driftwoodguitars

Cool video of the day

2011-01-28T13:29:00.001-06:00

I rarely post links to videos on the web because I am sure most people have no trouble finding plenty on their own. Today I make an exception for something posted on the OLF by Chas Freeborn. I think it is well worth the seven and a half minutes it takes to watch. Enjoy!

Restored by CinePost http://www.posthouse.com Edited by Ross Lenenski of Denison University. Filmed in 1959 by Forrest White. Music by Russell "Daemonzed" Eldridge. Russell's Stratocaster guitar is from the American Deluxe Series made at the Corona Plant (Fender), USA in the Year 2000. Leo Fender is in the second shot. No CNC machines back then, everything was done by hand. It is amazing to realize that every guitar made that year is now worth a small fortune. Archival High Resolution film transfer by CinePost at http://www.posthouse.com If you know the names of the employees, please let us know and we will annotate them. For more info please call 678-238-0800.

A little more neck work

2010-12-11T20:26:00.001-06:00

Classes are finally over! After long last, I have a little time to work on #4. The weather was perfect, too. It is hard to beat a sunny, 70F in central Texas in the middle of December (it almost makes up for all those summer days with temps near 100F). It felt good to go out into the shop today.

The first thing I did was finish shaping the peghead. I decided I like the shape of the last guitar (the spruce/walnut OM), so I used the same template again.

I used the pins to locate the template, then added some tape to make sure nothing moved around while shaping. A few minutes on the router and the peghead is pretty much done. All that is left is to finish the part where it blends into the nut and neck.

The next step was to glue on the fingerboard. First, I put a few drops of silicone adhesive in the truss rod slot to avoid the possibility of any weird vibrations.

Next, I add a little shim on top of the truss rod about in the middle of the rod. Some builders cover the entire rod with a shim, but that seems like overkill to me. Finally I cover the entire truss rod slot with some cellophane tape. I use that to keep the glue from getting down into the slot and getting into the threads on the truss rod. If you look closely you can see the guide pins I use to keep the fingerboard from skating around when I glue it on. I use epoxy to glue the FB.

And here it is all clamped up. The weather is supposed to turn cold tonight, so I will bring it in the house after the epoxy sets.

Complete neck joint

2010-09-07T18:20:00.001-05:00

I had some time this Labor Day weekend to work on the latest guitar. I had cut half of the joint last time I posted and let things sit while I finished my classes for the summer semester. I also had to change the way I fixed the jig to the guitar body.

Here is a shot of the jig in action. I am cutting the mortise in the top – part of the double mortise and tenon joint.

Here is a shot of how I connected the jig to the body. I used the bolt holes and bolted the jig in place. The guitar body is held securely in place with the jig I built for cutting the binding ledges.

The last shot is of the unfinished neck bolted in place. I leave a little space on each side of the top tenon so I have room to adjust the neck when centering it. The top of the tenon is flush with the top of the guitar.

Working on the neck joint

2010-05-16T19:32:00.001-05:00

I spent a few hours this weekend working on the neck joint for #4. First I routed the tenon. I use a jig based on a design by Woolson (I wrote about it here a while ago).

The next step was routing the mortise in the body. One thing to note, I drilled the bolt holes before I started routing because its easier to mark the location and see what I’m doing on the flat side of the guitar rather than inside a trench.

I use the mortise and tenon router templates from Stew-Mac with a pattern cutting bit with the bearing at the bottom. The tenon template is a tiny bit smaller than the mortise, meaning the fit will be sloppy. In order to make fit better, I glue some shims to the tenon.

On a related note, somebody posted the results of a strength test where they stressed a mortise and tenon bolt-on joint to see where it would fail. If I recall correctly (can’t seem to find the post) it would break in the area of the barrel-nut holes. They also showed that laminating the sides of the tenon gave it a lot more strength.

So, here is what I came up with. Laminated with veneer for both strength and a tight fit.

EIR Binding on a Walnut Body

2010-05-11T18:50:00.001-05:00

I finished putting the bindings on #4. I used EI rosewood because I like the way it looks with the black walnut back and sides. Here is a shot of the top as well. I used one of the green fiber strips I got from Shane at High Mountain Tonewood. I am a little surprised in how visible it is – I thought it might be too thin to really be noticeable.

You might also notice some dents in the cedar top. I swear you can dent this stuff with a stern look. I will try to steam them out before the finish goes on.

Got a new tool…

2010-05-02T15:59:00.001-05:00

I haven’t been in the shop in a while. The end of the semester is always busy with projects, papers and presentations. I also ran into a roadblock when it came to the binding on this guitar.

For the previous guitars I used a Dremel tool with a small fixture to cut the channels for the binding on the body. It has been the hardest part to do well, and the fixture was a big part of the problem. A couple of weeks ago, I talked myself into buying a better tool for the job.

I got it from the Luthier Tool Company. It attaches to my Bosch laminate trimmer. Very nicely made – it looks like it will last a lifetime.

I made a simple jig out of a piece of 1/2 inch MDF to hold the body while I cut the channel. The tool registers to the sides of the body, so the jig doesn’t need to be made to keep the sides perpendicular to the bench top like some other binding jigs I considered.

The tool manufacturer recommends a 1/4 inch downcut spiral bit, but I used a straight bit and it worked really well. Other people have written that the tool takes some time to get use to, but I got perfect results on the first try.

#4 Finger board binding

2010-03-21T16:28:00.001-05:00

#4 will get a fingerboard bound in the same wood as the back and sides (black walnut). I used some cut-offs from the boards I used for the back, thinned to 1/8 inch on the thickness sander.

I glued one side on Friday then waited until today to glue the other side. We got a cold front through central Texas yesterday that dropped the temperature in the shop from near 70F to the high 30s.

#4 Fret Slots

2010-03-15T20:01:00.001-05:00

I cut the fret slots yesterday, finishing today. The finger board is a nice piece of Honduran rosewood. The scale on #4 will be 25.4 inches – also called the Martin long scale. Just a bit of trivia, the Martin long scale is actually 25.34 inches but is usually listed as 25.4.

You can see that I cut the slots old school. The miter box and pull-saw came from Stew-Mac. It would go a whole lot faster using a table saw with a special blade, but I will have to wait until the day I have a bigger shop.

Sharpening tool blades

2010-03-01T14:49:00.001-06:00

I ran across this little video today. It seems like every week or two, somebody posts a question on the various guitar building forms asking for the best way to sharpen chisels and plane blades. Steven Boone put this step-by-step video together to show how he does it. Super simple!

I use a similar method to sharpen my blades. Thanks, Steven!

#4 Black Walnut back

2010-02-28T21:58:00.001-06:00

I am using an X-brace for the back (same as #3). Here I am sanding a radius into the X using my sanding dish. This one has an 18 foot radius.

When all the braces have been radiused (is that even a word??) I glue them onto the back on my ‘go-bar’ deck. I glue the backstrip on first and carefully cut out the spots where the braces cross it. Here is a tip for saving a little money – if you buy your top and back sets from one of the vendors listed on the right, they will be packed with some protective pieces of wood. Save these lower grade pieces and use them for things like backstrips.

All of the braces were glued on using Titebond.

Here it is after the braces are glued on. Notice the small piece of walnut glued to the top of the X brace for extra strength.

