Latest News
Posts tagged ancient kauri
Bailey custom acoustic from 40,000 year old Ancient Kauri
Jul 19th
A guitar made with the oldest workable wood in the world!
Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
-
- The soundboard is Ancient Kauri
-
- Rosewood back and sides
-
- Mother of pearl fret marker dots
-
- Spalted Maple Rosette
-
- Rosewood binding
-
- Bailey Custom Bootlegger
-
- Laminated neck
-
- ‘Southern Cross’ headstock inlay
The Ancient Kauri Bailey Bootlegger Custom guitar is now finished and has already flown the nest. Sandy came to our ‘Guitar Sunday’ at The Firehouse to collect it. I used it to check the sound for the PA and ended up going through my entire repertoire of solo guitar pieces. I really didn’t want to stop playing it which is always a good sign.
I was surprised straight away after first stringing it up how even and well balanced it sounded, not to mention full and loud, but without being brash. A lovely rich warm mellow tone with each string as clear and well defined as the others. If there were guitars 40,000 years ago is this what they might have sounded like?
When I first plugged it into the tuner I was amazed how low the bass E string could be tuned and still sound great- most guitars lose it around low C or B but this one remained constant- it would be a wonderful guitar for altered tunings.
I have thoroughly enjoyed making this guitar. By a miracle of preservation in a peat bog this piece of wood has existed for many times longer than the whole of recorded human history. Touching, smelling, seeing and hearing (tasted pretty good too!) the Ancient Kauri during the build gave me a strange but direct link to a long forgotten past. I felt a little bit like I was waking it up from a very long sleep…kind of humbling to know how it lay silent for so long and now it sings…
Bailey custom acoustic from 40,000 year old Kauri-p5
May 30th
…Finishing…
Read Part1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
-
- The fretboard is masked up
-
- Close-up of masking on neck heel
-
- The neck ready for spraying
-
- …the first coat sinks into the grain as is dries, which is why rubbing and flatting are necessary
-
- The neck is sprayed with 5 coats rubbing between coats and flatting before the last
-
- The soundhole is masked
-
- A stick is attached to hold while spraying the body
-
- A sealer coat has been applied….
-
- …the body is masked where the neck touches the body and under the bridge
-
- The area where the neck touches the body is masked
-
- The first gloss coat has been applied
-
- The body will get 5 build coats then a finishing coat after ‘flatting’
Sandy had originally asked for an oiled finish but this guitar is so special I thought it deserved to be given the full gloss treatment. I only use nitrocellulose lacquer for my instruments as I believe it looks and sounds better than anything else that is available.
The rosewood used for the back and sides of the body has quite large open pores so first the grain was filled. Natural filler was coloured until it matched the body and then applied with a plastic scraper. The excess is removed quickly with a clean scraper before sanding.
I masked the sound hole and then a coat of sealer was sprayed. After this the body was masked where the neck and bridge will be attached. These will be glued so a good wood to wood contact is required. The sealer coat is easy to remove and prevents the masking tape from ripping the delicate fibres of the soundboard when the tape is removed later.
Next five coats of gloss was applied over two days with plenty of time in between for drying and the surface was rubbed with a scotchbrite pad each time between coats.
After three days rest the surface was sanded flat with 400g before applying the last finish coat. Now it will hang for as long as possible before polishing….It has to be finished for Sandy to take with him on his move to New Zealand so I will have to check the diary!
Bailey custom acoustic from 40,000 year old Kauri-p4
May 16th
…Mother of Pearl ‘Southern Cross’ inlay…
-
- Super glue and tweezers, mini router and cutters, scribe and scalpel, and a large chisel for prising off the peices
-
- The mini spiral downcut router cutters leave a clean edge
-
- The pieces are temporarily fixed in place for marking out
-
- A scribe was used to score around the outline and the pieces are removed
-
- A mini router is used to make the channel
-
- A close up of the router in action
-
- A 1/16″ cutter was used to rough it out first
-
- After a second finer pass with a tiny 1/32″ cutter
-
- A bit of work on the corners with a scalpel and they are ready for the inlays
-
- Test fitting the inlays- they should drop in without any force
-
- The inlays are glued with a paste made from epoxy and wood dust
-
- After the glue is hard the inlay is sanded flat…it’s finished!
