Official Luthiers Forum!

I would sure love to see different styles of heel caps you've used on you guitars. I know there are a lot of creative folks here......so let's see them! We've shown off headstocks, end grafts, etc.......so how about showing your simple, nice, elegant, fancy, or elaborate heel caps.

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

Here's one I'm getting ready for finish, amboyna burl heel cap, chechen bindings, BRW back and sides.



Pat

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Guitar in progress.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

Mine are just like Howards...............I just don't have any pictures . Just kidding.

Howard, you da' man!!!!!!!!!

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I didn't mean to say it, but I meant what I said.
http://www.brackettinstruments.com/

Prairie State 18" Big Boy copy...ebony/holly/ebony center stripe, ivoroid/black/ivoroid cap. Neck dyed and ready to finish...

Spanish style; Pau Ferro back w/ ebony bindings, ebony center strip, b/w purfs.

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Peter

I change mine up depending on the shape (and the mood I am in). Either pointed or round usually.

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ELEVATE || Next Level Lutherie
http://elevatelutherie.com
&
http://ensorguitars.com

Here's one from the not too distant past.

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Jimmy Caldwell
http://www.caldwellguitars.com

Here's one of mine.

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Ken Franklin
clumsy yet persistent
https://www.kenfranklinukulele.com

Here's a mandola I did earlier this year

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Peter,

I love the way you worked the sap into the heelcap. Beautiful!

Max

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Max Bishop
Brighton, Michigan

Some beautiful heel caps here.

This one of mine is off at finish right now.

Chris

If you are truly undecided, do away with the heelcap altogether!

Wow!......I'm blown away by the detail you've shown!

For the ones that have purfling (or should it be called binding?) below the cap, was a channel routed and the purfling glued in place then the cap glued in place? I ask because the heel is tapered and I'm curious how you setup the router so it cuts the proper depth. The other thing that comes to mind is one could possibly use multiple caps of different thickness to create the same effect......but I've not seen material of different thickness wid enought to create this effect so I doubt this is what was done.

Thanks and I look forward to more pictures!

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

This is the one in the avatar.

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Dave
Milton, ON

Darryl,

I do this by making a sandwich of wood, in this case maple/rosewood/maple. I hand sanded the rosewood to get to the right thickness and CA glued maple veneer on top and bottom. Then, I ran the sandwich through the thickness sander to get to right final thickness. I'd be interested to hear how others do this. Maybe another thread?

Chris.

If you have multiple lines in your side purflings, you use the same amount of veneers under the heel cap. I usually do it by gluing a single piece of veneer, that has the same thickness as the side purflings, under the heel cap (sorry about the messy glue-up...). This is easy to do if you make your own purflings from veneers, you just use the same material under the heel cap.








If you cut your heel at the right length, things should line up, like so:








The finished product

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Nice stuff Arnt. I put my shamrock trademark on all mine. Totally simple but for some weird reason I don't understand, it seems to be the feature people are most taken by.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

I was working on this one last night.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

This looks like a fun thread, so here goes...........


Heel caps are just a natural place to have a little fun!
Mikey

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The Biggest Little City, Nevada
www.hammondguitars.com
I love building guitars!

Mikey,

Those are nice. I just love the angled curve. Very original.

Chris.

This one gets my "Holy Cow" for the evening.
Really pretty stuff there Ken!

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Here are a couple of mine. The maple is from a tenor guitar and the other is a recent cutaway.





-Mike

Chris:
I stole the angled curve from someone here, I steal everything I can. Don't tell anyone, but the curve just happens to match the top roller on my stationary belt sander
Mikey

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The Biggest Little City, Nevada
www.hammondguitars.com
I love building guitars!