Official Luthiers Forum!

I am a self taught carpenter, Thanks to public broad casting and the web. I have been posting on AGF when it was suggested I try the OLF. So here I am going crazy over my first build. Here are the posts I left on AGF...some is repetitive please bear with me.

11/03/2011
is it just me, I really want to hear how she sounds? I can't wait till I finish this guitar; it has taught me patience. Any time I tried to rush anything on this build it was a disaster. I am making the inlay blanks out of abalone shell for it now. No decision yet on what design I want for the fret board. While I am doing this I am putting the Lacquer finishing coats on. I can't seem to get the finish smooth as I have to keep sanding between coats w/ a 600 grit wet sanding Emory cloth. It is getting smoother but I have laid 4 coats on. What is an average # of coats for a dreadnaught guitar?

11/13/2011
Mahogany sides, Back and Rosewood neck with Sitka spruce top, it has an Ebony finger board. I am using Spray cans of Minwax Clear aerosol Lacquer from Home Depot it doesn't list the ingredients. I have used 2 a half cans so far making 4 coats. I used fine steel wool then Naphtha to clean it from all contaminants. Then started with the Lacquer. Sanding was due to runs on the first coat. I backed way off on the subsequent 3 coats. Please don't tell me I blew it..!!! I have made a lot of mistakes I had to correct. I don't want to strip it and start over again.

11/16/2011
I just layed the 8th coat now and have 2 small patches that are foggy. I have built cabinets, chests, tables and doll houses and I enjoyed my work. I thought that with my knowledge and tools that this would not be much different. This guitar has been a SOB from the start from building my own jigs to carving a neck. I made the face and back out of spruce and mahogany respectively. Those were a breeze compared to bending the sides (mahogany); I went through two sets, 1 cracked while bending, the other scorched. My tool for this endeavor was a 5" cast Iron pipe heated by a turkey fryer propane burner stand. I used Oak for my heel block and end block. I cut the kerfing out of pine on my Dewalt 12" rotating sliding miter saw out of yellow pine. I glued it and used clothes pins to clamp/attach it. I took a Japanese flush cut saw and cut the sides then chiseled them to channel the braces. Did a dry run for sound board and back, 2 channels were off by a 1/6". Fill, dry, re-cut, check the fit, tight bond glue. I took 6 inner tubes from bicycle tires sliced them to strips, glued the strips together and wrapped them around the guitar like an ACE bandage. I won't even go into the woes of the neck fingerboard and fret cutting and assembly or the dovetail union of neck and body. I really want to hear this guitar. I can only hope I will get satisfaction in the end. Right now I am seething and need to stop. I just came on to see if any body had left any tips for me. I did not find this site till the end of my build.

My brain is a train wreck from this project.
If some has taken the time to read this you can see I need help and I am all ears...well in this case eyes.

Thanks,
Joe Hill

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Joe

My wife asks me "How many Guitars do you need?"
I reply "When I die count them; thats how many I needed".

welcome Joe , come on in and make yourself at home !

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Welcome, Joe.
It isn't easy to build a guitar.
I've built only 6 acoustics,
and am finally getting it sorted out a bit.
I didn't care about my mistakes as much as you do.
Do yer best,
and move on.
Just wait for build # 3.
That was my hardest one with the most boo-boos.
Sounds great,
looks beautiful.
#4 went like a spinning top.

Joe: Glad to see you come over here. Think you will find much more building info here as compared to AGF. The search function should turn up some good help if no one responds to your questions.Have fun.
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!