A couple of hours with a finger plane, a chisel and some sandpaper and this back is ready to be glued on.

Guitar #4: Black Walnut / Cedar SJ

2010-02-27T16:48:00.001-06:00

Technorati Tags: acoustic,instrument,guitar,steel string,luthier,six string

The next guitar (my fourth) continues the black walnut theme. I used a different body shape for this one. It is a ‘small jumbo’ shape based on plans by Michael Payne. The upper and lower bouts are more rounded than the OM and the waist is bent to a smaller radius. The SJ is still a small body guitar.

I tried something a little different for the linings. First I cut and bent some satinwood scraps and glued them to the rim. I also added the side supports using the same material. The kerfed linings will be glued on top of the satinwood linings.

The reason behind the extra lining is to add a little more support to the edges of the top and back by making the linings a little wider.

Another One Finished!

2010-02-22T17:28:00.001-06:00

Here is the final product: a black walnut / spruce OM style guitar. It has a bloodwood fretboard, bound in black walnut. The bridge is bloodwood to match the fingerboard.

The finish is Tru-Oil on the neck and Waterlox varnish elsewhere. Nut and saddle are cow bone, the saddle is thicker than standard at 3/16 inch.

The label is designed by me using Visio, printed on 100% cotton paper in my inkjet printer.

A couple of things I noted for the next one. I fussed over the neck angle before I glued on the bridge. I even knocked the whole thing off the workbench and got to practice some repair skills (ugh…).

After I got it strung up, I left it for about a week. When I picked it up again to set up the action, I found that the top had moved quite a bit and I had to fuss with the neck angle again. In the future, I’ll just leave the neck angle until after the guitar has settled for a while.

Just a final note, I think it sounds pretty good (if only I played better!). I will try to get a sound clip someday.

Bridge, tuners and frets

2009-09-26T20:02:00.008-05:00

The finish on this guitar was as difficult as the last one. I burned through while sanding the back more than once. Each time I sanded the finish back and started again. Same thing on the peg head. I eventually got the finish on the body right, but ran out of Tru-oil before I finished the peg head.

Rather than buying more Tru-oil, I used what I had on hand for the peg head. I used a few coats of Waterlox instead. It is a tung oil based varnish, and seems pretty close to the Tru-oil. At any rate, I like the way it turned out.

Today I spent a couple of hours on the frets and the nut. The nut is just roughed-in to the right size and approximate shape. I will finish it up after I put some strings on to see if I need to make any adjustments to the action.

The last thing I did today was install a set of gold Grover Sta-tite tuners.

Finishing the Neck

2009-06-06T15:09:00.006-05:00

I wanted to add a couple of pictures of the neck. The finish has been on for a little over a month. I set it aside while I dealt with life in general. I have used Tru-Oil on the neck in the past. There is small learning curve with the stuff, and I'm getting the hang of it.

I rubbed the finish out with some 0000 steel wool and paste wax. It left a super smooth satin finish that I kind of like. I may buff it out to a gloss finish sometime in the future, but for now I'll leave it as it is.

Here is one last picture showing the whole neck. The inlays are the Mustang on the headstock and a couple of curly shapes at the 12th fret, both purchased pre-cut from from Andy DePaule. The fretboard is bloodwood from LMI, the headplate and FB binding are black walnut made from scraps left over from the back and sides.

Finishing the box - part 2

2009-05-20T16:01:00.006-05:00

Here is guitar #3 about half way through the finish application. I am using a product called Tru-Oil made by Birchwood Casey. It is a linseed oil based varnish made for gun stocks. I decided to apply it to both the top and back/sides after seeing some photos of the results some other luthiers have achieved.

I am rubbing it on using a rag, putting very thin coats on about twice a day. After about 6 coats I wet sanded using 800 grit paper and mineral spirits to level the finish. The photos here show the results after applying another six coats after leveling.

I am really pleased with the results so far. There is a small learning-curve with the Tru-Oil, but overall it has been the easiest finish to apply.

Finishing the box - part 1

2009-05-08T19:43:00.010-05:00

Time to catch up on my 3rd guitar. A few months ago I got the neck and the box pretty close to finished. I took a picture while fitting the neck to the body. I'm using a double mortise and tenon joint on this guitar, similar to the last one.

I finished the neck with West System III epoxy to fill the pores, sanding back to the wood. I used Tru-Oil varnish on this one because I really liked that way the neck on #2 turned out.

The next step is filling the pores on the box. Here is a shot after the first coat. I'm using the West epoxy again with just a little silica added. The silica seems to make the epoxy fill the pores a little better without adding any color to the wood. It also makes it a bit easier to sand off the excess epoxy. After spreading the epoxy around, I scrape as much off as possible using a razor blade.

Finally, here is a shot of the top. You can almost make out the blue purfling line between the rosewood binding and the spruce top. It also shows the bound sound hole as well as the mortise for the neck joint. Some people don't like putting epoxy on the top, but I want to fill the binding and will sand it all down to the wood before putting on the varnish.

I let in harden overnight, then scrape / sand and see if I need a second coat.

A friend move on ...

2009-01-18T13:33:00.002-06:00

On January 8 of this year, Annie left the workshop for the last time. She was a long-time companion and frequent shop supervisor. I will miss her.

... more neck work

2009-01-18T12:50:00.015-06:00

Its been a long time since I sat down and wrote about the progress on this guitar. I haven't been a total slacker since the past post, I worked on the neck (and started another guitar!) over the last couple of months. In the last post, I rough-cut the neck angle while cutting the tenon. I will show some of the work I have done since then.

The first thing I did was trim some of the excess wood from the neck. A bandsaw would make this step a lot easier, but I make do with the tools I have. I really like Japanese saws for this kind of work. They have a thin blade, are super-sharp and cut when you pull the saw. That means the cuts are fast and easy to control.

With the neck a little closer to the final size, I glue in the carbon fiber (CF) rods using some medium viscosity super glue. A lot of builders use these to keep the neck straight over time. A fact of life is that guitar necks change shape over time under the tension of the strings. CF is light and super-stiff, making it a good material for reinforcing a thin guitar neck. I got mine from James Watts at Los Alamos Composites (http://www.jameswattsguitars.com/LAC.htm). This is my first neck with CF rods, and the process went smooth, requiring only a couple of extra steps and a little thought to the building sequence.

You can also see the fingerboard extension glued onto the end of the fingerboard. This piece acts as the second tenon for the "double mortice and tenon" style of neck attachment. It also keeps the fingerboard straight at the end.

Next, I glued the headplate onto the peg head. The CF rods extend under the headplate for a little extra stregth where the neck is the thinnest, so this step has to wait until the rods are glued in.

With the headplate on, I thinned the peghead to its final thickness. The tuners I plan to use for this guitar need a peghead thickness of a half inch.

I wanted to try to make a diamond shaped volute on the back of the peghead where it blends into the neck. I made a jig based on one made by Mark Pluta, an Austin - area luthier. It holds the neck and has a template for the volute shape. A laminate trimmer with a pattern bit does all the work.

The jig has a couple of quater-inch pins that fit in the truss rod slot. By referencing the jig to the truss-rod slot, I keep everything lined up on the center line of the neck.

I'm not too sure I like the shape of the volute, in retrospect I think I should have made it a little wider. The template is screwed onto the jig, so I can change it if I want to on the next guitar.