The guitar is now fretted and inlaid ready for finishing…
Sandy had mentioned some kind of Southern Cross inlay, so this is what I came up with. As luck would have it I had four of the stars left over from a previous project so only had to make the smallest one. I checked the relative brightness (magnitude) of each star to make sure I got them in the right place using the Wikipedia entry on The Southern Cross. Being from the Northern hemisphere I have never actually seen this constellation, so hopefully I can be forgiven for not knowing them by heart. I had to be slightly artistic with the exact placement to fit them around the tuners and logo, so please do not use this as a star map to navigate by or you may never be seen again!
Bailey custom acoustic from 40,000 year old Kauri-p3
May 11th
Working on the neck
-
- The body with its ancient kauri soundboard is pretty much finished, now its time to concentrate on the neck
-
- The headstock is clamped to the bench while the neck is hand carved
-
- I carve the main part of the neck first, the heel and blend into the headstock will be tidied up later
-
- A wider shot of the work bench with neck carving tools laid out
-
- Carving the heel with a chisel
-
- The neck is rough carved, it will be sanded later
-
- The neck is mounted onto the body
-
- Rear view of the neck mounted to the body
-
- The guitar is strapped into the string tension simulator for levelling the fretboard
-
- The offset position marker dots are marked out and 3mm holes are drilled for the inlays
-
- Mother of pearl 3mm dots glued in then sanded flush. The neck is then removed for fretting
-
- The frets are pre-bent and cut slightly longer than needed
After the neck was carved, I strapped it into the string tension simulator. This simply holds the guitar firm while pushing up on the back of the headstock and pulling down over the nut area. The amount of pressure is adjustable, which enables me to ‘dial in’ the stresses on the neck as if the strings were on and tuned to pitch. This greatly improves accuracy and removes any guess work from the equation. With the fretboard level the neck was removed for fretting to avoid damaging the ancient kauri soundboard.
Well it is starting to look like a guitar…I still need to put the frets and the side dots. I will also glue on a rosewood heel cap, made using an off-cut from the back. It needs the obligatory Bailey logo, then the neck can be sanded and the guitar will be ready for a finish.
Bailey custom acoustic from 40,000 year old Kauri-p2
May 5th
Making a new custom guitar from the oldest workable wood in the world!
-
- The Ancient Kauri soundboard
-
- Rosewood was used for the back and sides
-
- The tail piece end graft was fitted last time
-
- The binding channel is cut, a chisel cleans up the furry edge
-
- An angle is cut onto the end of the strip to be fitted
-
- The end graft sticks up slightly…
-
- A chisel cuts a mitre into the black white black binding strips
-
- an angle is cut onto the end of the strip to be fitted
-
- making a perfect join in the BWB
-
- The body is now ready for the binding to be glued on
-
- Clear sticky tape holds the binding in place while the glue dries
-
- The fillet is glued over the truss rod to hold it in place and wings are glued on to make the headstock wide enough
-
- The extra pieces are planed level to the face of the headstock
-
- The headstock is marked out with a pencil
-
- The neck is now ready for the fretboard to be glued
-
- The fretboard is glued on and left to dry
Sandy was kind enough to provide a link to this web page for more info about ancient Kauri. It is really amazing to be using the oldest workable wood in the world. To think that this tree was alive so long ago- before human civilisation really began…it is fascinating.
But I have always had a fascination with wood and would also like to think that I have a natural affinity for it which I try to apply to my instrument making. Making guitars by hand gives me time to get to know each piece individually and intimately as I am striving to get the very best out of every part of the instrument.
A Confession:
I always smell a piece of wood before I use it…I guess there is a word for people like me. (Yes I just googled….its xylophile: one who loves wood.)
When I was young I heard about old craftsman folk who can identify any wood species by smell alone…I wouldn’t say I was that good but I can certainly recognise a few and understand how it could be true as each species releases its own distinctive aroma while it is being worked. My all time favourite is antique Brazilian rosewood which is just gorgeous…like cherries and chocolate. Indian rosewood is similar but not as nice. Walnut and cedar are particularly distinctive.
The Ancient Kauri smells kind of like cedar to me but I must admit the first time I smelled it, I thought I caught faint whiff of abalone which also comes from New Zealand, so that would make sense. Is that what NZ smells like?
I should say here that sniffing wood is not good for you generally- some woods are carcinogenic (will give you cancer) and a dust mask should be worn at all times when working with any material that creates dust.
No harm in a quick sniff though….
As far as workability of the wood goes…no problems there. Works just as well as any other wood I would use for the soundboard.
It produces a strong powerful tap tone now the body is together…we’ll have to wait and see what it sounds like with the strings on…
