2 x Special Wenge Classical Guitars...

[Halcyon/Tinker]

Nic job on the rosettes!

[Sam VanLaningham]

Uh, wow Ned! So glad you are posting some builds. And better yet your style of posting is excellent, with great Windows into your build approach.

For example, those rosette pics are amazing. I'm not sure I can even comprehend working with such small pieces.....very cool.

Sam

[Ned Milburn]

EarthBalm, tkoeler1, Halcyon/Tinker, and Sam (Left of)...

Thanks for your comments. Well appreciated.

Sam, the rosette is made with seventeen 0.5mm strips about an inch wide laminated in the order of each vertical pattern in the rosette. Then, I saw these vertically and thin to 0.5mm again. There are 9 distinct patterns vertically, since it is a symmetrical rosette pattern with one extra vertical strip pattern to join from tile to tile. So, these patterned 0.5mm strips are arranged in the correct pattern and 16 are glued together, but not in a square. With the glue and expansion, it is possible to clamp so they form the correct width to fit into a circular band. And I made gluing cauls and a clamping holder so the bottom and top edges of the finished tiles are circular. So each tile has 272 individual 0.5mm blocks. Process involved gluing 9x17 laminates, then resawing and gluing 16 laminates. Then laying the tiles inside two patterns of 10 x 0.5mm purfling strips and one "checkered" strip. A task suited to a certain personality type, but not others, that's for sure. I wonder if some people would prefer having their teeth pulled. ;-)

[printer2]

Nice to see one (two!) of your builds Ned. Have a couple of pieces of wenge myself, once I have my bandsaw tuned up I might take a run at it. One day will attempt doing a tiled rosette also, maybe when the dollar goes up in value I'll pick up some veneer. As others said, looking good.

[Ned Milburn]

Originally Posted by printer2

Nice to see one (two!) of your builds Ned. Have a couple of pieces of wenge myself, once I have my bandsaw tuned up I might take a run at it. One day will attempt doing a tiled rosette also, maybe when the dollar goes up in value I'll pick up some veneer. As others said, looking good.

Thanks for the comments, Fred.

If you've got a belt sander as well as your band-saw, you should be able to make some veneers yourself. I made a thickness sanding attachment for my belt sander and used it before I got a drum/thickness sander. There are some idiosyncrasies to be aware of, so if you want to look down that route, send me a PM or email and I can show you a photo of the attachment and point out some of the idiosyncrasies.

I've had a week with a great deal of interruptions, pinch-hitting for my wife's business, repair client visits, and a student apprentice in the workshop, so I didn't get nearly as much done as I had intended. I've been re-sawing some mahogany for sides & necks, and also lost time farting around with brand new bandsaw blades that were 1) not welded properly, and 2) one with a warp causing it to ride the wheels at a very different location that the rest of my blades (a little bit of variance is to be expected, but extreme variance again suggests some sort of problem).

For your wenge re-sawing, if you are an experienced and confident re-sawyer, you won't need any advice or suggestions. But, I'd recommend you use the best blade you can afford (I just shelled out 250 CDN$ for a Laguna Resaw King, since I was having troubles with the other resaw blades I've been using on my bigger saw). And test some maple or other cheaper hardwood first to make sure you're running straight. When the saw & blade are setup fine, wenge will cut well - just slower. But when the saw is off a bit.... No fun at all...

I'll be updating with some pictures of my neck construction this weekend. Now back to the workshop...

[Ned Milburn]

Last week was a slow week for building. A few interruptions, time instructing a student working on his own guitar build, supply ordering, and lots of guitar repair clients.

I got my two neck blanks done and am ready to begin drilling, routing, and then to the fun part of hand carving the neck, heel, and headstock. Here's a few pics...

Headstock laminates of wenge and maple - front and back side.





Planing the bookmatched halves which are glued with a 3mm (well actually 2.8mm) wenge strip. I usually use ebony, but have used wenge and decided to match this with the sides/backs and headstock laminates.

[Ned Milburn]

Gluing the lengths...





Gluing the FRONT headstock laminations and heel block. I tried a laminated heel block but didn't care for it (the neck you see in the background) so now I only use solid neck blocks. I am lucky to have a supplier of specialty hardwoods nearby.





A basic guide (jig??) I made for cutting headstock laminations square to precise length and fit for the nut.



The rest of this week will be focused on running through a lot of guitar repairs. I'll update once I get back to the neck carving.

[Ned Milburn]

Hello All,

Apologies for my absence. I've not been spending much time at all in front of my computer.

Workshop hours have been mixed amongst several projects: guitar repairs, working with a student on a Dread build, band-saw maintenance & new purchase, working with my wife's business, and working on my guitars.

The wenge guitars are nearly done. Bridges to be touched up (finish carving) and glued, then woodworking is done. Frets, nut/saddle, tuners, and some French polish to finish.

I am planning to visit Ontario in early July for the Hamilton International Guitar Festival and possibly also the Canadian acoustic guitar competition later that month.

Here are some pics...

[charles Tauber]

Originally Posted by Ned Milburn

I am planning to visit Ontario in early July for the Hamilton International Guitar Festival...

