Dovetail Madness III

[Howard Klepper]

Originally Posted by cpabolting

Howard.... isn't your thing that you typically arch the back and the top of the guitar for added strength? Any impact to sound to the positive?

Added strength, resistance to humidity changes, resistance to the body distortions that cause necks to need a reset. Arching also raises the resonant frequency of the plate. I do think that the lateral spline curve imparts a certain sound that I like. Walter Strauss and Stevie Coyle, who have played a bunch of my guitars, call it a "singing" quality in the midrange. Other things may contribute to it, but I attribute it to the arching.

[Coke_zero]

Howard, you must be mad (in a good way). It is great seeing guitars builders thinking out of the box (no pun intended ) and trying stuff like this. I have seen a few guitars with two different top woods (classical) but never to the detail of doing precision dovetails like that.

What I think I like most is simply how tasteful it looks. If you described this to someone they may think it would be very tacky, but it looks really classy and is a real work of art. I would love to play it when it gets to the UK.

[DonW]

Howard, I'm looking forward to seeing more of this one!

[cpabolting]

Originally Posted by Howard Klepper

Added strength, resistance to humidity changes, resistance to the body distortions that cause necks to need a reset. Arching also raises the resonant frequency of the plate. I do think that the lateral spline curve imparts a certain sound that I like. Walter Strauss and Stevie Coyle, who have played a bunch of my guitars, call it a "singing" quality in the midrange. Other things may contribute to it, but I attribute it to the arching.

I was thinking that would be the case. The strength of an arch is always greater than a flat surface I believe having to do with the dispersion of stress. Why do suppose Ryan and Olson don't consider it?

Very exciting.

[gitnoob]

I don't normally follow these build threads, but Howard's Dovetail guitars are my favorite!

Here's his DM-II:




I have an urge to take it apart like a wooden puzzle.

[Howard Klepper]

Some more progress.

The sides are bent. It went very well, with no joint separations. I used fish glue this time, which is very heat resistant, so long as it is a dry heat. But it steams apart easily, so I did the bending without any water. This is not hard to do with oily rosewoods such as African Blackwood and cocobolo. There is some oil and resin that is exuded in the bending that bakes on to the wood's surface. This is not scorched wood, and it will scrape or sand off easily.



Here's the headstock with its face veneer glued on:



And the rear "backstrap" veneers being glued:

[cpabolting]

Very cool... very tempting! Pernambuco madness coming soon LOL

[Howard Klepper]

More work on the headstock. I used (from inside to outside) bloodwood, Black veneer and red cocobolo for the backstrapping on the rear of the headstock.



We like to see those layers come out nice and tight. I heat bend them to fit the curve where they exit the neck before gluing up:



Ready to cut out the headstock:



here it is, front and back:




Now for some decisions about binding and purfling. These choices for the headstock will determine a lot of the guitar's trim. I spent some time trying out different combinations before routing for the headstock binding. And here we have the binding and purfling ledges cut.

[cpabolting]

Originally Posted by Howard Klepper

Wow...I kind of like the beveled edge on the headstock as it is!

[Neil Gardiner]

Howard

I build guitars myself and have long admired your work.

I think your guitars are in a class all to themselves.

Thanks for sharing this with us.

N

[Steve Kinnaird]

Howard, thanks for taking the trouble to post this.
Wonderful work...very inspiring.

Steve

[cpabolting]

Originally Posted by neogardguitar

Howard

I build guitars myself and have long admired your work.

I think your guitars are in a class all to themselves.

Thanks for sharing this with us.

N

That is the truth.

[SteveS]

Is it going to be a bolt on or dovetail neck joint.

Looks great Howard!

[cpabolting]

Originally Posted by SteveS

Is it going to be a bolt on or dovetail neck joint.

Looks great Howard!

There is some irony in not doing a dovetail. I'm just sayin'......

[Howard Klepper]

It will be bolt on. The first DM was dovetail. I go with what I think is functionally better unless someone orders a dovetail (for which there is no extra charge). Besides, I kind of like when someone asks what kind of joint the neck on Dovetail Madness has and I look deadpan and say "bolted." I do a mortise and tenon with the bolt-on, though. It give the neck more strength if it should get a sideways blow.

Here's the headstock binding. I have made the trim on these reverse between dark and light anyplace where the panels of the guitar change. As the series of DM's has progressed, I've found more places to do this. Here the binding and all the purfling lines switch at the point at the top of the headstock where the ebony and cocobolo meet. That point is off-center, which introduces an asymmetry. The bindings are bloodwood and Ceylon satinwood. The main purfling lines are curly koa and curly maple. The curly maple is bordered by black lines, and the koa by light (maple) lines. The side purflings also reverse, from white/black/white under the bloodwood, to black/white/black under the satinwood. I'll continue this theme all over the guitar.


The curly wood and the yellow color of the satinwood don't show much now; they will under a finish.