Official Luthiers Forum!

As you can see, I’ve put in the tone bars, glued the top to the sides and am currently working on the binding. Unfortunately, my first attempt at the tone bars had to be scrapped. I had been drying some catalpa for the tone bars, but after fitting them and gluing them in, I found that even though they were perfectly quarter sawn, the grain ran off too much for my liking. So I planed them out again. I didn’t have any sufficiently dry catalpa so I had to use some left over spruce from my last guitar. As I was planing them down I made sure to tap them and listen to the tones improve the further I went until there seemed to be no further increase in volume and ring. It was a good exercise to do. Binding the f holes seems to be going well. It’s something I do over two days to allow for drying

Binding finished and the interior shellacked. The neck pocket is routed for a bolt on neck.

Here is the body all sanded with a first coat of egg white pore filler.

I started on the neck. The wood is catalpa and l have a black locust headstock veneer that measures 3/16” thick I made it extra thick to reinforce the the headstock somewhat. At the heel I’m inserting a hard maple block for the bolt to push against and because the grain runs along the length of the block, it reinforces the heel

Should be real nice when you've completed it.

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

Here’s the finished neck joint with the bolt installed.

Did you glue the block that holds the bolt into the heel of the neck? It's an interesting joint but I don't get it? What is your design ideas there? Also how are you going to get a wrench in there?

The block is glued in place. There is a 3/8” hole in the neck heel for an Allen wrench that allows the neck to be bolted on. The hole will be covered with a button.

This guitar looks good to me. I predict it will exceed expectations. If I weren’t headed back to the shop from lunch I’d tell you how I discovered catalpa was a great Tonewood. Not THAT long a story.

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Bruce Sexauer, luthier
http://mojoluthier.com

JFMckenna, the reason for this, not so traditional, neck joint is a bit of an experiment. Archtops usually have an adjustable bridge, which allows you to compensate for the seasonal rise and fall of the top. The dryer it gets, the more it will drop, the more humid, the more it will rise. However I noticed that replacing the adjustable bridge with a fixed one, greatly improved the volume and fullness of the sound. So this is an attempt to make the adjustment of the string height a function of the neck tilt. I plan to make a variety of carefully made shims that will tilt the neck just slightly enough to make a difference of a millimeter or two. I don't know if this will have it's own problems. I'm giving it a try.

It's looking really good. I can see that the hole in the tailblock will serve to insert the wrench for tightening the neck bolt but I can't tell if the joint is a straight mortise and tenon or dovetail without glue ? It looks neat though, I'm planning an archtop and have the spruce top but haven't pulled the trigger on buying a back and sides set. If I use some of my local wood (sycamore or pecan) how thick do I need the back to be to start with?

Looking again, I see that it is a butt joint,,, guess I answered my own question.

I have two fretboards in the works. One is Gaboon Ebony, the other is Black Locust that has been oxidized and the pores filled. I’m trying to decide which one to use. Black locust isn’t nearly as hard or strong as the ebony, but it does beat Indian rosewood in almost every respect. It is more stable than ebony though and a lot light in weight. If I listen to them both as I drop them lightly on hard surface, the locust has a nicer, more sustained ring. The Black locust has the added advantage of being grown locally which is the same as the catalpa. I kind of like the idea that the whole guitar is built of local wood, but I don’t know how well the locust will hold up over time.
The one on top is the locust and the one below is Gaboon ebony.

I finished shaping the neck. I attached it to the body, put on a tailpiece and bridge and strung it up a just to get an idea of what it sounded like. It sounded pretty good. Louder and fuller than my first. I’ve got to say, I highly recommend using this wood if you have any handy. Right now I’ve taken it apart again and have started French polishing the body

I haven’t posted in a while, but I thought I would give you all an update on this guitar. The French polish finish has taken quite some time and is still not done. Now that the strings are back on the guitar, I’ve been playing it for a while. I’ve got to say, it sounds great! I’m really impressed with this wood. It sounds better than the one I built out of top grade Engelman Spruce and Maple. It’s very noticeably lighter in weight, has loud clean tone with long after tone when I dampen the strings. It would be nice to hear someone play it who has some talent.

Wow, that looks awesome. Not sure why you would do any more.

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

I say well done. Yes, find a good jazz player and post the recording...

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