Laurelyn Sexauer's first guitar

[cigarfan]

Our hearts are right there with you. A fine way to spend a summer. Thanks for sharing the build with us.

[Guitars44me]

Originally Posted by WayneJohnson

Bruce, I cannot help but be inspired by this thread! Awesome to see. My daughter designed my logo, my wife provides a lot of artistic influence to many of my rosettes, my son is an outstanding musician, singer/songwriter and of course plays a guitar i built for him, my other son built his own cajon in my shop, both my daughters sing wonderfully. We are empty nesters but when we all get together, a rare but treasured time, music is huge with us.

but your thread here continues to light the flame of why we build. Music is, in my opinion one the most healing, connecting, loving, restoring, moving, uniting elements known to mankind. It is our privilege, joy and ongoing motivation to never give up contributing fine instruments to help those who create more music to keep on doing it----we need this medicine more than ever in this troubled world. Thank you Bruce and Laurelyn.

True about the music being healing. Boy is it needed now! Play on with right intention AGF!

And thanks Bruce and Laurelyn for sharing with us all

Paul

[Bruce Sexauer]

Laurelyn has spent her second week in the shop with me, and is now off to Sacramento for a very hot (mid-100's) weekend at home. Here guitar is coming along very nicely, with the side thicknessed and bent, and glued to the end blocks. One of them has all it's peone in, which she split and placed today. I took a few photos.

Glueing the sides to the neck block:


She is more cautious than I when spitting the peone blocks in half!




Placing the peone:

[Bruce Sexauer]

Laurelyn has got her guitar up to where I think the back will go on tomorrow! So far, nothing falls short of my standard, which exceeds my original expectation. Justifiably proud papa.

Sanding the ribs to receive the back:


Gluing in the kerfed linings:


Complete except for the notches to receive the back braces:


Last piece of the center reinforcement strip:

[cigarfan]

Looking really schweeet there Laurelyn!

[SJ VanSandt]

I have to confess, I'm a little jealous of your daughter, Bruce. Wish I could build my own Sexauer guitar! Did she spend a lot of time in the shop watching you as a child, or did she just recently get the building bug?

[printer2]

Looks real good, I would not know you didn't build it. Bet she is feeling good about it.

[jaymarsch]

Very impressive and very fun to watch.

Best,
Jayne

[Bruce Sexauer]

Some time ago I asked Laurelyn to help me out at a guitar show and she demurred saying she didn’t know enough about Guitars to talk to people. So I quizzed her and we discovered that she could identify all of the woods I was using at a glance and knew the names of most of the pieces that make up a guitar. Nice try, girlfriend.

[MC5C]

Do you mind talking about why you use tentellones for the top? I notice you are also not using a mold - is that part of it? I had thought that style of lining was almost relegated to traditional classical builders, and now I've seen it in modern steel string and archtop builds twice in a week. And I don't know why...

[Bruce Sexauer]

I call them "peone", a more informal name, which I am told means "little bit". Only recently has the term "tentellone" come to my attention. My mentor, Michael Dunn, used this method, and I think the same is true for Irving Sloan, whose book "Classical Guitar Construction" was my earliest outside influence.

The peone method lends itself to moldless construction as the sides do not need to perfectly fit top, the peone fill the gap as needed. Also, the rigidity of the side to top connection can be varied by the density of blocks, both in numbers and material choice.

Interestingly, perhaps, early Martin guitars (pre-factory) used peone construction. I have seen several examples. I have done it the "other" way, and the lack of control makes me squirm.

[MC5C]

So you don't glue the top to the sides as a first step? Just place and locate the sides over the top, press down in some way and then add the peones? Presume HHG for very fast grip, and hand pressure to clamp? Isn't it funny how different approaches all work so well for different builders. I build archtops from the Benedetto school of thought, so perfectly flat rims that lend themselves to kerfed or solid linings sanded perfectly flat to mate to the flat back and top. I also close the box back first, so that I can clean up and perfect the visual appearance of the back linings, since that is what you can see when you look inside - no glue drips or squeeze out!

Brian

[Bruce Sexauer]

Glue squeeze-out can be controlled by learning to use the right amount of glue. Gauging the “right amount of glue” is something I have learned to take for granted, and guiding Laurelyn in this respect has been a real eye opener for me.

[tadol]

Somehow, a tiny bit of glue squeeze-out is more comforting than none at all - probably just me -

[Guitars44me]

Originally Posted by tadol

Somehow, a tiny bit of glue squeeze-out is more comforting than none at all - probably just me -

Wow, I was thinking I was the only one to kind of like a bit of mess, as I feel it shows "the hand of the maker" not a machine

This thread is very fun

Thanks again

Paul