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Nope! I started planning the guitar I'm building now before I even started my first!

_________________
"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

Good, I have three on the go then. This little one, the next two in 00, one with a cedar top I bought online that will use this same oak and maybe a maple neck, and crazy as it seems the third will have the cedar fence board top, polar neck and pine body.

I have to patch a couple of rough spots, not sure if I want to route it out and insert the patch in or sand it smooth and lay in a section with the edges being tapered up. Kind of a pain but I want to keep the bookmatched sections together.



And for the little guy I am thinking this for the back.

Patch worked ok, still needs to be cleaned up some, will be on the inside bottom.



Started on my dust collector. Needed a manifold for the two blowers sucking through the filter. The box around the filter will pull from a vortex collector that dumps into a 5 gallon pail. In theory it should work, now with me doing it, wonder where I will screw up.

What an odd day. Found a table leg at the side of the road. Not sure what to do with it.

Use it as bait to catch the other three!

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Didn't work. (Actually did go back). Split the leg up.

Been a while, busy doing other things. Little farther with the dust collection but guitar related I made a heating blanket, not 100% successful but good enough to bend some sides. Decided to try it out on some pine, for some reason I though pine being a softwood would bend easier. I know, the wood at 0.100" was too thick but I wanted to try it anyway. Ended up cracking it in a couple places and stopped without doing the upper bout.





Kind of a shame as along side the cedar build I was thinking doing an all pine just for the heck of it. If I can come up with another good piece from a bundle of offcuts a lumber yard here has I may still do it. Thinking of thinning the sides down quite a bit and then laminating a couple pieces together. Crazy I know, but I have not read about many all softwood guitars and I am curious.

Should be interesting. I've seen an all douglas fir guitar before and Sergei de Jonge has built an all spruce guitar: http://www.12fret.com/content/2010/12/1 ... rt-spruce/

_________________
"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

The neck is now confirmed to be fir, just did a scarf joint. Glued the sides together, blocks are white oak that was used by truckers moving machinery on a flatbed.



Not going to be a pretty build, cut the kerfing by hand, was going to make a jig but figured that might take longer than just hacking away with a handsaw. Got the front done.



Joined the front, see how it turns out tomorrow. Join the back tomorrow, probably time to start thinking of the rosette. Oh yeah, back to cedar top. Going to do the all pine guitar after I do all my screw ups on this one.

Glued together the back, two full size panels with about an inch added on either side of the lower bout. I went for the fence board for the top just because it was stiffer. Three piece top, grain does not line up between the middle and one side, this is my third string top and I just squeezed out enough area to make it, if I trimmed to line up the grain I would have been short on that side.

I do not have a plane so I use an industrial razor blade and scraped the top and back. Gave them a shot of alcohol to see what they might look like with a finish on them. Haven't decided what I want to do for a finish yet, this is actually turning out not too bad for being a practice build.

Just wonderful! Spending my time on this guitar I just put the amp I was building aside. And off course you know what that mean, right? Yeah, while trying to decide what to do next I designed another amp and started to build it. Short attention span syndrome I guess. Put it down down long enough to start my rosette. split some birch and tacked it to a board. Used a exacto blade and some scraps to cut it out.







Just went out and bought a laminate sized router, need to make a circle cutter jig.

So I needed a jig to do round holes. It kind of evolved from scraps I had laying around, don't have to worry about throwing it in a drawer and it getting damaged.



And the first test cut in some pine. Don't think I have to go smaller than 1" for anything, an go up to 6". I can finally do the rosette and move on to the bracing of the top.

Glued my rosette pieces together and added a black purfling around the inside and outside. While it does bend easy I decided to give it some permanent rotation on a hot pipe.



Split some fiber purfling in half with a industrial razor blade. I was going to make a jig for it but got lazy and did it freehand. All glued and pined up.



I want to score the top so I do not get the little fuzzies so I made a exacto blade holder to rotate around the centering pin. Should have the rosette in tomorrow.

Jig works pretty good.



Ready for glue.

Good work. I, too, am making up new jigs as i go along. I've updated many of my tools and saws, bits, etc, and need newly configured jigs to use them. Almost as much fun as building the guitar itself, I reckon....

I have a love/hate relationship with making tools. I like coming up with stuff but usually you do not have what you need and you end up doing the things the hard way to get it done.

My biggest problem is too much work and not enough time. Or less diplomatic, I have enough time, I just keep making myself more work. That and lack of a proper shop and lack of storage. The circle cutting jig I worked on in two sections of the basement, in the garage, and on the stairs in the kitchen. Drove me crazy trying to find my pencil.

Rosette is glued in, top is scraped and sanded. Cedar dents real easy and just the weight of the shavings under the router made nice little circles around the rosette. Glued in the X brace and am doing the top brace, need a go bar deck. Maybe next guitar. The top brace is curved with a flat spot where the fretboard will be. Why make my life completely difficult?

Radiused the top because it is suppose to help with preventing cracking when the guitar humidity level changes. Should be building with the Relative Humidity around 50% but we are ranging between 75-99% this week. Theoretically I should be setting it aside and waiting for better conditions... ...yeah right. I'll play nice on the next one, just want to get this one done before the end of summer.

The mother of invention, temporary mini go bar deck.



Not knowing any better decided on this. Marked where the three top pieces are joined on the braces, not sure if I should put some cleats in between. Bracing is quarter grained spruce for RC aircraft, 1/4" with the X being 1/2" in height. Still going to cap off the top of it. The top brace is 5/16" x 5/8" spruce from HD. Maple bridge plate, 0.100".

Took a piece of plywood and nailed it to the floor joists over my work bench. Had some tongue and groove knotty cedar left over from doing the addition and cut it into strips.



Cleaned her up. Tomorrow I will be bracing the back and starting on the neck. I want to temporary clamp on the back and see how it sounds like in case I want to shave the braces.

It was something I thought of. 'What if making the sides and back out of pine, well, sucks.' You know, sucks all the life out of the top. I mean, there is a reason they use hardwoods, not counting the durability thing. So am I making a wall hanger or something that is playable?

Still not sure but I am much happier having the box closed. With the radius of the front and back my clamps wanted to slide off if they get bumped. I used some surgical tubing to wrap the box, fun getting it weaved in and out of the clamps. In the end it worked.



Removing it all was more fun, and I had to tap the front and back once It was free of its bonds. Then I sanded down the edges, a couple of dings on the sides, won't be a picture perfect guitar. Mind you the sides were not perfect from the bending. Still a long way to go but actually passes itself off as a guitar body.





And boy does it sit comfortably under your arm. I really need a neck.

I love it! Can't wait to hear how it sounds.

_________________
"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

Yeah I am glad I took a right turn and went the way I did. I still want to build the guitar I originally planned on but the unconventional woods makes it interesting. As a teaser the sides are stiff but probably have a little more dampening than a hardwood, mind you I am comparing it unfinished to a finished guitar. What amazes me is the contribution the live back makes. The thing sounds like a drum when you tap the top. Whether that is a good thing or not I have no idea. Mind you I guess you can control how much it resonates by pressing your belly up against part of the back (See I knew one day that body part will come in handy.) Working on making my shop more user friendly (no more weaving my way around stuff to get to another piece of equipment) along with some dust collection so maybe a couple days till I get started again.

Won't finish in time, I ended up with some health issues and lost a few months. Not back up to snuff but I did do a few things.

Made a 12" sanding board for doing the fretboard. Split the oak and rough radiused it.



Might just work.



Quick jug to do the heel area of the neck.



The other end for the body. Have not routered the body yet but tried some scrap pieces. Feeling more confident.



Winding in my table saw motor is gone, could not make a binding cutter out of wood. Made a quickie out of steel.



Did not cut the binding slots deep enough and ended up sanding half away. Used some of the same birch I used for the rosette for the binding and the wedge. Kind of subtle with the pine body but I am not one for much bling.





Was hoping to be done by now, looks more like Christmas.

Decided that I wanted the neck thicker than I originally planned. Mulled over making it with some other wood, still no table saw so I made due with what I have and added a piece on top. Also wanted to add a touch more width to the headstock. The sheet of birch is for the headstock.



I did the mortice on the body, went fairly well.



And it is a good thing I checked the tenon test piece I did before with the body. It was a little loose. It was fine with the mortice test piece I did. I chalked it up to the crappy router I have. I put a couple of wraps of electrical tape on the guide bushing and cut another test piece. Felt confident enough to do the neck.

Turned out a bit snug and with a few minutes with a file it went into place. That is the fretboard next to it just waiting to go on. Have to do the truss rod first. I was planing on having it go through the headstock but I am considering the body now. I will be making a single action truss rod. I am a bit nervous putting it in the body as I did not plan for it when I braced things up. I'll have to mull it over some.

I wanted to go with a single action truss rod to keep the neck light and to have the truss rod mass have less effect on the neck resonance. In the end I went single action but with a design a builder on a different site uses. I streamlined the design to make it as least intrusive as I could. While it has double the mass it only requires a straight rout.

I found some steel hex stock did some thread cutting, drilling, filing, welding.



And much to my surprise the darn thing works. Wrapped it with packing tape, tomorrow I have to cut out the slot and do the neck mounting hardware.