Churchland Guitars Build Journal 2021
 

2021 has been a pretty good to us so far. I haven't been able to start or finish any guitars just yet since the wife and I finally were able to close on a house in the country. We'll be moving in fairly soon but the house will mean we'll break out of the rent race and finally be able to have a place we can make our own.

That being said, I have a few ideas of guitars I want to build this year, maybe another jumbo and possibly another Grand Western, who knows really but I'm excited to see what this year brings.

Guitar wise this year saw me accomplish a 10 year goal in the acquisition of my dream guitar which is a 1946 J45. Since that's been accomplished I have been playing alot and loving every minute of it. If anyone wants to see it I'll put up some pics, it's pretty beat/patina'd but I love it.

Anyway, once the builds start again I'll post up some more ideas/progress pics of what's going on. It'll be easier to do this in one thread rather than keeping multiple threads going I think.

Congrats, I bet one of the stipulations here was not more building guitars in the dining room!!!! I hope you have room for your stand alone shop now!

Thanks Tom! Yes that'll be a big part of the new space. I now have both a 2 car garage and a separate room that I have free reign over to do everything. The standalone shop might be a future thing in the back but we'll see.

Right now I'm just excited to have space to make more than 1 guitar at a time haha!

Congrats
 

Congratulations on the new home! And SHOP, too...
Great you scored a sweet old Gibby, as well.

Hope to see it and some of yours here real soon.

Salud

Paul

Thank you Paul. We have to get everything unpacked but I'm already planning my building/assembly layout for the guitars. Exciting times!

Well phase 1 has begun. With everything settled down and all the boxes unpacked (we really don't have that much) I have been thinking very strategically about how to get the most out of the space that I have.

I have become very much a fan of the concept of keeping the tools separate from the area where the work is being done. Reason being is that many of us keep tools up on the wall, and unfortunately if a single lone sharp tool decides it's going to fall from it's place on the wall then a spruce top doesn't stand much chance of surviving.

So the first task is to organize the space and then do a built in workspace with a tool wall, workbench, and a glue up bench separate from the space where the parts are cut and assembled. Think of it as a micro-factory of sorts. The advantage to the glue up bench being separate is that it's just a space to store components like sides/tops while they're being glued together instead of taking up an actual work space where I can be working on the next one.

With the advent of the new space I have decided to give batch building a try. Maybe 2-3 at a time of a given body style. This will mean that I can't spend as much time on a single piece but it will make me streamline the process and hopefully to be able to offer consistent guitars to multiple folks at a time. In the apartment it simply wasn't possible to have more than 1 guitar in process at a time. We'll see how it goes. Stay tuned for more soon.

The shop is now somewhat settled in, I have about the same amount of space as I did at the apartment if you add in the balcony where I did alot of the heavier work as well as the kitchen space I was alloted. However not having to sweat in the Texas heat outdoors just to plane down sides will be a welcome change to working indoors.

While I haven't started cutting wood yet I was excited to pull out the wood for the next build. For my 4th I will be making another of my Grand Western style guitars. This time around I am going to be trying a slightly different bracing pattern and lighter bracing in general. The responses I got to the first one were overwhelmingly positive so I feel it would be prudent to continue in the direction of this design and body style.

I'll be using another set of EIR along with a nicely grained red spruce top. I got this top last year before we moved so I'm happy it survived in good shape. The rosewood has been sitting for a while even before we moved and sadly the back pieces have developed a bit of a propeller shape to them but nothing that some work can't remove.

Frankly alot of the best sounding instruments that I've been blessed to have heard and played were made with pretty sub standard wood. So I simply look at the warped pieces as a challenge to be overcome than an impediment.

https://i.imgur.com/vOYYmY3l.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/SEtGD3gl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/n3A5a5cl.jpg

I've been becoming more a fan of tops that have some color/variation to them rather than the usual bleached white look that I see alot. For me it's simply a feature of the wood rather than an impediment.

Next number on the agenda is to get all of my tools organized in the space, shelving/storage and the like will be getting built and I'll be chipping away at this one as I have time. I do intend to move towards building in batches but being highly organized and efficient is a major part of that process and I'll have to work my way towards that.

