Numero Cinco, mas despacio

[Will Reyer]

[/Numero Cinco, mas despacio
09/12/16

Taking forever. Started a year ago last spring. Outrageous humidity, drought, delay. Hot, cold, trips to consult doctors for both of us, trips to Austin to see the granddaughters, working in a farm shop not conducive to rapid production, laziness, whatever. Lots of excuses, but not much validity.

In my defense, this is the first guitar I've attempted in my dotage that begins to have similarities with actual luthier production, in form if not execution. This required constructing new fixtures for rosettes, fingerboards, bindings, etc.

My first build, a square-neck reso using an electric stove drip pan for a cone, is at: http://acousticguitarconstructionforum. ... =24&t=1450

Using the same body form of a resonator, I built 3 more 6-string guitars, non resonators, from junk materials and stuff on hand, ignoring most luthier convention, and minimizing features and frills to concentrate on seeing if I could get playable guitars that sounded good. I'm happy with those builds, and also want to persist in seeing how much more I could simplify the construction. A finely lacquered cabinet doesn't necessarily make nice music.
See: http://acousticguitarconstructionforum. ... =24&t=1609 and
http://acousticguitarconstructionforum. ... =30&t=1921 and
http://acousticguitarconstructionforum. ... =30&t=2073

Number five still uses plain-sawn red oak for the sides and back. Both lower bouts cracked during a year of great humidity fluctuation, and are expoxied in. The back is in 3 pieces because my bandsaw wouldn't resaw wide enough boards to make a 2-piece. The back stripes are purpleheart with maple on each side.

This build is essentially body dimensions from a Santa Cruz Orchestra Model but about 1/4” deeper, with interior X-bracing per the Antes plan for a Martin. The body has a deeper lower bout, unlike resos or my previous builds with parallel soundboards and backs. 25.4” scale.

The bracing has upper bout mods to carry the transverse load from the top down to the linings for the back, as suggested to me by Kjell, a local luthier friend who works for Elderly Instrument in Lansing. All the bracing is selected for quarter-sawn grain from common white pine lumber.

John Link, 30 miles west of me here, a splendid luthier and a better artist than me to boot, gave me a cedar billet to use for the soundboard, instead of the 1/8” Russian birch plywood I used for #3 and #4. I built a (minimal) rosette, therefore, as the top wasn't cross-grain structural like the plywood. It taps splendidly. He also shamed me into spending $5 for an Indian rosewood soundboard blank, when I was intending to use some osage orange from a neighbor's fence row. So this guitar won't be entirely from native lumber, as I'd intended but the fingerboard sure looks lovely.

Kevin in California, also from the forum, gave me excellent advice on how to radius it, as my prior fingerboards were flat, keeping requirements minimal. I've also gotten useful council and expertise from John Parchem, Herman, Dave Bagwell, probably others I'm too addled to mention.

I started to make two sets of 4 bindings each. One set with maple binding and purpleheart side purfling, the other with purpleheart bindings and maple side purfling. I was going to use the second set on guitar #6, quarter-sawn sycamore sides bent up and in a form yet from when I bent the sides for #5. By the time they came out of my Fox bender, there were only two useful pieces of each so used them on #5, with the maple bindings on the back. Purpleheart is a miserable, splintery, brash, squirrely-grained wood that I'll only use for a center stripe in a neck if I buy any more.

The neck is a purpleheart center stripe bounded by maple, set in cherry. The peghead is yellow poplar with a quarter-sawn sycamore veneer. I still need to install a rudimentary Native Timbre logo with mother-of pearl, drill holes for the tuning machines, install side dots, and frets. Just bolted the neck on to take photos.

I use a router bit up thru a table with a pilot bearing guiding on the fingerboard edge to make the neck blank flush with the fingerboards. While setting up the height of the bit, I knocked the neck off the table onto the concrete floor of the shop, breaking off the peg-head cleanly, which I'd previously glued with Titebond and tested the joint by hanging a 6” piece of railroad track from it. John Link suggested JB Weld for the repair, which worked fine.

