Build Thread: Tahoe Guitars 12-Fret Dread (Palo Escrito/Adi)

[OddManOut]

Larry then moves to the heel.



The bottom of the neck above the heel is carved and the profiles are brought together.







With the two ends roughed in, they can be brought together through the middle of the neck.

[OddManOut]

With a few more sweeps with the plane, the neck carve is done! Well...maybe more than a few. A few other tools and sandpaper involved as well.

[OddManOut]

Larry sent along some pics of the guitar in the raw, with all the major wood parts together and the tuners in place. She's starting to look a lot like a guitar!

Remaining to be done prior to finish is the body binding, profiling the bottom of the fretboard, head and 12th fret inlays, and sanding.

EDIT: I realize I forgot to include a few minor steps in my "to be done list": fretting, bridge placement and the neck set.

Enjoy the pics! Thanks for following this thread! Much appreciated

[Viking]

Beautiful wood choices and this is a wonderfully documented build. Great pictures... very thorough. Got to be one of the best documented builds I've seen on here. So often the pictures from the build end up looking like snapshots through the process. I'm often left wondering how the luthier got from one point to another because the intervening steps were left out of the documentation. So please, keep the pictures coming as you get them.

One question. No binding on the guitar yet? That seems strange to me. By this stage with the neck so far along and dry fitted to the body and all, most luthiers would have had the binding on the body by now. Perhaps Mr. Nair simply doesn't do it that way prefering to do the binding near the end before finish? So many different ways to achieve the same results. Wonderful to watch.

[CoolerKing]

Wow! Looking forward to seeing this under finish.

[OddManOut]

Originally Posted by Viking

Beautiful wood choices and this is a wonderfully documented build. Great pictures... very thorough. Got to be one of the best documented builds I've seen on here. So often the pictures from the build end up looking like snapshots through the process. I'm often left wondering how the luthier got from one point to another because the intervening steps were left out of the documentation. So please, keep the pictures coming as you get them.

Many thanks! I hope this thread is both informative and enjoyable. IMHO two of Larry's greatest traits as a luthier are his openness and generosity. I can't sing his praises enough in these areas. He will answer any question about his process and he has taken the vast majority of these pictures. Larry da man.

Not only has he built/continues to build nice guitars for me, but he has allowed each build process to be its own personal journey for me. Larry and I have discussed this at some length and it is the same for him from "his side of the workbench". It's very symbiotic.

I'm happy to do my part to pay this forward here on the AGF to the degree this is possible.

Originally Posted by matthewpartrick

Wow! Looking forward to seeing this under finish.

Thank you. I'm glad both of you share my esteem of this guitar's aesthetics. Aesthetics beyond basics are secondary to tonal considerations in my book. That this one is turning out to be particularly eye catching is icing on the cake. Again, thank you.

It appears that most of the figure in the curly mahogany neck blank was at the surface, thus ended up as sawdust. There is some left, but not to the degree the blank showed before shaping. We shall see what pops out under finish.

One question. No binding on the guitar yet? That seems strange to me. By this stage with the neck so far along and dry fitted to the body and all, most luthiers would have had the binding on the body by now. Perhaps Mr. Nair simply doesn't do it that way prefering to do the binding near the end before finish? So many different ways to achieve the same results. Wonderful to watch.

Larry answers: "Usually I do have the binding on by now. I just got into making the neck and couldn't stop... It's no big deal either way as the shape of the body will not change when the binding goes on. I'm extra careful when flushing the binding to the sides not to change the shape at all, especially at the head block. I might lose 2-3 thousandths in sanding the body after the binding, but that's not significant because the bridge doesn't get placed until binding is on, and the body and neck are final fitted."

I realize I forgot to include a few minor steps in my "to be done list" above: fretting, bridge placement and the neck set.

Good thing I'm not building this guitar.

[OddManOut]

The latest set of pics has rolled in from Larry over at Tahoe Guitars World Headquarters. There are multiple posts below. Enjoy!

Here Larry is installing the rosewood body binding (the fingerboard is already done) and the herringbone top purfle.

The binding is prebent on the D-12 form with a heat blanket.







Then Larry routes the binding channels. The top channel is dual-level to accommodate the binding and the top purfle.

A test cut for width and purfling depth.




How about that?



The routing table is set up and the cuts are made.





The back channel.



The dual-level top channel.

[OddManOut]

Now the binding and purfling are glued up. This invlolves masking off the body to protect it.

Let's cut the red tape and whip out the blue tape.







The binding tape is attached in preparation for the glue-up.



Detail of the test run.



The binding is set, glued, taped, then the body dunked in the vat of rubber band juice.





No pics of the final product, but here is a pic of a loose mock up with the top purfle.

[OddManOut]

After routing for the top binding, Larry made and installed the tail graft. He usually does this before doing any edge routing, but he got ahead of himself. *Oops* He considered throwing away the entire guitar, but decided it wasn't that serious of an oversight. According to Larry it is a bit easier to do the tail graft first so it can be routed to the proper height to be flush with the binding. But he seems to have gotten it done anyway.

This tail graft will be a wedge of EIR to match the binding.

Checking the match between the binding and the piece from which the tail graft will be cut.



Laying out the wedge.



Slicing and sanding the wedges. Larry uses his big band saw for the slicing because the heavy blade tracks straighter, producing a wedge with a consistent thickness. The trade off is he looses a little more wood to the larger kerf.







Some tail wedges are born.

[OddManOut]

Now the tail of the body is routed for the tail wedge.

The routing jig is placed and its position checked.





The router depth is set.



The slot is routed.





Nice fit!



Now the wedge along with some BWB purfling is installed.

[OddManOut]

Pics of the guitar after the binding process has been completed. The pics with the bridge are a mock up. I am hoping for a few pics of the soon-to-occur neck setting and bridge location processes.

Enjoy...

[OddManOut]

I just got a batch of pictures of the inlay process. There are multiple posts below.

The inlay on this guitar-other than the rosette-consists of the head logo and "sword" (a modified fleur de lis) in white mother of pearl, and a modified willow leaf at the 12th fret in paua matching the rosette.

Enjoy...

The penciled pattern.



The pieces of pearl against the pattern.



The router attacks!



Nice fit!





The rest of the pattern is routed and the fit checked.

[OddManOut]

Now the logo is inlaid using the same process.





Once checked for fit, the pieces of shell are glued up with a little ebony dust to fill in any small gaps.



Everything is sanded...and voila!

[OddManOut]

And finally the 12th fret marker is inlaid.

Here Larry cuts the leaves from a sheet of paua using a paper pattern as a template. Note the paua dot (lower left) for color comparison.





A couple of possible markers. Which would your choose?



The choice made, the pieces are inlaid at the 12th fret.





Glue and a bit of ebony dust...




...and a 12th fret marker is born.

[OddManOut]

More pictures have come in from Larry Nair at Tahoe Guitars World Headquarters. Multiple posts below.

Two very important steps of the build have been completed: setting the neck and positioning the bridge.

Here Larry sets the neck.

Prior to dialing in the neck joint, Larry sands the binding to flush them up with the body. This allows the neck to sit against the body so a proper angle and fit can be achieved.



The overall look after the sanding is complete.



The tail wedge flushed.



The heel and FB extension flush to the body.




Now the real work begins. Very minute adjustments to the neck angle are made through what I call "microsanding" the cheeks of the heel, which included using sandpaper like dental floss. This is extremely fussy work and takes the patience of...a luthier.



After a lot of very fine woodwork, the proper neck angle is obtained.