Official Luthiers Forum!

I started typing this in the fret hamer vs press post and realized I was going way off the topic.
My plan for wrapping up my first restoration is;
(PLEASE feel free to tell me what to do!)
After French polish (in the middle of)
Bolt on neck and Line up (I have installed a 2 bolt system, should I glue the neck?)
Glue down the fitted Fretboard
Glue down the Bridge (gotta figure out that line up.Yikes)
Radius and height sand the fretboard. What manditory tools do I need to line up the neck and set properly?
Install Frets, Tightbond 1/2 and 1/12 the slots, tap in the frets (do I bend them or can I work with flat sections?) finish ends.
Flush file/sand frets
Make nut, install, cut / file string trenches
Install tuners
String and play
What did I miss?
Thanks for this forum. I was making Tim McKnight crazy I am sure

So you are doing a bolt on conversion? Was it a dovetail you added bolts to, or a sawed off neck, or something else? No need to glue the neck on if you have bolts, glue will just complicate future repairs. Basically, just treat it like a new guitar. Usually that means glueing the fretboard on before setting the neck (but after getting the fit and angles perfect), what most peole do next is bolt the neck on and glue the fingerboard extension to the top at the same time. All you really need to set a neck is a long straight edge, lots of info here and elsewhere on that.

If the guitar has a pin bridge, you want the holes to line up and the saddle slot to be in the correct place for intonation, this can get a little wacky if you are making a new fretboard/resetting the neck/sawing off an old neck. In any case you dont want to move the bridge by a lot in relationship to the bracing, unless you rebraced the top and have already taken that into consideration.

Give the frets a radius a little bit tighter than the fretboard radius. Work tham flat and the ends will want to pop up and drive you crazy.

Show us some pictures of what going on, big restorations can be pretty fun!

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Jordan Aceto
Ithaca, NY

Hi Jorden,
Thanks for your reply. It had a Dovetail that had been beat pretty bad in a previous restoration attempt. Likely before we were born.

So I restored the fit with Mahogany inserts and at the same time made a bolt on.

I did fill in the drill wounds by the way.



The fit is nice and tight. I think straight! without bolting

Not sure if it is just for show... but you need washers with
those hex head bolts. You don't want the hex heads to eat into the
neck block while tightening.

Another option is the socket head furniture bolts -- they have a large, round bearing surface
that won't dig in.

Something else... for a "Restoration" -- maybe plan for a little cover or label or something to hide the
bolts. The bright, shiny hex bolts kinda stand out a bit...

Good luck on the project

John

These guys have Starett 24" straight edges, not sure if they are beveled or not.

http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/inde ... n=VIEWCATS



.

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Here is what a Parlor Guitar is for!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEa8PkjO6_I

Cool, looks like a worthwhile project. Its hard to tell from the pictures, what are the woods? Some of those old guitars have beautiful brazilian backs and sides.

Looking over your pictures, thats a lot of work!

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Jordan Aceto
Ithaca, NY

Thanks. It has been a great learning experience. Here is the neck with the wound repair


It is stunning Brazilian Rosewood



Heres a link to a slide show of much of the restoration
http://s112.photobucket.com/albums/n163 ... =slideshow

Wow, you got a little bit camera happy with this one! Thanks for all the photos, looks like its coming along nicely. After doing a few like that, building a guitar from scratch feels like a piece of cake!

Its a little hard to tell, how are you treating the top bracing? If it is a no name guitar, that has some potential i sometimes rip all the bracing out and give it traditional X bracing. Some people like that ladder braced sound though, and if the guitar has any historical or monetary value of course every effort should be made to keep it original.

Nice work, it will be fun to see how it turns out!

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Jordan Aceto
Ithaca, NY

Pro Photographer for over 25 years. Yep, camera happy lol
The ladder bracing was strong and clean in the top. I understand x Bracing is louder or projects better but I left the ladder bracing intact. I do plan on experimenting with x vs Ladder when i start building my Parlors