Making "Samhradh" - the YAGMC 2015 prize guitar

Gary - thanks. It's the least I can do to give something back and help youngsters who want to make a career making music and to get the music back is reward enough. The first competition went brilliantly. The guitar making world is such an open, giving and generous one that it seems the natural thing to do. One example is where the American Black Walnut for this guitar came from. I play every month at the local Folk Club where it's well known that I make all of the instruments I play and earlier this year a member of the audience came up to me at the end and said that he used to run an Architectural Woodwork business locally but had retired and sold it on. The people who now run it give him various offcuts from the projects they would otherwise throw away for him to use in his wood burning stove and he was feeling guilty at what was going up in smoke. He gave me an invitation to go round and take what was of use for making instruments. I came back with my car stuffed full of American Black Walnut, Maple, Sapele and khaya off-cuts some of which were big enough for harp guitar sets I was a happy bunny indeed and bowled over by his thoughtfulness and generosity.

Back to "Samhradh". With the glue dried the block was trued up and the neck blank cut with the volute on the rear of the headstock is formed using the thickness sander. There is enough in the remaining block to make two mandolin necks:

The American Black Walnut neck block is then made. The central two holes are for the neck bolts and the outside four holes are for the 6mm carbon fibre flying buttress braces:



Two Macassar Ebony binding strips are glued to the front and cutaway side edges of the neck block:



The bass side is then glued to the neck block using hot hide glue:



The treble side is glued onto a walnut support block together with an Macassar Ebony binding piece with bwb purfling using hot hide glue:

The treble side is then glued to the neck block using fish glue with a bwb purfling strip between it and the Macassar Ebony binding strip, and with a bwb purfling strip glued to the tail block using hot hide glue:



Here’s the joined up rim-set in the mould:

Patience grasshopper

The top is cut roughly to shape and the spruce soundhole patch is then glued on using hot hide glue:



The soundhole is then routed out using the circle cutting jig: