sMg Guitars

November 24, 2010

Yesterday I installed a plugin on my blog which is supposed to feed my posts to my wall on Facebook.  This way I can annoy additional people who don’t visit this blog and “reach a wider audience”.  I’m practicing my social media vocabulary.  What follows is a post I made yesterday before I installed the plugin to see if it really works.

Today is a snow day, which means I don’t have to work!  Work being teaching math at a high school.  The power is still on, so my power tools and lights work down in the shop, and I’ve got lots I can work on.  I’m juggling several projects right now, a koa dreadnought, a bubinga uke, and a new entry, a palo escrito hybrid with my first cutaway.  I’m also supporting an intern who is working on a walnut OM.  In addition, I’ve got lots of workshop organization and cleanup to do.

I introduced a new power tool into my garage; a planer.

I moved the compressor to a temporary location to make room for the planer, merely delaying the inevitable; where do I put the compressor?

Anyway, minor issues, lots of work available to choose from, and I’m damn excited.

November 23, 2010

This is a test.  Had this been a real emergency, it would not have been a test.

November 23, 2010

Today is a snow day, which means I don’t have to work!  Work being teaching math at a high school.  The power is still on, so my power tools and lights work down in the shop, and I’ve got lots I can work on.  I’m juggling several projects right now, a koa dreadnought, a bubinga uke, and a new entry, a palo escrito hybrid with my first cutaway.  I’m also supporting an intern who is working on a walnut OM.  In addition, I’ve got lots of workshop organization and cleanup to do.

I introduced a new power tool into my garage; a planer.

I moved the compressor to a temporary location to make room for the planer, merely delaying the inevitable; where do I put the compressor?

Anyway, minor issues, lots of work available to choose from, and I’m damn excited.

November 22, 2010

Jim challenged me as to whether this neck was cedar or mahogany.  I mistakenly identified it as cedar but confirmed that it’s Honduran Mahogany.  It’s lighter than the Sapele or African that I’ve used in the past leading me to misidentify it as Cedar.  Mahogany it is.

I’ve formed and installed a Camatillo center laminate strip.  Camatillo is very red and should provide excellent contrast to the neck once finished.

I created a softwood template of the headstock shape, which I used to trace over the headstock to check position.  This view is from the top.  The lam strip will only be visible from the underside of the neck and headstock as the rosewood headplate and the fretboard will be installed on top.

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.