Acoustic Guitar Construction

I remember how cool that bass was when you built it. I really like the headstock too.

Thanks guys!

Well I am getting closer; I glued up a stack of veneer and white and black fiber for the head stock. I pressed it in one operation using LMI white glue. The book suggested epoxy, but given that this was fiber sheets I did not think that it would be relatively stable with the moisture in the glue. The glued up stack did not warp.







I made a 15% wedge and planed the nut side of the veneer.



Before gluing on the head stock veneer I made triply sure that I had the fret board clamped in the right angle as I used the fret board, and a brass bar to position the head stock veneer. Then I glued it on with a bunch of clamps.









I roughly cut the headstock shape out with my band saw and used my safe_T planer to get the head stock thickness close.







I have had the fret board stuck to the neck with a couple of pieces of double sided tape. To finish the bolt on extension I need to remove the fret board. Before doing so I drilled four 1/32" alignment pin holes through a couple of fret slots into the neck. Not so deep that they will come out the other side when I shape the neck.



The book called out T-nuts but as my extension was not quite centered I would have been very tight on the treble side to mount the T-nuts. I used brass inserts instead. I had the extension clamped to help avoid blowing out the side when screwing in the inserts.







Now I with everything ready to glue on the fretboard I placed a couple of dabs of silicon on under the truss rod, tested my fret board alignment again, and then glued the fret board on with a fret board caul that puts pressure on the edges of the fret board.







Should look like a guitar by the end of the week!

Do they make a spray to prevent "clamp" infestation? I'm just jealous. You are moving right along. Did you keep a time log? It will be interesting to see (hear) if all the extra work makes a real difference compared to a tried and true, more conventional guitar.

ken cierp wrote:Do they make a spray to prevent "clamp" infestation? I'm just jealous. You are moving right along. Did you keep a time log? It will be interesting to see (hear) if all the extra work makes a real difference compared to a tried and true, more conventional guitar.

No time log but ... So far in this project the main differences from guitars I have made in the past is the falcate bracing and the bolt on bolt off neck.

If I eliminate the time to build the new jigs, I found the top bracing took about twice the hands on time over an x-braced guitar. It took three times the calendar time for the top bracing as I used multiple epoxy sessions letting the epoxy cure for each one. For me we are talking a couple of extra real days in a multi-month project.

With templates and jigs the bolt on bolt off jig is just a small increase in the time it takes to build a complete neck. All of the additional work could be done in about an hour.

With this project, dealing with the Venetian cutaway is by far the largest bit of incremental work that shows up at nearly every stage of the project.

The main falcate braces pass right under the bridge between two peg holes requiring that the bridge position is absolutely set way earlier in the project. There are many steps where extra care needs to be taken to assure that the proper distances and alignment are kept. For example if the neck in a more conventional build is slightly off center, it is easily dealt with using a tool like your bridge setter, setting both the scale and assuring that the bridge is square to the neck. During this build I checked and rechecked the neck alignment and the nut position to make sure that the reset of the guitar was conforming to the early placement of the bridge. Basically the required level of precision required to assure the guitar functions as a guitar goes up vs a typical martin style copy.

With the fret board glued on I made and glued on a heal cap. I put a strip of sandpaper on the rims so that I would have a clean line at the bottom of the cap as the body has a bit of an arc across the heal.

With the cap on I drew out a group of layout lines on the back of the neck and quickly rough carved the neck. I have a bunch of quality time left now with sand paper but all and all it starts to look like a guitar.

Looking great. I sure like that wood.
Does that technique for carving the neck shaft work out pretty well for you?
I've never been able to make it work for me

I'm liking that a lot as well. At this point it would be difficult to call it anything else but a guitar! :-)