, mandolin-family tone bars, or archtop guitar barring.