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Custom Build – Set neck, Single cut, Flamed Cap- P8
Oct 16th
…Carving the body…
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- The body is clamped to the bench and marked out for carving a facet around the top
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- ..using a rasp and a plane – it has to be moved round as you go
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- The facet is now carved – notice it gets wider around the back
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- My favourite tools! I made the wooden one myself…
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- Using the mini curved plane to make the recurve
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- The top carve is finshed
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- Tools for carving the top
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- Belly carve stage one….I carve down to one line first
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- ..then join it up with the other one – the surface in between should be flat
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- It is smoothed over with a rasp
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- The neck modification – the body and neck heel have been cut back for better fret access
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- After I sanded it I put the neck in to admire my handywork…
The body was carved by hand. I really enjoy this part as I get to use the little curved planes which are reserved only for this purpose. Well, there is one other thing I do with them….I like to whip them out to show off to visitors. I always get a few oohs and ahhs. They are the guitar makers equivalent to puppies…..would you like to see my little planes? Trust me I’m a guitarmaker………
There are a couple of different types of top carve – this is what I call a full carve – it has a ‘recurve’ – that is a flat or slightly concave ridge all the way round the edge. This is done in stages:
- First draw two lines – one around the side to determine the thickness of the cap at the edge and one around the top to define the top edge of the carve.
- Join the lines with a flat facet – This is done with a rasp and a flat plane. As it is impossible to watch both line at the same time I always work down to one line first by increasing the carving angle, then the other by decreasing it. I am then left with a lump in the middle which is easy to carve off. This guitar has a flame maple cap which came wedge shaped so some of the work was already done for me.
- The recurve – The size of the recurve is marked out around the edge and a flat or slightly concave area is created with the small curved planes.
- Blending in – there are always a few lumps and bumps which need to be taken care of where the facets meet. I might decide to take a little more off here or there until I feel happy.
- Sanding – Smaller lumps and bumps can be removed by sanding with a block. A cork covered block is good for curvy bits. Only when it feels smooth will I go over it with a power sander. Mine is air powered and very powerful but the best results are achieved by rough sanding it by hand first.
Incidentaly, if you skip no.3 then you have what I call a semi carved top or half carve. The top just gets blended into a gentle curve all the way over.
Also:
I got the confirmation about the neck modification so went ahead and did it – also the belly carve on the back. Both these should make the guitar more comfortable to play.
I still have some finishing touches to do before I glue the neck on but I’m on schedule for starting the spray job on Tuesday……………
Custom Build – Set neck, Single cut, Flamed Cap- P7
Oct 15th
…Frets, side dots, and joining the neck to the body..
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- The fret board is sanded ready for fretting
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- A tri file is used to make a groove along each fret slot
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- The frets are installed
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- Tools for installing the side dots
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- Holes are drilled for the dots to fit into
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- The dots are glued in and sanded flush
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- The neck slot is routed into the body
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- The neck is fitted into the body
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- The neck must be trimmed so it doesn’t stick out so far
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- I mark it out on the safe side leaving 3mm or so for the router to finish
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- The neck is clamped into a jig to route the heel
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- Suggested modification to the heel
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- A chunk of the heel is removed for the pickup to fit into
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- The story so far….it looks like a guitar!
The frets and mother of pearl side dots went in with no problems and the heel of the neck has the angle routed into it, so that the strings will arrive at the right height for the bridge to get the correct action. So the neck is pretty much finished apart from the ‘Bailey’ headstock logo which I will have a go at early next week. I am hoping to start spraying it by mid week so I will post some colour tests on Tuesday.
On this style of guitar I usually modify the heel to take off the large chunk on the body, as I have marked out in the picture. The neck heel can then also be trimmed back to the same shape. This gives better fret access and feels more comfortable…..I will wait for confirmation before I chop it off just in case……Next job is to carve the shape onto the front of the body….I’d better get on with it then….
Custom Build – Set neck, Single cut, Flamed Cap- P6
Oct 14th
…Inlaying a Mother of Pearl Crown set…
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- The inlays are laid out in position
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- Tiny dots of superglue are applied
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- The pieces are stuck down into position
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- A sharp scribe is used to mark around the outside….
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- …otherwise known as the pointy thing….
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- The pieces are carefully prised off using a large chisel – if they won’t come off heat them up with a soldering iron to melt the glue
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- Rubbing light coloured dust into the marks makes them easier to see
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- All the inlays have been marked out
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- The holes for each inlay have been routed out
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- After a second pass with a smaller cutter
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- Using the mini router to route out the shapes
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- Close up of mini router
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- A chisel takes out the corners….
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- The inlay fits neatly into the hole
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- It sits slightly proud so it can be sanded flat later
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- Two part epoxy is mixed with rosewood dust….
