Official Luthiers Forum!

Hello everyone!

I have always wanted to do one of these after seeing them done over on luthiercom.org. Having been a long time member here though I wanted to do it here and hopefully share some things and get some feedback from all of you who have helped and inspired me. There are long time members here who have done some over there and they are worth checking out, I always see something in them no matter how long they get that spurs some idea. There had been some talk recently about maybe seeing some here and I am taking the initiative and starting it off.

For anyone who doesn't know what I am speaking about I am going to document the building of one of my guitars in a step by step fashion and get as much of the process, photos of the work, and general thoughts down as I can. I would welcome feedback and will happily answer any questions that anyone has.

The guitar will be my model CL which is a smaller almost classical sized steel string guitar (14 1/4" lower bout, 19 3/4 length). It is a commissioned guitar and all the specs and appointments were chosen by my customer and myself after us both playing a few examples of my work and then choosing from a few different examples of what we basically agreed on after our initial planning meeting. We settled on an Australian Blackwood and Lutz guitar with a bevel cutaway and a floating fingerboard extension with a buttressed neck system. I have built a few of these now in this size and have been happy with the sound and look. Here is a shot of the woods all laid out:



You can see also in this picture the spanish cedar neck blank (great wood from Hibdon!!) and the Amazon rosewood fingerboard and headplate blanks. Also on the left side is a smallish board of Madagascar rosewood from which all of the binding and grafts will be cut.

I started planning for this build last summer and separated out the wood we were considering and paid it a little closer attention over that time. The blackwood was in billet form and I had it cut by a friend into the proper sizes. The outer cuts twisted off the saw but the inner cuts stayed true. We surmised it was some case hardening. I paid a lot of extra attention to the inner cuts but they didn't move at all. After handling them and thicknessing them I feel very confident in using the wood. The Lutz we chose was from Shane and is some absolutely excellent stuff. I cooked this top in the early Spring and have had it stickered in the shop since then. The neck wood was from a big 12/4 board I purchased from Hibdon and processed into neck blanks. I have been using the wood from that board for my last few builds and it has been a joy to work. I also took advantage of their sale on mahogany side sets and will be using them here to make up the linings.

Whenever I start with thicker wood I try to save my thickness sander some pain and run everything through the Wagner first. It makes a mess so I try to do as much at once as possible. Here I am working on one of the sides that will become the linings:



I ran all the other wood through in the same manner and then cleaned it all up and brought it down with the thickness sander. That leaves us with all of the sides ready to bend, 2 Blackwood, 2 mahogany inner sides, 3 mahogany lining sides (plus extras):



The Blackwood shown with the form and wetted:



And the Lutz with the template drawn on its face:

_________________
Burton
http://www.legeytinstruments.com
Brookline, MA.

One of the first things I always like to get done and out of the way is preparing all of the purflings for the whole guitar. I have been making them all for a while now and I really like the control I have over exactly how they will look. I always start with a list of all of the pieces I will need and what thickness I will need them at. For purflings that will fit into a routed slot they need to be made to a very exact thickness and you must account for the glue line. You will notice that the numbers do not necessarily add up to 1/16, or 3/32 like the small endmills we will use but the glue will swell them to that thickness. Here is a photo of my cut sheet:



The next step is begin to prep all of the strips for glue up. In this case I am using almost completely veneer but I usually end up resawing some wood into long thin strips. Certainlywood is a great resource for thicker veneers and I am using regular thickness and 1/16 thick curly maple here. I don't have any trouble cutting the maple with a sharp blade but sometimes other woods can be very hard to cut. It helps a bit to wet it first but the only surefire way is to cut way oversize and glue it up that way too. Once it is laminated to another layer it will cut fine.





