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I am in the middle of a 10 day intensive one on one guitar building course. I have a gentleman from Arkansas in my shop and we are building a classical guitar from an un-serviced LMI kit. Today is day 7.
We finished building the guitar in 5 days. We started the French polish yesterday and will finish today. The bridge goes on tonight and tomorrow we will make a nut/saddle and string it up.
That makes 8 days from start to completion with a finish applied! We are working 8 hour days with almost no jigs or templates. This was one of the student's stipulations before taking my class.
Below are some progress pics.

Incredible!

Can you please expand on what you mean by "no jigs or templates"..surely at least one jig is needed for guitar building! Is it possible for you to explain the processes?

Everything was done by hand from scratch. Of course the lumber in the LMI un-serviced kit is dimensioned but nothing is pre-done. We carved the neck, thicknessed the plates etc. We did not make the rosette though.
The only jigs or templates we used were:
1. Heating blanket and form to bend the sides. This could have easily bend done by hand on an iron in the same amount of time.
2. peghead template. I allowed him to use my peghead shape for the class but he could have made his own before coming to the class.
3. LMI jig for drilling the tuner holes.
4. LMI scale template and table saw method for cutting the slots in the fingerboard.
5. Luthier suppliers neck radius to check our neck carving. The student wanted Robert Ruck's neck profile.


That's it. Everthing else was done by hand with no jigs or templates.

That is cool Robbie. Kudos.

I was in Richard Brune's shop a while ago and he proudly showed me a flamenco instrument just completed in a week. He had used his FP-in-a-day technique the day before I saw it. Wonderful instrument.

I am a little jealous, though. Everything I make seems to take a year. From birdhouses to family rooms - always a year. It is a mystery.

Thanks for the breakdown of the method, Robbie. That's good to know.

Outstanding! I'm sure he was thrilled. It looks like a great guitar too. If it sounds as good as the ones I played there, it is a first class guitar. (Did he carve the heel like you do?)

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John Ressler

Did I see a body mold?

It looks great, Robbie. I bet he's happy.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Hey!
Care to elucidate upon the 'french polish in a day'? I'd love to give it a go....

Actually, Robbie has a very good DVD on finishing (I have a copy) where he shows how to do a French Polish shellac finish. If you follow the instructions, it can be done in a fairly quick time. Otherwise, I think Brune still does workshops to show the technique - however, it is a pretty expensive workshop.

Robbie I hope he put side brackets(braces) on top of the above & below the s.h.braces !

Man it looks like a killer guitar brace wise!

You must be a great teacher to help a student get this done in "his" time!!

Let us know how it sounds !!

Mike

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Mike Collins

Robbie I hope he put side brackets(braces) on top of the above & below the s.h.braces !

Man it looks like a killer guitar brace wise!

You must be a great teacher to help a student get this done in "his" time!!

Let us know how it sounds !!

Mike

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Mike Collins

Jack BE Nimble, Jack Be Quick,My 120 hours makes me sick.All kidding aside that is incredible.Way To GO.
James W B

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James W Bolan
Nashville Tennessee

Oh yeah, we did. That picture was taken before they were installed.

Why yes you did senor. I use an outside mold to assemble the guitar in.

Yes, he carved the heel with the neck on the guitar. That is what John was refering to when he asked if he carved it like I do.

As a matter of fact I do have a DVD which, among other things shows the FP technique.
I highly recommend Brune's course. This is where I learned the technique.
I will be giving a weekend workshop in November on French polishing. If anyone is interested let me know and I will get you the exact dates.

Day 7 update

The French polish is complete. The bridge is glued on. Ok, I used another jig here. I used the LMI vacuum jig for gluing the bridge.
Tomorrow we will be making music by lunch time!
This guy can really play too. He has a cross mix of technique and repertoire that is kind of a Chet Atkins classical groove.

Very impressive, Robbie! It looks like you've just about got that teaching thing down (heh!).

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Carlton Macksam
Muskegon, Michigan

Wow.. That's impressive!

Cheers,
Chad

The guitar is finished. We put the strings on today at it sounds awesome!!
8 days from start to finish and it includes a FP finish.

Looks good.

Dumb question time: When you use a vacuum jig to glue on a bridge, how do you handle glue squeeze-out?

Pat

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There are three kinds of people:

Those that make things happen,
those that watch things happen,
and those that wondered what happened.

I put the clamp on for about 10 minutes. I then remove it and clean out the squeeze out. Then I put the clamp back on for another half hour or so.

Rockin', Robbie; I'm inspired as all heck!

Did the bridge clamp imprint it's gasket in the FP at all? I'm guessing it might have at this tender stage, and I'm guessing it repaired easily.

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Dan
http://www.acme-archtops.com

Rockin', Robbie; I'm inspired as all heck!

Did the bridge clamp imprint it's gasket in the FP at all? I'm guessing it might have at this tender stage, and I'm guessing it repaired easily.

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Dan
http://www.acme-archtops.com

I was concerned that it might do this as I have had this issue in the past with fresh French polish finishes. However, no footprint from the vacuum clamp on this one. I was happy.