Highly Figured Cocobolo Hatcher SJ Build

[Mark Hatcher]

Hello,

I've got the last French polish sessions completed so I can start the final assembly.
Here is the neck being glued up,



Thanks!

[Mark Hatcher]

Hello,

Final installation of the tuners. Getting close to hearing this guitar play!

[Mark Hatcher]

Hello,

I did some final work on the French polish this morning, cut the saddle, and glued up the bridge;



Thanks for following this build!

[drcmusic7]

That looks great, Mark! Well done.

Kindly,
Danny

[Mark Hatcher]

I was able to put strings on tonight and had a chance to play it some;



You probably are noticing the contraption on the bridge;



This is an intonation tool. It does two things for me when I'm doing the initial set-up. One is it allows me to easily find the height for the saddle, but more importantly it allows me to individually intonate the strings. I can move the adjustable saddle forward and back on each string until it's right and then measure it off to accurately cut the saddle.

Of course, with the weight of this contraption the sound from the guitar is only a tease of what's coming. I like to leave this on for a week or more, with the strings up to tension, so this box has time to figure out it's a guitar.

[StringMeUp]

That intonation tool is cool! Mark, where are the pins for strings 2-5; how are the strings being held in place? Pinless bridge?

Dang this is one beautiful guitar...

[KolayaGuitars]

It looks as though strings two and five are being held by anotherhelpful stew Mac tool. They re hollow machine screws for temporarily holding a budge in place. Pull the stings up through from the inside and you're good to go. the bridge seems to be already glued on so I'm guessing that Mark's radiused bridge pin arrangement interfere with the intonation tool's anchoring and thus an alternate methods for holding the strings (except 1/6) had to be employed.

This is a fantastic looking guitar, Mark! I can't wait to see the finished product. Maybe I'll even sign up for the road trip!

[StringMeUp]

Originally Posted by KolayaGuitars

It looks as though strings two and five are being held by anotherhelpful stew Mac tool. They re hollow machine screws for temporarily holding a budge in place. Pull the stings up through from the inside and you're good to go. the bridge seems to be already glued on so I'm guessing that Mark's radiused bridge pin arrangement interfere with the intonation tool's anchoring and thus an alternate methods for holding the strings (except 1/6) had to be employed.

This is a fantastic looking guitar, Mark! I can't wait to see the finished product. Maybe I'll even sign up for the road trip!

Thanks, Brad. Now I see it when I zoom in. I'd love to have those tools because they are so cool. The problem is that I would have no clue how to use them. I am just amazed by the instruments that you guys are building these days.

[psynackerz]

For a second there I thought that was a floyd rose bridge being installed on an acoustic guitar.....

[Mark Hatcher]

Brad is absolutely correct on how this is being done. It's a little more fooling around, but I think it is important to individually intonate my guitars. You would think that two same model guitars, same strings, same scale length, and set up would use the same compensation on the saddle. I've found, for whatever reason, that's just not always the case.

[cotten]

Beautiful work, Mark! Thanks for letting us get a peek behind the scenes.

cotten

[Mark Hatcher]

Originally Posted by cotten

Beautiful work, Mark! Thanks for letting us get a peek behind the scenes.

cotten

Thanks Cotton,

I'll have this guitar finished up soon!

Mark

[Mark Hatcher]

Couple more pics;

[Mark Hatcher]

Hello,

Here are some pictures of the saddle set-up. After getting the correct measurements using the intonation tool and transfering them to the ivory saddle blank I have target peaks to cut the saddle to;



Here's the finished saddle;





Thanks for viewing!

[StringMeUp]

Mark that turned out great! Thanks for sharing this build with us.