sMg Guitars

March 11, 2010

Yesterday, a customer came into the shop for a truss rod adjustment.  His guitar, an Ibanez cutaway, is an example of the approximate construction for Guitar 1002.  I took a few pics to document how the binding and fretboard and heel all come together.  This will give me some reference as I start to dimension the heel and the heel block.

Note that the side comes in and under the edge of the fretboard.

The heel is square and meets the body flush with the binding.

I may take that approach, but I may also consider tapering the heel.  I understand the squared heel aesthetic, as it also creates a smooth transition for the hand where the body and heel meet, rather than having an abrupt corner where the heel tapers back from the body.

This also informs me as to the width of the heel block inside the guitar.  What it also does is scare the shit out of me when it comes to creating nice binding channels around the cutaway/fretboard/heel junction.  I’ll need to carefully consider the whole binding channel preparation sequence given the spanish heel construction calls for attaching the top to the neck before inserting the sides.  I think I’ll have to get some mad chiseling skills in place.

February 6, 2011

The Macaferri body is new to my arsenal, and so is a cutaway.  I needed to build bending molds and build or procure a cutaway ram for my bending machine.  I located a fairly inexpensive ram from Bluescreek out of Pennsylvania, and it should arrive by the end of the week.  I’ve also got a good idea about using the ram for a uke side bender, as the full sized bender is too restrictive for the small sized ukes.

Doc2

Using the Mac plans, I created an acrylic template, then transferred 1/2 (the side without the cutaway) to birch ply.  I cut out 6 half plates, 3 for the regular side, and 3 for the cutaway side.  I finished one of the half plates a wee bit smaller than the actual size, and used it as the master for replicating the other 5 using the router table.  I assembled the non cutaway half first using existing spacers and 3/4″ dowel.

The master was then trimmed to emulate the cutaway shape, then the remaining two plates were trimmed on the router table.

The dowels are secured with titebond and CA.