Acoustic Guitar Construction

Made some progress this week. I'd gotten the wrong shellac, then ordered and got the right shellac, then read more and more where there were problems with the shellac and Emtech 6000. Of course, I didn't read the right stuff until I'd put some on. But one coat of the shellac, and I started sanding it back. It felt waxy to me, even though it was de-waxed Zinsser sealcoat. I had emailed the guy at Target, and after his response, I decided to forego the shellac coat. So I used denatured alcohol as he said to do, and then started spraying. Of course, mother nature got in the way and I had to stop for over a day. But, now I'm spraying. I got 3 coats on Thu, 5 coats yesterday and will do 5 today. I leveled after the first 3 because of the gap in time. Then wiped with some DNA and did the 5 yesterday.

Here's how it looked after sanding back yesterday's coats.



Then after the 2nd coat today.





It did take a good while to sand back to level on the top and back. Surprisingly for me the sides went pretty easily. The troji came in handy for that part.

I'll probably do the 5 coats today, then sand tomorrow, and 3 final coats on Tue nite.

Can't wait for it all to cure.

Very nice Bob. When you are done I'll be very interested to hear your take on using the water based lacquer.

Kevin

That is some pretty wood. Looks great with some finish on it!

Tony and Kevin, thanks for your nice words. Kevin, I've used Emtech 6000 before, but not with the Zpoxy. I was using Target's HSF5100 and knew absolutely nothing about pore filling - was on my first guitar. Nor was I good with leveling the finish then. The guitar came out pretty well, and is now about 4 years old. I'm happy with the finish from that one. The only places that show wear are the black plastic bindings which were fairly sharp corners. There's some discoloration and wear along those edges. The rest is still pretty good. This time, I think, my leveling and pore filling have gone very well. I'm using cocobolo for bindings vice the plastic, and have rounded over the edges. Tony was a great help with his videos on sanding and leveling the finish, as was Todd Stock's set of videos on pore filling. It's going to be hard to wait the 100-150 hours after spraying the neck to put the guitar together.

Finally I got some time to make some progress on this thing. Work has been the busiest I've seen in 15 years here. Plus, I had to wait for the logo a very long time. Also, the thought of shaping the neck overwhelmed me at first.

I don't have any experience in doing this, so it was intimidating. But I just finally gritted it out and got it done.

First pic is the headstock after attaching it to the neck. Doing the routing was somewhat straightforward even though I thought I had goofed it up. Ebony dust has become my greatest friend. Andy DePaule emailed me a 1:1 scale of the inlay that was being sent, and recommended printing it, then super-gluing the paper to the headstock where I wanted it to go. That was probably better than trying to etch it out with an Xacto knife, but still was a bit hard to see. It worked, however, and looks pretty good.

First pic is the headstock being glued up, and the second is sanded, ready to spray tomorrow.



I had hoped for a totally black ebony head plate, but the wisping, smokey look going up the right side of this piece is catching my attention. I like it.



Here's the neck with a coat of Zpoxy pore filler, after being shaped the best that I can. I really like the wide neck heel. I capped it with some white fiber and a piece of cocobolo.



As I said, tomorrow and Monday, I'll spray the neck. Last Monday I had cataract surgery, and this Monday I'll have the 2nd eye done. I've taken the time between as a bit of vacation. My first in 13 months. While the finish sets up on the neck, I'll start sanding the body, and polishing it to be ready to fit things together.

One question for the real luthiers here. Do you recommend drilling the tuner holes before or after finishing the neck? If you do it first, do you wet sand any - and how do you protect the raw wood inside the holes?

Thanks for viewing,
Bob

Well Bob, all of us are "real" luthiers

lu·thi·er
noun:
luthier; plural noun: luthiers 1. a maker of stringed instruments such as violins or guitars.

Somehow that unwarranted "ego" thing got in the equation and elevated the term.

I'll dig up my Martin factory photos I seem to remember they driil first. That's what I do, no mask. A light ream after finish to re-size the holes.

Oh -- I see that you have masked the edge of the fingerboard -- usually the finish goes on the FB edge too.

Ken, thanks for the advice on the holes. Yesterday evening when I was taping up the fretboard, I got to thinking about that. I intended to re-visit it today, but probably would have forgot if you hadn't mentioned it. I'll be changing that momentarily.
I also bow to your definition of Luthier. Sometimes self deprecation needs to end, doesn't it? Although I'm not as accomplished as many others, I'm on that road, and getting better each time. My self esteem just went up 10 points, thanks. :)
Your advice came very timely, as I'm about to head out to spray.
Bob

It's looking good to me Bob keep it up. Your doing fine I think. I agree we always downplay our abilities.