colins
Luthier / Guitar Maker
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Post by colins on Jul 18, 2014 14:07:27 GMT
The top purfling scheme I'm using on this is B/pear/B alternating with green, to mirror an element in the rosette, this involves installing four purfling strips plus the binding in one operation. A bit tricky when you're not too dextrous in one hand, but with a bit of swearing and some sticky fingers the binding is done. I do one half of the top and of the back in each session.
As you can see the second half is now secured with copious amounts of brown tape. It's cheap, why stint?
Next day I use a block plane and scraper to level the binding/purfling with the top and sides, if anything I like to level the sides to the binding.
The results.
The back and sides just have a red line purfling next to the macassar as the maple is so busy.
More sanding and smoothing to do, then on to the fingerboard.
Colin
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colins
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Post by colins on Jul 18, 2014 15:13:02 GMT
Here's a close up of the purfling.  Colin |
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ocarolan
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Post by ocarolan on Jul 18, 2014 15:30:48 GMT
Some gorgeous subtle and elegant aesthetics on this instrument, Colin!  Keith |
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scotch
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Post by scotch on Jul 20, 2014 14:12:57 GMT
Wow that Purfling looks great!!!
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colins
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Post by colins on Jul 24, 2014 18:25:42 GMT
On with the fingerboard, literally.
The board I'm using on this is macassar ebony, It seems that the quality of macassar boards is much better than the gabon available now. I like the stripey look, but for the more traditional markets I do dye them.
The blank is thinned to an initial 7mm, and then the fret slots are cut. This is of course 650mm scale.
I taper the board on the bandsaw, and clean the edge with a plane, I don't use a template and router finding this way much quicker and it means I can easily vary the nut width and taper to suit the individual, or my whim.
I check that the centre of the board runs along the centre line of the guitar.
With a straight edge and spacers I check that the action height and bridge height will be ok, This can be adjusted by tapering the thickness of the board from the nut to the soundhole, I also plane in a small amount of relief on the bass side. I also, cut the board to length and radius the end to match the soundhole.
Here you can see that I have drilled the board at the 1st and 11th fret, and use brad nails just tapped into the neck to register the board for gluing.
I then use fish glue and a caul to glue the board to the neck.
Just fretting, bridge to make, finishing to do, nut saddle, and set up. Did I say just?
Colin
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alig
C.O.G. 
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Post by alig on Jul 24, 2014 18:51:03 GMT
Love the Macassar for the fingerboard!
Really looking forward to seeing this lacquered.
Alasdair.
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davewhite
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Post by davewhite on Jul 24, 2014 18:53:48 GMT
Coin, Great work beautifully and clearly explained as usual. It would have been great having this to refer to when I was helping make Jonny M's flamenco. I don't know why you didn't just nail the fretboard on though  |
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scotch
Cheerfully Optimistic
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Post by scotch on Jul 24, 2014 19:52:07 GMT
Colin she is looking beautiful. Can't wait to see her strung and played Ilol bet she will sing many of songs.
that fingerboard is incredible. I'll need to make sure to order that one day if I ever get a custom
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Post by earwighoney on Jul 24, 2014 20:16:56 GMT
Great looking pics.
I love the look of Macassar Ebony, as a layman why would you say the quality found now is better than African Ebony? IMO the fretboard is one of the under appreciated aspects of a guitar.
Also I've heard Macassar Ebony is a little different in tonal properties to African Ebony for fretboards/bridges, is there any validity in such a statement?
One other thing, is there any relief in the neck of the very guitar? One of things I'm a little perplexed by is the difference of relief of nylon string guitars (I play flamenco guitars, and find classical guitars the necks of in particular to be a lot more different than flamenco guitars than I expect).
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colins
Luthier / Guitar Maker
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Post by colins on Jul 24, 2014 21:18:30 GMT
Dave, nailing it would have been easier, and of course make the FB a doddle to remove for repair, slip a crowbar under the edge and lever it off, maybe next time.
The current African ebony that's available is much lower quality than used to be the case, due to its over exploitation, the trees they are cutting now are smaller so it's harder to find good quarter sawn stock. I believe that a FB should be straight grained and quarter sawn for stability. You can still get that in Macassar. The only time I will ever use African ebony on a guitar now is for a classical guitar binding. I never use African on my steel strings for any purpose due to its high damping factor.
The FB on most classicals has some relief planed in on the bass side.
You are right, the FB, in fact the neck system itself is important to the sound of a guitar, possibly more important than the B&S wood. The strings are attached to the bridge at one end and the neck at the other so I like to gather as many of the neck harmonics into the tone as possible. I'll be posting a steel string build thread soon, where I'll go into the subject in some detail.
Colin
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colins
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 2,397
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Post by colins on Jul 25, 2014 16:18:18 GMT
Well, I left the clamps on overnight for the glue to harden, and today, did the final shaping of the neck. Neck shape is a personal preference thing, so as I always do, I shaped it to my personal preference.  It's future owner is a competent builder, so if he doesn't like my shaft shape he can take his rasps to it and reshape it to his preference. Of course, he'd be completely wrong! Only other thing done was to glue on the macassar heel cap and red purfling, then sanded it level with the guitar back. Colin |
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Post by earwighoney on Jul 25, 2014 20:56:26 GMT
Thanks for the reply Colin,
I didn't know there's a quality control issue with African Ebony for quartersawn blanks. I've seen a few back and side sets of African Ebony (Maderas Barber), and I'm intrigued to the quality of those.
