Starting on the Necks

OK as you might remember some time ago I laminated up the 5 piece necks for both guitars so now it is time to start making the straight stick into a neck..

First step is to cut & glue the scarf joint for the peghead. The cut is first made on the band saw then cleaned up with a hand plane before gluing back on to the remainder of the neck. Angle of the joint is 14 degrees.

Many people do this cut with some sort of jig on a table saw but in the interest of space and not having to store yet another jig this is a quick and simple method.

Also many people have elaborate gluing jigs to prevent the joint from slipping when clamping pressure is applied. I find some binding tale and a bit of care is all that is really needed.

Rough joint from the band saw

Cleaned up with a hand plane

Both Tenor and Parlour necks with the scarf joints clamped

The result, you can slide the cut piece back when gluing to
reduce the amount of thickness work with the plane
 you need to do after the fact

Different angle

Joints hand planed smooth and getting close to final peghead
thickness. The veneers need to be accounted for and then
the pegheads planed to final thickness. This also establishes
the final nut position

And the other angle again

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

Tenor & Parlour Work

I'm trying to get the Parlour guitar caught up to the Tenor... Almost there..

The Bindings are on the tenor and they turned out very nice..

Top View

Only the top has the back purfling line to separate the binding & top

And from the side, simple & nice

Simple end wedge

Now for the parlour the end blocks are on, the kerfing is done the top & back are braced and the back has the braces carved and is ready to go on the top.. Just need to carve the top braces and get it voiced and  then I can radius the sides and get the box closed hopefully in the next day or two..

Then on with the necks..

Rough back bracing

Bridge patch last of the top bracing

More clamps

Braces shaped & back label on 

Binding Channels

Undoubtedly one of the more stressful parts of building a guitar taking a 10,000 RPM router to a guitar body, quite a bit can go wrong.. If you've followed this blog you've seen a couple of ways I've cut binding channels in the past.. All worked with varying degrees of stress and some variance in accuracy.. Most of the jigs I used were chosen to accommodate having a very small space for a shop. I just don't have room for a large parallel arm fleishman/williams-style jig.. I've been looking at the LMI or the Stewmac jig for some time and when LMI updated their design I did some thinking and decided that looked the best..

It is still a compact jig that I can store away in a cupboard when not in use and it works like a charm..

Setup is easy, adjustment straight forward and it works, despite screwing up the install of the top bindings and having to cut them off (with the jig) and even that when well..

Just pay attention to the getting the guitar level in the carrier.

I am far less stressed about cutting binding channels now that I have this jig.

The only change I had to make was a slightly different assembly of the carrier since I am doing a small bodied guitar..

Carrier assembled in a "non-standard" way

The results

Mounted to my work table

Closed the Box on Rick's Tenor

So now it looks like a guitar, or at least 1/2 a guitar...

Has a light seal coat of shellac and ready for the binding channels to be cut.. typically described as a high pucker factor task..

I'll be using a new stationary binding jig from LMI that seems like a good and relatively safe way to do this..

The Weekend's Progress

So things are moving along, the back braces are carved on the tenor and the back is not glued on the sides. All the top braces are glued on and ready to finish voicing the top.

The bindings are bent and since I had the side bender set up the parlour guitar's sides and bindings are bent as well...

Using a go-bar deck to clamp some of the
top bracing

Back now on the sides

Top and back together

The parlour's sides resting in the form

End Blocks, Linings and the Back

Just what the title says, made the end block and cut the mortise that will eventually hold the neck & drill the holes for the bolts..

All the kerfed kinings are glued on the sides and they are ready to be radiused.

The back has the bracing glued on and ready to be carved.. All in all good progress.

Neck block in the jig ready to be routed

and complete with holes drilled

both blocks attached to the sides

Gluing on the kerfed linings, can never have too many clamps

all glued on

notched for the braces

All glued up

Rick's Tenor

My friend Rick asked for a tenor guitar for GDAE tuning.. I think we have come up with a design that works for that.. Basically a Martin Size 5/Terz with a 21.375" scale but of course only 4 strings :-)

Walnut back & Sides with a nice Bearclaw Sitka top..

Just jointed & started to thickness the top.. Probably the stiffest top I've worked with but that should make for a good guitar in the long run (I hope)

The Top

And rubbed down a bit to show the figure...