sMg Guitars

November 12, 2008

The wood for the 12-string dreadnought arrived today.  Very nice stuff.  The top is cedar.

This will be my first try at thickness planing and joining.  I’m wavering between visiting a colleague with a drum sander or trying the Safe-T-Planer on the drill press.

The back and sides are walnut, with very interesting pattern.  There’s some heartwood on the sides that I may try to incorporate.  I’ll have to avoid the knot, but there’s enough length to include or exclude the heartwood.

The back wood is quite thick and a little warped.  I’m still not sure how to proceed with the thickness planing.  Do I try and relieve the warp first?  Or plane through the warp?  Hmm.

November 10, 2008

I’ve put more into the bender as I mentioned earlier.  Here are a few images.

Also, I ordered zebrawood and sitka spruce with the 12 string kit.  The walnut and cedar for the 12 string is coming from another source.  But, by ordering a full complement of components through the LMI kit wizard, I get a substantial discount on each piece.  I’ll use the zebra for my next guitar, whatever it may be.

Finally, the spruce came with issues.  I wrote LMI and they are thinking about resolution which includes perhaps sending me a new spruce top.

November 9, 2008

Geez, the bold button won’t turn off.  I’m not shouting, I promise.

OK, there it goes.  I’m applying water based lacquer to guitar 803 after the greening endeavor.  In between lacquer coats I have completed the construction of the side bending machine.  I’ve received the stainless sheets and silicon heating blanket, and the final step will be to build the guitar specific molds, in this case, a dreadnought.

I have also embarked on designing the binding, purfling, rosette, and headstock.  I took measures on my Taylor 12 string to see the differences between the dreadnought pattern and the 12-string guitar actuals.  As expected, the neck is wider, and the headstock is much larger.  Much larger so that I was worried I wouldn’t have enough neck stock.  The width at the tip of the headstock was of concern, and at 3.25″, my mahogany neck blank is just that, so I’ll have enough width, and length if I carefully build the neck stack to be “just right”.  In other words, I won’t have much room for oversizing.

Also, my sMg headplates aren’t large enough for a 12-string headstock.  I’ve got some Ideas about a chevron type design for the headplate, but will have to experiment to assure it doesn’t look too much like a clown suit. 

I’ve gone out on a limb to create a multi line purfling which won’t be too busy, but will be striking (I hope).  For the top binding it will be curly maple/brown white black purfling (see gallery).  The back strip is complementary to the purfling for the top (see gallery).  The back binding will be curly maple/ black white/ walnut back.  The sides will be curly/bw.  I’ll use a curly maple end graft and heel graft.  The rosette will be (starting from the outer ring)  BWB cedar BWB abalone BWB cedar BWB.

Still awaiting the delivery of the wood.  I have all the components for the rest of the guitar, and am ready to start upon receipt of the back/sides/top.

November 3, 2008

Larry dropped by and we made greenbacks!  Oh yes, it’s green.

November 2, 2008

I’m scrambling to be ready for Larry when he comes over tomorrow as I promised I would be ready to stain.  I really need to get the surface baby bottom smooth, and make sure I get any surface glue sanded away to ensure an even stain absorbtion.  I’m working with 100 grit paper to get all the rough spots levelled down and all the glue from the binding shaved off the maple surface.  In between sandings, I’m wetting the wood to expose where there are still glue patches.  The wetting also pulls grain up out of the interior of the wood to the surface, allowing further sanding and assuring of a completely smooth surface.

I found an old post where I documented the stain we will be using.  I say 75% green, 25% tobacco brown in a 65% solution (whatever THAT means!).  I think it’s this….if you use 10 drops in 2 oz. of water, then 7.5 drops green and 2.5 drops tobacco brown at 100% for 2 oz. water.  65% fewer drops = .65 x 7.5 green = 5.5 drops.  And .65 x 2.5 tobacco = 1.6 drops.  Make 10 oz. of solution with 28 drops green and 8 drops of tobacco brown.

I finished fretting the neck as well as post stain will be a sanding sealer (50% solution of KTM9) over the entire guitar body and neck (including frets).  Then I start the spraying of 100% KTM9 in 3 coats an hour apart, dry overnight, then repeat the 3 coats up to 12 coats, then let cure for one week before installing neck and bridge.  Oooh, it’s getting close!

Larry picked gold frets to go with his gold tuners.  They look pretty good!

Here’s the guitar with the fretted neck dry fit.  I realized I have the inner ring of the soundhole rosette fully exposed, so had to insert a little BWB sliver in the top gap.  It looks OK!  Only I will notice that it’s not one continuous piece.

November 2, 2008

Well, after much procrastination, I have finished Tom’s banjo refret.  It was much more than a refret, and I had to do a bit of adapting to get it strung and playable.

1.  Sanded down old fretboard veneer, installed a new rosewood veneer top, slotted for frets, banged ’em in, and added abalone dots and star fret markers.  Before banging in frets, I sealed the rosewood with Z-poxy pore filler, then buffed back to get off the sheen and finished with lemon oil.

