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Doesn't seem like I've posted any guitar photo's in a while, so here's one I just finished.
Honduran Rosewood and spruce.
French polished.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Tell us about your sexy headstock joint…

Really nice and clean looking..

Nicely done!
Love the rosette....

Well done! I'd love to see pics of that headstock joint too.

Pretty!

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Beautiful, and nice V Joint! How about a closeup of that rosette?

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Instagram: @jfrenchluthier

James, have you settled on the open lower harmonic bar? Do you make any changes to the top? I've done one Torres-type guitar that way, but can't really say it made a difference.

Are those Gilbert tuners? How do you like them? One customer swears by the feel. I'm not a big fan of the plastic looks, but the adjustability is nice.

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Thanks guys!
The headstock joint is just a standard v-joint which is not too common, but not unique either. It's much quicker to do a scarf joint, at least for me! I roughed this out with my band saw and dressed it up with chisels, fitting took a while. I've done a couple of these now and botched my first one, I'm getting better at it though.

I need to thank Pat Foster who showed me a good method to clamp the joint, which helped immensely.

Pat - I don't know if I've settled on the open harmonic bar Elliott design, but I can say that much prefer traditional designs like this over the more contemporary designs such as lattice bracing. There's so many variables on each guitar it's hard to know exactly if one thing is the driving element of a nice guitar. I've made nice guitars with the closed harmonic bars too. I'm very pleased with sound of this instrument.

These are Gilbert tuners. I'd say they take smooth to a whole new level. I agree the aesthetic could be better, but their functionality overcomes a lot of that for me.

Josh - I'll post a closeup of the Rosette a little later today for you.

I have spectrum too if anyone's interested.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Very nice Jim!!!

It’s beautiful!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

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Insta - https://www.instagram.com/cbcguitars/
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James,

Here's a jig I came up with to simplify making the headstock joint. It's based on a generic tenon jig. It gets the angles of the v dead on in the neck shaft and the headstock (which is at 14 deg to the shaft). I tweaked my process so that the headstock ends up a bit long, so I can just kiss the shoulders on the table saw until it's just right. Gets the time required down to about an hour if I do several at a time.

http://patfosterguitars.com/v-joint/index.html

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Pat, that looks like a nice set up, I might give that some thought going forward. I see your making the peghead angle on the peghead itself, I did mine on the neck shaft. The peg head would probably simplify things. I don't suppose it matters.

Josh, here's a picture of the rosette.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

The peghead angle surely could go on the neck. That would make it easier when it comes time to kiss the shoulders with the TS during final fitting. With the angle on the peghead, it requires having it at the angle, but with the angle on the neck, the peghead would be perpendicular, making the kiss part easy.

The rosette looks great! I'm doing my first maple burl on a classical. It's not a commission, so I hope it's well received, since I added a few random bits of recon jade.

Do you have a sense of a change in tone without the closiing bars?

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Pat, when I cut the V into the peg head, I cut it slightly deep, I then used a hand plane on the shoulders of the peghead to drop it down onto the V of the neck shaft, that worked pretty well.
Thanks for the compliment on the rosette.
I think you get a slightly more open tone without the closing bars. I believe that's certainly true when coupled with the open harmonic bars.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com