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They are dyed veneers. I bought them already coloured. I think they are mostly sycamore but I honestly couldn't say with any authority. I found a company in Germany (kremer) however, that specializes in pigments. I am going to order some and try to dye my own from now on as plain sycamore veneer is MUCH cheaper than ready dyed veneer.

Thanks Jim. Actually, it's looking like this will end up being number no.1 now! I have made more progress on this than the other, as I basically had to redo everything I did on the 'first guitar'.
either way, I'm trying to look at them both as an opportunity to learn and try out different techniques.

Purfling experiments.

Very nice made herring bone - if you have any spare that needs a good home let me know!

Awesome! I love the angle, it looks like wheat.

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Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from poor judgement.

Thanks Frank, I'll see how I get on with bending the stuff and if there's any left after that I'll send it your way.

Thanks mate

Haven't had a of time to build recently, hoping to get some serious hours in this week.
In other news, I had an interview for a 2 year classical guitar building course in Newark yesterday, they offered me a place!!!!

So I have been working in my neck the past couple of days. It's laminated. I used fish glue. I was worried about the strength of FG, and then I had to release the scarf joint due to a clamping error. The stuff is indestructible!!! Took me over an hour to undo the joint!!
Lots of heat, lots of moisture. I had to sacrifice the headstock portion, sadly. The shaft seems intact. Which is good because its a 9 piece lamination and it took me ages!! Oh well, better make another headstock then..

Finally got my rosette inlaid. It's a very long way from perfect and there are a few gaps, but it's the best I could do.

Wow, that looks amazing! Do you know how many hours it took to make?

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"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

https://www.facebook.com/FenskeGuitars

Thanks Peter. It's hard to say, as I only had short amounts of time over a long period to do in. It probably took me around 25 hours in total! But I'm not very efficient and made a lot of mistakes. I reckon next time, start to finish, designing the tile to inlaying it, 3-4 days allowing for glue to dry.

Sweet looking rosette! Excellent design and execution.

Very nice work! I am impressed with your flower tiles. And the herringbone purfling. Congrats on getting accepted to that course. I think you may have a head start on some of the other students!

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http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

Nice work, William.

Max

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Max Bishop
Brighton, Michigan

This is my 'workshop' As you can see, it's a fairly high-tech affair. The coffee table with a bit of kitchen surface on top is my main workbench. One of my more successful designs. If anyone wants the plans for it, let me know. As you may be able to imagine, most of the time I'm working I have to adopt a sort of shaolin-frog-stance or, when planing, a half-lotus position with one leg hooked around the table leg to stop it from escaping. It's kind of a 'yogic' approach to woodworking.

So I glued the braces and reinforcement patches last night..


Fair bit more sanding to do, then glue the tonebars

Wow. Great rosette, both design and execution. That's very ambitious for an early build, and you pulled it off wonderfully.

Thank you. I'm learning a lot in this first build. Mostly the hard way! It's proving to be an interesting journey..

So, it's been a long while and I have made very little progress really, but time has been an issue.

Anyway, I made a 15ft radius dish and a removable mould that will bolt onto my solera. I will make a new solera I think as I'm not entirely happy with my first attempt..

I am STILL working on my neck as I've had a few problems with it that I will explain later. Still a lot to do on it but this is as far as I've got:
It's a nine piece lamination, not because I was trying to be clever-but because I planed my neck blank too narrow and had to make up the width.

Glad to see you back.

Careful with the headstock slots - it's easy to get them out of shape and uneven, and they really telegraph. I speak from personal experience. I've gotten pretty good about keeping the main slots straight and parallel, but even slot-to-slot asymmetry in the relief for the strings at the nut end shows, and I never get them quite right.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

I haven't yet finished cleaning up the headstock, but to be honest, I'm really not that happy with it. I have since bought a router so hopefully the next one should be more accurate. My hand tool skills are just not there yet.

The neck has been without doubt the most challenging aspect so far for me. I ruined my first attempt (which was originally to be for a different guitar) when drilling out the tuner holes. I also had to redo the scarf joint on this one due to a clamping error, and although I managed to finally get a good glue join, the headstock is slightly twisted down on the treble side. I am currently in the process of carving the heel and contemplating redoing the hole thing. Again.

The problem I'm having is knowing how much I should compromise. With no previous woodwork experience, I was not expecting any part of this first guitar to go perfectly, (and so far it hasn't) but I'm also aware that I I just need to get one finished, learn from my mistakes and build a better one and move on. When I look at everything I've done so far, I see a lot of room for improvement and almost everything I will do differently on the next one. So I constantly ask myself: should I redo this or accept it as a part of my learning experience? I don't have a lot of time to work on my build at the moment, and I really want to actually finish a guitar at some point..

Herein lies the problem of being an unskilled perfectionist.