Archive for March, 2009

Phinney Neighborhood Center Auction

March 30, 2009

sMg Guitars are featured front and center as a live auction item in Phinney’s upcomming fundraising auction.  The auction is for the labor to construct the guitar of the winning bidder’s choice.  You can access the auction list at http://www.phinneycenter.org/events/auction_hotlist_2009.shtml

There’s a link in the listing to this blog.  If you’ve arrived at the blog from the auction link, and are a potential interested bidder, use the comments feature here to post queries.

Guitar 901 – Mahogany Stain on Resonator Body and Neck

March 29, 2009

Applied Mahogany Red to the Zebrawood body and mahogony neck for the Resonator guitar.

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There’s a few spots where glue hasn’t been sanded out, so I’ll need to go back and bring that down to wood, then spot stain again.

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Guitar 902 – Back Binding on the Parlor in place

March 28, 2009

Got the complementary back binding installed on the Parlor.

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There’s lots of scraping to be done to get down to level with the koa/BWB/Curly Maple binding.

Collecting Dust

March 28, 2009

After rearranging the garage, where all the power tools reside, and making room for my new (used) drum sander, I decided to take a step toward central dust collection.

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The drum sander has a collection bag, and some damaged ducts, so I’ll repair the ducts and continue to use the bag attachment for this one.  I installed a central collection system attached to my shop vac for the Miter Saw, the Table Saw, the Sanding Station and the Band Saw.

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It’s really cool to watch all the dust zoom through the clear tubes.

Guitar 902 – Personal Parlor gets Personal

March 22, 2009

I’ve been paying most of my building attention to the new Parlor, which has, up until today, been for ME.  But as I progress and show it off to Carol, she becomes more and more covetous (one having covet).  She has been picking up guitars (of which there are a few around the house) and playing.  I haven’t heard her play in years, and it’s (dare I say) cute.  She likes the parlor size, and now she’s enamoured with the flavor of the parlor I’m building.  She wants it to be hers, and I’m more than happy to make it so.  Plus, she claims I can play it whenever I want to, so it’s a double bonus.  First, I make my wife happy, and second, I still in almost every way, have my personal parlor.  Oh me, life is beautiful.

I installed the top binding/purfling and the sycamore (maple relative) headstock veneer.  I always thought I would add some red to the binding, headstock and butt graft, but the more I looked at the guitar with the blonde binding, headstock and graft, the better I liked the contrast between the koa/mahogany and the accented binding.  I’m going to keep it white.  And, I’m going to add  some flair (oooh, I hate that word) by trimming out the headstock with some purfling which was originally going to be the back center strip.

I declined from inserting a back center strip to give the back a full koa treatment without any interference.  I will decorate with purfling around the top and back and (a recent decision) the headstock.

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It was after I installed the top binding and purfling that I started thinking about the back purfling and headstock purfling.  I did the headstock, took a close look, and decided that the back will also get the purfling, and the maple/sycamore will remain unstained.

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The back will remain “clean”, yet will have the same binding and purfling treatment as the top.

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I worked carefully to get the purfling on the headstock aligned and bent properly, and I think it turned out nicely.  I’m a little concerned about the edges being of pliable material, but I’ve coated in CA glue to give it some strength/substance, and hopefully the combination of this and the lacquer will give it sufficient hardness and strength (but only results will tell).

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So here it is in its prelim form, with a hint of what it might look like when finished.

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Guitar 901 – Resonator moves forward

March 22, 2009

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve posted, but  I have been busy.  I’ve been spritzing Boeshield on my power tools and I got the garage cleaned and arranged and everything fits nicely.  The new (used) drum sander is in place with a repaired switch, and the new oscillating spindle sander is in the shop and has already contributed to nice neck shapes.

The resonator guitar has been neglected recently, but I got back on it and set the frets, attached the neck and worked on setting up the saddle and string height.

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It’s all scraped and sanded and ready for the next step of grain filling and staining (OK, after sanding @ 220 one more time).

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Still need to trim back the frets and bevel, but I’m letting them settle for a day.

Guitar 804 – Photo Gallery Time

March 21, 2009

Once again, Tom has produced a fine documenation of my guitars.  Take a look.

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Go to the gallery for the full treatment.

Guitar 902 – Box assembled

March 18, 2009

Got the body assembled, back and top glued on.  Next step is binding/purfling.

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Guitar 804 – Koa Parlor is complete

March 8, 2009

Save a few ding repairs, polishing of the nut and saddle, and some minor string height work, the Koa Parlor is complete.  This guitar would have been completed sooner had I not agreed to an emergency secret gift commission for my brother in law (the 12 string Dreadnought).

I have completed 5 guitars, and two more are in the works.  I had no expectations on what the sound of this little guitar would bring, but in the end, it is very pleasing, and quite bold for such a little box.  It gives me hope for my own Parlor I am currently constucting.

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Guitar 805 – I’m buff

March 4, 2009

Sanded down, buffed and made it glimmer.

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