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  #61  
Old 03-13-2018, 07:54 PM
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This is a guitar that I wanted to test out a few ideas with. One of them is rather than producing a neck and then attaching an extension under the fretboard to support the fretboard rather than relying on the top. So far so good.



Until the bearing on the router decides to have a bad hair day. I bought it used and cheap, time to grab another router.



Another thing I am trying is to put a small bevel on the edge by bending the wood rather than building up a section to carve away. It will effect how the top will vibrate but reducing the top with a classic bevel will also. I am not too concerned sound wise as comfort is higher on the list of attributes, just want to be able to extend practice times. Even a guitar small as this can cause me pain because of some health issues. Wish I put a little more bevel, we will see how it goes.



The other oddity is the 0.15" thick back. The fence board guitar had too much influence from the back. I want to see what a non-active back sounds like. If lacking I plan to shave off layers until I find a happy medium.
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  #62  
Old 03-14-2018, 08:48 AM
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Unique rosette - I like that!
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  #63  
Old 03-14-2018, 12:36 PM
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Well, Just something I threw together. Hi Mary, you caught me slumming it again. I'm trying out some different ideas on this one. Eventually I want to have an inexpensive easy to make guitar that I could give away to people to encourage them to play. I did a rougher version (really, how bad can it get?) and gave it to a woman at work who wanted to play but needed a push along. I said if she decided to give it up or get herself a better guitar just return it and I will pass it along to someone else. So far I haven't got it back so there is still hope.

I will be using hanger bolts to attach the neck. Drilled some holes and cut down some finishing nails to stick out and mark the hole locations in the body.



Well what do you know, it worked.



I have the neck more or less lined up. I was in a thrift store and they had a bunch of T squares for drafting. Not a lot of call for drafting on paper, $0.75 each I took all three. Good for lining things up. I went with an oak fretboard as I probably would not use the piece for any thing else. I bought it years ago when I first wanted to make a box guitar. Little did I know I would still be at it years latter.



I have to run out and get some hanger bolts, I wonder what they have for wood today? When I get back the enjoyable part of carving the neck. I think I like doing it because it makes a mess. The seeing it go from lumber to neck is also part of the fun.
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  #64  
Old 03-17-2018, 09:31 PM
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I had to pick and choose what to do today and tomorrow. I really should clean the house and make it look livable. Then there is the couple of guitars I need to fret and do the tuner holes, mount them and side dots. Thought about doing the circuit change of my 6K6 amp to the input circuit I thought up. Or try and get the latest quickie guitar body sanded and ready for finish and carve the neck.

Monday I am having surgery on my wrist and I'll have my right hand in a brace for a couple of weeks. I am going to have to really take it easy, I am not one to sit around if I can be doing something. So let's say I can manage the amp with mostly my left hand. Alright, decided.







I got most of the neck to shape, tomorrow make it look pretty. The body is done and second coat on it. I'll do a rough house cleanup after the neck. See, I can prioritize.
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  #65  
Old 03-19-2018, 03:17 PM
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I have some fretting and setup work lined up.



That is all for the foreseeable future as I had surgery on my wrist this morning. The local anesthetic wore off and I am due for a couple more pain killers. Darn it feels like somebody took a baseball bat to my arm. And today my fret wire comes in the mail. I might be able to do a heel cap on the newest neck and maybe a head plate but I think I will be out of it for the next couple of weeks.
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  #66  
Old 03-21-2018, 08:20 AM
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It looks to me like you are moving along quite well. I'm impressed. We are at a stage in 2 guitars that are getting the finish. It's a lot of wax on, wax off. If we see a pin hole and it appears to bug one of us we go back to the drawing board.

I like your idea of sharing and caring. I have said many times there is a guitar for every player and a player for every guitar. They just need to get together.
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  #67  
Old 03-21-2018, 08:59 AM
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Quote:
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It looks to me like you are moving along quite well. I'm impressed. We are at a stage in 2 guitars that are getting the finish. It's a lot of wax on, wax off. If we see a pin hole and it appears to bug one of us we go back to the drawing board.

I like your idea of sharing and caring. I have said many times there is a guitar for every player and a player for every guitar. They just need to get together.
It is amazing how much time you spend on getting the little flaws out to get a perfect product. And they have no bearing on how well the guitar sounds or plays. But when someone is going the custom route you got to do the best you can and you have a reputation to uphold. I have two people at work wanting me to build a little guitar, one wanted to buy the fence board guitar and I declined saying I'll build him a better one. He hasn't played in years and had a ball playing it. The other guy was learning to play but quit because he found it hard with the string spacing while this one was a regular classical width. He really like how light and easy the guitar was to play. He has never played a nylon string either.

I told them I'll make a guitar for each of them but I won't be chasing perfection in fit and finish. I won't be charging them much more than the cost of materials, I just want to see them playing and if they do it is worth more to me than a couple of extra bucks. I am ok with the level of quality I have in these three for my gifting guitars. I do plan on building cleaner versions with better materials, I will be chasing pinholes soon enough.
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  #68  
Old 04-17-2018, 10:08 PM
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Why not, one more.

The top got a little toasty in the oven. I always passed it by as the one side looked darker than the other and it was very noticeable at the join. I considered it for this project as this was to be hopefully the last iteration of the small pine guitars. On each one I learned something and wanted to try out my different ideas. The last one was the reverse fan braced top, an arm bevel and a thicker back. I am redoing the reverse fan to give something for the last one to compare to. This one will also get a more pronounced bevel. I am going to do a floating fretboard but hopefully it will be a little more refined than the last one. I think I have got the hang of bending softwood, one day I might try a Venetian.

