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Hi everyone,

I thought I'd share photos of my current build, a small classical for a good friend's daughter. Here is the mockup...



Some of you will recognise it from this, http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=41311, thread.

This is only the third acoustic guitar I've built (the second on my own as I built my first under the supervision of a tutor) so I'm still a newbie trying to get to grips with things but I thought I should show my work and expose myself to some critical eyes.

I did post pics of my last guitar here, http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=41035, but none of the actual build process as I decided from the very beginning not risk losing focus by worrying about taking pics all the time. This time, I've been taking photos as I go along and compiling a photo book for the young owner-to-be! She's enjoying seeing it come together and hopefully some of you guys will too!

I've just finished binding the body so there are a good eleven messages worth of pics. I'll upload them all as quick as possible.

(The language in the photo book is written for a child so I'll just quicly summarise each pic, if anyone has any questions about how I did something (or why I didn't do something), let me know!

All comments welcome!
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Here is most of the wood. Very inexpensive from Madinta but I don't think I could be happier with the grain if I'd have chosen from stacks. Carpathian spruce top with EIR back, sides, faceplate, and fretboard, and maple neck rosette and binding (not in picture).



The sides



Working on the thickness sander



Getting there!



After sanding to 2.2mm, I cut to size and the first one spent 10 minutes in the bath to get wet



On the bending iron! (Just for the record, I don't recommend using a heat gun. It only just got the pipe hot enough and it took over 30 minutes to heat up. The propane torch takes less than half that time and gets higher temps.) Oh, and the tin foil obviously isn't enough heat protection to avoid the smell of smoldering plywood! I'll use a tile next time. If I don't make a sidebender.)

Checking against the template



Nearly there



One side done



Both sides done. I made that one ply mold but it was next to useless so, really, I built this guitar free form.



Splitting braces (not at all staged after I forgot to get someone to take a pic!)



Braces



A spruce tree! or four.

Smoothing



Roughly sized



Everything so far



Sides together



Kerfing going on



Kerfing on! I used a flat top and a 16 foot radius back. Used a radius dish for the back.



Marking for end graft

Chiseling slot



Clamping



Shooting the back



back together



Joining top. I used the tape method this time, worked well! (And that Elvis sleeve was for the first record I ever bought!!!!)



Top joined



Maple ring for the rosette

Took me a few goes to cut!



Gluing rosette purfling with drawing pins (push pins/map pins)



And the inside... actually, I broke that rosette in a momnent of furious sanding so I had to make another one. I forgot to tape pics but second time around, I inlaid a maple ring into rosewood and then cut it out again. I only wanted the rosewood line to be 0.5mm, so it was risky cutting that close, but it turned out ok.



Practiced the inlay first



Finished! Not tooo bad. I ran out of the maple a few photos back so I used some 0.7mm maple veneer. Just got to be careful not to sand through it!!!



Thicknessing the top to 1.9ish. Will be 1.8 when final sanded I hope and thinner round the edges.

Thicknessing the back. I stopped at 2mm, maybe slightly less, because it was practically flapping in the wind!



Top and back stickered for 5 days at 47% to prepare for cross grain gluing. Hopefully an adequate precaution.



Gluing a soundhole patch... I cut the thin top and back panels out with the Dremel in the Stewmac base. Didn't fancy risking it with a coping saw, however small or big.



Hole cut



Gluing fan braces



Carving 'em... Took 'em down to 3mm ish in the end as per a Torres plan. If that's too thin, I don't want to know! Well, I do. But break it to me gently.

Gluing the a-frame



After carving/before sanding = 85 grams (and oversize, and brace ends still long. Will be a fair bit lighter really.)



Gluing marriage strip



Chiseling slots



Gluing back braces



Carving



Gluing top

Trimming top back



Guitar without back! (The a-frame was meant to be inlet into the headblock but I screwed up!) [and the tailblock was meant to be tapered in line with the kerfing but in a moment of lucidness I lost confidence and all logic and just lost the plot with that one.]



Gluing back



Guitar with back. you can just see the template with tabs cut to transfer brace lines to the top. Worked well.



From the front



Bending binding. (That may be my new pseudonym, Mr Ben Bendingbinding.) I had an epiphany whilst bending these: I hadn't been holding the bend for long enough so I was bending over and over and not getting the bend to stick! Once I started counting to 60 or 90 whilst holding the bend (off the iron), there was hardly any springback at all... Maaaaybe I don't need the side bender now after all.



Binding jig. ugly isn't it? (EDIT: I should say, although my tutor used a slightly different jig that operated on the same principles, this is blatant copy of the KMG Binding Machine. Search on Google for his site and pricing, etc)

Cutting the binding channels. I said to a friend I could've done three in an afternoon with this jig. actually, I could've done 20 ... even if I had to adjust settings for each one! Great jig. With careful testing. (I don't really feel the urge to replace it with a tower rig or swivel arm rig. Maybe I'll try one of them and think it better but I just don't think I will.)



