Papa's Shoppe

Info from a recent NCAL meeting. Frank Ford (frets.com)is a renowned luthier located in Palo Alto, CA. He gave a presentation on a recent visit to the Taylor Guitar factory. At Taylor they "Cook" their tops in a huge oven to create an catastrophic heating environment prior to construction. This simulates what can happen to an instrument left in a hot car which results in permanent disastrous effects on the soundboard. In experiments, they found that by exposing the wood to just such a heating situation prior to building they effected a significant reduction in the amount of shrinkage a top will go through when later exposed to a catastrophic heating incident (car) and eliminate the damage typically done to the instrument top. So it’s a kind of insurance against future problems. Frank Ford's recommendation for us small builders is to cook our tops in the kitchen oven at 200 deg.F for 1 hour to reproduce Taylor's effects.

Cooking or heat stressing tops is also known as "Setting the pitch".  Typically tops should be exposed  in an oven to a minimum of 180 degrees for twenty minute.. Heat stressing or cooking the top crystallizes the sap so that it no longer reacts with the solvents in the lacquer.  This shrinks the tops permanently and keeps the tops from shrinking further when exposed to heat after the guitar is built. This significantly cuts down on tops splitting and/or caving in from heat exposure, say, in a case in a hot car etc.   At Papas Shoppe we bake all tops (except hand-splits) in a 200 degree oven for one hour, twice.

Thanks to Mario A DaCosta  of SpruceTonewood