Number 8

[Dave Bagwill]

[Will Reyer]

I sent away for 3 unsanded cedar billet sets, grade AA (the lowest), from the luthier supply in Ohio. One set had dark edges where they would join in the middle of the soundboard. Used that one. Another set had similar dark edges but along the outside edges – might work for a sunburst top. The third set is uniformly light cedar and I'll give to Otto for his first guitar build. Got the top down to .110”, added minimal 5-line bwbwb 1/8” rosette with maple and cherry. Very light, taps nice, long sustain, ostensibly a good, live top.

Lots of spring stuff to do here in south-central Michigan. Got at two trees blown down in the cropland in the south fence row I need to cut up and a brush pile of limbs from the perimeter of the yard that needs to be burned – tenant already spread lime on the cropland. Got the paddle-steer riding mower greased, oiled, filters changed, mowed three-fourths of the three and a half acre yard, and it's forecast to give us 3” snow tomorrow.

Some guitar work, however. Usually turn off the shop stove, wood pellets, at first of April but had to buy more this year. Had all my bits of railroad iron piled on the soundboard to glue the X-brace (photo) but made the brace parts 5/16” wide this time instead of my usual 1/4” (top really light) and it wasn't sufficient to belly the soundboard down into the void provided by my perimeter cardboard underneath.

Took a .0025” feeler gage and found all the voids between the X-brace and the soundboard, clustered around the brace crossing and the bridge plate. Planed some 1/4” wide pine strips down, slid them in between the soundboard and the brace, cut them off, filled all the voids solid. Added thin CA glue, spritzed with accelerator. Next day, applied some medium CA, spritzed again. Looks nasty but no voids, still tapping nice but want to do some more chisel work on braces.

Consulted John Parchem about binding where cutaway side meets at neck, since this is my first cutaway. Roughed out the rabbet required there with my binding rabbet fixture, got final size outlined with exacto knife and need to finish up w/chisel (photo).

Liked the material and color combinations of the previous guitar, black ash body, tiger maple bindings, walnut for back and neck stripe as well as bridge and fretboard. Going to do similar here. Made the end graft of walnut with maple on both sides, made an improvement to my fixture for routing same so that the vice will clamp both fixture and guitar sides, routed and glued the end graft.

[John Parchem]

I am working on a cutaway as well. You moved a few days ahead of me. I have the time but I have been so distracted with the pandemic. It really does not affect my life as I socially isolate most of the time anyway, but I worry about my adult children and extended family. Your cutaway is looking really good. Your railroad ties should have the weight to clamp. Are your xbraces radiused before you glue them on? I use a gobar deck to glue on the x-brace. Each gobar gives me 8lb of pressure in a very small space.

[Will Reyer]

John,

I bend a strip of wood to draw along on the mating edges of the X-braces. I come up 1/8" at the ends and then bend the curve to belly out in the middle, sand to the lines on my disc sander. If you look really close at the railroad track you might make out that the center, shorter, piece marked with felt pen weights 10#-something and the longer piece holding down the lower bout ends, weights in excess of 25#. Should have reversed their positions - Duh! And the Luddite ignores concave radiused dishes.

We're pretty much hunkered down on the farm, a tenant works the cropland. Make grocery run every couple weeks. Daughter, son-in-law and granddaughters, 5 and 10, all in Austin, TX. Keeping in touch via Alexa and phone. 3 of us with birthdays in April, hopefully celebrated next year. I'm making this as a surprise gift for a guy here lots further down on his luck than us, and who's wanted me to make him a cutaway for 4 years.

[Will Reyer]

I bought a 40” length of a wide, rough sawn 4/4 black ash board at the end of last year over in Kalamazoo at the sawmill, surfaced two sides and one edge, ripped it to 8” wide, then went on an email search several weeks ago for people with bigger bandsaws than my 14” one, as I wanted to make a two-piece back this time and my saw won't resaw wide enough.

My friend Kjell here resawed this in splendid form, giving me 3 pieces .125” thick surfaced on both sides. Since we're laboring under the gun of La Corona Chino, I left the board for him to process on the coffee table on his porch, and picked up the finished pieces there as well, never seeing him.

I joined two pieces of this with a 1/4” walnut center stripe. If you look closely you can see holes in the back on either side of the center stripe, despite the sawmill guys telling me the Emerald Ash Borers only eat the cambium layer. This is down to .085” thick, with my usual (4) back braces of white pine.

I normally quit firing the pellet stove that heats my shop at the first of April but this year I've bought an extra ton and have been trying to get the back on this guitar before I lose the heat. The back was glued yesterday and I'm on the last bag of pellets in the stove today. Two nights ago I went out at 11 pm to drop the clinker in the stove, and snowflakes were falling and frozen sleet was rattling off my canvas coat.

Routing binding rabbets for some maple bindings is next. In the last photo you can see I've filled the head block mortise and the vertical corner for the binding with temporary pine pieces so I can rout the binding rabbets without falling into a void and ruining the back.

[John Parchem]

Dang Will you do really good work. That will make a fine looking guitar. The holes filled will look organic and will just be part of the guitar.

[Will Reyer]

Lots of trouble with the bindings. Had two tiger maple bindings left over from the last guitar, bent to upper and lower bout. Tried making the cutaway bends from these and broke both of them.

Made two more sets of 4, plain hard maple, did one set of two with the waist bends on my hot pipe, then bent the bouts on my Fox bender, installed the bindings on the bass side, bent the rest to just waist and lower bout, for use bending the cutaway.

Broke most of these attempting the cutaway bends. Cobbled up some scrap European birch-faced 3/4” plywood for a two-part form to clamp the cutaway parts into after after bending (photo). Tried boiling one binding on Pam's kitchen stove, broke it clamping into the bending form.

Tried another in the steamer (photo) I made from a rice cooker when I bent linings for a pair of soprano ukeleles for my granddaughters. Twenty minutes of steaming didn't even leave the binding damp, promptly broke. Worked good for the uke linings.

All the breaks, of course were on the outside, the tension side. When bending thick wood steamed or boiled you usually make a bendable metal form for the outside with end blocks to limit extension while bending. These support the tension side and force all the change in form to come from the compression side, the inner.

Finally used longer heats on my hot pipe than it took to bend the cutaway side, spritzing the dishrag on the hot pipe with water numerous times, bent and clamped both cutaway bindings, one at a time (photo). Had one binding left over. Scraped and sanded the sides and back.

Wanted to build up color layers on the body but can't locate half-pint cans of colors in oil anymore locally, so took a dab of thalo green from an artist's oil paint tube stirred into a little mineral spirits and made a wash coat that I brushed on. Followed that up today with a coat of Zinsser Seal Coat into which I had dumped some orange alcohol-based ink, since I couldn't find any dyes locally, either. Need to sand that next and then start satin wiping urethane, but that's getting low too.

And, hey, John Parchem, I wimped out and made the vertical binding between soundboard and back at the cutaway butt joints. Maybe next time I'll be able to do it like a luthier.