All cut



Binding back



Binding top



Lots of tape! Thanks to Todd for recommending the strapping tape. Bleedin good!



Scraping flush... Wow, a sharp scraper is just a joy! I sharpened by rubbing the square end on my 320 grit paper on the scary sharp board (and/or the coarse side of a Stanley oil stone) and then burnished with the Veritas variable burnisher (bought it with Christmas money from m'grandma). First time I've been able to repeatably get a good hook.



Scraping top

I'm pretty pleased with that. Only the second time I've done wooden binding. (Binding only looks a bit thicker on one side because I'm yet to scrape around the bit I had to retape.)

(The guitar isn't symmetrical but I think I'd get sucked into the underworld if I ever made a symmetrical guitar! To be brutally honest, the reason it isn't symmetrical is mainly down to me not holding the bends for long enough and them not setting properly, so by the time I got to this point, I just said, "that's close enough"... Never again.)

Cutting fret slots



Cutting MOP for inlay



All cut



Practicing routing inlay cavities



Done!




Well, that's about it for now. Just working on the neck now. Hope those who enjoy build threads like what they see! I welcome any comments!

All the best,
Nick


Here's a test dying the spruce purple...

That is a fantastic photo journey.
Keep the pictures rolling.

dl

Thanks Dave, glad you like them!
I'll be posting more within days!

'Binding jig. ugly isn't it? '
A binding jig is only as pretty as the binding job it makes, and yours looks great!

Very cool, I like the headstock.

_________________
Not much but at least it exists : http://jbluthier.com/

That's awesome, Nick! Looking forward to seeing that "subtle" color when you're done.
Thanks for sharing.

Thanks Joel, very kind of you to post and say that! I'm quite proud of it!

And I'm glad you like the headstock. At one point I thought I'd never make a nice loooking design for it and the bridge... for this guitar or any other! My creativity was letting me down! But with a very kind and helpful OLF user to bounce ideas off, I eventually got to something I like! Maybe there is hope for me yet! I thought I was doomed to only copying others for a moment!


And, Eric, thanks for the compliment!

I'm looking forward to seeing it in that subtle colour, too! Still lots of fun to come trying to mask off/seal the binding!


Thanks for looking!

I thought I should show the plan for the bridge, too! Would be useful if anyone could cast their eye over it for me...




It's a "wrapover bridge"... Tie a knot in the end of the nylon string and it goes though the hole under the saddle and back out over it.

The genius (if I do say so myself - Nah, I copied James Riggle... umm, his Uke) is that it is will be drilled for 6 and 4 string spacing. When Rosie's fingers get too big for the 6 string spacing, converting it into a baritone ukulele is as easy as making a new saddle and nut! And chopping some headstock off but that's easier than replacing the bridge and it means she can get a lot more use out of this guitar than I originally intended. Hopefully, this guitar will actually spend most of its life as a uke! But until that new life begins, it needs to be a great guitar!

(The bridge plan isn't totally up to date, I just noticed. The top view is closest to the actual measurements.)

Wow! A wonderful project, nicely documented. Thank you sharing this.

_________________
http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

Thanks for the comment, John! My pleasure to share the pics!
A pleasure too to hear such nice feedback!

Cheers!
Nick

This is the frequency response curve before the binding went on. I'll have to do it again now the binding is on, but I'm still studying, trying to get my head around these things so I'd love if someone could help me understand this one. I've written my conclusions (hesitantly and without any idea if I'm right) based on it but I'm not sure if it's appropriate to post them here. If anyone could help me I'd really appreciate it. By PM if necessary. I'm unsure of which peaks are which.



Many thanks in advance!
Nick

(500th post!? Do I post too much? )

I just checked again post-binding and the difference seems negligible in the low to mid range. The main air resonance is 157hz. Then there are four peaks at 224ish (though it doesn't seem very distinct) 277ish, 373ish, and 471ish... 224 to 277 is just under 4 semitones, so I'm guessing 224 is the top and 277 is the back. But then I don't know what 373 and 471 are. I don't even know if such a small body can be analysed in the same way as a large one?!

From there up the peaks have changed position slightly but remain fairly constant... From 2k - 4k there are a decent number of peaks too, so... bright!?

Planing fretboard to size... So much fun!



Cutting scarf



Smoothing it



Gluing head



Gluing stacked heel



Gluing head veneer



Cutting heel

Cutting heel to size. (Also note the 1/8th inch deep pocket I routed)



Installing M6 self tapping threaded inserts... I drilled the holes on my local school's pillar drill.



Carving primary facets... Love my whittling knife!



More carving



Cutting out head shape



My apologies to the wood gods for wasting maple by using such a large neck blank for such a narrow neck. I wont do it again!

(The keen-eyed will notice I put the R on the wrong fret. That was me relaxing my OCD [not that any of my work is usually evident of it! lol] when the going was good.)

The neck is on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





A million more apologies to the wood gods for using such a wide neck blank... I'll make use of the offcuts!!!!

Couple more pics... (I got excited and just had to post that oen but thought another view or two would be nice.)