After a long time away from the shop, I spent a few hours today on the setup of guitar 008. I guess I got a little too excited about 009 and finished it first. I have been playing it for a few months and really enjoy the smaller guitar feel. 008 is a big bold classic body style. Will post some pics of the final build soon. I think I will focus on another L-O body style for 010 in 2025.
I'm back
After a few years of not documenting builds, I am back. I have completed guitars 006, 007, and almost finished 008 and 009. Also finished a studio desk for recording gear. I have added the specifications for each guitar.
Closing the box - 006
The back was sanded to final thickness, then the reinforcement strip was glued in place. Next the back braces were cut to size from a block of mahogany. These were then trimmed and radiused to 15’ and glued in place. Finally these were shaped and sanded and the back was trimmed to fit in the kerfing and glued into place. The box was closed.
Attaching the top
Shaped the braces to “voice” the soundboard. Then trimmed the soundboard to the arm bevel shape. The sides have to be trimmed where the x-braces meet and the kerfing is removed where the transverse brace intersects. Once all these things are cut and the braces trimmed then the soundboard fits into place perfectly.
Bracing 006
I spent time today bracing the soundboard. I don’t have redwood for the bracing, so I used Spanish cedar. I also cut and placed the flame maple end wedge. Trying a few new things in this one based on the videos by Driftwood guitars on YouTube. Changing the shape of the transverse brace and tucking the bridge plate under the X-brace.
Here are the finished guitars
004
004
004
004
005
005
005
005
Guitars 004 and 005 Complete
Exciting day. It is so cool to see these guitars completed. There is a fairly long process to setup the guitar, starting with leveling the frets again, adjusting the truss rod, setting the action by adjusting the nut and saddle and making sure the intonation is correct. I tuned - detuned - tuned these guitars so many times today and thankfully no broken strings, just 10 very sore fingers.
004 getting the setup
Starting to finish the finish…
With the building done, time to start applying the French polish. This starts with pore fill, sanding, sealing, and polishing with shellac. Sore left shoulder.
Building bridges
Nearing the end on these guitars. The last thing to build is bridge. After that, it is applying the finish and then setup. I have a pretty good routine for the bridges after the last two I built. It is great to see it go from a block of wood to an actual guitar bridge in about an hour.
Have to tape off the area of the soundboard where the bridge will be glued before the finish is applied.
Arm Bevel and Soundboard for 006
In between gluing the inlay for 004 and 005, I did a few things for 006. I glued the kerfing to the top and then radiused it to 30’. Next I needed to work on the soundboard. I am going to use redwood on this one and I sanded it down a little, then installed the rosette. I cut the channels with Dremel and StewMac rosette cutting jig. Still super impressed with this setup. This was my first time to use “Zipflex” from Advanced Shell Technology and it was super easy to use. Once the shell and the purfling strip was in place, I sanded a little more to get things flush. This top seems to have great tone already.
More Neck work
Now that the fingerboards are in place, it is time to start getting ready for placing the frets. Before they are tapped in, the fretboard has to be radiused and have to ensure it is flat across its length from nut to soundboard. Lots of monotonous sanding and checking. Then the inlay has to be done. This is easy on these guitars as it can be placed with a drill bit and some CA glue. Then things are sanded again. The side dots are also placed with drill bit and then some CA glue.
Making Maple binding
After watching a YouTube video by Driftwood guitars on making maple binding, I decided to buy a piece of figured maple from curlymaplewood. The wood looked amazing out of the box, and with a little time on the bandsaw and drum sander… figured maple bindings. Definitely worth the minimal effort.
Gluing fingerboards
With the initial shaping of the neck and the mortise and tenon neck joint complete, it was time to get the fingerboards on the neck. This involves ensuring the centerline if the neck and fingerboard is correct so that the bridge will be in the correct location, and that the width and thickness of the neck is correct. Lots of little checks and tweaks, then gluing the finger board in place.
Progress on necks and a new twist
Taking the next step is sometimes a little more scary than the last. Anytime I start a step that will be critical in the final guitar setup and sound or anytime I try something that I haven’t done before, I feel that fear. I did both of those things that last few days. I started on the necks for #4 and #5 and then thought I would try an arm bevel on #6. Here’s goes…
The truss rod slots are in place
Gluing the headstock veneers in place
Before the mortise and tenon for the neck can be cut the angle of the neck and body joint has to be determined
Here are the necks prior to tenon being cut
The neck shaping has started
Neck has been shaped about 80%
One done, another to go…
Neck attached to the body of #4
Neck attached to #5
Arm bevel cut into the upper bout of #6
Basswood block rough shaped
Rough fit, lots of shaping before gluing in place
Binding 004 and 005
With the bodies closed, now to one of my favorite parts - binding. The LMI biding routing jig makes this repeatable and precise. The binding and purfling really dress the guitar and feels like the last step in the guitar body build.
Closing the bodies on 004 and 005
Spent some time gluing and shaping braces. Then a little more time shaping braces. Then some tapping of soundboards and a little more tapping of soundboards. Finally, I was ready to close the bodies on the next two guitars. I am trying to be more mindful to record how I do things this time around.
I also did some work on one of the OM guitars by trimming the sides to length and to the near final width. I cut the end and heelblocks to size and tapered them end block to fit the curve of the back. Once everything was sized, I glued them in place.
Too Long, but back at it...
Back to the shop and work on 004 and 005. It has been all soundboard work. I started by sanding to near final thickness (~3mm) using the drum sander. Next I used the Stew-Mac rosette cutter with my Dremel tool to inlay the rosette. This worked much more consistently in regards to the depth of cut when compared to the drill press cutter. I installed a Koa rosette with thin black-white-black wood purfling on 004 (Monkeypod) and a marquetry rosette on 005 (Bubinga). Once they were installed and dried, I sanded to final thickness of ~2.8mm. Then I cut to rough shape on the bandsaw. Next, I started the braces for the soundboards using spruce brace wood. This is a long, boring process (to me), but I love having the braces in place and starting to shape them.
Catch-up Day
After a long hiatus, I was back in the shop to catch-up on several things. I purchased some wood from LMI in the fall and decided to join the tops and backs and bend the sides for OM guitars. I also added the back braces to the second series of dreadnoughts and then joined them to the bodies.
Neck Blanks
I had some mahogany for neck blanks from many years ago and I decided to laminate the pieces with walnut and maple to add a little width to the headstock. The general process was to cut the excess off the heel end to laminate to make the heel. The remainder was then glued to have the laminate center strip. One end will become the headstock, so a 15 degree scarf joint was cut using a jig on the bandsaw. Once the headstock is cut off then it has to be thicknessed to allow for the tuners later. This was also done on the bandsaw using a rip fence. The rough scarf joint and the thicknessing was then cleaned up using a hand plane. The heel block and headstock were then glued in place using a jig. I ended up with 5 neck blanks that are for 24.5 in scale.
Ukelele
I decided to try a baritone ukulele kit from StewMac. The kit was great and since I had a lot of the tools, the build went quickly and I was able to finish it over a weekend.
