sMg Guitars

August 20, 2008

Well, after much polishing, fret levelling, bridge slotting, saddle shaping, and stringing I now have a completed guitar.  But…the neck angle is seriously wrong, and even with the monster tall saddle, the strings are too close to the frets.  I can alleviate it further by installing an even taller bridge, or adding a shim underneath.  I’m going to give the strings a bit of time to settle in before I raise the saddle and before I announce my feelings about the sound.  Suffice it to say, it’s not as nice and full sounding as my OOO.  But because the strings buzz right now, I’m not really banging on it to test drive the drive.

August 14, 2008

After fret levelling, carefully measured and positioned bridge. Held bridge tightly against top while scoring line around perimeter with Xacto knife. Laid down several layers of tape to create bed for the bridge.

Received a Fox Bridge Clamp from LMI today. After clamping bridge in place with newly minted caul underneath, drilled out the two outside pin holes, through bridge plate. Removed clamps, and caul, sanded and roughed cavity inside tape lines, then removed the tape. Applied glue to top and back of bridge and set in place over newly drilled holes. Attached bridge clamp, and removed glue squeeze out.

Waited 20 minutes then scraped remaining glue squeeze out as it turned harder and more like leather. After several hours of drying, removed the clamp, reinstalled and clamped the under bridge plate caul, and drilled out the remaining string peg holes. Measured center on the butt block and drilled for the end pin.

Tomorrow I will ream out the pin holes, saw string grooves in the bridge and install new high saddle (neck set is a little “down”). I’ll crown the levelled frets, shape the nut, slot for strings, install tuners and take a first check of the action/string height.

I still need to go back and do one more round of wet sanding and buffing after the first round of string install.  The headstock should be cured enough to sand and buff.

August 9, 2008

Sanded all the way to 1000 grit wet, then used Larry’s auto buffer to do the medium then fine polishing.  Essentially, the buffing looks great.  There’s still some streaks and dimples, but I think one more buff cycle will bring it down to mirror smooth.

The headstock, although, got buffed through to the wood.  Applied 9 coats of nitrocelulose to recoat.  I’ll have to let this cure for at least a week until I sand and buff.  In the meantime, I can start the fret levelling and prepping for the bridge install.

August 9, 2008

Glued on the the rosewood veneer, sanded down and located the fret locations referencing the original old slots. Rigged up a cutting guide in the vise and using the .020″ saw carefully reslotted the neck. Did a test fret set to make sure all saw depths and widths were OK. Looks good!

Dry set the fret dots and star on the fretboard. Question, how to center the fret dot on the 5th fret, as that is the location of the 5th string tuning peg. I’ll check my banjo to see how Stelling did the fret marker settings. Also, need to think about a finish on the fretboard rosewood. I’m thinking a simple sanding sealer lacquer, just to seal/protect, not to buff and shine.

Regrooved the bridge slot, purchased a 3/4″ forstner bit to make the hole for the penny Tom provided for the headstock.

August 9, 2008

Traced and cut out the profile for the spruce top.

August 2, 2008

Finished the jig/vise which I will use to hold a guitar body upright. I built this in anticipation of having to sand the rim to smooth down flat before buffing.

I added a radius to the boards to compensate for the arch in the top and back.

The braces under the bench were 3/4″ too close to the bench top, so had to add a filler piece between the bench and the vise boards.

Finished it up by gluing carpet pieces to the inside for protection of guitar surface when clamping into vise.

It’s a nice day out today, so rather than use my newly crafted vise, I sat outside and held the guitar in my lap while I ran 600 grit sandpaper over the guitar, getting down to the brush stroke channels, and removing drips and dribble streaks. Next, 800 grit, then 1000/1200 wet sanding before I try out the buffer. I’ll definitely use the new vise for the buffing operation.

August 1, 2008

I’ve got to finish this second guitar.  I have promised to give it to my daughter Rachel, and I have been avoiding the task of sanding and buffing the finish.  I’m at the point where I need to secure the guitar so I can dig into the rim/sides.  I decided to build a bench mounted vise much like the one I saw at Charles Fox’s workshop.

I purchased two 7″ hardware kits, essentially press screws on plates, and attached radiused boards like in the photo, and will mount to my small workbench against the west wall.  Once I get it installed, I’ll post a photo.

July 27, 2008

Spent a lot of time today scraping down the binding and purfling.  I was finally able to burnish my scraper properly and it made the effort of bringing the binding down flush with the body all that less difficult.  Scrape scrape scrape, and the result is really nice.  I’m left with very few gaps which will need filling.

Next step was to rethink the jig for routing the mortise into the body.  I came to the conclusion that I could incorporate it into the body vise which I built last week.

This really helped with alignment, as I can secure the body in the vise, then align the center lines on top and bottom to ensure a square mortise channel.  I have to sit on the floor and run the router up and down the guide channel.  First thing I did was let the router get away from me and I hosed up the guide channel on the right side, and the end result was a beautiful left hand wall, and funky wavy wall on the right side.  I will be able to recover, but I need to rebuild the jig as it is battle worn.

Lesson learned:  Find a way to route channels where the router is sitting on the thing to be cut, or be more careful.

Next step is to build a jig for the tenon (neck), determine the correct neck angle, carefully cut the neck to leave the tenon, and check fit.  I can also insert the neck bolt receivers into the neck and dry fit the neck onto the body.

July 25, 2008

I scrape, I file, I do the voodoo that I do so well, but I cannot burnish. I finished gluing the binding and the purfling for the OM Maple and I next must scrape. Months ago, Rob Girdis kindly showed me the method for “sharpening and burnishing” my scraper.

Let me say now, that my scraper is the best thing ever. I love my scraper. i love to scrape. But some time has gone by, and my scraper needs to be sharpened and burnished. I cannot burnish. My burnisher is a simple steel rod on a wooden handle. I put my scraper in the vise, and held the burnisher against the scraper and pressed and pulled and pushed and forced and……nothing happened. It’s still a rectangular piece of steel without the requisite curled, sharp edge. Crikey.

The only good news from this sad story is that I scraped and filed the hell out of this guitar box, and I am slowly moving toward a beautiful piece of finished product. It is becoming a fine maple box with binding and purfling without gaps, and I must say I am very happy. I consider the butt block area a confluence of rosewood and maple which makes the best freeway overpass collector distributor blush in comparison.

And, my dull sraper allows me to draw and pull along the guitar body without fear of gouging and I can attack and attack with positive results.

I’m also working on a jig for the neck mortise and tenon cutout. Square is your friend.

Label everythig. Your memory will fail. God is love.

July 20, 2008

My friend Tom got a beater banjo off eBay and asked me to refret.  I traded some photo documentation of my guitars for the fret job.  The fret job has turned into a:  veneer the neck, install the frets, inlay the dots, install the tuners, and add missing head brackets.