I thought of doing it on this one (everything and the kitchen sink) but I thought I have enough going on with this one, something left for the next one. This all started because I saw a neck blank I made up last year but decided to not use it. It has a Mahogany replacement for a neck. Very light and soft wood, I shelved it. I was going to use it for this one because it was turning out to be a guitar made from throwaway materials. But the sum seems to becoming more than the parts. The back with wings added to the lower bout, cut the center of the top out and rejoined it and it looks better. The sides bent in no time. I might go for a spruce neck again, pulled out a half 2x4 from the garage. I am about 50-50 on which neck. I am going to try and talk myself into a Walnut fretboard and bridge. A nylon string again. Usually we have washed out kiln dried walnut here, found a couple of pieces that were darker than usual. I was looking for some to use as fretboards but I think they might be better served as sides. So that is not nailed down. But what ever is with what I build.



White Oak rosette trimmed with black fiber on baked spruce top.



Time for my arm bevel. Shaped a piece of spruce and glued it in. Glued the kerfed linings and side supports in also.



Hogged out most of the spruce.



Might even work with the fan bracing. Now I just have to figure out how to bend the top without breaking it.

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  #69  
Old 04-18-2018, 08:46 PM
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I thought the top would be ready to glue on but it seems the bend in the top needs a little more persuading. Here is it with a few handy helpers, only so far you want to go before you hear a crack.



I was not having a great day so I thought I would go out buy a new piece of wood (my version of a new pair of shoes). I found something I never saw before, some imported stairway runners, listed as Acacia wood. There was one that looked interesting but one of the laminations was bent out of shape. They had no price on them, found it was on sale for about $22, I asked how much for the pretzel one.



They said $5 so naturally I went away happy. I originally thought of using it for some rosettes but it might make a fretboard or two. I managed to pull the linearly challenged piece off by hand. I found out Acacia family has Koa and Australian Blackwood in the family.
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Last edited by printer2; 04-18-2018 at 08:58 PM.
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  #70  
Old 04-21-2018, 04:35 PM
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Gluing the top to the rim. The top is below the rim and the clamps and wedges are mating the top to the arm bevel. The top is flat other than the bevel.



The bevel part of the top must have still been damp. Added a little fresh glue and clamped and left for a day. Because of the curve of the bevel the clamps wanted to slip off the top. I slip pieces of sandpaper between the top and the clamp to give it some more friction.



I was a little short on the back's upper bout so I cut a piece from the lower bout and glued it on. You can see the variation in shading of the top with the cutoffs used for the back center seam strip.



The one side is darker than the other. When you sit too close to the fire you get a little toastier. Second wipe of clear poly. I normally like satin finish but I want to see how well the gloss turns out. The rosette is kind of pretty. And I was going to toss the end cuts, found another use for them.

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  #71  
Old 06-30-2018, 08:31 AM
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I have been busy with real life, decided to jump back into my alternate universe. Routed a slot for an aluminum bar, inserted a hardwood dowel to anchor the anchor bolts.



Wanted to see how viable an extension is to do from one piece. Still have to narrow the tenon part and cut a mortise into the body. The previously one, being the first time it was more a hack job. Just a trip to the bandsaw, The narrowing of the tenon part was done with a razor saw and cleaned up with a chisel. Didn't take a picture of it, I'll get one when I put in the bolts.



Cut out then shaped on my drum sander.



Fretboard, I almost forgot the fretboard.



I found this tool on sale, it has some really sharp barbs on it, my thumb will heal. Takes off material quite aggressively.



This is a quick cleanup with the left file, a bast*rd file will get it to it's almost finished state. I could have used just the bast*rd file but wanted to see what the other would do.



Night, night time.

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  #72  
Old 07-01-2018, 07:15 AM
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Welcome back to kicking it back into gear.

Ah yes... it is good to see this back up and running. I have spent the past few months in the McJam 2018 mode. It was quite successful and a joy to hear guitar music coming at me from all angles.
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  #73  
Old 07-01-2018, 08:59 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mary View Post
Welcome back to kicking it back into gear.

Ah yes... it is good to see this back up and running. I have spent the past few months in the McJam 2018 mode. It was quite successful and a joy to hear guitar music coming at me from all angles.
Darn you live far. I thought, Ohio, just go down a ways and turn left a bit. No, go left a lot. I hope you had a full house.

I have been neglectful guitar wise for a while. I bought some woodworking machinery and am trying to get my garage in order. But started the neck a few days ago and just managed to get an acceptable neck joint. It fought me and for a while I thought it was going to win but I kept at it. Next is to do the heel cap, neck bolts, side dots, radius the fretboard.

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  #74  
Old 07-11-2018, 07:35 AM
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We all get in the neglectful guitar stage when other things come up. It's great to take a break and see the sun shine in the real world, but we have discovered the comfort of the wood shop proves that it is always a pleasure to get back to the routine. It's good to see your work bench vise still holds the guitar.

We have a tour coming through our shop tomorrow so I need to get busy and clear my desk for business.
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  #75  
Old 11-25-2018, 09:24 AM
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I took a little break from building, actually getting life ready for the winter season to precedence. I set up a couple of Strats and realized my arm bevel was not going to cut it at times. So I decided to do some surgery on this one.



Took a block plane and sandpaper to it. Then I started to fit pieces of spruce under the soundboard and glue it in with CA.



It was tricky to get the wood to bend and contact along the whole bevel area. I had to resort to some help.



Trimmed and sanded down.





I want to shape the neck a little more then put some finish on the neck and the bevel.
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