With the peghead thinned, I trimmed it down to the final shape. I used a template made from 1/4 inch MDF cut carefully to the final shape I want. The template is held in place with a couple of index pins made from some 1/16 inch finishing nails. I put a pattern cutting bit in the router, and route the peghead on the router table.

I didn't take any pictures of the fingerboard being glued on, but you can see it in the next shot. I put the frets in before gluing the neck on. Fretting the fingerboard is still one of the hardest parts of building a guitar for me. I think doing it with the fingerboard flat on the workbench made it just a little bit easier. One other note, I used Smith's All-Wood epoxy to glue the fingerboard to the neck. The epoxy doesn't contain any water that might cause the wood to swell or twist or otherwise change shape. The idea is to keep everything as flat as possible at this point to help with the final set-up later. After gluing it on and trimming the neck all the way down to the final width, I start shaping it.

I get the shape by trimming facets into the neck like Graham McDonald describes in his book. I start by marking facets along the neck and carefully removing wood with a spokeshave. I rough-cut the heel with a chisel at this point as well.

I will end this post with a shot of the back of the peghead. The volute was super easy to shape with this method. It came out much crisper than my first guitar. You can see the scarf joint glue line pretty clearly. I an debating whether to glue on a piece of rosewood veneer to cover it up. I'll probably wait to see how it looks as I sand it down in preparation for the finish.

Setting the neck angle

2008-09-13T19:33:00.005-05:00

With the binding on the body, I can set the neck angle. I use a jig for routing the neck heel that was designed by Paul Woolson. Check out his guitars, he really knows what he is doing.

The jig allows you to reference the neck angle directly from the guitar body, making it about as accurate as you need at this stage. The arm sticking up from the top of the jig is attached to where the neck is held. By setting the distance from the arm to the spot on the top where the saddle will be located at a bit more than 1/8 inch, the neck will be angled back enough.

Ultimately, that will give enough clearance for the strings and allow for an easier set-up at the end.

The jig has a template for the tenon, purchased from Stew-Mac. It comes as a set with a matching template for the mortise, which will be the next step.

The result is an angle of about 2 degrees relative to the guitar top.

Binding

2008-09-11T18:27:00.004-05:00

I did not get any pictures of the binding step, so pics of the results will have to do. I started by bending the binding in my side-bender. The binding material for this one is East Indian Rosewood, mainly because it is what I have on hand. I think the dark wood will be nice next to the walnut, especially under the finish. I am also using some blue fiber as a purfling strip (for the first time, I hope it looks OK.)

I routed the ledges for the binding and purfling using a Dremel and the base from Stew-Mac. I used a 3/32 downcut spiral bit. It worked OK, although I would love a better set-up. I have been looking for an alternative, and really like this one. The way I do it introduces two problems. First, the S-M base is a little big, and the radius in the top and back tend to make the router tip. The second problem is that the ledges need to be referenced to the sides. The S-M base has a small roller that rides against the side. but it is too small to be very stable.

One thing to mention, I spent some time on the sides, sanding and scraping to make sure they were smooth and flat (no cupping) to make the routing operation easier. I also used a wash-coat of shellac on the top to avoid chip-out. It also helps keep dirt from getting ground into the soft spruce.

After gluing everything I cleaned up using a scraper and file.

Making a bridge

2008-09-11T17:51:00.008-05:00

It has been a couple of weeks since I updated this thing. Classes have started for the fall semester, and while I have been able to make some progress I haven't had the time to do much writing. The next step was making the bridge. I have a simple three step process for making the bridge. First, I start with the bridge blank. I am using bloodwood for this guitar, to match the fingerboard. I got the blank at LMI.

The second step is to cut the blank roughly to size using a coping saw, then thin the piece using the drum sander to about 0.360 inch. At this point, I lay out the saddle slot and bridge pin holes. I made a template out of 1/4 inch MDF so I can make bridges consistently.

The third step is to cut away all the wood that does not look like a bridge. OK, the process is a little more involved than that. I drill the holes for the pins, then route out the saddle slot using a 1/8 inch router bit in my drill press. I have a sliding vise that makes the process pretty easy. I used the robo-sander to sand out the 'wings' and I slope the top of the bridge slightly using the disc sander. I used a finger plane to round off the profile on the front and back of the bridge.

Bloodwood is pretty hard, and a little dense. It is easy to work, and takes a shine using sandpaper. I sanded the bridge using all the grits I have available up to 2000. Mmmmm, shiny!

Headplate

2008-08-23T14:36:00.003-05:00

The inlay is a gold / white MOP "Mustang" from DePaule's Luthiery Supply.

I worked on the headplate over the last couple of days. I used the cut-off from the guitar back for the plate, gluing it together so the grain is book matched. After thinning the plate to about 0.010 inch and then tracing the headstock shape, I glued the inlay into place using airplane glue.

When the glue hardened, I traced the inlay onto the wood using an x-acto knife. Airplane glue softens with a little acetone and the pieces can be pried off without worrying about breaking them.

I used a Dremel tool with some very small router bits to route out the inlay. This inlay took about 3 hours, although I was taking my time and being very careful. The process takes a while, checking the fit of the pieces and routing until all the pieces fit in the inlay cavity. When I was happy with the fit, I sanded a bit of the walnut and used the dust to fill a couple of places where I routed a tiny bit too much.

I flooded the inlay with thin CA glue and set everything aside to harden completely.

Hi-tech neck

2008-08-14T18:00:00.007-05:00

I've been going back and forth on what to do about the neck. I have one partly made, but I wasn't entirely satisfied with the peg-head. After debating with myself for a number of days, I decided to just build a new neck and save the other one for another day.

I cut and glued up a scarf-joint a couple of days ago, and trimmed the neck to near the final length. Today I routed slots for the truss rod and two carbon fiber rods. You can see that the CF rods extend up through the peg-head. The rods have a 15-degree taper on one end to match the angle of the headstock. The idea of the CF rods is to make the neck very stiff and add reinforcement to the scarf joint.

The next step is to glue some 'ears' on to the peg-head. I used the cut-off from the neck blank so the color and grain will be a close match. I cut the piece in half and glued the pieces on each side of the peg-head.

I have been using Smith's All-wood epoxy from LMI for the neck joints. Its probably not too important for these little joints, but has been recommended by those-who-know for gluing the fingerboard onto the neck. The idea is to avoid introducing the extra moisture in regular glue into the well-seasoned neck wood and possibly causing a warp or twist. The shop was pretty hot, so the epoxy hardened in a little more than an hour. I removed the clamps and brought the neck in the house where I'll let it continue to harden until tomorrow and then sand off the squeeze-out.

Closing the box

2008-08-14T17:40:00.003-05:00

With the top braced and the sides notched to receive the brace ends, I am ready to close the box. I used some Titebond glue and clamped the box in the go-bar deck. I have a caul made of hardboard shaped to fit the top that protects the soft spruce from the ends of the fiberglass rods.

I left it clamped up for about four hours. When I got back to it, I removed the spreader from the inside, then removed the form. I'll let it dry overnight in the house (out of the humidity) and trim the overhang tomorrow.

Creating a voice

2008-08-14T16:16:00.006-05:00

This next part of the building process is one of the most subjective. There are books and videos and training courses and thousands of posts on guitar building forums devoted to getting the best sound out of the guitar top. The process starts when the top is thinned and continues until the finish is applied.

