Official Luthiers Forum!

Thanks for this thread Bruce. It's very interesting (and rare!) to see a modern free-assembly/plantilla process for steel string guitar construction documented in this way.

I recently changed my design for a 00-size guitar, including some modification to the shape, which has rendered a lot of my tooling obsolete. New bending forms for a fox bender are relatively quick to manufacture but there is no job I dislike more than making new molds. Messy, timeconsuming, I hate building new molds and that no doubt causes me to stick with old designs for longer than I should. Your thread really has me thinking about the possibility of moving away from them altogether. Following with interest.

If a fella were to think of trying this method of building, this might be a good time to do it. My daughter built her fist guitar this way last year, and it came out embarrassingly good. I was right there, but did next to nothing, it was her hands. She only cried once.

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Bruce Sexauer, luthier
http://mojoluthier.com

What wood is that bridge plate (cocobolo ?) and why ?

Makes me want to try building my next one without a mold...

This bridge plate is Pernambuco, because it was in front of me when I started looking for some wood to make the bridge plate from. I think it barely matters what it is made from since it fits in the same footprint and the bridge on my guitars. I view it as virtually a part of the bridge. I favor very thin very strong wood.

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Bruce Sexauer, luthier
http://mojoluthier.com

We are all watching intently Bruce!
Do you radius the bridge plate before installing?
And what material are you using?
It appears you are using individual tentallones - are you using hide glue and holding until set?

The following link is to a thread that is a helpful reading assignment, before viewing the "Noodler 2" thread.
http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=53059

Thank you, James.

I radius neither bridge plates nor bridges. Yesterday I spent 1 hour and ten minutes installing something over 120 peone, which some call tentalones. A rubbed fit works very well for them, requiring 0 set time. Watch the video my friend Tad posted in the Snakewood thread.

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Bruce Sexauer, luthier
http://mojoluthier.com

Keep it coming! I'm following closely.

I do have a life, but try to sneak away from it as often as possible. This is a great thread, filled with more detail than usual. Thanks for taking the extra time to share this with us.

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George :-)

Bruce, it's great to see your work and "hear" you on the OLF. With the need for social distancing, I'm not sure when our next Northern California Association of Luthiers meeting will be. Reading your detailed posts and seeing your photos is like being in the same room with you. Thank you so much for your time and concentrated effort!

Looking forward to seeing you in person when the right time comes around--

Tim

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Tim Allen
"Never hurry, never rest."

For those who do not know me, as Tim alludes I am the current president of the Northern California Association of Luthiers, NCAL, and indeed, I do not expect to be having a May meeting. I suppose I should find some time soon to say so in a group email.

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Bruce Sexauer, luthier
http://mojoluthier.com

Hi Bruce.

I assume you're tapping the rectangular glued top, without the sound hole, that's been cut to the approximate overall size of the guitar when doing this? Thanks.

Kevin Looker

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I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

Assumption is always dangerous, Kevin, and I have to wonder what yours is based on, for that is not what I did. The further the top is from it's true size the more difficult it is to truly understand it structurally, I'd say.

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Aside from notches to receive the back braces, this construct is ready to receive the back.



My side port reinforcement, which I consider it foolhardy to omit, has its grain about 25 degrees out of line with the side itself. This makes splitting along the grain less likely, while not being cross grain enough to create unwanted tension.



Turn it over to make reading easier for non-geniuses, in case there are any in the lutherie community.

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Bruce Sexauer, luthier
http://mojoluthier.com

Perambuco; no wonder I diddidn't recognise it. I've only ever seen it under varnish in the form of a bow.

I carefully read the tail block in the second picture above before scrolling to the third. Genius? I think not!

WindSurfer: Don't worry, I've already judged you. I learned to up-haul in 1981 and was water starting right away. I "wasted" 16 years of my life between Chrissy Field, Waddell Creek, Los Barrilles in Baja, and the Columbia Gorge. I competed in Slalom and my big brag is I got into the finals in the Gorge ProAm 3 years in a row . . . never won. It is worth noting that I was riding boards of my own design and construction, not unlike what I do now with guitars and violins when I play music.

For those of you to whom this is greek, it probably should have been a PM.

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Bruce Sexauer, luthier
http://mojoluthier.com

Thanks, that's why I asked.