I have been laminating full thickness layers under the fingerboard and headstock to continue the sides purlfings and I cut those out oversize as well. The black strips is the fiber board that Bob C. and LMI sell. I think Shane sells it also. I buy it in the 6 x 36 sheets and cut it as needed. Once all of the strips are cut they need to be thicknessed to size. I made a sled for my sander that is simply a long piece of MDF with some 220 PSA paper on top to hold everything in place. I have had great luck using this and can reliably get the strips to within .001 or so. I always check the ends first and when they are on target I will stop sanding that piece. With most woods the center will be the slightest bit thicker and hitting it with some sandpaper on a block will give you a long evenly thicknessed piece. It also helps to run it through 3 or 4 times at each setting.



Once all of the strips are thicknessed I set myself up for the laminating. I have been using Titebond 3 for this. I think many other glues also work fine but I started with this and don't have any problems with delaminations when bending the strips later so I stick with it. I built a Mario inspired fret press into my wall and I use that for laminating the purflings as well. The longer you can leave it clamped the straighter everything ends up. The fist step is to lay out the first 3 strips (I never do more than 3 at a time) and roll the glue as evenly as possible over the 2 strips. It is important to "bookmatch" the glue lines otherwise they will all warp the same way.



Once the 3 strips are pressed together with the glue they get sandwiched between boards and put in the press.



If the 3 layers are all there are then I try to leave the overnight. If there are more I will open it up after an hour or so and add the other layers and then leave the whole thing overnight. When I finally do open it up I try to slice them into strips as quickly as possible. The flatter it is the easier to send through the saw.

To cut them I need to get a straight line. The glue ups always are a bit ragged from the veneer edges. I use this table saw jig to clean up an edge. You line up where you want your edge and run it through with the excess hanging off.



It leaves this kind of edge which is straight enough to ride against the table saw fence. Actually, the edge should be much cleaner than this! My blade is dull



continued next post!

_________________
Burton
http://www.legeytinstruments.com
Brookline, MA.

Now the glue up can be run through the table saw and the purfling strips sliced off. I always use a sacrificial board above the glue up to keep pressure down as it first touches the blade and to have something between my hand and the blade (which is only slightly higher than the glue up). It is still a delicate operation and great care must be taken. I don't feel nervous when I do this but I also will not do it if I am tired.



If all goes well you end up with a nice group of strips ready to be installed. If possible always make a few extra. Chances are if you take the time to make the extra all of the first ones will go in fine so it is like backwards insurance.

These are the strips for the rosette, back purfling, and grafts. They came out to about .063 and should fit nicely in a 1/16 slot. I cut them to .09 and that will be plenty for the thickness. The other purfs are getting glued up now, here is the shot of the first batch up close (and still with the dull blade)



More to come!

_________________
Burton
http://www.legeytinstruments.com
Brookline, MA.

Burton,

Thanks for doing this, man. I love these documentaries. As you said, I always learn lots from them. I think your client is going to love the guitar. Blackwood is one of my favorites for beauty and sound quality. Looking forward to more.

Best wishes,
Max

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Max Bishop
Brighton, Michigan

Burton,

You have always struck me as a very considered craftsman, one who takes the time to refine by examining the inns and outs before committing to any particular method or idea. The proof of this can be seen in the quality of content you have so generously shared in tutorials and also the cool headed approach you have taken over the years during general participation here at the OLF.

With this in mind I have a feeling this documented build will be one to follow carefully and I am very grateful you have taken the time to share once again .

Cheers

Kim

Burton, you got me with this one? "Bookmatch" the glue lines? Can you expand on this a little more?

Steve

Thanks for the notes guys, I am excited about this too!

Steve, I mean that the glue lines should counter each other. For the sake of example lets say you are veneering both sides of a piece of plywood. To bookmatch the glue lines you would either spread the glue on both sides of the plywood or on both pieces of veneer. That way, if the glue line influenced anything to want to warp it should be cancelled out by the same tendency on the other side. An example of not bookmatching would be to spread glue on the veneer on one side and the plywood on the other.

For the purflings it is not always possible depending on how many layers you have. In those cases I bookmatch as many as I can and don't worry too much about the last one. I still try to leave it in the press as long as possible though and also cut it as soon as it comes out.

