sMg Guitars

November 21, 2010

Yesterday, Jim turned over cedar plates for the top, Palo Escrito back and sides, some kerf, fret wire and tuners for guitar 1002.  I took this as a challenge to get started working.

Jim got the wood from LMI.  I haven’t worked with cedar nor Palo Escrito.  Here’s what they have to say about Palo Escrito: Palo Escrito is the premiere native back and side wood used by the luthiers in Paracho, Mexico. It is a true Rosewood, but differs from Indian Rosewood visually with slightly wider grain, more figure, and lighter color. It is also lighter in weight. Although Palo Escrito is a natural for flamenco guitars, classical builders like Kenny Hill and Dake Traphagen have enjoyed using it, and steel string builder James Goodall has been very enthusiastic about the tone of the guitars he’s used it on. Moderately priced and plentiful, each set is unique.

I’m working on the neck this weekend.  A first for me, using Cedar for the neck wood.  I measured the blank for cutting the 10 degree headstock angle, then used my bandsaw jig to cut.  After truing with a hand planer, the headstock piece was rotated and glued.

This guitar will have the Spanish Heel, so that was taken into account when measuring and cutting the heel block stack.

It’s had a couple of hours to cure, so I removed it from the clamps in order to measure for the camatillo center strip construction.

Jim wants a tri-laminate neck, for stability and decoration.  I’m constructing a 3/16″ wide camatillo center strip which mimics the blocked out neck.

After everything comes out of the clamps tomorrow, I’ll put my new planer to work getting square sides on the neck and the camatillo, then I’ll slice the neck down the center on the table saw, then laminate the three pieces.

Jim likes the headstock design from the Macaferri plans.

I lined up the tuning machines, and noted that due to the narrowing of the headstock toward the top, the tuning barrels will be too long and need to be trimmed back slightly to keep from jamming.

November 21, 2010

New toy purchased this weekend.  I found, at a very reasonable price, a used planer for my shop.

November 16, 2010

Neck nibbling, tapering, shaping and installing of the headstock veneer.

November 11, 2010

Devin, my apprentice, has been working on Guitar 903.  This guitar started out months ago, and got only as far as bent sides and preliminary neck shaping.  Devin has taken the reins and has been working on bracing the top.

We’ve taken the walnut I procured last year in the Berkshires and thickness sanded and joined.  Next step, back bracing.

November 16, 2010

The binding has been installed.

Now the scraping and shaping.

November 11, 2010

Routed the channels in the body back and top for the binding and purfling.  Used a rubber band wrap to pull bindings in and hold secure.

November 7, 2010

Wow, that extra hour of sleep really helped.  I’ve made excellent progress on the koa dreadnought today, and it’s just a few steps away from being a real guitar.

I finished up the brace shaping, sanding and cleaning up both the top and the back before installing.  It’s tradition to sign the inside of the top before gluing.

The dreadnought employs scalloped top bracing, as shown here.

The first step before installing the top and the back is to notch the sides where the bracing and tone bars pass through the kerf.  Much care is taken to keep the plates centered while marking the notches for the braces.  After notching, renotching, checking and rechecking, both the top and back are fitted and ready for installation.

First, the back is glued on, then side grafts are added to ensure the sides resist cracking along the grain lines (over time).

The spreaders are removed and the side grafts are glued in.  One of those spreaders remained (the smaller one) as the sides came in a wee bit when all spreaders were removed.  The small spreader can be removed through the soundhole after the top is on.

After a few hours curing, the body is removed from the gobar clamping system and the overhang from the top and back can be removed with a router using a bearing bit.

I’m continuing the slow process of radius sanding the fretboard.  As soon as I have shimmery MOP throughout, I’ll finish off with fine paper and a buff before cutting the taper.

Finally, a little preview of the guitar before installing the binding.

November 5, 2010

I settled on a shape for the headstock and cut it out on the bandsaw.  Also drilled tuning machine holes, then dry fit tuners for a look see.

November 5, 2010

Time to fall back.  Since I’m gaining an hour this weekend, I’m sure I’ll get a lot done.  The uke sides are sitting in a mold, the back is waiting to be thicknessed, and the top is ready for bracing.

November 1, 2010

Side bending went swimmingly.   Did a little cleaning up of a few minor flat spots from the bending which are a result of the sides being a wee bit thicker than ideal.  The holding frame works really well and I’m considering building for guitars as well.