Official Luthiers Forum!

Thanks Patrick. Yeah, I had the same reaction when I first drilled the headstock. In fact, none of the parts by themselves really appeal to me. Hopefully they'll work as a group.

I had planned on using some Grover Super Rotomatics for this guitar but now don’t think they go well with the design I wound up with. I'd like to go with ebony buttons. So, I figured if I could carve a top and back and neck and be happy with it I should be able to make a new set of tuner buttons. I’ll keep the original tuner buttons for something else.

I came across Chris Paulick’s video on youtube and liked the simplicity of the drilling jig. So I dumbed it down a little into what’s in the pictures here.

One more Saturday night!

I don't know how I missed this thread, but you can color me highly IMPRESSED!
That things' gonna be SWEET!

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Thanks Chris!

I settled on minwax polyurethane for the finish and spent this last week applying build coats. First, I used blonde shellac to seal the top and then rubbed a very light coat of blo on all the visible cherry. After a couple days, when the blo lost it’s smell, I removed the shellac with alcohol and sanded the top with 200 grit sandpaper. Then I gave all surfaces 3 coats of poly thinned 50% with mineral spirits over the course of 2 days, sanding between each coat with 200 grit sandpaper. After that I wiped on 2 coats of 100% poly 24 hours apart, sanding with 400 grit between coats, and let cure for about 48 hours or so.

The finish is nice and glossy but needs leveling in a couple places. And I want to attempt rubbing out to a respectable gloss, which I’ve never really been able to do on previous instruments. But before that I figured I’d go ahead and fit the bridge and tailpiece and do a test setup to see if anything jumps out as an issue and to avoid scratching the final finish.

Fitting the bridge was easy though it took a half hour or so sanding the bottom to curve of the top with a piece of 80 grit sandpaper taped in place. And after stringing up I see that the very end of the treble foot of the bridge is not making full contact about 1/4”in. So I’ll re-visit that next.

I also did the same fitting procedure with the foot of the tailpiece to fit to the edge of the top. That worked good but I after stringing up I think the foot is too far onto the top, about 1 1/8” from the edge. I’m going try to figure out a way to shift it about 1/2” towards the end pin, maybe with barrel nuts on the ends of the cable or something. I would just remove the foot entirely but I still want to move the tailpiece towards the edge for aesthetic reasons.

Also, I strung the guitar with light .010 – .046 gauge strings because I had them and also because I was nervous about what tension the laminated tailpiece could hold. It seems sturdy enough so when I do the final setup I’m going to put on medium gauge strings per recommendations of various web sites and books. The neck wound up with just an ever so slight relief measured with the strings between the 1st and twelfth fret.

I spent most of Sunday afternoon and evening and Monday evening playing the guitar and am very happy with the action and tone as an acoustic. Not so sweet with open cords but has a great chop when doing swing cords and a crisp clear tone when playing the few simple leads I know and plays nice all up the neck. I expect it will be better when I make my adjustments. But, I do wish I’d done a cutaway because I have the urge to go up higher on the fretboard when playing.

There’s got to be something special about a guitar strung and played for the first time during a solar eclipse!

TODO:
* Re-fit the bridge
* Figure out a way to move the tailpiece 1/2” towards end pin.
* Sand and apply final coats of finish.
* Mount pick guard and electronics
* Lower the action a smidge at the nut.
* String with medium gauge strings and set up.

Yo, Raymond,

It's a super nice axe. When you go back to fitting the bridge foot, use finer sandpaper on the next pass. And, if you haven't already buffed the top, do the bridge fit between level sanding and final buffing. Man....if you aren't proud of this axe there is something wrong with you! (I know you're proud of it. I was just fishing for a way to express my respect and admiration). I am pretty sure you've got a lot of people salivating on this side of the thread. Very, very nicely done. I love archtops.

Patrick

Thank you Patrick! Yeah, I'm real happy with this. Its somewhat different than what I originally imagined, but I think I like it more because of that.

And I'll give that a try with the bridge, that makes sense. Thanks for the suggestions!

Right now I couldn’t be happier. I’ve got the action eyeballed with the center of the strings at the first fret measuring .035 and the same measurement at the twelfth fret measuring .070. D’Angelico flatwound stainless steel strings gauges .012 – .052. I did the final bridge fitting using the side/side method described at frets.com. The acoustic tone and response just blows me away. It just wants to jump went I touch the strings. And plugged into my old Kustom III amp it sounds even better. I’m glad I decided to go to the trouble of adding the pickup even if I don't plug in much. Maybe I'll be doing more of that now.

So, I'll post a followup maybe next month with any issues and how the sound shapes up. Cheers!

Looks like a beauty. congrats.

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"Preoccupation with an effect gives it power and enhances the error"
from "Your Owner's Manual" by Burt Hotchkiss.

Thanks Nick!

But...here's the first issue I came across. It was such a big one I figured I'd post while it's fresh. Anyway, everything sounded great with the guitar even this morning before I left for work. But, around 5 PM my wife called and said she heard a loud noise from the living room and the guitar had exploded, strings all askew and the bridge and other pieces were on the floor. I figured it was the tailpiece and asked her to pick up the bridge before the dog ate it.

I recall that while fabricating the tailpiece, I had some trouble with getting the slots for the nuts on the cables to have a square surface for the nuts to rest in. So, I had cut a dado and glued in a cross piece of ebony. It looks to me that the glue joint failed, I don't recall what glue I used(CA, titebond or epoxy) and the sliver of cherry that was on the tail end of the dado snapped. None of the ebony broke, even the 1/16" of a dado that was still left after the cherry broke free. I suspect it would have pulled free either way. I see my comment on my post at the time I made the tailpiece "I'm not sure if it will be strong enough but I expect to find out soon." So, I'm figuring it was just a bad idea that was poorly executed.

Now I need to think it over. Do I try to fix this with a better glue joint and wider piece of ebony? Or do I cut my losses and make a new tailpiece?

Well...after doing a search here and following links over to anzlf.com I see other folks have tried the exact same thing with the same results. I guess I'll perform one more experiment with this tailpiece then start fresh.

I remember contributing to a similar thread on ANZLF last year http://www.anzlf.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3537 on the same issue. (Maybe this is one you saw). Basically, a glued in pivot that's also taking the tailgut load is doomed to fail IMO. The BODY of the tailpiece must take the load.

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Dave
Milton, ON

Yep, that's the one. I recognized you're profile there. Is that tailpiece in your profile picture laminated or a solid piece?

See pics in thread...all are 1 piece solid (although i'll glue on a pivot if I use one)

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Dave
Milton, ON

Thanks Dave! That helps a lot. I'd only read as far as page 1 since it answered the immediate question.

Ok, so I ordered some ebony from LMI and remade the tailpiece closer to the Benedetto design, though no pivot necessary. I was a little slow starting because I kept debating the aesthetics of the design. I wasn’t sure if this shape would look right on this guitar, since the guitars I’ve seen with those sound holes are all have a tailpiece closer to the D’Aquisto design. Now that it's in place it looks much nicer than the other I had made and doesn't cover up as much of the top.

In any case I think it turned out great and seems nice and sturdy. I also was able to figure out how to use the tools I had and adapt the simple jigs from the Benedetto book, and Dave’s post(thank you very much), to do a cleaner job of shaping and drilling the cable slots. While I had the guitar on my bench I did a better job polishing the frets and fretboard with some micromesh I’d ordered to try out. That worked very well and I like the way the frets feel a lot better.

Here are some pictures including a repair I had to make. She's all strung up again and singing nicely.