Then I made one pass guiding on the fingerboard to cut the cherry flush on the treble side. The bass side cherry had grain runout I'd forgotten about, having glued up the 5-pc neck months before. That pass promptly tore a chunk out of the cherry, as one would expect.

So then I routed a 3/4”wide groove to remove the split cherry, inserted an unsightly but secure patch (photo), glued it with JB Weld, too. In this repair I inset a scrap of the back strip purpleheart surrounded by maple for a 12th fret marker. This fingerboard will also receive white side markers for frets, none on the fingerboard. I played my old Martin DXM for better than 15 years before I actually realized that it didn't have marker dots on the fingerboard. I can do just fine with markers on the edge. There's also a double-acting truss rod in this neck rather than the 1/4” x 1/2” steel per D.R. Young that I used for my previous builds. Heel cap on neck is scrap from the fingerboard.

Still a long way from a playable guitar but making progress slowly.b]

[John Parchem]

It looking like a guitar! Get a bridge on and string it up. I can not tell you how many times I had router operations go wrong. When they work it is great when a piece of your guitar goes flying off I question if it is worth it.

[John Link]

Will, Looks good. Everything hand made has "flaws" but indeed when the hand is assisted with a 25,000 rpm tool, the flaws can grow. But the "save" you employed is interesting, and certainly will not hurt the sound or playability any. While you don't cotton to the furniture look and it does get exhausting to "compete" on that playing field, the colors of the woods you are using should look quite compelling if you do put a shine on it. You've come up with the lightness I associate with Flamenco gits, and I like it.

Yes indeed, the most important pieces of wood in a guitar are those that make up the top and fingerboard. That is where the rubber meets the road. Your top was especially responsive when you brought it over. Thin, light, lightly braced. It might put some hurt on the Sirens, even if you don't pretty it up.

[John Link]

Will just showed me this guitar a few minutes ago. I can say it is going to be LOUD. And responsive too, I expect. The top is active all the way past the bottom of the sound hole.

[Kevin in California]

I think it looks GREAT Will! Keep going!

[Will Reyer]

Poquito mas:

Butt-simple beginner’s logo, NT for Native Timbre.

Had my troubles, per usual. Borrowed a Dremel from a friend. Bought an 1/8” shank up-cut bit (like an end mill) - turned out to be way too long to work with David’s Stew Mac inlay base on his Dremel, looks like it must be one of those that sheetrockers hog out electric receptacle boxes with - duh.

Rummaged around and found 3 bits that had 1/4” shanks that I’d bought from some luthier near Ashville, NC. One was 1/16” bit, second was 3/32”, and the third was 1/8” cutter diameter. Block NT letters were just a little wider than the 1/8” bit, so used that. These were HSS, from China, up-cut but sharp.

Since I should have done the inlay before gluing on the fingerboard, I had to make a fixture to keep the router base above the headstock plane so it wouldn’t hit the fingerboard. Had enough scrap to do that. Got out my old 48-year-old Sears router, because it has a trigger in the right handle, don’t have to reach up for a toggle or rocker switch and hold the router one-handed against the starting torque.

Logos are usually at the top of a headstock but since I usually park a tuner and capo there, located this further down on my screwdriver peghead. The veneer is quarter-sawn sycamore – yeah, it would have shown up better against a dark wood but I’m out of walnut. John Link already talked me into an Indian rosewood fingerboard that I like the look of despite it not being a native timber. And he gave me wenge and Indian rosewood blanks for bridges, too. I think he’s trying to finesse me into doing real luthier stuff rather than minimal guitars.

Mother-of-pearl is gluing as I type. Need to level, fill, sand, put on a coat of sanding sealer. White 3/32” side marker dots next, then the frets...

[ken cierp]

Nice work --- light wood can be very unforgiving if fill is required