Congrats on the new shop space! We recently moved to a new home and I’m looking forward to setting up my shop again. I am also fortunate to have a larger shop as well. Thanks for your thoughts on bench and tool placement and best wishes on the new build. Dave

Thanks Dave

This last week we had some flooding damage in the house so things will have to be at a standstill for a bit while we rip up the floors and the drywall. Might've lost a set of spruce to the overabundance of humidity as well but we'll see. Flooding definitely is stressful.

Bummer! So sorry to hear about the flooding. I hope the top can be salvaged, and the work on the house not too extensive. Dave

Thanks Dave. Thankfully I was able to save that top so all is well, the flooring will need to be replaced at some point as we lost a good bit of it along with some sheetrock. But it could've been alot worse.

Anyways now that things are dried out I have resumed the construction of what will be #211. With my numbering system the first 2 numbers are the last two of the year it was made (2021) and the third is the order it was made that year. So 211 will be the first guitar made in 2021. I try to repeat that so that folks don't think I've made 200+ instruments in my short career thus far.

Yesterday morning the bending started on the sides. And last night after work they were done. If you're a beginner considering this craft I can say with utmost certainty that Indian rosewood is an absolutely wonderful wood to bend, bends easy and makes the whole house smell like incense when you do it.

https://i.imgur.com/WlFOT11l.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/cqDylvDl.jpg

The mold definitely helped get the symetry a little more accurately than a line drawn on the worktable. Only thing is trying to clamp it in the mold doesn't work so well since the shape is slightly wider than the mold will accomodate, the mold is a 15" lower bout and the Grand Western has a 15.75" lower bout. So I just follow the lines of the mold and then remove the sides out of it to continue to work.

More to come soon, glad to be back at it on a normal schedule.

No update pictures yet but I always get excited when boxes from suppliers and tonewood places arrive. Thankfully this shipment included all the remaining parts and wood needed to finish this GW (grand western) as well as some other guitars I have planned. I'm sure I can't be the only person that gets excited when the UPS or Fedex guy comes pulling up.

Well now that the weekend and Indepedence day celebrations are over I had some time to make a bit of progress. Kerfing is installed as well as the tailblock and heel block.

https://i.imgur.com/lEuY9iJl.jpg

I decided to go with a dovetail joint on this one as opposed to a bolt on, reason being is I am wanting to go a bit on the lighter built side and the less hardware you can use the better. Plus I love a lot of the contract guitars that were built by Gibson in the early part of the 30s and late 20s (Rcording King, Kel Kroydon, Kalamazoo etc...) and nearly all of them employed things like very lightweight builds and things like narrow dovetails and cut through heel blocks.

So in a nod of respect to those guitars and their makers I have adopted a dovetail joint that isn't cut quite nearly as rough, but it is similar in dimensions and assembly. I feel for all my future builds a dovetail neck assembly will probably be the joint of choice, tradition is nice and sometimes it's neat to just continue with it in your own work.

https://i.imgur.com/1cblqDDl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/eTuG84Xl.jpg

The top has also been joined and is awaiting work, not nearly as interesting as the top for the previous GW but it is still interesting nonetheless.

https://i.imgur.com/UY3e8XMl.jpg

Little update. The neck has progressed quite a bit. Between a sick 2 year old and house projects I haven't had as much time as I'd like to work on this build.

The headplate is a nicely straight piece of Madagascar that's a nice contrast to the darker rosewood on the back/sides. The truss rod has also been installed and the carving/shaping has been underway.

https://i.imgur.com/b1vN3gVl.jpg

Also got the back plate rough cut to shape and thicknessed. I've found that my favorite plane for the tedious thicknessing jobs is actually a turn of the century wooden coffin plane. Never thought to use it for that job until just the other day when it was time to cut this one, turns out it's quite adept at the task and gets things done quickly. The back plates had a bit of a potato chip quality to them but with some material removed they've begun to behave much better.

https://i.imgur.com/AIkMZChl.jpg

Still lots to do, for the neck on this one I'll be doing a modern-ish take on a mid 40s Gibson profile like on my J45. Not quite as deep but still nice and round. I'll be shooting for a good neck for a "thumb over" style player. And if a fingerpicker likes it too that won't bother me either.

https://i.imgur.com/znIK6a2l.jpg

Looking good, glad the new shop is up and working for you, of course you apparently could build a guitar in a small walk-in closet lol!!!