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  #46  
Old 01-03-2019, 10:03 AM
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Erithon Erithon is offline
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Originally Posted by The Growler View Post
This has really been interesting. Thanks both of you for sharing this process and the pictures. Great story telling.
Thanks for following along!

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Originally Posted by v32 finish View Post
Definitely a great thread. Cant wait to see the finished port(s).
Me too!
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  #47  
Old 01-08-2019, 10:41 PM
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Mark has put many hours into realizing this technical soundport design. He began by sanding the area nearly down to the wood. Next he laid in one cross-grained .020” black laminate inside to shore up the side before cutting the holes. After cutting the holes he added one Maple layer and two more black layers to create a floor and buttress the side strength. Finally he inserted the purfling and the Ebony binding, and glued and clamped it all up:


After the glue dried Mark cut through the three laminate layers and smoothed them up to the binding (the side was wiped with Naptha for these photos):




This is some truly fine woodcraft by Mark: the Maple interior laminate enhances the perception of depth against the Ebony binding; the tight curves of that purfling are cleanly executed; and instead of wrapping a strip around the inside of the ports, each binding is an entire piece of hollowed-out Ebony. What an elegant choice! Not only is there no join seam, but the Ebony's grain also runs parallel to that of the Cocobolo's. Subtle and creative.

Next Mark will bevel the soundport bindings so they have a round edge that leads the eye inward. Once that's done, we'll move on from the soundport to the next stages: stripping the rest of the finish from the sides, voicing the top, and then closing up the box for refinishing.
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  #48  
Old 01-09-2019, 04:05 PM
Ovation1 Ovation1 is offline
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Fabulous work.
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  #49  
Old 01-09-2019, 04:25 PM
Nemoman Nemoman is offline
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Wow--surgical luthiery in action!

Great work, Mark!
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  #50  
Old 01-09-2019, 06:22 PM
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Those are probably the coolest sound ports I have seen and to think they are being retrofitted as well!
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  #51  
Old 01-10-2019, 05:14 AM
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Thanks for the kind words. This was Erithon’s concept which I thought goes well with the other design elements of the guitar. I can tell you it’s a bit fiddlely to make bound ports that small but, I love a challenge!
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  #52  
Old 01-10-2019, 07:16 AM
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Looks great
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  #53  
Old 01-10-2019, 09:07 AM
Monsoon1 Monsoon1 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Erithon View Post
Mark has put many hours into realizing this technical soundport design. He began by sanding the area nearly down to the wood. Next he laid in one cross-grained .020” black laminate inside to shore up the side before cutting the holes. After cutting the holes he added one Maple layer and two more black layers to create a floor and buttress the side strength. Finally he inserted the purfling and the Ebony binding, and glued and clamped it all up:


After the glue dried Mark cut through the three laminate layers and smoothed them up to the binding (the side was wiped with Naptha for these photos):




This is some truly fine woodcraft by Mark: the Maple interior laminate enhances the perception of depth against the Ebony binding; the tight curves of that purfling are cleanly executed; and instead of wrapping a strip around the inside of the ports, each binding is an entire piece of hollowed-out Ebony. What an elegant choice! Not only is there no join seam, but the Ebony's grain also runs parallel to that of the Cocobolo's. Subtle and creative.

Next Mark will bevel the soundport bindings so they have a round edge that leads the eye inward. Once that's done, we'll move on from the soundport to the next stages: stripping the rest of the finish from the sides, voicing the top, and then closing up the box for refinishing.
Brilliant.
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  #54  
Old 01-21-2019, 10:13 PM
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The box is closed!


After voicing the top, Mark weighed it and glued it on. This WRC top weighs 26% less then the previous Sitka top did at this same point. In Mark's words: "That is a huge difference which will show up wonderfully on this instrument. We'll be looking for a quicker, louder response and it will have a much greater dynamic range plus, it now will have the wonderfully musical timbre of a nice Western Red Cedar soundboard."

In short, this is exactly what I'm aiming for:
  • quick response: check
  • loud response: check
  • dynamic sensitivity: check

Once again Mark has proven his skill: properly fitting a top is a lot more difficult when the arm bevel is already in place!
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  #55  
Old 01-22-2019, 06:25 AM
ukejon ukejon is offline
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Cool but it’s gonna be hard to play with all those blue thingys in the way!
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  #56  
Old 01-22-2019, 06:50 AM
RGPGuitars RGPGuitars is offline
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Great work on an amazing redesign. Fiddly work to be sure on the bound sound ports. Amazing detail. I have only done one segmented sound port, but I am not sure if it is as effective as a single port. What are your thoughts on that?
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  #57  
Old 01-22-2019, 09:28 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RGPGuitars View Post
Great work on an amazing redesign. Fiddly work to be sure on the bound sound ports. Amazing detail. I have only done one segmented sound port, but I am not sure if it is as effective as a single port. What are your thoughts on that?
Thanks! In regard to sound ports to a certain extent I think of a segmented sound port as the grille on a speaker. Given the compressibility of Air a sound wave will go around the segments without much loss. However, the overall shape of the sound port can make a difference. For instance: Sound waves travel through ovals better than circles so an oval that is 3” X 1” is more efficient than a circle that is 2” in diameter. Even though the circle has a larger area the oval with less area works better. A line of circles works better than one larger circle of equal area. It’s apparent that long is better and segments can be used for support.
A recent sound port I’ve done was shaped as an olive twig with little leaves and olives spread out on the upper bout. Each element was a separate port. Overall the cut out area was quite small but, the overall dimension of the sound port was pretty large. I’ll admit that I was doing this more as a decorative part of the guitar but, the first time I played it I was astonished on how well it worked. That’s when I started thinking of the grille comparison.
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  #58  
Old 02-09-2019, 12:05 PM
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Erithon Erithon is offline
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You may have noticed in the last update that the sides were fully sanded down to the sealer layer. The finish has now been sanded off the back as well. This wasn't originally part of the plan, but Mark felt that if he could thin out the back a bit it would result in a better sounding instrument.

At the same time the binding and purfling were bent:


We're keeping the same purfling pattern as before: seven .020" violin lines composed of dyed black Birch, Maple, and Mahogany. The order is b-w-b-m-b-w-b. Here is a picture from the guitar's Spruce-topped days:

Mark cuts the Mahogany line and sandwiches it between two pre-made purfling sticks of b-w-b. It's easy to find such sticks online, but Mark custom orders his from Gurian because he wants dyed black Birch instead of "wood fiber." Birch is actually wood--not an artificial cardboard-esque composite. Not only do "wood fiber" sticks (probably) dampen the soundboard's vibrations, but their dyes bleed more easily.

Once bent, the purfling and binding were attached to the body:

Because raw Red Cedar is so delicate, there's a coat of shellac under the taped region to firm it up.

Here's the body all cleaned up and ready to be finished.

It shipped off for that work this past week. While it's gone, we'll be shifting focus to the neck.
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  #59  
Old 02-09-2019, 12:49 PM
jimmy bookout jimmy bookout is offline
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It always amazes me how lightly colored cocobolo is before it oxidizes.
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  #60  
Old 02-10-2019, 08:20 AM
GeoffStGermaine GeoffStGermaine is offline
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Looks great!
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