Work Continues on the Parlours and More

Still working on the two Parlour Guitars and things are going good, necks are done and bodies are all closed up and ready for finish.

In addition to those two I been working on what was originally planned as a Bouzouki but decided it would make an interesting long scale Tenor Guitar so that is what it will be. Neck is also done on it and the body is ready for finish..

I'm doing a bit of finish experimenting and will be hopefully using a new UV cured finish from Solarez which looks pretty good on the bodies and French Polish on the tops of the two Parlour Guitars and may try CrystaLac Brite-Tone instrument finish on the Tenor.. We will see how it goes..

Bodies, necks & fretboards prior to finishing the necks

Completed Necks

A Pair of Parlours

Working on a pair of Parlour Guitars, One "standard" with Torrified Red (Adirondack) Spruce and Claro Walnut and one fan fret Indian Rosewood and Sitka.

Braced Torrified Top

Cutting Fan Fret Slots

Completed Fret Slots

First One Done

Whew, the first of the two Parlour Guitars is done!... The one I'm calling a Pacific Parlour, because it's primary woods are all found close to the Pacific Ocean; Koa, Arbutus (Madrona) & Narra..

The first notes on it sound good, clean & mellow decent but not amazing sustain. I'll do some better photos on hopefully a sound sample soon..

Now just need to finish the other one..

Neck #2 Carved

The neck for the second Parlour Guitar is carved.. Time to install some frets..

One Neck Down One to Go

One of my favourite parts of building a guitar is carving the neck. It was pretty intimidating for the first time but really not that hard to get the hang of. I get a lot of satisfaction removing everything that does not look like a neck and seeing what comes out..

I really don't have a standard neck shape, I guess I really should but I like just seeing where it goes. This one on the Pacific parlour is what you might call a pointed D shape not really a V shape like some old Parlours but a bit of a pointy D if that makes any sense.

Anyway one more to go, then the bing sanding job and on to finishing...

Bridge is just sitting there it is the very last thing to get attached

Looking Like Guitars

Ok the fingerboards are glued on and the necks cut to rough shape. I still need to remove the necks from the bodies and carve them but right now they are on so I can confirm the bridge height and get started on making the bridges.

Two Fingerboards Ready

The two fingerboards for the Parlour guitars are done. Ready to be attached to the necks then fretted.

I also glued on the peghead overlays an roughed out the shape..

Getting there....

Truss Rod Slots and Fingerboard Supports

The neck design for these guitars is fully removable so that requires some support under the fingerboard. I made these on the CNC just for that little extra bit of accuracy.

I've also routed the truss rod slots into the necks.

Test fitting the necks

CNC cutting the extension supports

Supports glued in and truss rod slots routed and test fitting the truss rod

S

Bindings

The bindings are done on the two parlour guitars, just a bit more scraping and sanding to do.. Came out pretty good, quite simple bindings, I think they look good on smaller guitars..

A good binding cutting setup makes all the difference

Completed channel

Glueup

and done

Closeups

Two Parlours

While the weather & the humidity has been good, I got the sides bent for the tow parlour guitars I'm working on and glued the to the blocks.. Now all I have to do it wait for the humidity to go down again so I can get the boxes closed.

I the mean time I'll put some finish on the Archtop :-)

All the parts for the bodies

New Jig I made for holding the sides in shape as the blocks are glued up

Close-up of the T-track to align and hold the neck block

Archtop and Other Stuff

If you read this regularly you might remember I started and archtop build with the help of a Vancouver Island luthier Joe Egan but getting back to it with him has proved challenging so local luthier Meredith Coloma (http://www.meredithcoloma.com/) agreed to give me a hand with the last real tricky part, cutting the dovetail neck joint. Hopefully I can get that done this weekend.

Since I had to get the neck for the archtop in shape for this I also glued up the necks for the two parlour guitars I'm currently working on.

So i have a fully roughed out 3 piece Spanish Cedar & Walnut neck for the archtop and a 3 piece Spanish Cedar & Walnut neck for one parlour and a 5 piece Narra, Walnut & Maple neck for the Pacific Parlour. In case you're wondering Narra is also called New Guinea Rosewood (Pterocarpus indicus) so it meets the Pacific criterial. Interestingly Narra is the tree that produced the Amboyna Burl, although the regular wood looks nothing like the burl..

I also finished a few more head plates that I will use on the regular parlour guitar and the archtop.

Tenor Archtop neck with it's headplate

Necks for the two parlours...

Rosettes

The Pacific Parlour gets a figured Walnut rosette and the Cedar & Rosewood one gets a Spalted Maple rosette. My first time working with Spalted Maple pretty "punky" as they say but turned out ok.

Spalted Maple

cut out, it gets a thin black outline when installed

Walnut being glued up

Cut out, it will get a white/black/white purfling border

Joining the Tops & Backs

A quick plane on the shooting board and the top and back halves are ready to be glued together. Lots of ways to do this, I use a pretty simple jig of 4 sticks and 4 wedges and some rope.. Works for me.

Once joined they get rough thicknessed and you have tops and back to two Parlour Guitars.

The Pacific

Cedar & Rosewood - I ended up changing this top as it was just too thin.
It will have to be a Uke some day

Parlour Guitar(s)

I've had a Parlour Guitar idea in mind for a wile now and it's time to get started on it. I'm calling it a Pacific Guitar... Back & sides of Arbutus wood (Madrona to you Americans) and top of Koa, Neck will be Narra so all woods that border the Pacific Ocean..

Should be interesting.

Yesterday I started rough thicknessing with a safety planner (actually the new 6 bladed clone from Music Tools in Brazil).Tonight I finished that off with a hand plane.. whew, good workout thicknessing a top and back..

I'm also doing a more standard Parlour with a Indian Rosewood back & sides and a Western Red Cedar top and Spanish Cedar neck, but my arms are too tired to hand plane Rosewood tonight..

Oh and the new planer for Music Tools works very well!

New planer setup

With new table & hold downs

The old Stanley on the right works best for figured woods.
Think it cost me 20.00 plus a new blade.

Going to be a nice looking top when it is done

Good nights work