My assumption was based on my guitar building education, which unfortunately is mostly internet based along with some books. Everyone has their reasons & if you read them enough times, you accept them for fact or best practice. Sharing your methods has given me a lot to think about.

Thanks again.

Kevin Looker

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I'm not a luthier.
I'm just a guy who builds guitars in his basement.
It's better than playing golf.

I have struggled for a lifetime to discern and eliminate ungrounded assumptions that snuck into my “education”. There are quite a few in typical guitar construction conceptualization.

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Bruce Sexauer, luthier
http://mojoluthier.com

Digging the camo side strips.

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Insta - https://www.instagram.com/cbcguitars/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/cbcguitars

The magic is sealed in . . . or not:

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Bruce Sexauer, luthier
http://mojoluthier.com

I am about to start the binding process on CN#2.

To recap: This is a 00 sized guitar, the second off my newest template, and the aesthetics are inspired by my rendition of the Gibson L00 you have likely watched my build too many of over the last few years. This one is Polish EuroSpruce over quartersawn Brazilian rosewood. It is thinner front to back than a traditional 00 would be by a little less than 1/4", and has a 25 11/32 string length. The binding will be Jotoba, and the bridge and the fingerboard will be BRW. It is intended to be peerless as a personal player, and has a side port.

It is not spoken for.







I think everything about closing this guitar is pretty straightforward, but if anyone has any questions about apparent mysteries, just ask.

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Bruce Sexauer, luthier
http://mojoluthier.com

Wow! Another windsurfing guitar builder. This must be a very small group of people, and the bulk of my windsurf friends have All gone to the dark side. (Kitesurfing, or tea baggers as I call them, though they call us pole benders)
jd reminded me of Bob Dill in the gorge, who ended up tweaking one of my guitars.
Still get to Baja, have spent the last 30 winters between Cabo pulmo and La Ventana.
Hoping for a gorge trip in July, but thats up in the air for awhile.
Sorry for the slight derail.

B

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My memory is so good, sometimes I remember things that never happened.

I have twice watched Ervin bind on all four quarters at once. I was inspired to try doing 2 quarters at once a few times, but it was clear to me that it came out better one at a time, so that's what I have been doing for a long tim now.

I see a lot of people using tape to clamp on wooden binding in the same way that many of us apply celluloid. There is a technical difficulty with this method as it does not provide the clamping pressure required for aliphatic glues nd their relative to achieve anything even close to their possible strength. Instead, it makes what I call a "proximity join", where the glue itself operates as a filler, and the strength is a small fraction of what it might be.

Since I believe that what we call tone is a product of integrity, and proximity joins have very little integrity, I use the binding rope and all of the strength I can muster to attach my binding. I imagine I am getting ten time the clamping pressure that tape can provide.

I am about to start the binding process on CN#2.

To recap: This is a 00 sized guitar, the second off my newest template, and the aesthetics are inspired by my rendition of the Gibson L00 you have likely watched my build too many of over the last few years. This one is Polish EuroSpruce over quartersawn Brazilian rosewood. It is thinner front to back than a traditional 00 would be by a little less than 1/4", and has a 25 11/32 string length. The binding will be Jotoba, and the bridge and the fingerboard will be BRW. It is intended to be peerless as a personal player, and has a side port.

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Bruce Sexauer, luthier
http://mojoluthier.com

I retired from sailing around 1998 and replaced the obsession with violin playing, and even more challenging pursuit IMO. Check out Les Stansell, who lives in Pistol River, OR.

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Bruce Sexauer, luthier
http://mojoluthier.com

CN#2 is bound (for glory?):







Next: the graft and the dovetail mortise, then the neck.

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Bruce Sexauer, luthier
http://mojoluthier.com

I put my end graft in after the binding. I am not a fan of finicky router set ups, and have developed some skill at cutting tiny miters, not that this is actually my best example. On the other hand my tapered backstrip and tapered graft do line up quite well on this one, which is not always the case. One of the reasons I downgraded this BRW is that though close to quartered, it is as though the sides were not actually consecutive cuts, as is evidenced by the lack of perfect book matching in this picture. That's alright, I didn't pay THAT much for the set.

A mild Wedge:

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Bruce Sexauer, luthier
http://mojoluthier.com