A big part of the process is how the builder glues on the braces and shapes them. Many guitars have scalloped braces like a Martin guitar. I have to admit that the process of scalloping the braces seems a little random. Without a real feeling for the way the scallops affect the sound, I decided to go with what has been called "parabolic" bracing on some forums.

This is actually one of the more interesting operations. I shave the braces using a finger plane, a chisel and sandpaper. I suspend the top with one finger, next to my ear and tap it with my other hand. As I remove material from the braces, the pitch of the top goes down. I continues shaving and smoothing until I like the way it looks and sounds. Like I said, completely subjective.

There are some features of the top that are less subjective. The bridge plate is a piece of Honduran Rosewood, thinned to 0.090 inch and trimmed to fit tight against the braces. I left the x-brace just a little shorter than 20mm at the x-joint. The upper ends of the braces are thinned to ~1mm tall, and they are left long enough so they will overlap the guitar sides. I will notch the sides to accept the ends of the braces. The lower ends of the braces are thinned to nearly nothing where they cross the sides.

Soundhole

2008-08-09T17:15:00.008-05:00

Working with the guitar top is really where all the magic happens. There are a thousand things that affect the voice of the guitar.

I thinned the top on the drum sander to about 0.108 inch, flexing it with my hands after each pass when it got down to about 0.120 inch. The top remained pretty stiff until it got to about 0.110 and then changed pretty rapidly. I cleaned up the sanding scratches with the RO sander and some 320 grit paper.

I trimmed the top to nearly the final shape so it would be a little easier to handle. I marked the top for the brace positions then moved on to the sound hole. This guitar will be somewhat understated, so the sound hole will be pretty simply bound with some rosewood.

I start the sound hole by cutting a 5 inch diameter circle of spruce from some scrap spruce and thinned it to 0.125 inch. I trimmed it to match the x-brace and UTB brace, then glued it on. When the glue was dried I cut out the sound hole using the dremel with a down-cut bit.

With the sound hole cut out, I bent a piece of rosewood binding to match the diameter of the hole using a hot-pipe bender. The cut-out from the hole provides a convenient template while bending. The strip doesn't need to be bent to a perfect circle, but does need to be close enough to the final diameter so it can be glued in without forcing it.

In keeping with the understated theme of this guitar, the sound hole is pretty simple. I used a piece of blue purfling between the rosewood and spruce. I was a little worried that the die from the purfling would stain the spruce, so I put a coat of shellac on the top around the hole before gluing.

I glued the purfling on with Titebond, then went back and filled in a couple of gaps with thick CA glue. Wit the sound hole done, its time to move to the bracing and voicing.

Finishing up the fingerboard

2008-08-09T16:55:00.004-05:00

Now that the summer semester is over, I have a little time to catch up on the progress I have made on my latest guitar. The last post left off with me getting ready to bind the board with some walnut off-cuts from the guitar sides.

This guitar won't have a lot of 'bling' but I do like the look of a little bit of inlay. I decided on 2mm dots as side markers and a couple of little curly bits as 12th fret markers. The MOP pieces came from Andy DePaule at luthiersupply.com

I sanded the pearl flat starting with 220 grit through 600 grit. I then sanded the entire board through 2000 grit using mineral spirits as a lubricant rather than water. After cleaning out the fret slots with an x-acto knife I set the board aside and worked on the top.

Change of plans...

2008-07-04T17:46:00.017-05:00

The weather has finally turned and the humidity is up. I don't like to do too much with the top or back while its so humid. While I'm waiting for the weather to get back to normal, I'll work on the neck and fingerboard.

I changed my mind about the fingerboard for this guitar. While I really like the look of Honduran Rosewood, I recently got a few bloodwood fingerboards and bridges from LMI. One of the boards and bridge blanks is a little darker than the others and I thought it would look nice bound with some of the walnut cut-offs from the back.

First, I had to cut the fret slots. I don't have a table saw, so I do it 'old school' with a miter saw. The bloodwood is hard and dense, and it took a while to get all the slots cut.

Here is a quick-and-dirty view of what I have in mind for this one. I really like the way the bloodwood looks next to the walnut, and I think using cut-offs from the back will tie things together.

With the frets slots cut and the center of the fingerboard carefully marked, I trimmed the nut end of the board. I leave ~1/32 inch so I can trim right down to the mark more accurately.

One thing I learned from the first couple of guitars is to keep the center line marks on the fingerboard and neck clear and easy to read. That includes the marks on the back of the fingerboard and the back of the neck. That will make things much easier later when I drill holes for the index pins to attach the FB to the neck. Having the center marked on the back of the neck will help me carve the profile.

With the nut end of the board cut, I set up the radius jig. It cuts a compound radius that starts at ~10 inches at the nut and ends at ~20 inches at the end of the fingerboard. After routing the radius, I re-cut the fret slots to make sure they are deep enough and then clean up the router bit marks with sandpaper.

The next step is trimming the nut end right to the mark. I use a sandpaper covered jointer plane and my shooting board to make sure the end of the board is at a 90 degree angle.

I spent some time with a sanding block and sandpaper, going from 150 grit to 320 grit to take care of the tool marks. The bloodwood is hard like H. rosewood so it doesn't take much to give it a shine. Even stopping at 320 grit, I can see the surface is starting to shine through the sanding scratches.

The last thing I did today was to work on the binding. I ran them through the drum sander to clean them up and thin them down to ~0.130 inch. I used a little mineral spirits on the wood to get an idea how things will look under finish.

It's starting to look like a guitar

2008-06-26T16:25:00.005-05:00

I get a real feeling of satisfaction when I complete something major like gluing the major parts together. The glue joints look great, with minimal squeeze-out. I will leave the overhang alone until I get the top glued on.

I really like the look of the x-brace on the back. This is one of the special features of the OM plans by Michael Payne.

I also laid out the sound hole position on paper in preparation of cutting and putting in the rosette. I decided to use a 24.9 inch scale for this one, so I'll need to make a new neck and fingerboard.

Gluing on the back

2008-06-25T14:01:00.007-05:00

I made some pretty good progress over the last two days. First, I cleaned up the sides where I glued on the linings. I glued on the side braces. After cleaning those up, I went after the inside surfaces with some 320 grit sandpaper.

After putting the sides back in the mold, I profiled the top and back linings in my sanding dishes. I have an 18 foot radius dish for the back and a 30 foot radius dish for the top. I made the dishes out of MDF a couple of years ago.

With the linings done, I fit the back by notching the linings for the braces. I did not get a picture of that, so I will try to show it in the next post.

When I got the back to fit to my satisfaction I put some glue on the linings and put the whole thing into the go-bar deck. I use fiberglass rods to apply the clamping force and protect the wood with a hardboard caul. The blue tape just holds things in place until I get the rods in place. I will leave this clamped up until I get back from class tonight.

Kerfed linings

2008-06-22T18:27:00.002-05:00

I have only enough for a short post today. Progress slowed down a little as I had to study for an economics test this week. I managed a little progress this weekend. I glued the kerfed linings to the sides. Its been really hot out in the shop, so I try to work a bit early in the morning. The high temperatures here in central Texas have hit 100F for something like 20 days out of the last 30. Brutal!

