Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi All,

I guess I'll start the documentation of my third build. It will be a parlor built for a friend that will resemble my build #2. (See the Mesquite-O challenge build thread for pics). First, I want to air this out up front. This guitar was scheduled to be my #2 build, but I couldn't resist the urge to jump into the 2012 Challenge Build #2, so I put this build on hold. Prior to the beginning of the newbie challenge, I had already done some work on this build. The top and back plates were joined, and the neck blank was glued up. As the end of this challenge is in October, I don't think I'm off to an unfair advantage, but I'll let the group decide. I should be finished with it by late spring. I'm definitely unwilling to postpone this build any longer to build a guitar for this challenge. Shouldn't matter much as it is still my third build. Anyway....

I have a long love affair with parlor guitars. The fella I'm building this guitar for played on stage in the mid 90's with a Takamine replica of a 1900 Bruno parlor. I loved that guitar dearly, and roamed the earth looking for one similar. I found a brazilian rosewood parlor at one of the online Nashville companies, and bought it. Unfortunately, it was stolen (along with my '63 Gretsch Corvette, and other guitars) in a residential burglary. The inability to locate another parlor that I wanted was what led me into guitar building in 1995. My first and second builds were both parlors.

This guitar will be: Gorgeous bear claw Sitka spruce top and bracing, Pau Ferro back and sides, and either ebony, rosewood, or maple bindings. It will have a herringbone rosette and top purfling. It's another 12-fret, slotted headstock guitar.

So let's commence with the build.

Here's the pile of wood from Bob at RC tonewoods (one of our sponsors, and a real pleasure to work with) Pau Ferro back and side set, mahogany reverse-kerfed linings, neck blank, and heel and neck blocks.

I got started by joining the top

And then the neck glue up. I was taught to build a stacked heel and scarf joint headstock, so that's what I do....

And the back glued up, cut out, and scraped...

and wet with naptha.... pretty!

and now ready to start building the box...

Nice choice of wood ... This should be a beautiful build

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

Pretty, pretty wood, Jay! This looks like a good one!

Alex

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

And the rosette installed and sanded flush...


I charred my first set of sides in the fox bender--stunk up the garage. I guess you don't need as much heat for Pau Ferro as mesquite! So, I had to source another set (Thanks Aaron Hix!). Got them bent up and into the mold...



The Mesquite-O was built with a 90 degree X brace, single finger braces, and a single tone bar. After listening to a sound clip of one of Stephen Kinnaird's parlors and asking him about his bracing scheme, I am going to build this guitar with double finger braces and an X below the bridge plate. As it is very easy to overbuild parlor guitars, all of these braces will start out at 1/4" and will be thinned pretty drastically. The X below the bridge plate will be 3/16th to start, and similarly tapered. Here is a rough layout of the bracing design:

Paroles are interesting little creatures. Looks like you've got a nice one underway. That's some serious bearclaw going on there! Good luck!

Oooooh, I like it!

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

I'm glad to see you in this one. I loved the mesquite-o and can't wait to see another of your parlors! Good luck.

_________________
Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Watch out for that Pao Fero dust, it's an extreame sensitizer! It's a beautiful wood, and not very expensive, but I can't have it around anymore, and I didn't use it very much.

_________________
A man hears what he wants to hear, and disreguards the rest. Paul Simon

Nice looking wood.

_________________
http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

Thanks Bryan, Tony, and the rest! I guess some progress is still progress. I got the neck and heel blocks installed, and the linings glued on.


The back radius work is almost done. I have the back prepped and ready to go on...

Looks awesome. I like the logo.

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

Jay, I couldn't believe that last parlor you built was only your second guitar. It was one of my fav's on the last challenge. After building my first parlor guitar I definitely share the love of these little instruments.

That means a lot coming from you. The tone you got out of the broke oak was amazing! I hope is one turns out as well....

Here's a quick update for what I've done this week. I drilled the holes for the knockdown bits that go through the tenon, and then drilled the holes for the bolts going through the headblock and into the front of the tenon. This is my first time trying the Cumpiano bolt-on joint. The Mesquite-O used a bolt on butt joint which was a bish to floss. This is one place where the Shopsmith really shines--horizontal boring!


I got the back radiused and sanded by spending plenty of time "driving the bus."


And I glued the back onto the sides today. This is exactly how it looked when it came out of the go-bar deck. I have become OBSESSIVE about glue cleanup during clamping. It sure is easier to clean it up when it's wet!


Onward!

Got a little work done last night. I cut the tenon for the neck joint, and installed the truss rod and filler strip.....


I did some work on the top bracing this morning, but no pics... However, I did a little resawing last night with my shopsmith bandsaw. It did OK for a saw not really designed for resawing. The wood is 4" thick cocobolo. It will get glued up into a 3 piece back for my next parlor build....

Great progress, Jay. I've got a sister set of that Pau Ferro, I am looking forward to seeing it all finished.

Good luck.

_________________
-Marcus
http://www.bailieguitars.com
Instagram | YouTube

Time for the weekly update.... I got the truss rod installed, and the tenon cut for the neck.


And then got started on bracing the top





And got some brace carving started at 5am today (which is when I have time to work on my guitars)





Making progress!!

Looking good, Jay!

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

Interesting pattern with the crossed tone bars. Seems like that would really stiffen up the lower bout a lot. Do u thin them a lit to compensate this? Also what's the theory behind crossing them? I'm intrigued

Zeke,

I based the bracing design off of a parlor that Stephen Kinnaird built recently. The tone from the guitar is absolutely amazing. It is a redwood top, but this is the bracing scheme he used. I waffled back and forth as my last build was one finger brace and one tone bar, and it sounds pretty good to my ear. However, it is nothing near the clarity and responsiveness of the Kinnaird build. Stephen seems to think that symetrically tying the top together with an X brace below the bridge plate improves the bass response. We'll see how it finishes out, but the tap tones coming from it as I'm shaving the braces are making me pretty happy. He recommended 3/16ths width on the lower X. Here is a soundclip video of the Kinnaird parlor. His lower bout is a little bigger--Martin size 1 I think. I prefer the size 2 with its 12" lower bout.

sweet. that thing sounds fantastic! Hopefully you will get those kinda amazing results with yours

With all the awesome parlor clips around this place lately, I may have to bump this up on the list!

Jay, your progress looks great. I can't wait to hear it. You are so fancy you even have a curly bridge plate

_________________
Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Got a little more done yesterday. I finished carving the braces, and getting everything cleaned up. I learned something new yesterday. The weather was beautiful outside, so I did my cleanup and sanding of the braces outside in direct sunlight. The sunlight exposes every little smear of glue and scratch in the top and braces. Not too good for the ego, but good for the final product. Here is the top cleaned up and ready to go on.....


As my ladies went shopping yesterday, I had a little more time than normal. I followed Hesh's tutorial for sanding the upper bout flat using a granite slab and sandpaper. Next, I was able to inlet the top braces into the linings. The top is now ready to go on after I reinforce the upper bout for a soundport that I'm still debating. I also need to install either some side tapes or spruce struts to guard against side splits. I used tapes on my first, and thin spruce braces on my second. Hopefully by Monday night, I'll have a closed box!