Does that make sense Steve?

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Burton
http://www.legeytinstruments.com
Brookline, MA.

Thanks Burton, makes perfect sense now.

When I glue my laminated sides and purflings, I use a dry resin laminate glue and put glue on both sides of the substrate anyway. If I'm left with an open side, like you, I just keep it in the clamp for as long as possible - even a few days.

I laminate my sides and linings as well, almost the same way you do it. You do the sides and linings in one. I'm anxious to see this again. It's been a while since I've seen it - I could search, but...

Burton,

You show the "Mario inspired" fret press you use for clamping veneers for glue-up. Where/how can I get more info' on such a jig? I've been doing a lot of veneer work lately and would like a better set-up than my current screw-clamps-on- the-bench approach.

Thanks,
Max

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Max Bishop
Brighton, Michigan

Max,

I built mine based on my memory of an image I had seen on MIMF once but could not locate in the library (if it had even been archived). I will take some photos and include them in the next post. It has turned out to be a great tool for me, I use it all the time. Even if I only used it as a clamping press it would be worth it, I have limited space and I used to have to take up an entire edge of my main bench to clamp the purflings. As a fret press it is great too, my fret installation has been going very well.

_________________
Burton
http://www.legeytinstruments.com
Brookline, MA.

I have had some time to work the past couple of days and have some more progress to show.

Max, I will get those photos of the press soon. One of the things I am in process on is the fingerboard and when I switch it over from purflings to fret press I will take a bunch of photos.

The next thing I am working on is the headstock plate. I usually get this done early on because I send it out to be inlaid and that can take a little while. It goes all the way over to Sumvuhl (Somerville for you non-Massholes) and the magic happens there.

When the guitar calls for it, I do all of the purfling and binding before I send it out and this can take a little while. Most times the headstock plate is somewhat thin to begin with (this one was resawn and bookmatched from a matching fretboard blank) so I like to laminate it to another thin piece to make it easier to work. Here is a photo of the Amazon RW plate laminated to a piece of mahogany with the template next to it (notice it says full size, this will be important later ). I use epoxy for this lamination.



With the template I draw the outline onto the blank and bandsaw away the excess. It is then double stick taped down to the template and pattern routed to shape.



A few slices with the chisel and the transitions are made crisp.



Next I set up the router with one of my favorite little bits, the Stewmac 1/16" rabbeting bits. With this I will cut the purfling channel into the headstock. I usually cut almost all the way through the top layer and this is the main reason for laminating the 2 plates.



and after a few more chisel cuts in the corners we are ready for the purflings.

_________________
Burton
http://www.legeytinstruments.com
Brookline, MA.

The purflings for the headstock and fingerboard will be black/curly maple/black and sized to .063. I cut a few strips for this job. The tools I use for this part are a very sharp razor blade (or 4), brush on super glue, and a little bending jig which uses a small torch and a 1/2 brass tube and a 3/4 brass tube. These correspond to the curves on the headstock (one for purflings, one for binding) and makes it a little easier to shape those tight bends. Here is a shot of the tools.



The brass tubes get really really hot really fast, which is great. The purflings are pretty much butter after a second or two. Depending on how the purflings are made it can make it either much easier or much harder. If possible, having the black fiber on both outside edges is a big help. It is possible to bend veneer as the outside or inside layer but it takes a lot of tries to get it work without breaking. The fiber holds everything together very nicely. You can see here that even bending over a 1/2" pipe is not really a problem.



The tricky part is getting everything cut precisely and held in place. I always start in the middle and work out. Most times it helps to rough cut the piece to size and then lay it back over the pipe for a second to resoften it. You can do this a few times and hold it in place while it sets. I glue them in first and then cut the miters for the next piece after it is locked in place. I have tried using a chisel but much prefer a razor blade for this. I think it is important too to flush each piece to the headstock plate face as you put it in. Sometimes your miter will look tight when it is proud but then have a small gap when you shave it down. Mine sometimes have a small gap but each time they get better.