"Butt-wedge"

2008-06-17T11:33:00.013-05:00

The first little bit of decoration added to this guitar is the "butt-wedge" on the tail end of the guitar. I suppose they came about as a way to cover up a poor joint where the sides meet. I used a little scrap of Honduran Rosewood with some nice grain lines. The first step is to cut the piece into the shape I want.

I traced the shape onto the guitar body then used a saw to just cut through the side wood. I used a chisel to remove the side material and get the cut straight and smooth. I took my time with this step because I want the joint between the walnut and rosewood to be clean and sharp.

The wedge shape is convenient. You can get a tight fit by simply tapping the piece into place. After letting the glue dry for an hour I'm ready to trim off the excess.

I came back the next day and cleaned up the glue squeeze-out and thinned the piece to match the thickness of the sides with cabinet scraper. Honduran RW is so nice to work with. It is a hard wood, making it easy to scrape. It also has a nice smell when working with it. I really like the way the colors of the woods work together.

The last step is to drill a 3/16 inch hole exactly in the center of the butt-wedge. The hole matches up with a hole in the mold. I use a 3/16 inch drill bit as an index pin to keep the tail end of the guitar from slipping in the mold. This will come in handy when I sand the sides down to the final shape in the sanding dish. The hole will be covered up with the end pin when the guitar is finished.

Neck block...

2008-06-14T14:55:00.008-05:00

The neck block for this guitar has evolved a bit from the first two guitars. First, I might have stressed out over the fact that the piece of mahogany I wanted to use was just a little too short to fit. I dug around and found another piece of mahogany and made a little foot for the block. I used a round-over bit on my router to round the bit that will be seen by looking into the sound-hole. I think it looks pretty cool. I am going to use the double - mortise neck attachment again, so I am using a piece of half-inch plywood on the top of the block.

After cleaning up the block using the disk sander then sanding by hand to remove the worst of the sanding scratches, I give it a coat of shellac on the parts that will be seen (just for looks) and then sand the profile of the mold into the back of the block.

The next step is to glue the block to the sides. I glue them on outside of the mold because I find it easier to get everything lined up straight. I let the glue dry for about an hour before moving to the next step.

With the first side glued on I glue the second side. After a bit of clean up to get rid of the squeeze-out, I let it sit clamped up overnight to dry.

Fingerboard progress

2008-06-02T21:39:00.000-05:00

So I made a little more progress on the latest guitar. First, I worked on the neck. I added a couple of locating pins to make gluing the fingerboard easier. I made the pins from a finishing nail that I clipped to a couple of quarter inch pieces, then smoothed the ends with a file. If you look carefully, you can see the holes I drilled in the first and 13th fret slots.

With the locating pin holes drilled, I moved on to fretting the fingerboard. Now, I have read a couple of different ways to do this, but a Canadian luthier named Mario Proulx described a real interesting method. First, you fret the fingerboard off the neck. I like this part because its so easy to ding the neck if you fret after the FB is glued on. The FB will bow back from the frets spreading the slots apart. To fix this I use a clamp to force the FB back to flat. The picture shows how I left things the first few hours. I had to put much greater force on it to get things flat. I cranked the clamp down and left it overnight. The next day things were back to flat!

With the fingerboard pretty much done, I sawed the neck to the rough shape. This is one of those jobs that make me wish I had a band saw!

And here is where I stop until I close up the body. The next step will be to route the tenon, and I need to reference the angle of the heel from the body.

New Tools

2008-05-23T22:03:00.000-05:00

A while back I decided to look for a drum sander. Getting the top, back and sides to the right thickness is really a pain without power tools. My first guitar was done entirely by hand using hand planes. I love working with my planes, but it was just too time consuming to get the thickness even across the board.

I searched for about two months before running across a Craigslist ad for a 16-32 drum sander. The amazing part was that the guy selling it was a cabinet maker with a shop less than 5 miles from the house. He found it didn't really do the trick for him (too small, not really an efficient planer) and was moving his shop to north Austin, so he wanted to get rid of it. He took $700 for it, and it fit in the back of the station wagon. I didn't even have to mess with shipping.

Now, the drum sander is useless without a dust collector. Here is my birthday present from last year. Its loud, but is perfect for my little shop.

Last month I finally had the time to add a couple of new circuits to the shop. One dedicated breaker for each tool. Sweet!

Guitar #3

2008-05-16T16:31:00.000-05:00

For some reason, I have been struggling mightily with guitar #2 for about a year now. Finish problems lead to messing up the binding on the back. That lead to a couple weeks of stressing about it until I decided to route the old binding off and putting some new binding on. I have also tried a different finish (Tru-Oil) but that isn't quite turning out the way I like.

So, time to set it aside for a little while and move on.

===

First, I modified my fingerboard radius jig. I added a couple of aluminum angles at just the right width for my little Colt router.

I noticed the top of the jig needed to be stiffened a bit so it didn't sag under the weight of the router. The picture shows the first fingerboard I attempted with the jig before the modifications. It is a little thin in the center.

I also added a piece of angle to the bottom of the swinging arm to keep that part of the jig stiff and straight.

I started with the neck for guitar #3 because I was waiting to install a couple of new tools before I started on the body.

I used a piece of Honduran rosewood for this fingerboard. The fret scale is 25.4 inches, and I inlayed simple MOP dot fret markers. I also used white side dots on this one. They are made from 2mm plastic rod, but I've gotten over my dislike of plastic as a building material. The do look pretty nice.

All of the work this week was done with the help of Annie. She doesn't much like the power tools, but hangs out with me when I am using hand tools.

Designing the Bridge

2007-07-05T20:18:00.000-05:00

Last month I spent an evening with some paper and a set of french curves, sketching out a design for the bridge. I wanted something that was a little unique but not too wild, something that would personalize the guitar.

Once I had an outline that looked nice to me, I added the saddle slot, a center line, and the position of the pin holes. I cut out the bridge design and glued it to a piece of 1/4 inch MDF. I cut the MDF down to size and sanded the edges down to the line. The result is a template that I can reuse on future guitars.

I got a nice piece of African ebony from Acoustic Woods Ltd. in British Columbia. I flattened it and brought the thickness down to ~3/8 inch thick using a plane. One thing to note about ebony, the dust goes everywhere and turns everything black.

I traced the outline of the bridge onto the blank and cut it out with a coping saw.

After sanding down to the outline I shaped the back to match the radius of the top.

The next step was drilling pilot holes for the pins and cutting the saddle slot. I use a 1/8 inch straight router bit in my drill press. A sliding vise makes the process easy and accurate.

With the basic shape complete, I switched to my Luthiers Friend to scoop out the "wings". From there I switch to a scraper and 80 grit sandpaper to get to the final shape. I continue sanding with finer grits until I reach 1200. At that point the ebony has almost a glassy shine. The other bridge in the picture is for guitar #3, and is made of Honduran rosewood.

The Finish

2007-06-05T17:03:00.000-05:00

Its been a long while, and I have a lot to catching up to do. I'm in the finishing stage on this guitar.

OK not really finished, but putting a finish on guitar #2. I have smoothed and sanded every bit of the body and the neck. I have gone over everything in the most minute detail, looking for gaps. I filled the gaps with medium viscosity CA glue and scraped and sanded the spots smooth. When I am satisfied, I move on to the pore filling stage. The E.I. Rosewood has some pretty big pores, so I start with some System 3 epoxy with silica thickener. I mix ~15ml of the epoxy and add enough silica to give it the consistency of heavy cream. I spread it with an expired gift card, scraping the goo over the surface as thin as I possibly can.

I let the epoxy cure overnight then sand lightly with some 400 grit sandpaper to knock down any nubs and ridges. One of the nice things about the epoxy is that it makes the color of the rosewood sparkle and adds depth to the grain.

The pores of the rosewood were pretty big so I needed to put on a second coat. The process is the same, apply, scrape off the excess, cure overnight and sand lightly.

The top got a slight variation of the process. Since the spruce is a closed-pore wood, I could do without the epoxy altogether. The rosette did have some pores (mostly in the mahogany strips). I used epoxy without the silica filler, and used only one coat.

The neck will get a different finish from the body, but I still wanted to get the shiny finish on the ebony peg head. I mixed up some epoxy and diluted it in half with alcohol. The epoxy was wiped on with a paper towel. Just like the effect on the rosewood, it makes the pearl inlay sparkle.

I used the same water-base lacquer (KTM-9) on the body as my first guitar. The front of the peghead was finished with the lacquer as well. The neck was finished with Tru-Oil. It is an oil finish that is supposed to leave a finish that is real pleasant to the touch. I rubbed the oil on with my fingers, letting it dry overnight between coats. The next day I scuffed the surface with some 0000 steel wool before rubbing on the next coat. I put on 5 coats, then set the neck aside for a few weeks to let it cure. The last step was to rub the finish using steel wool and paste wax. The result is a slick, satin finish.

A couple of new jigs

2007-04-07T15:48:00.000-05:00

As far as I can tell, all luthiers build a lot of jigs to make the process of building a guitar easier and more repeatable. The neck joint is one feature that is difficult to do free-hand, and is pretty easy to screw up. This particular guitar will have a double mortise and tenon joint. I learned about the joint in a couple of discussions on the OLF and then again on a set of DVDs I bought from John Mayes. The joint was pretty easy to do, and should make the eventual neck re-set easy to do as well. There are three jigs to complete this type of joint.

The first jig is used to cut the tenon on the neck. The neck has to be angled back from the plane of the top in order to have enough room for the bridge plus the action of the strings. The neck is clamped on the right side of the jig with the heel at the top. A template on top of the jig is used with a router to cut the tenon. The aluminum bar on the left is used to set the angle of the neck. As I write this I realize it would have been helpful to show a picture of the procedure used to set the angle of the neck. Plans for this jig can be purchased from the OLF.

Here is a picture of the business end of the jig. with the tenon routed. I will post pictures of the two other jigs when I write about guitar #3.

The next jig is a very simple gauge for measuring the thickness of tops, backs, sides or whatever. It is made from some scrap wood and a digital dial indicator from Harbor Freight. The dial indicator is attached to a piece of aluminum angle with a bolt. The end of the indicator contacts a carriage bolt. The round top of the bolt makes it easy to slide a piece of wood into the gauge without worrying that I'm holding it at an angle.

I clamp the thing in my vise when I am using it and hang it on a hook when I don't need it. The cost for this was less than $20, and I use it all the time.

catching up

2007-03-05T10:07:00.000-06:00

Well, work travel and a kitchen remodel have taken the majority of my time for a long while. I have been able to work on the guitar here and there over the last few months. Unfortunately, I have not kept up the blog to show what has been going on.

Picking up where I left off, making the fingerboard went pretty smoothly. I bound it with the same curly maple that I used on the box. I was worried about glue getting into the fret slots, so I used little pieces of plastic cut from a plastic milk jug to keep the slots clear.

I like the results. I think the maple will give a nice contrast to the ebony.

In the picture, you can see the two small nails I used to keep the fingerboard in position as I glued it onto the neck. I used a tiny drill bit to drill through the 1st and 12th fret slot, into the neck about a 1/4 inch.

There are two matching holes in the clamping caul. The fingerboard is glued on using white glue instead of yellow glue. This is to simplify life in the future, in case I ever need to remove the fingerboard from the neck.

With the fingerboard glued on, I moved on to carving the neck. I have not tried to match any particular neck profile yet. I simply work on it until it feels comfortable in my hands. I use the technique Robbie O'brien shows in his "Building a Steel String Guitar" dvd. I use a rasp to get the thickness to within a couple of mm at the 4th and 12th fret, then use a spokeshave to do the general shaping.

I find carving the neck a very satisfying process. In about an hour's time I find myself ankle-deep in mahagony shavings with a guitar neck in my hands.

When the neck is near the final thickness, I switch to a cabinet scraper to fine-tune the shape and remove any lumps. The final step involves using some 100 grit sandpaper to get it just right. In the picture, you can just make out the volute where the peghead meets the neck. I didn't try anything too fancy, just a smooth curving ridge.

With the neck shaped, it was time to add some bling.
I wanted to do some inlay, but wanted to keep the shapes fairly simple. The last thing I want at this step is to screw up all that work.

I bought some pre-cut MOP shapes from Andy at DePaule Supply. The 'Diamonds and Squares' set is pretty simple shapes, and has a bit for the peghead as well as the fingerboard.

The process starts by gluing the little bits in place with some model airplane glue, then using an x-acto knife to scribe a line around each shape. You can see all the pencil lines I drew to keep all the pieces centered between the frets and straight.

A little acetone softens the glue so you can pop them off with your fingers. I routed the space for the pieces with a dremel tool and some small bits I got from Stew-Mac. The process went pretty well, although I found out I really needed better light on my workbench. Oh, and next time I think I will do the fingerboard inlay before I glue the fingerboard to the neck.

I placed all the shell into their spaces in the neck and peghead , and flooded each with a little CA glue. After drying overnight, I sanded the glue and the shell down to the surface of the fingerboard using sandpaper wrapped around a small block of wood.

Making the fingerboard

2006-09-29T17:32:00.000-05:00

With the peghead fixed to my satisfaction, I turn to the fingerboard. I am using an African ebony fingerboard on this guitar. I plan to bind it with the same flamed maple I used for the body.

The first step was to plane off the tool marks from the fingerboard blank. I stuck it to the top of my workbench using a piece of double-sided tape and went at it with my #4 Bailey plane. In a matter of minutes, the floor was covered in black shavings. After getting top surface of the board nearly smooth, I used a cabinet scraper to finish it up. I turned the board over and did the same to the other side.

I picked a top surface and sanded the bottom on a sanding board to make sure the glued surface was perfectly flat. I marked a straight line along one edge and used a block plane to make the edge straight and smooth. Finally, I marked a line for the nut that was exactly 90 degrees to the side I planed smooth.

With the board smooth and flat, I marked out the fret scale.

I clamped the board to my sanding board and used the fret rule I bought from Stew-Mac. I am using the Martin short scale (24.9 inches) on this guitar.

I clamped the rule so the mark for the nut was on the line I scribed. Using an exacto-knife, I cut a little notch at each fret. When I had all 20 frets marked, I removed the ruler and used an engineers square to scribe each fret mark across the face of the board.

With all of the fret positions marked, I clamped the board in my miter box and sawed each fret.

With the frets cut, I then moved on to cutting a radius into the top surface of the fingerboard. The radius is there to make fretting the strings across the board easier for the player. The jig I use holds the fingerboard on an arm that rotates. The arm is mounted under the router.

The depth of the router is set to just rest on the surface of the fingerboard while it is centered. The arm is rotated slightly, and the router is passed up and down the length of the board. The arm is rotated some more, and the router is passed up and down. The process is repeated until the entire surface of the fingerboard has been cut.

Peg head trouble

2006-09-06T18:13:00.000-05:00

Well, I messed up the headstock on what was turning out to be a really nice looking neck. The neck is being made out of some African mahagony, with a scarf joint at the peghead and a stacked heel. The fingerboard and headplate are going to be African ebony I bought from A.C. Woods. Unfortunately, I made two mistakes. The first was neglecting to measure the posts on my tuners carefully. I left the headstock just a little too thick. The second: I tried to get all fancy and put some of the flamed maple binding around the edge of the headstock. It just turned out terribly! I cut the peghead into a nice (I thought) shape, with a few curves. I attempted to bend the binding into the curves, and ended up cracking a piece while gluing it in.

Now I can fix the headstock thickness by taking some off the back of the peghead. The broken binding on the peghead just got worse when I tried to route it off with my dremel tool. I slipped and routed out a big gouge. Fortunately, the gouge was limited to the ebony headplate, so I took that off and started over.

I removed the excess thickness from the peghead by sanding the back by hand. I also removed a little from the front since it was a little rough from removing the old headplate.

Here is a shot of the new headplate and the front of the peghead. I might be able to save this neck yet.

Now the new headplate was a little thicker than I wanted (~0.2 inch) so I sanded it down by hand to about 0.15 inch. The ebony dust was everywhere, but I had my gear on.

The day wasn't a total bust. I came up with a way to put a nice straight 15 degree angle on the front of the headplate where the nut will go. I put a piece of 220 grit PSA sandpaper on a little scrap of aluminum angle.

I clamped the headplate to the peghead, making sure it was overhanging the neck. I placed the angle with the abrasive on the neck and sanded down the front edge of the headplate. The result is a smooth, straight edge at just the right angle to the neck.

All thats left now is to glue the new headplate on and hope I can recover from this mess.

After the glue had dried for about 24 hours, I trimmed the headplate down to size. I used a scraper to get the edges flush with the peghead.

I had to be real careful re-drilling the holes for the tuners. Using my drill press, I drilled from the back of the peghead with the 0.250 bit, then turned it over and used the reamer from the front to make the hole wide enough for the ferrule.

So far, so good.

Back in the Shop!

2006-09-05T12:54:00.000-05:00

It has been one long hot summer this year. Central Texas has been suffering through nearly a solid month of 100+F degree days. Coupled with the drought conditions (last measurable rain in early July), it has not been much fun to be out doors (or in the sauna that was my workshop) for extended periods of time. This weekend finally brought a little rain and a break in the heat. With the shop at a more comfortable temperature, I spent nearly the entire 3-day weekend in the shop.

Now, I haven't been completely idle during all this time. I spent some time building a few jigs and working on the neck for #2. Here is a jig built from plans by Paul Woolson that is used to route the tenon on the neck. You can find the plans here.

The jig holds the neck against the template for the tenon. The guitar body is placed against the metal bar sticking up through the top of the jig. The bar is attached to the support piece that holds the neck. The bar is rotated until it is at the correct height at the place where the bridge will be glued on. The angle of the support piece (and the neck) is then locked into place before the tenon is routed.

After routing the tenon, the heel of the neck is pretty close to the angle that will result in the strings being at the proper height at the bridge. When the neck is attached to the guitar body, only minor adjustments will be needed to get the angle just right.

Closing the Box

2006-06-09T17:53:00.000-05:00

With the back braced and the sides prepared, I glued them together using the go-bar deck. I have a piece of hardboard that I use to protect the back from the fiberglass rods. Because the sides have been sanded in the radius dishes, I place them on the dish with the radius I use for the top. It's hard to see in the picture, but it is a 30 foot radius. This keeps the sides from being deformed by the clamping pressure.

While the back is being glued on, I turn to the top. After cutting out the soundhole with the dremel, I cut and glued the brace wood to the underside of the top. The brace wood is Lutz spruce as well.

The braces were cut to size and the bottom of the brace was shaped to match the 30 foot radius by using a block plane and sanding in the radius dish. I placed the top in the dish and use the go-bar to clamp while the glue dries.

After the main braces are glued on, they are shaped. I used some measurements from a Martin D-28 to determine how to scallop the braces. I use a chisel and sandpaper to get them to the right height and shape.

I also glued a small piece of spruce on the intersection of the x-braces. This is supposed to improve the integrity of the joint, and prevent it from splitting sometime in the future.

You can see that I omit the thin "popsicle" brace from the upper bout. Since I will be using a double-mortice type of neck joint, I wont be needing it.

I also add a couple of small diamond shaped braces to the center seam on the bottom bout. Here you can see I am gluing on a maple bridge plate and some soundhole braces. After everything is dry, I am ready to glue the top onto the sides. I use the same method I used for gluing on the back.

With the top and back attached to the sides, I can take it out of the form.

The next step is to route a channel in the top and back for the binding and purfling strips. I use the dremel for this step as well.

The binding strips are the pieces of flamed maple that I glued the black/white purfling strips to previously. The purfling for the top will be more of the purfling I used around the rosette. It is flamed mahogany with black on the edges. Since the binding strips are wood, I bent them to match the shape of the guitar using my hot-pipe.

I find the process of gluing the bindings on to be one of the more difficult steps. It is difficult to get the channel just right with the dremel, so I end up adjusting it with a chisel and a file.

The b/w purfling that was glued on must also be trimmed and mitered so that it matches up with the purfling on the edge of the end wedge. After everything is trimmed just right, I put a bead of glue around the guitar and quickly tape everything in place. After adjusting the fit around the end wedge, I wrap some binding tape tightly around the guitar. The binding tape pulls the binding in tight to the sides, so there are no gaps. I found this technique on Robert O'brien's dvd Build A Steel String Guitar.

The technique works pretty well. Here you can see the end wedge. There is a gap, but its pretty small.

After the glue is dry on the binding on both the top and back, I clean up all the glue squeeze-out and trim the binding flush with the top, back and sides. I use a cabinet scraper and sandpaper. Wiping the sides and back with mineral spirits makes any leftover glue film easy to see. If any is left behind, it will show up when the finish is applied.

Making the Rosette

2006-05-09T11:12:00.000-05:00

A change of plans

Well, a couple of things came up that changed my plans to glue the back onto the sides. First was the Old Settlers Music Fest. This is usually the first outdoor music event of the year for us. B and I spent the Friday and Saturday enjoying the central Texas springtime weather listening to some really fine music. We caught some really fine music that weekend: Uncle Earl, Marley's Ghost, Del McCoury, Keller Williams, Tony Rice and Peter Rowan, Eddie From Ohio, Monte Montgommery and more. There was also a tribute to Vassar Clemens. And as always, the various workshops. I caught the Mandolin and Guitar workshops this year.