I have a flamenco guitar with a cedar top/cypress back and sides with a Cocobolo f'board (opposed to ebony) and it sounds a lot warmer than it should do considering the soundboard/back and sides. Not sure why entirely, but the other flamenco guitar even though it's a negra (pau ferro/spruce) sounds a lot cleaner, it has a African Ebony f'board.
I'm sorry to ask but what does 'damping factor' mean for why you don't use African Ebony for steel strings? I've seen the term 'damping' now and again but I've never really understood it.
Some other things, but how important is the choice of wood for the bridge/bridge plate?
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colins
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 2,397
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Post by colins on Jul 27, 2014 15:55:03 GMT
I know I should be doing the fretting next, but somehow I just wanted to play with some wood today (no laughing in the peanut gallery) so I moved on to making the bridge. I'm using EIR for this guitar as it is heading to the USA, Normally I would use BRW. The EIR I'm using is a nice bit from an old table leg, cut about 20 deg on the rift.
First job after dimensioning the wood is to cut the saddle slot on the router table.
Next job is to drill the string holes in the tie block. Generally I use an 18 hole bridge layout unless otherwise specified, so first I hand drill the layout into a piece of bone to use as a template, this will appear later in the construction as well. This is double taped to the rear of the bridge over what will be the tie block.
This is mounted in the drill press vice and the 2mm drill set to 17mm depth (for 14mm depth into the bridge)
As a note for those with drill presses, they never come with a chuck worth using, always get a precision replacement chuck and morse taper.
The result is a bridge with 18, hopefully properly, laid out string holes.
Next I cut a channel between the tie block and the saddle on the router table in progressive stop cuts until all of the string holes have been exposed.
Now the wings are cut, first with a hand cut at the ends of the tie block, down to saddle slot depth.
Then onto the band saw to remove the waste.
Now it's starting to look like a classical bridge.
I use rasps to profile the wings, I like to mark the centre line down, this helps to get a balanced wing.
Final rough job is to cut the string ramp, this is a simple chisel job, I check the string clearance with a dummy saddle and 2mm drill bit.
A bit of sanding and fine chiseling and I ended up with a finished bridge that exactly hit my preferred weight of 19g.
There will be a bit more work on the bridge before it is glued in place.
Colin |
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colins
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 2,397
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Post by colins on Jul 27, 2014 16:05:26 GMT
Thanks for the reply Colin, I didn't know there's a quality control issue with African Ebony for quartersawn blanks. I've seen a few back and side sets of African Ebony (Maderas Barber), and I'm intrigued to the quality of those. I have a flamenco guitar with a cedar top/cypress back and sides with a Cocobolo f'board (opposed to ebony) and it sounds a lot warmer than it should do considering the soundboard/back and sides. Not sure why entirely, but the other flamenco guitar even though it's a negra (pau ferro/spruce) sounds a lot cleaner, it has a African Ebony f'board. I'm sorry to ask but what does 'damping factor' mean for why you don't use African Ebony for steel strings? I've seen the term 'damping' now and again but I've never really understood it. Some other things, but how important is the choice of wood for the bridge/bridge plate? Remember that 90% of the sound of a guitar comes from the soundboard and how the maker braces it, the B&S will colour the final tone, but the FB and the bridge will also play a part in the final sound, as will the player. The bridge material can have a marked effect on the outcome, if you want to get as much of the string information as possible into the top then you want to use a bridge that has a low damping factor, by that I mean a bridge that transmits as much of the vibrations from the strings into it as possible, Gabon Ebony if probably just about the worst of the common tonewoods for muffling the string vibrations. The only exceptions to this is where a builder tends to build over-bright, treble biased, guitars, then using an ebony bridge will attenuate the trebles a bit compared to the mids and bass. Bridge plates on steel strings can also have a marginal effect. I will be doing a steel string build thread in the near future, so will discuss material choice more then. Colin |
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colins
Luthier / Guitar Maker
Posts: 2,397
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Post by colins on Jul 27, 2014 19:07:27 GMT
Had a spare 1/2hr, so I fitted the underside of the bridge to the top dome. For classicals I start this on my separate 25' domed block. With a classical not having an X-brace to support the top too much pressure when sanding the bridge on the guitar can disort the top, so you would be sanding away for ever and not getting a good fit on the undistorted top.  But I do then switch to sanding in situ as a final check. I just cover the top with a bit of cling film, just to keep most of the sanding dust out of the spruce, though I still keep a clean tack rag handy.  The end result is a perfectly fitting bridge.  Finally now that I have the bridge at its final shape I can just check the action set-up with my spacers at the first and 12th fret and a dummy saddle, notice that the straight edge touches at all three spots. Success, I'm a luthiery god, and thoroughly deserve my cup of Yorkshire Gold.  Colin |
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It's future owner is a competent builder, so if he doesn't like my shaft shape he can take his rasps to it and reshape it to his preference. Of course, he'd be completely wrong!
Jo whoever he is.