At this point I was patting myself on the back for doing this so smoothly and quickly when I realized I made it all too big by 1/16. This ( ) is sarcastic me applauding bonehead me. Remember how the original template said full size? I should have used the one that said 1/16 small.

Sooooo I had to rout them all off and do it again. It went pretty good this time also.

After redoing the purfling the binding was next and done the same as the purfling, each piece bent and cut to fit. I have never been able to get these as clean as I can get the purflings. I try to use dark woods for the binding here and accept a little CA/dust fill to make it smooth. Sometimes I can not tell where it didn't start off smooth after a successful fill. I have done one in Koa and that was a headache, but worth it. Here is the rosewood bent to 3/4". The binding is also 1/16 thick.





The toughest parts are the corners, that bend is a little tighter than even the 1/2". You have to heat it up and force it a little bit but it usually gets very close. Once all of the pieces are on I sand some of the binding, rub the dust in the seams and flood with thin CA on the front and the back. If your maple miters were not tight you will see it after this, the rosewood dust will pack right in. Also, try not to accellerate the CA. I have had it turn white on me at times and it is a pain to dig out those little white bits.

_________________
Burton
http://www.legeytinstruments.com
Brookline, MA.

After a quick trip through the sander the plate is all cleaned up and ready to go out for inlay.



I also further thickness it at this time and take it down closer to its final thickness which for me is usually around .1.

Next up is bending all of the different side pieces, finishing making all of the purflings and prepping the fingerboard for frets. I also have to run deflection tests on a new batch of braces and prep pearl blanks to be cut for inlay. There will be more soon!

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Burton
http://www.legeytinstruments.com
Brookline, MA.

Burton:

Thanks for doing this. I like your utilization of jigs and intend to copy your clamping press, at least. As you and others have said, we always learn something from this type of sharing from a skilled builder.

Danny R. Little

Rad!!! Dude, I love your stuff.

Todd

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Todd Lunneborg
http://www.tlguitars.com/
http://www.fretboardjournal.com/

I'm enjoying this thread Burton, thanks for the effort!

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

What a great thread! Thanks Burton. I have already picked up some really good tricks! I'll be watching eagerly as your build progresses.

Thanks for the encouraging replies guys! I have done a bunch more work and I have a few more full sections done to post. One thing I want to mention is that a lot of the jigs I am using were built quickly and were not made to last. I have been replacing different ones here and there when I get the time but many of them still need to be upgraded. Not that they don't all work, but they are not as fullproof or as elegant as I would like them to be. Anyway...

Up next is the fingerboard, I like to get this out of the way early and usually the binding and purfling is the same as the headstock so I can work on them at the same time. The whole setup is pretty much the same for installing the appointments too.

I start by thicknessing the fingerboard blank. It depends what I will glue beneath it later (purfling lines/sheets) as to what thickness I take it to. I like it to be just under .25 when I glue it all onto the neck so knowing I will have .025 of purfling to add I thicknessed it to about .225. Once that is done I take it to the jointer and get myself one nice straight edge to work off of.



Once that is done I cut one end to be a perfect 90 degrees (this will be the nut end) and then run a small channel up the center of the board with the table saw (or if it is a wider board then what I want to be the center). The rest of the jigs will register off of this channel. The first jig is the taper jig, it is a piece of MDF with a standard taper and I marked on the front where to tape it down depending on what nut end thickness I am shooting for. In this case it is 1 3/4. Here is the underside of the FB and the taper jig.



Then I saw off the excess and flush it to the jig with a pattern bit the same way I did with the headplate. Once this is done I mark off how many frets I will have (depending on where the soundhole location will be) and mark for where the fingerboard end treatment will start. I have a similar jig to the taper jig for this and I cut first and then use the pattern bit to rout it to shape. Once it is cut I chisel the inner corners so they are sharp.



