Guitar 905 – Back assembled, graphite in neck
September 11, 2009
Got my shipment of graphite rods, installed with epoxy into neck and attached back to sides.
Archive for September, 2009
Guitar 902 – Koa/Mahogany Parlor has strings!
September 8, 2009
Beth! This progress on Carol’s guitar means yours is next. As of tomorrow, it will be buffed, neck installed and bridge installed waiting for strings. I learned a whole lot while finishing and doing the setup for Carol’s guitar, at least about the value of making sure all glue squeezeout is fully washed off before drying.
Guitar 902 has all components installed and is ready for detailed setup and cleanup. The strings are on, the saddle is roughly to shape, the nut is notched and dry fit onto the neck, and it will sit with the strings on for a few days, to settle in, before I fine tune the setup, trim the frets, level the frets, crown the frets, and polish up the fretboard. The bridge needs to be “blackened” (ebony these days can be a little streaky), and the body needs to be resanded and repolished to remove the detritus from the neck and bridge install. Finally, the body grunge will be evacuated with compressed air, and the wonderful sMg label will be installed, and Carol can wrap her stubby little fingers around it and play her Joni Mitchell songs.
Guitar 902 – Bridge is on….must protect finish
September 7, 2009
I’ve been working on revitalizing the finish and cleaning up the fretboard after installing the bridge. I tried rebuffing after installing the bridge, but I think the answer is to do some 1200 wet sanding again to clean up some of the glue which got onto the lacquer.
Guitar 905 – Planing down the sides
September 7, 2009
The top has been kerfed. I need to bring the back down to the blocks and accomodate the 15′ radius as I plane. Still have a bit to go.
Guitar 906 – Headstock and Fretboard Inlay
September 7, 2009
Carl’s inlay arrived. I’ve got quite the task ahead to create the channels for inserting this vine/thorn inlay.
Guitar 902 – Neck mounting
September 5, 2009
After buffing and installing the tuning machines, I dry fit the neck onto the body to score the top where the fretboard meets the top. I will use this score mark as a guide to remove the lacquer to allow gluing the fretboard to the top.
After scoring and removing the neck, I masked just outside of the score mark and applied lacquer stripper. 3 applications were necessary to fully free the lacquer, which I scraped using a 1/2″ vertical chisel.
Once the stripper/lacquer was fully removed and washed with water, I applied glue to the top, slipped on the neck, tightened the neck bolts and clamped the fretboard. This will sit for several hours before moving on to the bridge install.
Guitar 905 – Kerfing
September 5, 2009
Got the sides in the mold, did some preliminary planing to bring sides down close to final width, then used the 30′ radius dish to shape top side then installed top kerf.
Guitar 905 – Sides in mold, butt block attached
September 3, 2009
I freed up the spreaders from the Koa/Redwood Parlor. I was able to insert the walnut sides I bent previously in the mold and then attach the end block.
Guitar 906 – Box assembled
September 3, 2009
I have completed the assemble of the box for the Koa/Redwood Parlor. I mounted the top last night and the back this morning.
After drying, I removed the mold (oh yes, and I removed the spreaders before mounting the back) and trimmed the scarf/overhang with a bearing flush router bit.
Guitar 906 – Top glued to sides
September 2, 2009
Worked on 906, notched sides for where braces meet kerf and glued top to the sides.
Damn autofocus thinks the bar for the platform is the most important object.
Tomorrow I can glue on the back after removing the spreaders, then I can use the spreaders for putting the sides for 905 in a mold.
