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Post by ashley on Mar 1, 2017 23:18:20 GMT
Well after a bit of delay I managed to finish respraying the sides. Excellent advice from Francis regarding thinning the nitro a wee bit more for the final coats. I thinned to 50% after doing a bit of research and the final coats went on really well, much smoother. Should be much less sanding involved. Fingers crossed in around 3 weeks i'll have a finished guitar!
In the meantime I'm going to try and make a drum sander and will start getting ready for the next 2, a 000 12 fret for my brother and a dreadnought. They will be budget builds just to get a bit more practice so African mahogany back and sides and cheap Sitka tops but hopefully the builds will be a bit quicker!
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Post by oustudent on Mar 2, 2017 13:12:07 GMT
Hi, Just thought I would post a few pics of my current build, this is my 2nd attempt at building a guitar. The first attempt did not go as smoothly as I hoped and as I wouldn't be happy with it I decided to start again with a much better knowledge and some proper tools. Most of the wood came in a job lot very cheaply off ebay, it's more than good enough for my first build and hopefully it will make a decent guitar. I decided to buy a set of plans for this build but hopefully once I have a few under my belt I can start designing my own. I started by making the moulds  The neck is Honduran mahogany, I made the blank up during my first attempt and never got past making the stacked neck blank. I squared off the top and sides, routed the truss rod channel, cut the tennon by hand and then started to shape the neck.    The fretboard is indian ebony, I bought this pre slotted but for future builds I will be cutting the slots myself. The fretboard was thicknessed to 6.5mm and the excess cut off ready to install.   I decided to go with purpleheart bindings and backstrip   Sides were thicknessed, scraped and preshaped before bending. On my first build I bent the sides by hand on a home made hot pipe but I decided that I would make a side bending machine using light bulbs as the heat source. It worked well for the indian rosewood sides but I struggled bending solid mahogany linings and ended up cracking a couple. In the end I used kerfed linings which came with the ebay wood job lot.  Mahogany back braces installed and roughly carved with a purple heart centre strip. Still quite a bit to come off these, I also decided the internals would be sealed so I gave it a quick coat of shellac.  Sitka spruce sounboard, joined and thicknessed by hand using hand planes and scrapers.  For the rossette I have used spalted birch, I bought a lump of it and really quite like it, the only thing is the colour has changed massively since gluing it in with CA.  Starting to brace the sounboard  Bracings installed and carved  That's pretty much as far as I have got so far, I won't be updating for a while as work will be getting in the way for the next few weeks. |
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Post by ashley on Mar 2, 2017 14:49:26 GMT
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Post by ashley on Mar 2, 2017 14:52:42 GMT
I would also say that the finishing process has been really enjoyable and frustrating but I reckon on the next builds the finish will be much, much better now I understand the process a bit better and know where I need to spend more time and effort to achieve the best results.
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ocarolan
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Post by ocarolan on Mar 2, 2017 15:01:41 GMT
Looking very good indeed!
Keith
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leoroberts
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My main instrument is: probably needing new strings
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Post by leoroberts on Mar 2, 2017 16:35:34 GMT
Shiny!  |
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R the F
Luthier / Guitar Maker
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My main instrument is: bandsaw
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Post by R the F on Mar 2, 2017 18:05:14 GMT
A career in mirror-making beckons. Lovely work!
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Post by ashley on Mar 6, 2017 22:57:54 GMT
I finally got around to making the bridge out of an ebony blank and profiled it to fit the soundboard. Still needs a bit of work but its roughly there, a few chips whilst drilling the holes but I'll use some ebony dust and CA glue to fill them. One other thing that didn't exactly go to plan is that the reamer I bought (very cheaply) seems to be a different taper to the bridge pins I bought. The reamers seem to be about £70-80 which is a bit steep, will need to keep my eye out for a deal. Anyway I now know that there are 3 and 5 degree tapers so I bought a set of 5 degree ebony bridge pins which should fit snugly.   Well that's probably going to be it for a couple of weeks when I will hopefully be posting pics of the completed guitar |
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Post by ashley on Mar 17, 2017 20:26:49 GMT
Busy couple of days and some decent progress. After a call asking me to go back to work 3-4 weeks early I decided I'd get cracking a bit early finishing the guitar. I'ts been roughly 2 weeks since finishing the spraying but as time is running out I decided to risk it. I've finished the wet sanding (very tentatively) and polishing and have the finger board gluing to the body. It's not perfect but I was very cautious of sanding through the lacquer.  Jobs for tomorrow are to finish and fit the bridge and tuners. Hopefully i'll be stringing it up soon. |
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Post by ashley on Mar 28, 2017 18:36:55 GMT
It's finished (nearly)! The guitar is now sporting some strings, the only things left to do is finish shaping the nut and saddle as I've been adjusting it a bit at a time to make sure I don't mess it up while I'm figuring out what to do. There are a few minor issues, the heel cap doesn't look good, the inside of the guitar is now quite messy but it should be easy enough to clean and I've somehow managed to get a couple of nicks in the finish. That should be easy to sort and I'll drop fill with nitro and polish them out. I have to say as it's the first one I'm really, really happy with how it looks, despite the mistakes,and to me it sounds lovely. I haven't played many decent acoustics before but it is a whole lot better sounding than my tanglewood, at least to my ears. I can't wait to crack on with the next ones!    |
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Riverman
Artist / Performer
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Post by Riverman on Mar 28, 2017 21:01:33 GMT
Congratulations! Looks great  |
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Post by andyhowell on Mar 29, 2017 6:55:39 GMT
Looks lovely!
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francis
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Post by francis on Mar 29, 2017 7:15:47 GMT
Looks great Ashley  |
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ocarolan
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Post by ocarolan on Mar 29, 2017 7:27:56 GMT
Fine-looking job! The purple bindings are great. Don't suppose you could record the sound for us....?
Keith
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Post by RodB on Mar 29, 2017 7:42:36 GMT
Just caught up with this thread - congratulation on a stunning guitar - I really like that rosette and the use of the Purple Heart.
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Jo whoever he is.
