Build Thread: Tahoe Guitars Madi RW/BC Lutz 00-14

[OddManOut]

Here is the glue up of the kerfing to the sides of the guitar. The kerfing is mahogany and is prebent as shown.



A section of kerfing glued and waiting to be clamped.




"Nurse...clamp!"



All clamped up and nowhere to go...



One kerfed rim. Now where is that radius sanding stick????

[OddManOut]

It seems Larry has found his radiused sanding stick. Here the top and back sides of the rims are being radius sanded prior to the top and back being attached to the rims. The top and back were braced in a radiused dish with radius-sanded braces, so both have a slight curvature. I don't recall the radii Larry uses...I'll post it later when he replies to my email.

EDIT---Larry Replies: "It's 28' for the top 20' for the back...16" for the FB."







The trick is in the angle of that edge of the sanding stick. Two different angles for the different top and back radii.

[OddManOut]

In this sequence, Larry is attaching the lutz top to the kerfed rim. Larry prefers to do the final tuning with the rims attached since this is closer to the conditions under which the top will be vibrating on the finished guitar.

The brace ends below the X are faded to nothing (i.e. not tucked), those above the X are tucked. Thus the braces undergo an "intermediate carving" at this stage where they are brought closer to final size and ends faded to properly meet the rim, but still left with extra meat for the final tuning.


Here are the braces as they were glued up, prior to any carving. Note the brace ends.



Here the bass-side ends have been reduced. The bass-side upper X still has a bit of meat to be tucked into the rim. The lower bass-side ends are all taken down to nothing.



Now the treble-side ends are also taken down. There has also been some reduction and shaping on the interior of the braces, but they are still on the large side. How much more will be taken off will depend on how the top taps once the rims are on.




The top is glued and clamped. The buck stopped here, apparently.



Now the inner mold is removed.





The top is ready for the final tuning. Once this is done, the back will be attached.

[OddManOut]

Here Larry is installing side ribs. These help prevent grain line cracks in the sides. I believe the ribs are cut from the back/side offcuts.

[Berf]

This is coming along really nicely OddMO... looking forward to seeing it when completed. Cheers, berf

[OddManOut]

Originally Posted by Berf

This is coming along really nicely OddMO... looking forward to seeing it when completed. Cheers, berf

Thanks, berf. I am headed over to Larry's this morning to be there for the final top tuning. This is always an exciting day. Pics will be posted.

[OddManOut]

I visited Larry today for the final top tuning and other assorted work. We started by working on the back brace ends, which was already in progress when I arrived. The back was ringing like a marimba already.

Larry brings the ends of the back braces down to 1/10 inch.

That little angled sanding stick is extremely effective and handy, but apparently are no longer produced by Sandvik.





Checking the end height with a gauge. This one is made from mahogany. The guitar will sound better if the brace ends are measured with a mahogany gauge.





Yours Truly having a go at a brace end with a curved chisel. I was very careful!





Larry chiseled the wood much more expertly than I.

[OddManOut]

To start the top tuning, Larry thinned the edges. The top was sounding tight and was slightly thicker than Larry wanted for a 00-14. So he took 0.01" off the edge. After thinning, it was ringing with a more open, resonant tone. Different tones really started to emerge when tapping at different areas of the top.

The top before we started.



Using a router to make a 0.01" deep index mark around the edge.





Taking the edge down to the index mark with 80 grit sandpaper. The smaller edge thickness is graduated (feathered) into the center thickness.







Total weight of the removed material: 2 grams

[OddManOut]

So now that the top was ringing fairly openly, Larry used his voice to see over what range the top was vibrating. The "voice tuning" is another tool-in addition to tapping-to get an overall feel for how willing the top is to ring. He felt the interval of vibration was good, but the lower and upper pitches were on the high side. Looking at the braces, he felt the the tone bars could come down a bit in height, and take more tapering.









After working the tone bars, the voice pitch interval slid down a bit and the tap tones were more "broad" with partials. The differentiation of the tap tones in different areas of the top continued to becomes more pronounced.

Now Larry worked on the X brace. He took off a bit of height in the scallop and the lower shoulders, then did a fair amount of tapering. He then did tapering work on the upper X. He did a bit of tapering on the fingers as well.









After working on the X brace, the center of voice pitch dropped, while maintaining its interval. The top tone became more complex and the modes were more differentiated. It was now ringing when it was simply touched, or picked up off a surface. It's alive!

A BIG THANK YOU to Larry Nair for having me over to his shop to witness the coming alive of this guitar top.

Here's a video after the top was done. The back braces are not yet finished.

[TomB'sox]

That is so interesting in the amount of fine tuning with the bracing to get it just right! I do have to ask, was there a lot of paint thinner in the air before you made the video haha or is that just the aftermath of a happy day in the shop with a job well done!!!

[OddManOut]

Originally Posted by TomB'sox

That is so interesting in the amount of fine tuning with the bracing to get it just right!

Larry is an intuitive luthier (and they run the gamut between intuitive and analytical). His intuition guided him through getting really nice tonal response from this top in about an hour through the process described.

Originally Posted by TomB'sox

I do have to ask, was there a lot of paint thinner in the air before you made the video haha or is that just the aftermath of a happy day in the shop with a job well done!!!

We're just a couple of goofballs. We think we're funny...we always laugh at our own jokes.

[TomB'sox]

You are soooo lucky to be able to be there and see it all and actually get your hands dirty on your own build. Sorry if you have mentioned this before, but is this arrangement because you just live close by or have you worked together before or just friends, all of the above???

Anyway, not only do you get a build done for you, you are right there, that is just a total step above the rest!!!!

And to have such fun on top of it all without artificial enhancements (not that there is anything wrong with that ), that is just awesome.

[OddManOut]

Originally Posted by TomB'sox

You are soooo lucky to be able to be there and see it all and actually get your hands dirty on your own build. Sorry if you have mentioned this before, but is this arrangement because you just live close by or have you worked together before or just friends, all of the above???

Anyway, not only do you get a build done for you, you are right there, that is just a total step above the rest!!!!

And to have such fun on top of it all without artificial enhancements (not that there is anything wrong with that ), that is just awesome.

Yes, I realize that I am very fortunate to be able to have this experience.I was just saying this to Larry today as the top was being tuned. It is a gift and I am thankful. He and I feel it has been very symbiotic.

It came about because Larry is a local luthier. I originally approached him to help me build a StewMac kit, and he offered to build the kit as well. He and I struck up a friendship in the process. That story and build can be found in the "OMOM" link in my sig.

Thanks for following this thread!

[OddManOut]

I visited Larry this morning to try out one of two guitars he is finishing for a customer (an Adi/Koa OM...nice!). I then hung out for a while while Larry did some work on the necks for my guitar and a spec dread he is building.

Here Larry is cutting the tenon portion of the mortise and tenon bolt joint.

The tenon laid out, looking from the fretboard side of the neck blank.



Cutting the tenon on the Grizzly.













A bit of hogging on the tenon to get a better rough fit.

[OddManOut]

Larry then gets a rough fit on the neck. The fine work of setting the neck comes later.


The sides around the mortise need to be flushed. A bit of sanding should do it...





The rough fit is checked.






With the rough set done, Larry taps the heel for the neck attachment hardware.





Larry lays out the head angle.





The head is then cut on the Grizzly with an angled fence.



The angled offcut is now a door stop for my office door. Solid mahogany door stops improve the acoustics of the office.