On with the Parlour Guitar

So I've carved the neck on the parlour guitar, a bit more of a V than previous ones I've done. and now it's on to pore filling the Wenge!

It has huge pores so I imagine it will take 3 or 4 tries to pore fill it, maybe more.. I thought about using other method but decided to stick with z-poxy..

Despite the huge pores I like Wenge and I'm working on a plan to use it again on a tenor..

And it's Done

Complete finished done.. Sounds good, ok sounds better than the ladder braced Celtic tenor I made a while back, more sustain and a bit deeper sound.. Probably due to the slightly bigger body.. Also the sustain might be a combination of the stiffest top I've used so far and the relatively thick saddle...

I was anticipating have to do compensation on the saddle to get the intonation right but if anything it's a bit flat so none was needed.. The thicker saddle might? be better at energy transfer to the top?? I'll have to do a bit of reading up on that.

Next, I've got to finish the parlour guitar which I've just started carving the neck on and I have the original Mandocello I made that need a new top. A carved & properly arched one this time .....

French Polish, Bridge and the Rest of the Jobs

So the French Polish is done, finally after re-doing the top. The frets are leveled and polished. Tonight I attached the bridge and rough shaped the nut & saddle..

Now all that is left is:
drill & taper the bridge pin holes
slot the holes
finish the nut
finish the saddle
attach the tuners
string it up
set the intonation on the saddle
see how it sounds

ready for the bridge

It should fit

Positioning the bridge

Temporarily locator screws

clamped for the night

Back to Work

Back from a great vacation doing some diving in Honduras.. Now on with guitar building..

The tenor is getting French polished, just started building the base. The Parlour now has a fingerboard again and I can start carving the neck soon.

The tenor's top with a bit of Sellac

Ready to have the neck carved

Sanding & Pore Filling & Deja Vu

So I have been doing stuff.. I had "issues" with the neck angle on the parlour guitar once everything was glued up so had to remove the fretboard and remake it as well as sort of the neck angle. The neck angle is now perfect and the fretboard almost remade, it just needs frets. I also took the opportunity to do a bit of headstock inlay on the parlour and that worked out well.

This should look familiar

First try inlaying in anything other than ebony

I also did the finish sanding on Rick's tenor and did the first coats of pore fill on the back & sides, they will probably need two more coats.. I'm using z-poxy as a pore fill I like it as it is pretty forgiving..

Nice clean & simple looking

and the back

Tenor Guitar Neck

So been doing lots. the finger board is glued on and the neck is mostly carved.. I always enjoy carving the neck of an instrument.. for some reason t's relaxing.

Just some finish work to do on the neck then time to start on the bridge..

Gluing on the fingerboard

carving the neck

Still have the volute to carve

all done except for some sanding

Some Peghead Work

Now that the inlay is in Rick's tenor I can continue to work on the peghead  for it and the parlour..

First the overlay gets glued to the peghead. Then the peghead shape gets cut out.. There are a number of ways to do this and in fact for these two guitars I used two different ways. For the Parlour I traced the shape of the template on to the peghead and cut close to the line with a band saw. Then I attached a template to the top of the peghead and used a template sanding drum in a drill press to sand away the excess. Works just fine.

On Rick's I used a template "router" in a drill press.. Which is in fact just a piece of tool steel with the end sharpened (filed) at about 35 degrees and run in a drill press as fast as the drill press will run. With this method the template is attached to the back of the peghead.

For the peghead shape I used on this tenor  this method is really not required, the sander method will work just fine but for more elaborate pegheads like those found on classical guitars this is a great way to do things and it is very safe. The only drawback is you need to make multiple passes around the peghead as you can only take small bites with this method..

Some people use a regular router for this as well but for me too many things can go wrong, especially routing across the end grain of the peghead.

Drill press "router" setup

and the result

After this was done I cut the slots in the Parlour's peghead for the tuners, its a slot head design, my first one. To do this I used the LMI slotting jig and it worked out perfectly.

LMI jig set up to drill tuner holes

Flipped over to route the slot

Completed, back view

And front with a tuner test fitted

The fretboard end of the slots still need a ramp filed in them, but I'll do that another day.