maanantai 30. elokuuta 2010

Bending once again.

I made myself a side bender pictured here. The cost was somewhere around 30€ (and the hot air gun can be used elsewhere too). It seems to work fine!
The rosewood set is bent now, and the end block is done. Some tweaking to the neck block still needed, but the rim is getting ready to be glued together.
For this set I'm planning a koa wood trimming which I will cut from an oversized side set that's getting bend next.



keskiviikko 25. elokuuta 2010

Nicest things you'll never see in a finished guitar...

...are the ones that go inside.

The white one is Lutz spruce (sold under a fascinating name "Snow Leopard Claw Spruce")
The brown one is sinker redwood, salvaged from the logs that sunk to the bottom of the river some hundred years ago.
You can tell the brown top goes into a baritone by looking at the bridge plate placement. The scale will be longer and thus the bridge lower to the top.





tiistai 24. elokuuta 2010

Another bracing

Here's the other guitar's skeleton. This time I seated all the rest of the braces in small pockets cut in the X-brace. So the whole "system" is connected to bridge area. This should help the top vibrate and the braces withstand a bit more "rigors of the road", should that occur.

In the first pic, the unbraced top resting on my "Go-Bar" cupboard bought from a second hand shop nearby. The plate on which the top is resting, is actually curved to fit the curved braces. Although it's called a flat top guitar, the top's never dead flat!
In the second pic, the braces are glued down. Only the smallest finger-braces plus bridge plate need to be glued later, as I run out of bars in the process.





maanantai 23. elokuuta 2010

Baritone skeleton

Here's two pics of the recently braced baritone top. I decided to go with a pretty light bracing (thou a bit wider than my "normal" in the x-brace plus some extra height overall.) I added on a little brace to sit against the bridge plate, to support the "bellying area". In addition, I'm using the "A-frame" pattern known from the newer Martins in the upper bout. This time I'm going tapered instead of scalloped style voicing. Mainly because of the new & handy miniatyre plane (4.90€) Just trying to guess & feel my way...
The top is singing nice and clear when tapped!




maanantai 2. elokuuta 2010

A new beginning




Here's a little something of my first ever custom order.
A friend of mine (a brave one) wants me to build him a guitar. It'll be a jumbo OM model with Lutz spruce top and most likely Koa back and sides.

It's going to be interesting, as this dear friend is one of the pickiest I know about his guitars...