Two New Guitars Started

Beginning Two Guitars of Divers Types

Two guitars are currently underway.  The top (soundboard) and the back of each has been joined, dimensioned and inlaid.  The photo just below shows a Hauser-style guitar that will be similar to the guitar documented earlier in this blog.  Same woods, as well: Italian Alpine spruce for the soundboard and Madagascar rosewood for the back.

Picea abies, Dalbergia Baronii

As you can tell in the next photo (below) the woods are different and the shape of the guitar (plantilla) is also different.  This is a new style for me, and while not based on any single instrument, it borrows design elements from guitars made in Spain beginning in the early 1960's in the shops of Ramirez, Rodriguez, Fleta, etc.  These guitars are characterized by a deep, full sound that can be dark and soulful.  The woods chosen here are Western Redcedar, and Wenge from Africa.  Western Redcedar (not a true cedar, actually in the cypress family) is not a traditional soundboard wood; Jose Ramirez III began using it in the early 1960's (I believe) and it became an essential element in the characteristic sound of his instruments.  Wenge, an African tree, is an alternative to the traditionally used rosewoods that are now endangered, unavailable, and/or too expensive. 

Thuja Plicata, Milletia laurentii

The soundboard bracing is shown below.  On the left is the Hauser style (symmetrical 7 fan braces)  This style actually goes back to Torres in the mid 19th century, and has been used by many, many guitar makers incorporating their own subtle tweaks as did Hauser.  On the right is what I will refer to as the "Madrid" style, as that is where Ramirez worked, but the style is not limited to Madrid.  A characteristic of this style is asymmetric bracing with almost any number of fan braces.  I'm using 7 here, but the great Spanish luthiers have used 5, 6, 7 or 9 fan braces to help achieve the sound they were after.  My bracing (below) is actually a very conservative design and still very close to Torres with only the diagonal strut to create the asymmetry.  The creativity and skill of the Spanish luthiers who started this style was/is amazing, and some complex and intriguing bracing systems have been devised.  I'm playing it pretty safe here...

Each guitar model requires its own work board (solera), which you can see below in the background.  The dimensions of the solera match the design of the guitar soundboard, including the dished out lower belly of the solera which creates the domed soundboard.

Here, the dimensioned braces are shown on the 'blueprint' for the guitar.

Check back to see how things progress!

The Completed Guitar

Finished!

                            

Well, pretty much finished...  I still need to do a bit more French polishing, but the good thing about FP is that you can always add more at any time (which is a good thing as it wears easily).

Sloane tuning machines.

This is a Humicase with a built-in humidification device.

Each guitar is an individual, you can never make two guitars exactly alike.  I think this one turned out well, but it's an evolutionary process: you learn with each guitar, and apply what you learn to the next one.

Thanks for looking at my blog!

Finishing (French Polish)

It's been a while since I updated the progress on this guitar.  I've been working on other guitars while working on the the pore filling and finishing of this guitar.   

First, a little background.  Most hardwoods have open pores (open voids in the grain) that need to be filled with something in order to achieve a level surface, and a smooth final finish.  This particular guitar is Madagascar rosewood (Dalbergia Baronii) which has long, deep canyon-like pores.  There are numerous ways to fill pores, but it is usually time consuming, messy, and the least fun part in the guitar making process.  (It should be pointed out that pore filling is optional, but generally expected.)  Many guitar makers now use an epoxy finishing resin to fill pores, which has many advantages: it is clear, so it takes on the color of the wood it's filling, it enhances the contrast and depth of the wood grain, and, compared to most other methods it's easy to use (although it can be toxic to those who have a sensitivity to epoxy, which can pop up at any time). 

For this guitar, I decided to use an old, traditional method of filling: pumice (ground volcanic dust).  A pumice and French polish finish uses minimal materials, no chemicals or toxic substances, and when done well creates a beautiful, organic looking finish.  It is also very labor intensive.  Filling the cavernous pores of this wood with pumice has turned out to be a journey in itself, involving a lot of backtracking, research and trial & error.  As the pictures show, the back and neck of the guitar have been filled and French polished (a method of applying shellac by rubbing it on in micro-thin layers with a pad).  I'm still working on filling the sides of the guitar.  Thank goodness the top (spruce) is not an open pore wood and doesn't need to be filled.

Filling the pores involves rubbing pumice into the wood using a pad, alcohol and a bit of shellac.  The details of the process differ with each practitioner, and the scant literature on the subject is rife with contradiction.  As previously mentioned, a lot of trial & error was involved.

The next post will show a mostly completed guitar, with a little more detail about French polishing.

Completing the Parts

All that remains is to complete the parts is to shape the neck and finish work on the bridge.

In the previous post, we left the neck looking like this:

Quite a bit of whittling needs to be done.

Time for the spokeshave and carving knife...

Voila!

Completed neck with a wash coat of shellac:

The bridge now needs to be completed.  This shows it with one wing complete:

 

It is now complete (with some shellac added) and sitting in place on the guitar.  (It's not glued on yet.)

Next Post:  French Polish Time!

Neck and Bridge

The Final Parts

There are only two parts left to make: the fingerboard, and the bridge.  Here is a piece of ebony (for the fingerboard) and a piece of Madagascar rosewood (which will yield a few bridges).

Dimensioning a bridge...

While I'm at it, I'll make a bunch of bridges...

I'll revisit the bridges later, now on to the fingerboard.  First the ebony has to be thinned.

Then the fret slots are sawed using a jig.

Before gluing the fingerboard onto the neck, it is tapered to the proper dimension.

Here the fingerboard has been glued on and the frets installed.

Another view of the frets.  If something looks a little odd, I put 'gold' frets on this guitar (as opposed to silver).  Gold (not real gold of course) frets are fairly new and I thought I'd see how they look...

You can see that the neck still hasn't changed much from the board that it started out as, so the next job is to shape that board into a guitar neck.

Next Post: Shaping the Neck, and Back to the Bridge

Binding and Purfling

At Long last, we have a closed box.  We can't just leave it at that - the edges need to be bound, and decorative purfling strips added.

The binding have to be bent (like the sides), and a 'shelf' is carved out for the bindings and purflings.

Some additional carving has to be done where the binding fits into the heel.

After it's done...

 

 

 

Next Post:   A Couple More Parts

The Back

The Back

This is the back - it has been joined (two pieces glued together at the with the seam down the center), and thinned.  The next step is to add some braces to both reinforce it and shape it into a dome.

First, a strip is of cross-grain wood is glued down the center.  After gluing, it is shaped.

The three cross braces are what gives the back its domed shape.  A curve of 20' radius is planed into them.

After they all fit well, they are glued on.  The back is pulled into the 20' radius of the brace (not so difficult because at 2.3mm thick the back is pliable).

Here it is after the clamps have been removed.  The tops of the braces need to be shaped.

Brace shaping in progress...

With the braces shaped, the back has to be fit to the sides: just enough is cut off of the end of the braces for them to fit inside the sides, and a notch is removed from the binding for the brace end to fit into.  I neglected to take a picture of these notches, but they must be quite precise.

Oh, and a tail strip is inlaid at the bottom center.

Checking the angle of the neck to the body - it is the attaching of the back that fixes this angle.

Glued and clamped.  I'll let this sit overnight; tomorrow we have a box!

Next Post: Binding It Together