Then I will go back in and cut the purfling channels the same way as with the headplate.



Before I start to glue in the purfling I like to rough out the radius of the board. The corners in the front will be cut down from where they are now as the board is radiused and I want to know where they will be so I can be sure my miters look good there and not a bit above where they will end up. Chances are that they would be tight anyway but better safe than sorry. I use a scraper and can rough in the radius in a minute or two. I use the StewMac guides 12, 16, and 20 to rough in a 12-20 compound radius.



At this step the 20 end is the one I am concerned with.

_________________
Burton
http://www.legeytinstruments.com
Brookline, MA.

Once this is set I begin to glue in the purflings. It goes the same as with the headplate although there is only one to bend and it is not a difficult bend. (you can see here that it is a bit crooked. I did not realize how obvious it was until later and had to replace that piece after I had bound it and realized how my eye went right to it. It is definitely easier to do the bent piece first!)



Once all of the purflings are in I am ready to cut the fret slots. This is one of those jigs that works fine but could stand to be updated a little. I made an extension for my incra miter gauge and use a simple pencil line running up from the fret blade to mark each fret cut. I made a sled for the fingerboard so it can be held upside down (again registered off of the slot on the underside) and the markings for each fret position are scribed into the top. I usually make a dummy piece the thickness of the lowest point on the side of the FB and use that to set the height of the blade. Here is a shot of the board on the jig and ready to cut.



And here it is with the slots cut.



Once the slots are cut I can attach the binding. The end pieces are done with superglue and I use LMI white for the long side pieces. I try to not use too much glue, especially near the fret slots. It is easy to scrape it out a bit if you see it begin to squeeze into them anywhere. I shoot for a little overhang on the top and bottom and scrape it flush after on both.





Once the bindings are on and scraped flush I use my radius blocks to finalize the radius. I double stick tape it down to my table saw and use the fence as a guide for the blocks. I may be overkill but I try to put enough tape on both sides so there are no sags anywhere that may cause me to sand a dip in the board. I try to be as careful as I can to keep it as close to perfectly level as I can.





The last step before polishing the board is to sand along each string path with a level and make sure they are straight. Many times it will not be and this is a crucial step down the road so you don't have to do too much fret leveling. Lately I have been sanding a dip from about fret 14 on towards the end and trying to taper the entire bass side more than the treble. My goal is to get more even string heights across the saddle and it has helped there. The compound board keeps it flatter (at the saddle) and the relief on the bass side compensates for the higher action on the bass side.



Continued next post......

_________________
Burton
http://www.legeytinstruments.com
Brookline, MA.

Once that is done I will polish up to 3200 micromesh and set it aside until I am ready to install the frets. here is a shot of the finished headplate and fingerboard.



I have my logos cut by CNC and the person cutting for me has been kind enough to let me use the pile of small pieces I have to cut the logo in 5 parts. I have been arranging them for him on boards before I take them over. Usually I send over a group of 5 or more and then send over the headplates as they come up for the cavity to be cut. I am out of pearl currently so I made up a batch to take over with the newly finished headplate. Here is a shot of the groups of pear and an older cutout he did for me that is use as a template now (he is cutting them a bit smaller than he used to).



I have been hide gluing them to MDF centered across the board with the good spots of the pearl directly on center. Once they are cut on his machine he drops the whole piece in water and the pearl eventually pops off. Here they are all glued up and ready to make the trip.



The pearl all came from ebay and was a whole box of small brownlip pieces for very short money. I don't expect to be able to replace it when it is gone and I will miss it when this bit dries up.

