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Showing results for tags 'acoustic guitar'.
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Ok, I've mentioned this many times and it's finally to a point where I can post photos. Over the last 30 years or so I have replaced tops, backs, done fret jobs, inlay, glued braces and lining, refinished, made bridges, saddles, and nuts, replaced tuners, and all kinds of repairs, etc. but this is the first guitar I've built from scratch. I cut all the wood for this including resawing the back/sides/top, cutting the binding and bracing from lumber or billets, etc. Along the way I've designed and built my own modular cantilever side bending fixture that will accommodate sizes from Jumbo down to 0, possibly smaller like a Ukulele. I'll post photos of the side bending fixture later and also built all the forms, fixtures, templates, and jigs for the build. I started the build a couple of years ago just working an hour in the evening, sometimes two, and some on weekends, but I put it aside and didn't touch it for about 8 months. I'll tell you ahead of time that it sounds good, is bright, has great sustain, and plays very easily with good action. But it may be a while before I make a video of it being played. Back and sides - Honduras Mahogany Top and bracing - Sitka Spruce Neck - African Mahogany with Maple and Honduras Mahogany center pieces Headstock, rosette, arm bevel, heel cap, and tail wedge - Walnut burl Headstock inlay - Zebrawood Fingerboard, bridge - East Indian Rosewood Binding, purfling - Zebrawood and Maple Sound port lining - Macassar Ebony Solid lining - Honduras Mahogany Side braces - Honduras Mahogany Finish - Shellac (French polish), measured just over 1 mil at the bridge The neck is bolted on and I devised a way for it to be completely removable. It can go from tuned to pitch to neck off in about 5 minutes. In the week that the guitar has been tuned to pitch it is holding its tuning as good as my other guitars. The intonation still needs some minor tweaking but I'll play it a while before working on it again. Assuming I like it enough to play in church I'll install a K&K Pure Mini pickup. If I decide to just play it at home and with friends I'll save the pickup for a future guitar. In the meantime, here are a few photos of the build and some of the finished guitar. Back bracing with Padauk glue strip - Top bracing - Gluing the back in place - Finished guitar. I didn't want a super high gloss finish but rather decided to do an old world vintage patina. Nothing against the super high gloss finishes but I have 5 guitars with high gloss finish and wanted this one to be different. Now that I've done it this way I like it even better than I thought I would. So feel free to comment, ask questions, critique. I have about 1,500 photos of the build and good documentation but these few photos tell the story just fine, I think, so I'll spare you the copious extras. Enjoy! David
- 28 replies
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- french polish
- inlay
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I've talked about this several times and I'm finally back to building #2! When I built my first guitar I didn't have the CNC, actually built the CNC while I was finishing that guitar so the only job I did on the CNC for that guitar was a little bit of the bridge. I began build #2 while I was building #1 but got so busy with high-end custom woodworking for other folks that I set #2 aside; I didn't realize it was going to be for 5+ years. Now that I have the CNC I would like to use it for a few more tasks in the building of #2 so the first thing I did was to take photos of the body rim and draw that as closely as possible in my CAD program. The short video below is using a Sharpie to draw that outline so I could see how close my digital drawing came to the hand shaped rims - pretty close as it turns out. The body is Honduras Mahogany, the lining is Maple with a little Curly Maple thrown in for aesthetics, the top will be Sitka Spruce, and the neck will be glued up African/Honduras Mahogany with a Maple stripe (that could change). The body shape is my design but is very close to my Takamine Grand Auditorium (probably close to Martin's GA or OM, as well). I'll post updates to the build here in this thread so follow along and ask questions, offer comments, and I'll do my best to get this guitar finished soon so I can get started on more guitars.
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This is a short video on making an acrylic gauge to guide me in carving the neck on the guitar I'm building. David Here's the finished gauge - And the video -
- 4 replies
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- acoustic guitar
- neck profile
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