Official Luthiers Forum!

I'm not good at finishing things but I know how to start them. Documenting them online motivates me to keep at it.

This build is inspired by the first guitar I ever played: a plywood Kay folk size made of plywood, but also with inspiration of Martin's 18 series. Since I enjoy making jigs and not spending money on them I opted to make my own mold and bending forms.



I'm still in the process of finishing up my 3rd build but I opted to start this one this year while the lessons I'd learned were still sort of fresh in my mind.

I made some progress with this build up until I put it on the back burner in October. The sides are bent, the rims are about 95% complete, the back is braced and the top is awaiting being braced. I’m waiting for the humidity to stabilize corm spring. My furnace has a humidifier on it but it doesn’t do a great job.

I have been working on this one while completing my third and doing some repair/adjustments on my first and second. In the previous image the back was just dry fitted. Here's a detail of the top being dry fitted and you can see the bracing. I've opted to inlet the bridge plate and the lower face tone bars. The finger braces are just butted up against the X brace. Also, the Number One/Upper Transverse brace is not tapered but is instead cut to butt against the inside of the rim assembly. Not shown here are two thicker side braces to help reinforce and stiffen the sides beneath the UTB and the waist.

Moving on to the binding and end wedge, I've opted to go with black ebony instead of plastic. Based on past difficulties, I've been relying on hand tools to measure and scribe before using a router or Dremel. I admit I still need practice to refine things.

I bent the bindings in my homemade side bender and only had one binding break but I was able to glue it back together later. Here's a couple views of the dry fit of the binding:

I confess that I made a mistake that set me back. I used Titebond to glue on the back but for curiosity's sake I opted to try hot hide glue for the top. While fitting the end wedge the glue joint failed in several places, so I broke out the heat gun and removed it. I've since cleaned it up and reattached the top with Titebond.

BTW, you can see those beefier side braces that I mentioned earlier. The side braces under the UTB come in contact with it which required some extra work when fitting the top to the sides:

Fast forward to this week, I'm back to fitting the end wedge. The plan is to reroute the binding channels. I've opted not to do side purfling this time around. There's been a little chipping on the sides but I'm going to fill them later with wood dust mixed with CA glue later.

This will also be my first build where I will be making the neck from a piece of mahogany. This past week I've been focused on getting the scarf joint to fit together without gaps in the glue joint. I realize that I will have to rip saw the headstock to the proper thickness first.



BTW, I made the laminated neck blank years ago along with 2 others that I used for my first two builds. I've opted not to use it for my 3rd and 4th builds because I wanted to explore more traditional building techniques. I will be using it on my next build however.

Looking great!

The headstock graft has been thinned out and I've cut the length of the neck and sections for the stacked heel. I still feel the scarf joint needs a little work but it's almost there. Then it's a matter of dry fitting everything together so that the Titebond doesn't skate.

Binding is my least favorite part of the build because things turn ugly after working hard on making the body. It's also dirty, back breaking and even eye straining work to get things even close. I worked very hard on my last build and learned some things that helped out here - though things were far from effortless and the results still well short of perfect. I'll have to rethink about how I'm going to address cutting the channels on future builds.

That said, I'm pleased with the results:

So with that done, I've shifted focus to working on the neck. Tonight I glued up the scarf joint and stacked heel. This is my first time doing this.



I will check on the integrity of the glue up in the morning, then begin drawing the lines for the dovetail tenon. I don't have a routing jig and will instead be attempted to do it with a pull saw.

Nice progress!

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Thanks! I confess that there was some tearout with the router when doing the binding channels and the channels themselves needed a lot of TLC with files to get them square. I need to invest in the Elevate binding channel jig.

Cutting clean binding channels is a challenge. Sharp bits are crucial.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I've switched focus to the neck blank but also took the opportunity to buy a bridge directly from Martin. Note that I also have a preslotted fretboard which is 24.9" scale and a wenge headplate.



Moving forward, I'm seriously considering on cutting out the tenon by hand because I don't trust my skills with a router. I also don't want another bulky jig taking up space in my already cramped basement.

I cut the tenon by hand yesterday, which didn't come out perfectly but I have plenty of scrap and mahogany veneer to shim it.

Crap. My measurements were off, cut the tenon too short and too narrow. The neck rocks forward and doesn't fit snugly into the mortise. I can always shim the sides but what's the best way to add material back to the length of the tenon?

Fast forward to where I am now. I carved the neck and have started on the frets. I also removed the binding and purfling on the top because I wasn't happy with how the purfling came out.

Looks like you’re making good progress. How did you fix the neck tenon?

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I cut it off with a chop saw, cut out a new tenon from scrap, then glued it and clamped it down with wood screws.



I know it's not ideal but this is a student work, not a commission. This will be staying in the family. I've been told the first few are basically art projects.

The frets are in and mostly dressed. I'm still dialing in the neck angle which is still slightly shallow; the green mask placement is temporary.



BTW, if the neck didn't work out I had another blank in reserve. I just didn't glue it up yet.

Looks like it’s coming along nicely.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Looking good! Can't wait to hear it.