Watch My First Build - Page 2

Fliss · #16 12-03-2009, 03:56 PM

That's some beautiful rosewood, CZ, I look forward to watching how your build progresses.

Fliss

Coke_zero · #17 12-03-2009, 05:57 PM

Thanks Fliss. You may have guessed I have given up on getting a guitar made for me (for now).

I hope this works out well. I spent a good part of the evening starting to make my mould. I hope finish it done soon and get a few other odds and sods done before the woods start to arrive on Monday (fingers crossed).

SCGib68 · #18 12-03-2009, 10:38 PM

Once you get your mold made, you might want to hit it with a couple coats of shellac to keep it from warping. Just do some light sanding between coats after it dries with some 120-400 grit sandpaper to smooth it back out. Depending on what you want to do for your soundhole rosette, you could start working on making that while you wait on the other wood to arrive. I made about 5 lbs of sawdust before I got one I was happy with.

Coke_zero · #19 12-04-2009, 03:02 PM

The stuff for my rosette are all on the same order as my woods. I really have very little to do this weekend in terms of building the guitar unfortunately.

SCGib68 · #20 12-04-2009, 07:47 PM

2 words that will keep you busy: Tool Shopping

OC1 · #21 12-05-2009, 09:59 AM

I was recently on this same boat but now my advices for first guitar would be:

- use standard wood - easy to replace, easy to work with and doesn't cost arm and leg if something broke - Sitka, Engleman and East Indian Rosewood are great choices. Stay away from more exotic woods for your first builds untill you gain confidence. They are not only more expensive but also often much harder to work with (chipping, too much oils for glue etc..)
- Bending iron is ok - it just take more time but it is not difficult
- always try setup on a test wood
- always try to build good structure even if you would end up with thicker walls and bit heavier guitar than you would like, only years of expertise will allow you to properly judge if and where the certain wood can get slimmer and lighter. So don't go too light or your guitar may snap in half when you put strings.
- everything is fixable in guitarmaking, but you have to know how. If you mess things up - first thing - do not try to fix it right away by yourself - ask a woodworker or luthier how (and when) to fix it - often the fix may be simple but not obvious to you. (For example using a right glue for certain type of wood to fix a chip make it totally invisible)

Coke_zero · #22 12-05-2009, 06:26 PM

A small update.

The mould is pretty much done, just needs a bit more sanding and a quick varnish.

The kerfing strips, binding and my bending iron arrived today. Hopefully the rest will turn up on Monday or Tuesday.

Coke_zero · #23 12-06-2009, 04:06 PM

Okay, the day wasn't as productive as I hoped. We had a power-cut for about 4 hours while engineers worked on a new house next door to the shop.

I have pretty much finished my mould though. It needs a little sanding here and there and I need to think of a way to securely fix each side together.

Here's a rough photo sorry about the quality it was taken on my iPhone. The angle I took it at doesn't help either.

SCGib68 · #24 12-06-2009, 07:02 PM

John @ Bluescreek Guitars has mold clamps. I'm pretty sure you can order them from his site.

Coke_zero · #25 12-07-2009, 12:38 PM

I may have to order some things soon from the US it is getting quite hard to find certain parts I need. I know LMII do deals for international buyers.

All the woods arrived today as did a few new tools.

I have a question I would like some input on. I have an abalone rosette and some spalted maple. I got the both together as part of a deal for some woods. I wonder if they would go togeather or if it would look too "garish" when finished.

On a side note, how thin should wood be that is being inlayed as a rosette? Obviously thinner than the top wood, but what is the "safe" thickness.

Anyway, here's a photo. If anyone has or knows of a guitar with this combination, please post.

Coke_zero · #26 12-08-2009, 05:31 PM

Hello all. I think this topic has gone a little stale and would like to get it going again.

A small update.

The back and top are currently in their jig hopefully drying after being joined. I'll be the first to admit I had a lot of trouble getting the edges perfectly straight for gluing. After doing some research on Youtube I found a jig which worked perfectly.

I would also like to thank Woody b who has helped me a lot with little questions. Pictures tomorrow if I get the result I want (two joined peices of wood

).

Huckleberry · #27 12-10-2009, 09:55 AM

Check out the Greenfield guitr here http://theacousticmusicco.co.uk/inde...d-guitars.html

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coke_zero

I may have to order some things soon from the US it is getting quite hard to find certain parts I need. I know LMII do deals for international buyers.

All the woods arrived today as did a few new tools.

I have a question I would like some input on. I have an abalone rosette and some spalted maple. I got the both together as part of a deal for some woods. I wonder if they would go togeather or if it would look too "garish" when finished.

On a side note, how thin should wood be that is being inlayed as a rosette? Obviously thinner than the top wood, but what is the "safe" thickness.

Anyway, here's a photo. If anyone has or knows of a guitar with this combination, please post.

Coke_zero · #28 12-10-2009, 07:15 PM

Well, one word comes to mind...

Disaster.

I turned up to the shop after work today to find it no longer there...

There was a stolen car burnt out and the fire started by the thieves ended up catching alight the shop which resulted in a huge fire. I guess lots of extremely dry wood in the shop acted as perfect kindling.

Apart from obviously feeling awful for the guy who owns it, I lost everything including the top, back and sides, bracing wood, binding and all the other things alike. In fact; the only thing I still have is my bending iron & my good chisel set which I had in the back of my car. I'm totally gutted. The time I put in so far would probably be enough for an average builder to have what is starting to look like a guitar, but I was still getting to grips with using certain tools and obviously I was taking everything super slow. I had probably got to the point where I was ready to bend the sides on my next day off & maybe cut out the back and start bracing. I have worked out I have lost about £250-£300 (about $500) of stuff (that includes my personal tools, my iPod docking station I had inside and a few other personal items).

On a side note, if anyone wants to buy a set of extremely antiqued rosewood in a vintage "ash" look, you know who to ask...

Not to get me down to much, I have ordered some more woods to start over. I will have to use my own tool shed, which has the tools required to do the job (I think). However I don't have access to modern luxuries like a band saw, table router etc. I have the equivalent but all hand tools.

It's a shame really as I would think thickening wood by hand will take a fairly long time, where the machine did it in about 10 minutes if that. I have no idea how to make sure it stays uniform throughout the piece either, but I will have to work that one out.

Today I was planing to do enough work to be worthy of posting pictures but that wasn't to be.

Luca Canteri · #29 12-11-2009, 02:48 AM

wow! awful... I'm sorry mate. But yes, don't stop your building wishes

dekutree64 · #30 12-11-2009, 03:53 AM

Holy cow, that sounds like something out of an action movie. What a waste of beautiful wood, good tools, and everything. I hope those thieves are stewing in jail, or will be soon.

But I'm glad to hear you're not giving up. Maybe you should name your new guitar "Phoenix"

Bonus points if you give it a red/orange theme. Like a redwood top, and bloodwood, cocobolo, or maybe koa back/sides.

I feel really bad for your buddy though. Is he going to rebuild the shop? If so, you oughtta give him a hand. Nothing beats a friend when dealing with the aftermath of something like that. Plus then you're pretty much guaranteed use of your corner again