2.  Added replacement head clamps where missing.  These were a bit too long and had to grind down ends so as not to have pokey bolts gashing open the abdomen of the player.  The remaining original head clamps were tightened as each was loose and dangling.

3.  Drilled out headstock to accept new tuners.  Ground and sanded back the rear side of the headstock to make it parallel to the top, applied tobacco brown stain and 9 coats of nitrocellulose lacquer.  Did NOT buff out to a glossy sheen as it would compete inappropriately with the rest of the neck finish.  Installed new tuning machines.

4.  Added string button to 5th string near 5th fret.  This is like a mini-nut.  The banjo neck was a bit rotten and drilling for the button was precarious and some of the rosewood veneer flaked off in that location.  I’ll leave it as is given there is no good alternative except to try and glue in some rosewood veneer flakes.  I’ll get Tom to make the call as to whether he wants that done.

5.  Trimmed and polished bone nut material and installed with super glue.  Slotted to accept strings.  Filled hole in end of neck where it screws to the head (toothpicks and AR glue).  Drilled out a hole dead center then mounted neck to head.  Installed string tailpiece.

6.  Even with the shortest bridge, the action was unacceptable.  The neck mount with the existing holes left the neck with no oblique angle, so strings rose dramatically from nut to bridge.  Removed end bolt and drilled new hole in tone ring to create a better neck angle for better action/string clearance.  I also inserted a rosewood shim between the end of the neck and the metal rim of the head to accent the angle further.  Even with all this (and it’s the best neck angle possible with this configuration), the action is a wee bit high.  Lastly I deepened the slots in the nut to get the strings even closer to the frets.

With the bridge positioned properly, it plays nicely and even sounds in tune (an achievement).  There’s some detail work to be done, but I’m hoping it’s something Tom wants to tackle.

October 28, 2008

It’s been decided.  My next guitar will be a 12-string dreadnought.  I’ve procured some red cedar for the top and walnut for the back and sides.  Since I’m getting this from an alternate source than LMI, it won’t be joined, thickness sanded, nor bent.  Hence all the activity trying to build a bending machine.  I’ve chosen curly maple for the binding and some interesting purfling and matching backstrip.

Second from the top will be the backstrip.

4th from top will be the purfling.  I’ll bind the fretboard with ivory, use Grover Chrome mini tuners, and abalone shell rosette.  I’m going to also accent all binding both top and back with a B/W strip.

I have dreadnought plans, but I’ll need to build molds and forms for the bending machine for the dreadnought body size.  I’ve got a jumbo Taylor 12 string and I’ve been peering inside to see what adaptation to braces is warranted for a 12 string and the extra tension created with 12 string pulls vs. 6.  What I’ve seen so far is beefier braces and a thicker bridge plate.  I suspect a wider fretboard, but haven’t measured yet to compare to plan dimensions.

Larry’s worried, he thinks I’ll neglect his guitar to work on the new one.  I’ll try not to get distracted with new work.  I’ve got some sanding to do on Larry’s guitar, but now that the spray booth is ready, I’m very close to applying stain and beginning the application of lacquer.

October 28, 2008

Last night Larry came by ostensibly to play music, but I ended up recruiting him to help finish the spray booth installation.  I crafted a booth by building a platform (table) with 1/8″ plywood trifold with a range hood mounted on the top.  I measured for the location of the vent through the wall to the outside, drilled and chiselled it out inside the house and outside the house and had Larry feed the vent tube from the outside while I lined it up with the hood duct then duct taped it in place.

We spent the rest of the evening sanding and filing the neck (me) and sanding down the body (Larry).  Today, I finished crafting a device for hanging the guitar body and neck.  I designed so a dowel attached to the guitar or neck could hang and rotate.  Turned out perfect.  I’m so clever, and humble.

I returned to working on the side bending machine.  I’m using plans from Luthier’s Cool Tools and referring to pictures from my guitar building workshop with Charles Fox (the purported inventor/designer of the side bending machine).

October 26, 2008

5 days until Halloween, and 9 days until we regain our freedom.  Been working once again on tools.  Got plans to build a side bending machine, and have been spending time doing that.  As well have been exploring what I should do for Guitar 805, whether it should be an OM or Parlor.  I’m leaning toward Parlor, but here’s a side by side comparison of the two to see the size difference.

October 20, 2008

Used my groovy laser leveller to sight line down the body of the guitar to the end of the fretboard all the way to the nut end of the fretboard, drilled 3 pilot holes in the fret slots and inserted brads to locate the fretboard on the neck.  Unbolted the neck, inserted the truss rod, put in the vise, then slathered just enough glue on the neck AND underside of the fretboard, taking care not to apply glue to the truss rod itself, lined up the drillled brad holes and inserted brads then………….wrapped it all up in my 35,000 inch rubber band.

There’s a brad in the 2nd fret and two in the twelfth fret slot.  These holes will be hidden once the frets are pressed in.  I found a discussion board addressing the topic of when to apply lacquer to the maple fretboard:  before fretting or after.  Concensus is after.

Larry wonderz:  “That’s a neck?  It looks more like a ladies shoe, but these aren’t my regular glasses.”