Quote:
Originally Posted by Glennwillow
Howard,
This is a great tutorial. I am finding this fascinating. I will be extremely interested to hear and see what the final result looks like.
Regards, Glenn
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Thanks, Glenn. Interesting that you call it a tutorial. I like to think of this as Wade's thread about his new guitar, to which I of course supply a lot of the content. I have been trying to distinguish with some of the posters who have asked questions between that and a guitarmaking tutorial. There is no bright line between the two, since I am showing the build progress and sequence, and trying to give some insights into how I work and think about a guitar. But I try to keep in mind that it's Wade's thread and not instruction in the mechanics of building per se.
Wade underestimates his role in this guitar's creation. Every commissioned guitar is a collaboration. In this case I am collaborating with someone very experienced, who has listened carefully and well to a lot of instruments, and worked with builders such as Wayne Henderson and Roy McAlister. So I learn a lot from listening carefully to Wade about what he hears in various guitars, what he likes and dislikes, and what he wants this guitar to be able to do.
Here I'm gluing in the tailblock. In the background, I'm gluing up the headblock. I use a lamination at right angles to the rest of the block on both tail and headblock so they will resist splitting from a blow.
While the glue is drying, I shaved the top braces. I glue them in full dimensioned and square cornered, and then shape them on the guitar. The factory method is to pre-shape them. I've laid out some of my favorite chisels and a couple of finger planes, and honed them up. This is probably my favorite part of the job. Paring with sharp tools is always fun. Plus, it's where life gets breathed into dead wood, and the alchemy of tap tuning is employed.
Just about done. They are shaped but not yet sanded smooth.
