Three Guitars Done!

Well this took a bit longer than planned but the three L0 bodied guitars are now done! Took longer due to just general life getting in the way but also a delay in getting one guitar back from finishing and me taking 3 weeks to get some more training in set up and fret work from a local expert. (Thanks Nicole).

All three are now done and although they share the same shape that is about all they share.

No.1
Slight bearclaw Sitka top, White Oak back & sides  5 piece Spanish cedar neck and Rosewood trim. My version of a classic Gibson "H" bracing. Royal Lac shellac body & TruOil neck

No.2
Sitka top, Black Walnut back & sides 5 piece Honduran Mahogany neck and Maple trim. Standard Martin style "X" bracing with one tone bar. Finished with UV Cured Poly by Vancouver Guitar Finishing with a TruOil Neck

No.3
Figured Sitka top, Koa back & sides 5 piece Honduran Mahogany neck and Ebony trim. Double "X" braced ( the bracing I plan on using in general going forward). Finished with TruOil.

no.1

no.1

no.2

no.2

no.3

no.3

Bridges

The bridges for both the cross over and the uke are made, mostly CNC with a bit of hand work, Came out not too bad, Not attached in the photos, just sitting there.

Now on to pore filling Wenge..

CNC setup

Progress on a Couple of Tenors

Tenor Guitar and Tenor Ukulele that is..

Things seem to be going good, I've got most of the body parts for both thicknessed all that is left is the tenor guitar top once the rosette is installed. The top and back for the Uke are braced and I guess I should think about bending the sides.

All in all going pretty good.

Tenor guitar top with rosette cut and ready to install

Tenor Uke back

Tenor Uke Top

Waiting for sides

Top with the Rosette

Simple rosette design for a small body

Ready to Start Building

So I have all the bits an pieces ready to start building. A Zircote & Ancient Sitka Tenor guitar and a Maple, Spruce & Walnut Tenor Ukulele..

Should be fun projects, I'm thinking the tenor guitar will be my personal guitar.

This will be my first Ukulele build, in some ways simpler than a guitar but it is a new process as well.

Sound Sample of Rick's Tenor Guitar

Rick was kind enough to record a video of him playing his arrangement of Turlough O'Carolan's Si Bheag Si Mhor. He also starts off with a bit of a video montage of the guitar.

I have to say I'm very happy with how the guitar sounds and how much Rick seems to like it..
Thanks for the video Rick!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7v9rxejlOE&sns=fb

Busy Weekend

OK done, the Parlour is now caught up to the Tenor, so I can put away all the body jigs & moulds and get on with making necks..

This weekend I  carve to top braces and finished voicing the top, glued on the back & top, cut the binding channels and the channel for the top Abalone purfling and got all the bindings & purfling installed.. I was a bit concerned how the Wenge would route as it seem brittle but it was fine..

Still lots of finish sanding to do on both bodies but that can wait until later...

All in all a productive weekend and I'm officially in love with my new binding router jig.. works so darn well..

I'm also really happy with how the binding came out on the Parlour the Abalone looks great and not too gaudy..

Very happy with this look

No Abalone on the back

End wedge

Top view

Both now waiting for necks

On to the Next One

Most people who build guitars will tell you it is a bit of an obsession. I guess I am no different in that regard, I've been bitten by the bug..

Building something that is both beautiful and beautiful sounding is very satisfying.

So the next guitar is a small tenor based on a Regal tenor guitar from the 1920's with a 21" scale length, 12 fret to the body and floating bridge and tailpiece.. I calling it a Celtic Tenor as I plane to try to optimize it for GDAE tuning as a sort of octave mandolin.. It should work well for Celtic style playing.

The Shape will be that of the Regal but I plan on changing a few things most notably the materials

Back and sides will be Koa, with and Englemann Spruce top, the neck will be Cedro (Spanish Cedar), with and Ebony fretboard, most of the trim will be Ebony..

The Raw Material

I'll be doing a few things different in the build process as well since I think I have a few methods in mind that work better for me.. First off I'll be using the universal mold I made, I don't have the space to keep making separate molds for each guitar type I make.. It also has what I hope are a few other advantages this I'll talk about as they come up.

Template used to set up mold

Template removed

OM Plus Guitar Finished

Well, I don't keep track of the number of hours spent on a guitar but this one was started in September..

It is all strung up and making music, it has good sound and lots of sustain so I'm happy with the result..

Starting to look like a guitar

Well the neck is pretty much finished, just some more sanding to do. it is now attached to the guitar and the whole thing looks like a musical instrument.. I really like this point, you can really see what you envisioned when you started planning down rough wood.. Over Christmas and the holidays I'll probably finalize the design of the bridge so I can get this finished in January.