Euro Spruce/Madagasgan Rosewood FE19, with a twist.

Customs finally got their act together and delivered my tuners and hardwear after a two month wait.

The neck stack heel was assembled and glued in place.



The headplate was cut to the correct angle for the nut, to do this I use a file with the safe edge running on the fingerboard plane, I use an old scraper to protect the neck. This gived me a perfect fit for the nut against the headplate.



The head is cut to the traditional Torres shape.



The slots are cut using my jig, first the tuner holes are drilled then the slots routed out in stages.





Next the tuners trial fitted the Torres square ramps are cut, these are Sloan.







The head/neck transition is shaped, then the neck and heel are sanded to a near finished shape on the spindle sander





Colin

Looks like a lovely job done on those slots and wonderful tuners to compliment. Worth the wait!

The neck and body are finished, so time to combine the two into a GLO.

The mortice in the body is cut for the neck extension. A first for me on a classical as of course I usually use a Spanish heel, must admit I like this new way!



When the mortice is cut I put a couple of transfer spikes into bolt holes and press the neck into place to mark the insert positions.



Then the neck heel is drilled and the inserts screwed and glued into place.



The fit of the neck is checked and the heel flossed.



The fingerboard then has three small holes drilled through the first and 11th frets for small brad nails and after careful placement the brads are tapped into the neck to provide registration keys for gluing.



The fingerboard is then glued on with fish glue (no the water in the glue does not distort the neck, when the clamps are applied the amount of glue and water left in the joint is so small that the liquid content is minimal, do the maths!)



The guitar with FB in place and the final neck shaping and the final fit of the heel to the body is flossed.





Next job is to install the frets, I'm using Evo on this. So the FB is checked for evenness and a small relief is sanded into the bass side from the 5th fret.



All the frets are in and the ends shaped.



Colin

The finish has been applied and rubbed out with micromesh.









An interesting aside, with mahogany and cedrela I always use a slightly lighter coloured piece of wood to make the stacked heel as this will be mainly end grain when carved and will darken more with the finish, hopefully if I get it right they neck and stacked heel should end up the same colour.

The bridge is old Rio Rosewood from some Victorian furniture, so well seasoned!

First job is to drill the blank for the strings, I use a bone plate on the back of my bridges, which use the 18 hole system, the bone plate is drilled first by hand and then double taped to the back of the bridge to act as a template. The 2mm holes are drilled 14mm deep.



Here I have cut the bridge and the string trench on the router table, and cut down for the wings.



Next the wings are cut on the bandsaw, I always use a feather board for this type of cut.



The string ramp is shaped and the wings ramped and sanded to profile. This one came in at 22gm, right in the middle of my preferred weight, so job's a goodun.



Colin

An amazing job Colin!

No, of course it doesn't warp at all just gently warms. I think I've said many times here about the need for the bridge to be a perfect fit to the top, so of course I don't just clamp it down what a ridiculous suggestion!  The bridge is made to fit perfectly, I'm kind of insulted that you should even think I just clamp it to fit!   On my tornavoz fitted guitars, with no access through the soundhole, I just use a rubbed joint. with no clamping at all.