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  #16  
Old 12-05-2020, 09:55 PM
Jamiejoon Jamiejoon is offline
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Dynamite rosette Mike. Your guitars look great to me, and I am sure this one will be a knockout.
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  #17  
Old 12-07-2020, 08:44 AM
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Thanks so much everyone! There are definitely some new design challenges with this one both because of the stone and the variety of material to include. I'm really happy with how it's turning out so far and I my client and I are talking about adding a pretty cool feature to the end-graft. Still trying to figure out if it can work so I'll have to leave you all in suspense for now with more details soon!
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  #18  
Old 12-07-2020, 10:02 AM
Archaic Guitars Archaic Guitars is offline
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This rosette is amazing! Great design and I love the idea is using “found” materials. Would you be willing to reveal how you crush the stones? And how you flatten the stone inlay after glueing? My block plane is giving me the stink eye even as I type this question.
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  #19  
Old 12-08-2020, 09:14 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Archaic Guitars View Post
This rosette is amazing! Great design and I love the idea is using “found” materials. Would you be willing to reveal how you crush the stones? And how you flatten the stone inlay after glueing? My block plane is giving me the stink eye even as I type this question.

For the section in the upper left (around 10:00) I used crushed coal -- basically I wacked a small piece of coal a couple of times with a hammer to get a mix of finer dust and small chunks. I mixed that with some gel CA glue and filled the cavity. The coal is very prone to shatter (why I decided to crush it and not try cutting it) but thankfully sands quite easily.

Moving counter-clockwise the next three sections were all sliced, thicknessed, and shaped stones with no crushing. To get those prepared I was a bit all over the place depending on the hardness, tendency to crack, etc. that varied from stone to stone. Basically though I got enough of a flat spot on each stone (belt sander or diamond stone) to glue the uncut stone to a block and pass it through a tile saw. I only had access to a cheapo tile saw so this step required a good bit of messing around to get a deep enough cut for any type of reasonable slice. Lots and lots of grinding and sanding to get to the final thickness and shape after that. The three sections of stone were all inlayed slightly below the surface (~.5mm) so that by the time I'm fully sanded there should just be a small gap that I'll top off with a finishing resin of some sort. I definitely don't have an ideal setup to do this type of work but made it work in the end. There's a lapidary club (stone and gem cutting) in Montreal that you can get access to proper machines but unfortunately it's currently closed due to covid.

Hope that all makes sense!
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  #20  
Old 12-08-2020, 02:19 PM
Archaic Guitars Archaic Guitars is offline
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Wow, I respect the resourcefulness! I’ve attended a few traveling rock and gem shows with my wife when they have come to town and have purchased a few random slabs of rocks that I always had the intention of using for inlays but could never quite figure out an appropriate way to go about it. Thanks for the tips.

This is shaping up to be a beautiful guitar, I can’t wait to see more.
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  #21  
Old 01-02-2021, 10:19 AM
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IndianHillMike IndianHillMike is offline
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Well, in true 2020 fashion, December was full of surprises -- one of the members in my shop tested positive for covid which shut our doors for two weeks (everyone is doing great with only one other positive case) and a blown bandsaw motor (...one month past warranty) meant not nearly as much progress as I had hoped! Thankfully things are settling back down and there are some cool new developments with this build.

First up is bracing the top...





More often than not I like to utilize a lattice pattern when I build an elevated neck...





Gluing on a piece of yellow cedar for an arm bevel and a small section of liners in the cutaway section...





And now for the twist! My client wants a pickup but will rarely use it and we've been discussing potential ways to hide the jack when not in use. I had a few ideas but eventually he realized that he doesn't ever play standing up or with a strap. So, we decided to recess the whole thing!





First it's a box...





And then of course a bunch of steps to make it pretty...





More pretty-ification...





First attempt at fitting an insert and making sure it all works...





And here's the finished cover with inlaid stone and an elk antler line running down the middle...





Similar to how I've been doing my truss rod covers, this piece is held on by two magnets and flips up when you press on one side (I'll include a little demo video in my next post). Also, there are two magnets hidden next to the cavity so that when you remove the cover it can be held in place. I think with a slight modification to a strap you could essentially thread onto the pickup jack so hopefully this idea won't be limited to strapless playing!


Happy New Year to all and there'll be more on this build soon!
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  #22  
Old 01-02-2021, 01:08 PM
IBKuz IBKuz is offline
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Mike, It’s always a pleasure to view your informative posts with all the technical info. The fact they have beautiful woods and design elements is just icing on the cake. Looking forward to the final reveal 😎
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  #23  
Old 01-03-2021, 12:01 AM
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Slick end graft cover idea and implement! Guitar is looking great. You always seem to be trying something different which makes it fun to follow.
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  #24  
Old 01-03-2021, 06:17 PM
Jamiejoon Jamiejoon is offline
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That end graft turned out terrific. Very nice!
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  #25  
Old 01-04-2021, 08:55 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by IBKuz View Post
Mike, It’s always a pleasure to view your informative posts with all the technical info. The fact they have beautiful woods and design elements is just icing on the cake. Looking forward to the final reveal 😎
Thanks! Balancing the technical and aesthetic sides of things has been driving influence throughout my life and building guitars sure offers ample opportunity to work at it!


Quote:
Originally Posted by virob View Post
Slick end graft cover idea and implement! Guitar is looking great. You always seem to be trying something different which makes it fun to follow.
Thanks! The challenge (and often stress) of trying new things is definitely a big part of building for me. I had my reward at the end of the day yesterday when I spent probably 5 minutes just flipping the cover off and on -- very very satisfying!


Quote:
Originally Posted by Jamiejoon View Post
That end graft turned out terrific. Very nice!
Thanks!



I decided I should hold off until the binding is on before showing the final end-graft in action so it will be a couple more days wait. So, time to rout the binding channels. Usually I try to take my time but sometimes you just have to cut corners...


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  #26  
Old 01-20-2021, 09:40 AM
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I'm just about finished up with the woodwork on the body for this one after a lengthy binding process -- a flush cutaway and arm-bevel definitely make for some tricky work at points! One of the reasons the cutaway takes longer than normal is that due to the twist in the sides (to meet the angled taper of the neck) I have to cut the binding and purfling channels by hand. Luckily I have a handy little gramil tool to help get the job done...





In order to get all the strips fitting well and clean miters it's easiest to glue up in sections. Here's the back purfling on the cutaway being glued...





And the cutaway mostly cleaned up...





Similarly the arm bevel gets glued up one section at a time and pushpins can be a savior for this section!





To veneer the arm bevel I put a layer of along the surface, trim it flush, peel it off and voila! Instant template for the veneer...





And now that things are mostly cleaned up, here's a look at the magnetic pickup cover in action...








There are two magnets hidden under the surface of the sides so that when you pull the cover off it has somewhere to be held in place...





The one potential downside of this is the inability to use a strap but I think it could be easily remedied with a sleeve that threaded onto the end of the pickup and bumped out a bit wider to allow a cable to fit through. More research and experimenting necessary but I'm incredibly pleased with how it turned out!
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  #27  
Old 01-25-2021, 09:23 AM
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When I posted pictures of the end-graft on instagram there was some confusion as to how the pickup cover was held when "open" so hopefully this helps clear things up. You can see below that there are two sets of magnets -- one visible set in the recessed area next to the jack and another set hidden beneath the honduran rosewood currently holding the cover in place...





I finally got around to making a template for my sound ports on a recent build and it's such a treat to use!





Gluing some hardwood strips on either side of the tenon. The grain of these strips runs perpendicular to the grain in the neck which gives something for the barrel nuts in the tenon to pull against. Otherwise the barrel nuts would only be held by end-grain which is definitely not ideal!





Once the neck angle is set and the mortise/tenon cut, it's time to glue on the elevated portion of the neck. This is essentially a long scarf joint that goes from the body to about the sixth fret. Because the elevation is cut from the same blank as the neck and is essentially just slid down towards the sound hole (keeping the grain in the same orientation) it can make a very clean and nearly invisible joint. This is also a perfect time to use hot hide glue since it quickly tacks to keep things from sliding around and pulls the joint tighter as it dries...


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  #28  
Old 01-25-2021, 11:57 AM
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I like the way the FBE is scarfed onto the neck. Very slick.
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  #29  
Old 01-26-2021, 09:38 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by j. Kinnaird View Post
I like the way the FBE is scarfed onto the neck. Very slick.
Thanks -- it's definitely a satisfying joint especially once it's all cleaned up!
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  #30  
Old 01-26-2021, 10:08 AM
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Cocobolo Kid Cocobolo Kid is offline
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What a cool project and a very informative thread. That cedar top and rosette look spectacular. I will be staying tuned to see how this guitar turns out.

Thanks for sharing!
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