I attended last year, just to listen. There were 4 or 5 guitar makers showing their guitars, including a newer maker from Hamilton who had some nice work.

If you do go, and plan to have some time, let me know.

The wenge guitars look very nice.

[LouieAtienza]

Ned, these look amazing! Love the rosettes, and the wenge. Lacewood binding?

[redir]

Looks beautiful Ned. I've been collecting Wenge but have yet to use it. I think it's some really promising stuff. Everything about those guitars is coming out real well in all aspects of design, materials and workmanship.

[ZippyChip]

How is the neck attached...glue or bolts?

[tkoehler1]

These guitars are so beautiful. It prompted me to check out your website, and after reading it over, I have a couple of thoughts:

* I'm intrigued by your evo steel string guitar, and I accept the premise that the traditional soundhole placement is not ideal. So have you tried anything different on your classical guitars? Or is the string pull so much less that it doesn't matter as much?

* I've never understood why classical guitars don't have radiused fretboards when they are clearly so much easier to play. The only argument I've heard for a flat board is that somehow a radiused board affects the string distribution for the right hand. But if you're going to radius the treble half the board you may as well do the whole thing. Is there any reason not to radius the board?

* When I started playing classical guitars after playing steel string for so many years, like you I was shocked at how loud a good classical is, and how profound the bass is. A lot of classicals these days seem to try to get that extra power by using a double top (though they seem to give up some of that Spanish sound in the process and seem loud but a little hollowed out). Have you thought about double tops and are they necessary?

Overall great stuff Ned please keep posting pics and updates. Whenever I look at that cedar/wenge I feel my mind slipping into GAS mode!

[Ned Milburn]

Thank you for your comments, Friends.

Charles, I'll possibly have some time in ON after the Hamilton weekend. (July 8, 9, 10) It would be nice to meet again.

Louie, you are correct. Lacewood binding on the cedar topped instrument and bird's eye maple for the spruce guitar. I was expecting more trouble with both of these woods, but the maple bent like butter and the lacewood, while stiff, was not problematic. I went to between 2.0 and 2.1mm for my binding thickness. Gabon ebony was the trickiest binding I've bent so far. (Stiff and easy to crack.) I put some padauk and wenge in for purfling. I know the padauk will likely fade and turn more beige as the decades unfold.

Redir, I am certainly a "believer" in wenge. Its price is not super premium (ie: ziricote, macasser ebony, etc), it is a wood with great properties. Dense but not too dense. Very stiff. Just that hand working operations often take much longer and dull tools pretty quickly. I think I've even dulled some of my rasps. And I even lost half a dozen or more teeth from my Irwin Japanese style pull saw.

Zippy-Chip, I build a Spanish heel. Though for this guitar design with its asymmetrically dropped top / elevated fingerboard, for future builds I have been considering some form of a dovetail or M&T joint to facilitate 1) a one piece neck running to the elevated portion, rather than a separate wedge, and 2) efficiency of manufacture.

TKoehler, your questions warrant longer answers than I'll be able to give here, but for now....

- I have been toying with the idea of a 14 fret to body Evo style classical guitar. (Probably people would want to call it a "cross over" guitar, and that's okay too.) A 12 fret to body classical has its bridge in the center of the diaphragmatic portion of the sound-board, just like a speaker has its cone in the middle. Once the neck body relationship is changed to 14 fret to body, the bridge can no longer be located in the efficient and ideal location of the center of the circular diaphragm (lower bout). This is a main key to the Evo design.

- Fretboards... Traditions... Form follows function. Finger posture and arch... Classical playing technique is such that I don't see a great advantage to radius the bass side. It is a wider fingerboard, and notes often need to be fretted while allowing both higher and lower adjacent strings to sound. Radius on the bass could make it a tiny touch more problematic to allow the next highest string to ring true when fretting a note on the next lower string.

- I haven't heard a double top guitar yet that out performs a traditional solid top. As I understand, many double top makers are using a honeycomb mesh between tops. I can see this as altering the stiffness patterns in the top and especially increasing the cross-grain stiffness leading to a more even cross and long grain stiffness. Hence, the top becomes more homogeneous before even considering bracing. This is likely why there is a difference of character and the loss of the Spanish juicy character. For me, I have no burning desire to explore the medium anytime soon, since I like the character in a well built Spanish style bracing pattern, I do not presently feel limited by the properties of naturally occurring wood, and the possibilities for experimentation in bracing pattern - both gross and subtle alterations - under a Classical guitar's top-wood are nearly endless.

- I still have more tops from the same BC red cedar board I cut a few years back, and more wenge... ;-)

[tkoehler1]

Thanks for the answers Ned. I checked out a few videos of your guitars on YouTube and they really do sound special. I love the Spanish sound they have.

Can you tell me what you mean by the guitar having an asymmetrically dropped top?

Also, have ever made a classical guitar with a cutaway? Or better yet a demi cutaway?

Last what about arm rests. Do you think keeping the arm off the soundboard makes a noticeable difference? Is this something you offer.

Thanks and sorry to keep peppering you with questions.

TK