Acoustic Guitar Construction

Progress update:

After doing a hack job on the neck fit I had to spend a lot of time fixing my mistakes - thanks to Ken for a great deal of help with this. We got there in the end!

I have since installed the frets, routed all the binding channels, installed all the purfling and binding and am now getting the neck finished. I should hopefully start the finishing process this weekend, and have the thing strung up a week or two after that!

I only have one issue with my binding, which you can see in the photo below. Basically part of the purfling has not glued flush to the top, and now the cavity is filled with glue. It is only a small visual defect but if anyone has advice on how to fix it then I would really appreciate it - other than that I am really pleased with how it turned out.


The problem:


The rest looks like this :)



the frets:


lovely back wood:



the front:

Looks like you sanded away some Ivroid too.

Its a little tricky with plastic -- but the way to fix that -- is to soften the adhesive with heat, that will allow you to use "Stew Mac" binding tape to pull the trim into the channel. Regular masking tape is a waste of time since it will stretch, and just P**s you off.

Does anyone here make use of burn in shellac sticks?

I had a few small gaps in the binding that I needed to fill, and this stuff works brilliantly for that. I tried a paste of wood glue and rosewood dust first but couldn't get it to work, so I ordered a soldering iron and some Liberon dark shellac sticks.

Of course the real smart method is to not get any gaps in the binding - but this is a close second.

I just tape of the area around the gap, heat up the iron, melt some wax off the stick, and use the heated tip of the iron to smooth the melted wax into the gap. Once it is dry (10 minutes or so) I just sand off the excess wax and you can't tell it was ever there! Dead pleased with it. Cheap fix too.


I'm getting ready to apply the finish this weekend - hopefully will have everything sanded and smooth ready for a first coat of Tru Oil tonight!

Picture of repair? I'd like to see the filler, usually pulling the trim into to the channel is the only invisible fix. Did you check to see how the patch is going to look under finish? All fillers tend to leave a dark line that will jump out once top coated.

Ken, I didn't get many clear decent pictures but I will post what I have. To be clear, this wasn't the gap on the soundboard I was trying to fill, these were gaps on the back and sides where either the binding had a hair-sized gap, or the router had torn out a little extra material.

The photos below even I can't work out what is going on, but the ones with my finger in are me pointing to areas that have been filled (some gaps went on to have a second coat of shellac stick).

The worst gap:



Small tear out on the sides, yet to be sanded down:



Filled and sanded:



The wax before sanding:



Another filled and sanded:



Apologies the pictures don't really give a decent step-by-step of the process. If I get time I will find some rosewood offcuts and use that to do a demonstration with.

Not sure what wax you are using? Shellac sticks are not wax is that what you are using?

The rule of thumb is to always apply sealer "before" filling gaps with any material. The preliminary sealer prevents the patch material from doing its own sealing, which will/can become a problem down the road in the finishing process. The blotches produced are very difficult to remedy.

Not a wax - that's just how I have come to think of it - these are proper shellac sticks.

I have a few coats of Tru Oil on the back now and can see how the shellac is visible after the finish is applied. Not a big deal for me since you really have to be looking for it to spot it. Photo below of the worst filler