Acoustic Guitar Construction

I glued on the fret board and made a classical style BRW ukulele bridge. It took me a couple of tries but ultimately I got it done (I have most of the slotting done but cut the wings too thin on the band saw.

Not much to say about gluing on the fret board, just a bunch of clamps. I previously had the fret board indexed with 1/32" drill bits. Drilling in the slots





I make the bridge by first making a blank that is at finished size. Drum sander and plane.

Then I use my micro mill to cut a series of 1/8" slots. 1 for the saddle, a slightly deeper one for the inside tie block (also to the starting thickness of the wings) and then I cut ledges for shell on the tie block edges. I install the shell so that I can trim it flush when I do two parallel cuts to the wind thickness on both edges of the tie block. These cuts can also be done with a table saw with a ultra thin blade.

Two slots as described above and glued in abalone



Cutting the ends of the tie block (the inside edges of the wings)



I milled a bit more than 1/4" of the wings so I could fit my band saw blade in the slot and cut away for the center (yes going to the inside and slipping when I hit the slot is how I goofed up the first one).



I used a plane to remove a bunch of the extra bulk on the wings



I used a rasp to shape the wings. Note that the bridge is fully supported on a support a little wider than the bridge. The extra width helps to leave a minimum thickness to the wings. Also if working on the edge, have the rasp move toward the center to keep from chipping the edge. (happened to a friend once).



Once rough shaped I used this handy narrow stewmac fret leveler as a sand paper rasp. It is good for the wings and the edge of the tie block.





Not shown, I used a chisel to slope the inside of the tie block BRW is so nice to plane it went fast.

In any case here is the result. Still needs a bit of sanding and I just threw in a saddle for the picture.

I was really close early this month and had taken the pictures that follow. I went upstairs for a bit, heard an odd crash and found that the cats had knocked down the ukulele. (my fault for leaving it). Very little damage, some shell popped off, except that a bit of shell at the tail end of the guitar took a chip of the top with it. I knew I would have to change the top but I did spend a few day trying different repairs. The chip was map 4 mm by 4 mm. Any patch I made was framed by the cross grain joint edge and the two (right of the grain) joint edges. It would have been a fine repair for an older damaged instrument so I re topped it. I had pictures of the retop but accidently deleted them when cleaning up





So I have the ukulele preped for spraying. I used a gluboost Fill and Finish as a pore filler on the back and sides and have a sealer coat of shellac. I am going to spray probably 8 coats of post cat Royal Lac if all goes well. I kept working the prep until I had the ukulele at an acceptable finish stage. I worked between shellac and gluboost, leveling and filling gap until it seems to be good. With polishing the instrument could be considered finished now.

I first needed to fret the instrument to avoid damaging the finish on the neck while fretting. I just hammered them all in after cleaning and preping the slots. I put diluted Titebond in the slots before hammering in the frets.












I will tape the fretboard before spraying.

After these pictures I put the ukulele away

Wow the color in that KOA just popped out, and the grain is the most intense I think I've ever seen.
A real Beaut!
Oh bummer on the top replacement. So you had to waste all that shell on the first top?