tiistai 30. marraskuuta 2010

A few details

I've been refining the setup, polishig, playing, feeling and even re-sanding & re-finishing the neck. Now it's good to my hand, hope Pekka's hands speak the same language. It's a keeper, I'd say.









maanantai 29. marraskuuta 2010

Aaaand... We have a guitar!

The bridge is glued and strings attached. It still takes some tweaking with the neck setup and fret leveling, but generally, we're done!

The guitar has a nice voice and to my eye it looks like a guitar too. Best of all, it didn't collapse or explode when stringed




tiistai 23. marraskuuta 2010

Bridge, tuners and more polishing

Schertler satin chrome tuners with ebony
buttons add a nice modern twist to the
otherwise traditional looks
Just can't stop wondering the beauty of the koa back.
The neck is Spanish Cedar Tung oiled and seems to match the colors nicely


Here's the ebony bridge finished tonight. The pins are black
water buffalo horn with nice abalone dot embed in a brass circle.
 The saddle is bone, of course. The easiest trick to enhance your
guitar's tone (in addition to the string change) is to upgrade the
plastic bridge saddle & pinns and nut to bone ones.

keskiviikko 17. marraskuuta 2010

Let the french polishing begin!

I've finished all my guitars with french polished shellac. It's easy to apply at home, traditional, non-toxic, and gives a superior shine with next to none sanding & buffing. And it takes only a few days of hand-fatiquing rubbing... It's not the most resistant to wear & chemicals (like, say, water & spirits), but pretty easily repairable. Many traditionalists think its the best finish tonewise due to minimal thickness added to the top. The downside is the wood gets easily marred & scarred if the player isn't taking enough care while handling & playing the guitar. No stage diving with this baby, please!

Anyway, the "first round" is now accomplished. Seven to eight more to go...

I must say I'm humbled to have a chance to work with these kind of materials. The Creator of this Universe is so rich he could afford to make the trees in the woods look this stunning from the inside!

I just might have to keep this guitar and get a nice Landola for Pekka instead...


The Lutz spruce set was called "Snow Leopard Claw". See the reason?

tiistai 16. marraskuuta 2010

Pore filling

The back is now sanded down to 1000grit (maybe a little overdoing, but won't hurt no one but my hand) and the pores are filled with epoxy. The koa grain is starting to look like it should. Awesome.



tiistai 9. marraskuuta 2010

Neck shaping

The neck attachment is approaching. I spent my day off first fretting, then rasping, filing, planing, shaving and sanding the neck plank to dimensions. It's a critical phase that affects the playability the most. So far so good. The only problem was, that I had drilled a hole for the neck bolt too deep. So there appeared a hole in the heel that had to be plugged. That's propably going to show through the finish a bit. Sorry, Pekka.

Heel cap is made of flamed maple

...as is the fb binding. We'll see if we bind the headstock as well.


The color of the neck and body seem to fit pretty nice. The maple bound koa looks nice to my eye too.

Hiscox case will protect the package nicely

lauantai 6. marraskuuta 2010

Neckjob

I've somehow managed to find time to bind&glue down the fretboard for the koa-guitar. Still some radiusing to go before fretting and shaping of the neck. Anyway the stringing time seems to be approaching in schedule (delivery due hopefully in the beginning of December).


The fingerboard is bound in flame maple, with b/w/b purfling.

The body seems a bit asymmetrical in this picture. There's two reasons: First, the  camera angle makes it look crooked.  Second, it is asymmetrical. We'll call that art&design, OK?

tiistai 2. marraskuuta 2010

Oh, there's another neck to do!

It just came to me, that the baritone is about done. Sanding, finishing and infinite tweaking to go. But then it came to me, that there's another guitar too. The one I've practiced for with the baritone. So, the neck pocket is routed, the heel roughed out, the bolts, barrel nuts and washers inserted and the joint nearly perfected. And behold: We have a test attachment!

They do look the same! Wonder how the sounds compare.

Starting to look like a guitar! The bridge is for the baritone (thus the 8 pin holes) , this one's getting a black ebony one. 

maanantai 1. marraskuuta 2010

neck and bridge

Got some time to carve the neck & heel in the daytime and route & shape the bridge in the evening. Here are the results. Everything still needs loads of sanding and filling and there's a bit (0.5mm) wider and longer bridge saddle in the mail. Routing the bridge saddle slot with a dremel tool falls in the category of PIA-tasks. There must be a better way...
The tuning peg holes are deliberately off-set (well, not all off-setting was on purpose...) to ensure a clear path for each string from nut to post.

Once the bridge takes its lemon oil, it's going to fall in with the rest of the tones nicely.  Well, the stripes are going to stay perpendicular to the rest...


The bridge shape is once again following the SCGC path.