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- ..to make a paste for gluing in the pieces
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- The rest of the fretboard is masked off and the holes filled with the paste
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- The pieces are pressed into place and left to dry
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- The tape is removed and the fretboard sanded ready for fretting
The inlays look great, I am very pleased how they came out. It’s worth taking a little time over to make it look like they just grew there….There are a few stages necessary to make this happen…..
- Mark out. The pieces are laid out in place then stuck down with a tiny amount of superglue. A scriber (pokey thing, sharp thing, pointy thing) is used to mark around the edges. Then the pieces are removed by prising them off with a large chisel. If they are well stuck you can heat them up with a soldering iron to loosen the glue.
- Rough cut. A mini router with a 3mm cutter was used to remove most of the material. The depth is set to just less than the thickness of the piece so it will sit proud in the hole – it will be sanded flush later.
- Second pass. A smaller cutter is then used to go around the edges as neatly as possible.
- Finish by hand. Some shapes (like these) have sharp corners which the router cannot get into. Finish these off with a chisel until the pieces drop in.
- Glue them in. The rest of the fretboard is masked off and the hole is filled with glue paste made up by mixing 2 part epoxy with wood dust.
- Clean up – When the glue has had sufficient time to dry the fretboard is sanded level once more.
Rosewood is slightly harder to inlay than Ebony, here’s why: Because Ebony is black you would use black glue and the join vanishes, but with Rosewood you have to mix up a paste of Rosewood dust and glue so the colour matches, but you can always see the joins if you have done a bad job fitting the pieces – just look at any production guitar with inlays like this and you will see what I mean. It is impossible to get such a good fit without doing it by hand – even then it takes a bit of practice.
The pieces should drop in neatly without forcing them or you may have problems getting them in when the glue is applied – everything becomes slightly more tricky at that point. Tight fitting pieces might not fit anymore as the glue and dust paste does take up a little space.
If you are attempting this for the first time I would recommend Ebony for the fretboard.
The Inlays came from our friends at ‘Small Wonder’ – these are fairly standard shapes so it’s better just to buy them. I can make them but I prefer making custom inlays. Next time one comes up I will blog it!
Build your own guitar – 9 oct – 1 day
Oct 9th
Steve has come to finish his guitar while Ciaren continues with his acoustic
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- Ciaren checks his sides against the pattern
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- Ciaren bending the rosewood for his sides
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- Sticking on the kerfed lining
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- The kerfed lining is clipped in place while the glue dries
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- Steve fights with the wire octopus
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- Levelling the frets
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- Checking the frets for high spots
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- Re-crowning the frets after levelling
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- You could do this too!
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- BYO-291 Rear view
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- BYO-291 Front view
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- BYO-291
Today is mainly dedicated to getting Steve’s ‘Red Wine Burst’ guitar finished but Ciaren came as well as he wants to get his done before Christmas – we’ll do our best!
Ciaren was busy bending his sides and gluing the kerfed lining on – He has already made the front and the back so next time he can start assembling his body. He left about 5pm and left Steve working on his fretjob.
There are basically three jobs to do on finishing day but each one takes quite a long time so it is still a full day.
- Assembly – putting all the bits on and wiring up the pickups. Steve is the first on our course to use the new 6-way toggle switch. He has three humbuckers which can be a problem with normal 3-way toggle switches – you have to have the middle pickup always on. Another solution for 3 pickups is to have a 5-way slider switch but that can be very tricky to fit on a carved top guitar. Also it is possible to have 3 volume controls – one for each pickup but that cuts down the number of tone controls. The new 6-way gives us all the options we need while keeping the 2vol 2 tone layout. We used push pulls for the tones so we can also split each pickup for single coil sounds…..
- Fret job – Levelling the frets, then reshaping and taking off all the sharp edges before polishing them. The guitar is strapped into a jig, to simulate the tension of the strings tuned up to pitch, for levelling the frets. This took quite a long time – Steve chose jumbo frets which needed a fair bit of work.
- Set up – Set the truss rod, set the action, set the intonation. This went very well – no problems setting the guitar up.
We took the guitar next door to take some nice pics of it finished – hope you enjoy them….
After that there is nothing left to do but play it!
Custom Build – Set neck, Single cut, Flamed Cap- P5
Oct 8th
Gluing on the ebony headstock veneer
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- Ready to glue on the ebony headstock veneer
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- The headstock veneer clamped up
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- I left it like this overnight for the glue to dry
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- Clamps off…..
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- The tuner holes sre reamed out
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- The finished headstock
The ebony for the headstock veneer is about 1mm thick. I marked it oversize, then cut it out roughly on the bandsaw before gluing it on.
Blocks or ‘cauls’ are used to protect the wood while the piece is being clamped. I use titebond for this sort of job. The glue is left overnight to dry.
When the clamps have been removed the tuner holes have to be made through the veneer. A small drill makes the hole which is then reamed to size.
After this I tidied up where the oversized ebony veneer overhung the headstock shape. I did this with various sanding blocks and 80-120g sandpaper. It doesn’t take very long as the veneer is so thin……
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