_________________
Burton
http://www.legeytinstruments.com
Brookline, MA.

I also got the sides done. I had posted the photo before of all the different pieces I prepped and I got them all bent and laminated. I had done a tutorial before on the method I use for my double sides and solid linings and I will be doing the same thing here. The link to that tutorial is here:

viewtopic.php?f=10117&t=21455

For this guitar I will be doing doubled sides with an outer layer of the Australian Blackwood thicknessed to .045 and an inner layer of mahogany thicknessed to .035. The 3 layers for the linings are all mahogany and and are all thicknessed to .085. I still bend everything by hand, I have not felt the need to build a bender but that is mostly becasue I like the bending process and the reason I like it is probably because bending anything at .045 or so is not that hard! here is my setup. The bender is off the edge and my form (to check the shape) is to the side. I have a cup of water to rub on the section I am working on and a piece of tin foil over the bend to keep the steam (somewhat) in the wood. I bend everything on full blast. I have done it slower but I prefer hot and fast.

Note: I should have used distilled water here as the Acacia's have a tendency to turn green when bent with tap water. I did get a very little green but it scraped right off.



The bending process leaves us with a pile of sides! I try to get them all as close as possible. The laminating will take up slight differences but it is so much easier if you don't have to force it.



Before laminating the sides I will lightly sand, especially if there is any scorching. Otherwise though they can go right into the form and get glued up. I have seen it done the other way but I prefer to use an outside form. To do the linings the way I do I have to but I like registering off of your final outside shape. Here is a shot of the first side and linings all glued up. I am still using the Smith's epoxy for the double sides and fish glue for the linings.



The second side always is easier as your lining glue up is the perfect caul. Out of the glue up the sides can look a little gnarly.



There is usualy a bunch of squeeze out and some of the epoxy will find its way through the wood. The first thing i do is clean up one edge. I use the side of the caul to do this and get it nice and flush.



Once both sides have one good edge I will check the ends and see how the grain lines up. I bent these sides a bit over their final depth and you can compensate a bit if the end grain needs to be matched perfectly. In this case the wood was well quartered and lined up well with no work. I ran them through the bandsaw to 4" thick, their correct depth for this guitar at the butt. Once they were cut I went in and cleaned up the insides. I usually just go at it with 80 grit. It cuts through the epoxy very well and I will clean it up a bit with 120. I will switch here from the laminating form to the building form. They were made from the same master and for all purposes are identical but again, better safe than sorry. I use the building forms to trim the ends. I mark each at the termination point (Yikes- check out those dirty fingers!):



Then I mark them with a 90 degree angle and sand the edge to final length.



It is very satisfying to get them fit perfectly in the form. Double sides are a lot easier to work with, the fact that they rigidly hold their shape is really handy. I love the accuracy they can give you with the outside mold but there is also something I like about the classical building style of building a guitar upside down. 2 of the nicest guitars I have ever played, a guitar by Bruce Sexauer and a Froggy Bottom guitar, where both built that way. Someday I want to build a few that way and understand the ins and outs of that method, it seems like the double sides would help there even more. For now though, here is a shot of the sides in the mold and waiting for their blocks.

_________________
Burton
http://www.legeytinstruments.com
Brookline, MA.

Hey Burton, great topic. For the inner mahogany side, is quater sawness important?

Hi Nicholas,

No, I don't feel it needs to be quartersawn. In fact, if the outer side is QS then I would prefer the inner side to not be. Part of the benefit of the double sides I feel is crack protection and for it to be the most effective the inner and outer side should be off a bit grain-wise. In my example there the outer side is very well QS and the inner side is rift. Looking at it now I should have angled the grain more on the inner side. That would have been the best bet to really counter any cracking.

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Burton
http://www.legeytinstruments.com
Brookline, MA.

Awesome!! Another very thankful patron of your thread, I am building my first guitar of hopefully many and every one of these threads is priceless in it's knowledge and experience, thanks again for letting noobs like me in on all the cool processes that go into building these. I'll be following till the end!

Burton,
Thanks so much for the great detail. I love the attention to detail you give every step, and that you are sharing ALL the details. I'm a noob, and am learning so much from your process. Can't wait for the next installment, and will follow you through the stringing up and (I hope) a sampling of the sound1
Beth