The second issue was the weather. The last couple of weeks have been pretty humid. Lots of rain here in central Texas. I was hesitant to glue two major pieces together when the humidity in the shop was generally more than 50%. The third thing was a lack of fiberglass rods for my go-bar deck. That is the contraption I use to clamp various parts together when gluing. I will show a picture in the near future. I ordered some more rods from Into The Wind. They supply kites and kite supplies and have really reasonable prices on fiberglass rods.

Preparing the Sounboard

I had joined the two halves of the soundboard a couple of weeks ago. Last weekend I used my router sled to reduce the thickness down to ~3.2mm. I then switched to a scraper to remove most of the marks left by the router bit and get the thickness down to ~2.9mm. The last bit was removed with an RO sander and 80 grit paper. The final thickness is ~2.8mm.

With the soundboard at the final thickness, I started on the rosette. First, I determined the placement of the soundhole. I have decided to use the Martin 'short' scale for this one. The short scale is 24.9" while the long scale is 25.34". The shorter distance from nut to bridge means the the soundhole and bracing will move slightly relative to the long scale. With the center of the soundhole marked, I layed out the rosette.

I will be using a piece of spalted Maple bounded by two pieces of b/w/mahogany/w/b purfling strips. The purfling strips have a little flame in them, and will add a nice contrats between the maple and the spruce soundboard. I got the strips and the spalted maple from RC Tonewoods.

After marking the rosette on the soundboard using a compass, I also mark it on the maple. I use a dremel with a downcut bit and the Stew-Mac rosette jig to make the cuts.

First I make the outer cut on the outside of the maple. I then adjust the jig so the router bit is just inside the outer edge of the maple circle and make a cut in the soundboard.

I go through the same process for the inner edge of the maple ring and the inner edge of the trench in the soundboard. After the area for the maple ring is defined on the soundboard, I route out the inside of the ring, then test the fit of the maple ring. The purfling strips are bent on a hot pipe to the approximate size of the ring.

I had to take off just a tiny bit more from the edge of the trench to get the maple ring to fit. When I was satisfied with the fit, I flooded the trench with CA glue and pressed the ring into it. After about 20 minutes, the glue had dried enough and I leveled the maple ring until it was pretty much flush with the surface of the soundboard.

The last step was to cut channels for the purfling strips on the inner and outer side of the maple ring. I glued the purfling in using Titebond glue. The Titebond has enough moisture in it to cause the wood to swell, closing up any gaps. I put a piece of wax paper over the rosette and placed a weight on it, leaving it to dry over night.

The next day, I scraped the surface of the purfling flush with the soundboard and cleaned up all the glue on the surface.

Guitar #2: Working on the back

2006-04-25T11:40:00.000-05:00

Preparing the Binding/purfling

Before I get into the construction of the back, I prepared the binding for the guitar. I will be using a flamed maple binding for a high contrast with the dark rosewood back and sides. To add a little additional detail to the binding I wanted to add a black/white purfling line between the maple and the rosewood.

Its pretty easy to route a ledge in the top or the back and glue the purfling into it before the binding is glued on, but I don't think I can take the same approach on the sides. I glued a strip of black/white purfling to the edge of each strip of the maple binding material. I will bend the binding and purfling as one piece, then install it as one piece.

I took a short piece of the maple and glued two strips of purfling on both sides. I then inlayed this piece into the guitar sides as an end graft. Here is a picture of it. The thin white line next to the dark rosewood and the thin dark line next to the maple will give a real nice contrast.

The Back Plate

After carefully joining the two pieces of the back and reducing the thickness down to about 0.090" I marked the outline of the guitar using my template.

I used a coping saw with a fine blade to cut the back down to size. I made my cut about a quarter of an inch outside the template outline to allow for some error. I will remove the excess with a router after the top and back are glued to the sides.

After a quick check to see how things fit I moved on to cutting the braces and gluing them to the back.

The brace material was the Lutz spruce from High Mountain Tonewood, just like the soundboard. The back strip material was cut from the protective pieces Shane used to ship the wood. I will have enough for about a dozen backs.

I cut the braces to the approximate size, then used a block plane to get the dimensions closer to final.

In the last picture, you can see the sanding dish I use to give a dome shape to the back. I planed and sanded each of the braces to match the dome, then glued everything in place.

After shaping the braces with a chisel and sandpaper, I'm ready to glue the back to the sides.

Guitar #2

2006-03-24T12:49:00.000-06:00

I started building the second guitar about a month ago. It's going to be another dreadnaught, built from the same plans as the first one. The materials will be a little different, a little higher grade than the first one.

I found all of the materials on-line, from sources found on the OLF. The soundboard will be AAA grade 'Lutz' spruce from Shane Neifer at High Mountain Tonewood. Lutz spruce is a hybrid of sitka, englemann, and white spruce that grouws in BC and Alaska. The brace wood is also Lutz spruce form Shane.

The back and sides will be made of East Indian Rosewood that I bought from Steve Roberson at Colonial Tonewoods. I also bought some mahogany for the tail and neck block from Colonial Tonewoods as well as some reverse kerfing. Above, you can see the back has been joined and is ready to be thinned. I built a jig for my router that I use to get the sides, back and top pieces near the final thickness. I use a cabinet scraper and an old #4 plane to get within 0.01inch of the final thickness and then switch to a random orbital sander with 80 grit paper to get to the final thickness.

I didn't get pictures of the side bending process, but is a picture of the sides in the dreadnaught form. You can see the heel block and the neck block have also been installed. The kerfing has also been glued on and the rims have been sanded to the final depth and profile.

Here is a shot of the top side of the rims. You can see the plywood extension on the neck block that will support the fingerboard where it extends onto the soundboard. The neck will be attached using a double-mortice and tenon joint. I will show how this particular neck joint works in the coming weeks.

My First Build

2006-03-23T09:35:00.000-06:00

A couple of years ago I accompanied my wife to a holiday party for an organization she belongs to. The group held it in the home of one of the members. The husband was retired, but had worked at both Fender and Peavey. He still built guitars as a hobby and a part-time business, and shop was pretty impressive! He was building electrics mostly, but had a couple of acoustics as well. I spent most of the party talking to him out in the shop.

I thought about the guy's shop for a while and decided to try one myself. Last year I cleaned up the rarely used workbench in the garage and set about to build my first guitar.

After looking in the local bookstores and on the web for ideas, I came across a few resources. The first was a book by Cumpiano and Natelson called Guitarmaking: Tradition and Technology.

I also found a couple of places to get the materials: Luthiers Mercantile International and Stewart-MacDonald. I thought it over for a while longer and decided to try out one of the acoustic guitar kits.

I had a workbench, a few hand tools and enough confidence in my own abilities that I wanted to do as much of the building process as possible. LMI had what I wanted: a kit with all the pieces in one box, but without doing too much of the work for me.

The basic steel string kit seemed like a good choice. It came with all the parts needed to make a guitar, the wood was at the needed dimensions, but all of the shaping was left to me. At a little less than $250, I felt like it was a good way to start.

So, here are some pictures of the finished product. I am pretty pleased with the results. It sounds great and gives me a real sense of accomplishment.

I didn't take pictures while I was building it. I have started on the second, and will include pictures as I go through the process.

Driftwood Guitars

2006-03-21T15:46:00.000-06:00

Welcome!

I will be writing about the process of building my next acoustic guitar. There are as many ways to build an acoustic guitar as there are builders. Along the way I will post pictures of my shop and the way I do things.