Making "Samhradh" - the YAGMC 2015 prize guitar

Here’s the box after scraping the bindings flush. The opening for the fingerboard extension on the neck has also been cut in the top:



The truss rod channel is routed in the neck shaft:



Then the channels for the twin carbon fibre bars are routed:



The two way truss rod is glued in with a American Black Walnut cap together with the carbon fibre bars:



The Macassar Ebony headstock veneer is glued onto the top of the headstock using fish glue:



The rear Macassar Ebony headstock veneer is bent to match the volute and is glued onto the rear of the headstock using fish glue:

Moving ahead Dave. Is that a macassar FB?

Oh, and interesting take on the partial capo.

Colin

The tuner holes are drilled in the headstock using a 10mm drill:



The headstock is cut to shape:



Here are the Gotoh tuners with ebony buttons test fitted:

Rob, Dave will give his take on this, but as you probably know I also use HHG and fish glue on my guitars. For me it is purely an open time thing, I use HHG for joining plates, braces and bridge and fish glue for the rest. To me they are equal in strength, but HHG is more easily reversible if repairs are ever needed.

Colin

Rob - pretty much what Colin said.

The Macassar Ebony fretboard is marked and the fret slots cut in this jig:



The fingerboard end is routed to match the soundhole curve:





The fingerboard is then tapered and a piece of the Macassar Ebony binding with b/w/b purfling is bent on the hot pipe to follow the soundhole curve and then glued to the fretboard using hot hide glue:



The Macassar Ebony bindings and side purflings are then glued on using fish glue:



The white 2mm side dot markers are then installed on the fingerboard:



The fingerboard is then glued to the neck using fish glue:

The neck is then carved:



The fingerboard is radiused:



Then the gold EVO frets are pressed in:



Here’s the fretted neck on the body:



Time to check the fit in its case . . . snug!

Two 6mm holes are drilled in the neck heel and carbon fibre rods glued into the holes using fish glue:



The Macassar Ebony heel cap with b/w/b veneers is then glued on using hot hide glue:



When the glue is dry the heel cap is scraped and sanded flush:


Thanks Harlee.

The Macassar Ebony bridge blank has the underside matched to the top curvature:



The bridge slots are then routed using this jig:





The rear of the bridge is ramped and the bridge-pin holes drilled:



The bridge-pin holes are then counter-sunk:



The rest of the bridge is shaped and the two saddles fitted:



The bridge carefully positioned on the top. The outer two bridge-pin holes are drilled through. Here’s how it looks: