Acoustic Guitar Construction

Looks great Bob. I like the wood.
One correction though, I sold you a Lutz spruce top. I don't think I have any bear claw Sitka. I am not a genius, I just know how to borrow ideas from people smarter than I am!
Keep the pics coming!

Thanks, Tony. And, I corrected all my posts referring to that top. I'm liking that thing more and more every day. Too bad I had to give it to my son.

I'm going to have to pay a consulting fee to you if you ever gets wise to how much you're helping with this. His approach to bending the side purfling was to tape it to the binding pieces that I was to bend. DUH! Sheesh, I shoulda thunk of that in the first place. It worked perfectly.



I was only able to bend 2 of the purfling pieces because that's all I had. There's another batch heading to East Texas. Unfortunately they're telling me it will be next Tue before they arrive. I really hate waiting. Of course it's that desire to get moving that gets me in trouble lutherie-wise, so I'll take the hint and step back.

I'd forgotten to install these mahogany pieces along the sides to stiffen them and help against cracking. Better late than never.



I was showing a co-worker the Sycamore pieces that I got, and telling her my plans for not only the reverse side of the headstock and the tail wedge, but the rosette I had planned. Initially the rosette would only have the small circles showing, but while we were looking at it, I changed my mind and may have them transition from small to large. My plan is to have 2 pieces of sycamore, one on either side of the sound hole ( 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock. They will both be about 2-3 inches long, and arc along with some purfling. Below the sound hole at 6 o'clock, will be an ebony piece - with or without a bloodwood piece intersecting it.

Here's the two pieces butted together. In the bottom right you can see the arc that I've drawn and that it takes in some of the larger circles/ovals/oblong things, and then transitions to the smaller ones. Above and to the left of that one, you see the other where it only has small circles in it. So my choices are: 1. transition from large to small, 2. All small, or 3. one small and one large.



Next is the part of the 2 pieces that will make up the reverse side of my headstock. Again, my initial thought was to use the small circles, but I'm leaning a bit toward the headstock showing large circles, etc. on the edge and smaller ones on the inside. I hope you can see the lines I've drawn. In the very middle, of course, is the part with only small circles. On the outer edges I've drawn lines that have large circles on the outer 1" and 3/4" of the smaller ones. That gives the inside part 1 1/2" worth of small circles. The front side of the headstock will be ebony. I intend to curve the sides and upper end of the headstock, but final shape hasn't been decided. I'll lose some of the outer side of the sycamore by doing this.



Anyone have thoughts on this?

Thanks for looking,
Bob

Hi Bob -- it would be nice if you re-posted the pictures the correct size -- most us have to scroll half a screen width to see the current ones and read your post. Thanks

Anyway did you consider Lacewood? Same grain pattern as Syc. only much darker and would provide better contrast. Just a thought

kencierp wrote:Hi Bob -- it would be nice if you re-posted the pictures the correct size -- most us have to scroll half a screen width to see the current ones and read your post. Thanks

Anyway did you consider Lacewood? Same grain pattern as Syc. only much darker and would provide better contrast. Just a thought

Ken, I re-sized them all. I hope they're much more user friendly than before.
Yes, I wish I'd picked a darker color. And, because of that, I'm re-thinking about binding, rosette, tail wedge, headstock. The pictures of the sycamore were much darker (probably had something on them).

Bob

Excellent -- thanks

Lace wood is more dark brown than the Sycomore.

Posted in error. I'll use this spot when I get some progress. Sorry.

It's been a while since I made any progress on this guitar. Ken got me to thinking more about the binding, headstock, etc., that I had got the Sycamore for. It really looked so close to the Mahogany, that I didn't think it would do at all. So I ordered Cocobolo. There wasn't a doubt that it would contrast to the hog. It came in Thursday pm, and I've been messing around with using some of it and some of the Ebony on the rosette.

My initial idea was to imitate some of what Ray Kraut does on his rosettes, but I don't yet have the skills to plan or execute that kind of work. So I'll just make this one a bit unique, and a compilation of other rosettes that I've seen here and there.

In cutting the channel for this b/w/b, I used a 1/32" bit from StewMac. Unfortunately these bits come 5 or 6 to the pack for not much money. Not surprisingly, it burns the wood as it goes thru, and that's scarey in that it has to be sanded off and I just pray that there's no damage showing underneath the sanding. It turned out ok, but I'm going to invest in some carbide tipped bits that not only shouldn't burn, but should leave the surface pretty crisp.



Here are some of the pieces of Cocobolo and one piece of Ebony that will go on the rosette. I'm attaching b/w purfling around the perimeter of the Ebony in this pic. A sharp chisel makes sure the mitered joints look pretty good. To set this up, I put pins on the outside of the Ebony piece, then placed the b/w inner piece next to it, pushing pins there to hold it in. Once glued, I took out the pins for the outside of the Ebony and placed the b/w next to it and pinned that in. Just one more piece to put in. Also, the b/w imitates the binding I will do on the fret board. Since the b/w stands very proud of the Ebony, I just tacked it together with super glue. I'll install it all with LMI glue when ready to put into the rosette.



I'm about to decide what purfling to use on the Cocobolo pieces right now, so I'll sign off.