Post by R the F on Sept 11, 2017 17:52:48 GMT
I was distracted from frets by the sight of a lump of laburnum which, unsurprisingly since it was from the same piece of tree, reminded me of the fretboard but was the right size for a bridge. In fact, I could hear a bridge trying to get out when I put it against my ear. I decided to give it a helping hand...
First I chopped a piece off the end thus:
I then hacked at this and sanded it so that the underneath came to match the contour of the corrugation down the middle of the soundboard:
- eventually! Then I flattened off the top so that I would have something regular to work on:
and, as you can see, I did indeed work on it; to wit I drilled some holes in approximately the right places to receive saddles and string-ends. Next it needed only a little trim to make it look quite bridge-like - in my terms, anyway:
And, with a bit of carving, out popped the bridge that had been waiting inside all the time:
Now I could turn to the frets. I sanded the fingerboard to a 16-inch radius and, having almost lost the fret grooves, re-sawed them with an extremely specialised saw. (Actually, it's a junior hacksaw but don't tell anyone):
By this time I also seem to have chopped up the fret-wire into handy pieces and stored them in a specialist holey thing. Anyway, they soon found themselves hammered relentlessly into the fingerboard with, for some reason I'm not quite sure of, a smidgen of superglue under each one. I don't usually do this so I'm not sure why I've started now. I also remembered for the first time ever to run a tiny v-shaped file along the top of each groove to flare the tops slightly and thus protect the edges if the frets ever need removing. I then trimmed the ends flush with the sides of the fingerboard. Here's the result of all my hard work:
You're probably beginning to realise about now that I haven't said anything about a sound-port in this build. Maybe, you think, he's saving time and effort by missing out this little luxury. But you'd be wrong; here it is and it's even been (badly) lined with maple veneer :
So now I've reached list-time so I must be getting near the end. Remaining on my list are the following:
You may be thinking I've left something off the list but there's nothing else that occurs to me at the moment so I'll leave it there.
Rob
First I chopped a piece off the end thus:
I then hacked at this and sanded it so that the underneath came to match the contour of the corrugation down the middle of the soundboard:
- eventually! Then I flattened off the top so that I would have something regular to work on:
and, as you can see, I did indeed work on it; to wit I drilled some holes in approximately the right places to receive saddles and string-ends. Next it needed only a little trim to make it look quite bridge-like - in my terms, anyway:
And, with a bit of carving, out popped the bridge that had been waiting inside all the time:
Now I could turn to the frets. I sanded the fingerboard to a 16-inch radius and, having almost lost the fret grooves, re-sawed them with an extremely specialised saw. (Actually, it's a junior hacksaw but don't tell anyone):
By this time I also seem to have chopped up the fret-wire into handy pieces and stored them in a specialist holey thing. Anyway, they soon found themselves hammered relentlessly into the fingerboard with, for some reason I'm not quite sure of, a smidgen of superglue under each one. I don't usually do this so I'm not sure why I've started now. I also remembered for the first time ever to run a tiny v-shaped file along the top of each groove to flare the tops slightly and thus protect the edges if the frets ever need removing. I then trimmed the ends flush with the sides of the fingerboard. Here's the result of all my hard work:
You're probably beginning to realise about now that I haven't said anything about a sound-port in this build. Maybe, you think, he's saving time and effort by missing out this little luxury. But you'd be wrong; here it is and it's even been (badly) lined with maple veneer :
So now I've reached list-time so I must be getting near the end. Remaining on my list are the following:
- Finish trimming inside the sound-hole with maple
- Make a hole in the head to access the end of the truss-rod
- Make and fit the flying transverse brace which will support the sound-hole area
- Make and brace the back
- Polish/seal everything inside and out
- Attach the bridge
- Make and fit a nut
You may be thinking I've left something off the list but there's nothing else that occurs to me at the moment so I'll leave it there.
Rob