Progress apace to win the race

Break in the weather, humidity down, shop busy, lotsa progress.  Pictures pretty much explain accomplishments:

Braces glued on

Go deck in use

Trim ribs to width



Soundhole reinforcement



Headpiece on







Can you figure out what this is?

Assembling...two ways to do it

Assembly can be accomplished in many ways.  Here are two:  1. family gathering for a long overdue reunion of cousins from US and Canada; 2. putting together (glueing up) C's guitar.  Photos are self explanatory:

Sister Carol Mercer Sukolics (St. Louis)

Brother Chet

The cousins

The siblings

C's guitar:  The assembly phase has started.  The braces on the upper bout were glued on today.  Tomorrow the lower bout, headpiece, and perhaps, after trimming to size, the sides and top will be joined with the neck. 

Glueing on the soundhole reinforcement

Glueing on the upper bout cross braces

Parts is Parts

So, with the inlay of the back strip, bending of the sides and completion of the neck carving, everything is in place for the start of assembly.  There's still scraping and sanding in preparation for this, but we're getting close.  The A/C is wringing the water out of the air, but with the tailend of Isaac sweeping by, the humidity is still high for assembly.  Preparative steps will be completed though and assembly will start ASAP.  There are a couple more features that this guitar will have that will enhance playability.  The curve of the neck from one side to the other will include the fretboard, making the neck very comfortable.  With the bindings on the fretboard the fret tangs do not show and the ends are nicely rounded.  This will also enhance comfort and playability.

The back

Installing the back strip

Back and sides

Close up of back strip

Not Exactly Butter



Bent the sides yesterday and it took most of the day to do so.  Not exactly butter in my hands.  But results are what matters.  The Rosewood yielded on the bending iron into the desired shape, and as far as I can tell, very little springback.  Cutting them to exact width and shape will be followed by a lot of scraping and sanding to remove the bit of scorched resin that was cooked out of the wood during the bending process on the hot iron.  In case you hadn't seen it before, here's a pic of the iron, which is heated by an electric charcoal grill starter controlled by a heavy duty dimmer switch.  It's used at about the temperature of your pancake griddle...hot enough to sizzle when spritzed with water.  You really get a feel for the wood when you bend this way.  I have a Fox side bender, but with wood this valuable, I'd rather do it by hand and have full control of the process.  G'day.



Almost there



better look at the iron





Fitted into the form





another view





Real Braces This Time

There are all kinds of braces:  for you teeth, to hold up your pants, to hold up your clothesline, to hold up your roof, but these are the real thing and, believe it or not, they are responsible, in major part, for the quality of the sound of your guitar.  In concert (pun intended) with the top, neck and back, they shape the sound quality.  Do I understand it all?  NO, but I think this is going to be one awesome guitar.  BTW, not glued on yet...too humid even with AC.

Top and back braces Fir on top, spruce on back

Bending a side

I also started bending one of the sides.  This rosewood is a bit stiffer than Indian Rosewood so it's a slow process.  Cracking a side of this precious stuff would be a disaster!  Not gonna happen though.  Slow and easy does it.

Also practiced spraying lacquer (gloss) today  This is gonna be awesome.

All for today

G'day

BRACE YOURSELF

OK, so you don't really have to brace yourself, but I started the process of making the braces for the top and back.  The top braces will be made of some very straight grained old fir that I obtained from NW Lumber.  It's a nice, rich reddish brown color that will contrast nicely with the white of the top spruce..did I mention how awesome this top is?  More on this momentarily (no, I didn't call anyone a moron).  The tentellones will, perhaps be cedar or mahogany that almost matches the fir.  The reverse-kerf lining for the back will (I think) be mahogany as well.

I've tested the top now several times using Visual Analyzer an think that I am getting some usable results.  The tap tone, as I've thinned the top has shifted frequency toward the bass side.  Problem is, since I have no experience using this method of analysis to predict the outcom. I'll simply keep the records of the testing and when its time to play the guitar, I'll know just how this data predicts the outcome.  Since the top goes on first, this allows some tweaking of the top to adjust the sound up to the point I put the back on.

I also worked on the head plate and a sample of the rosewood today.  I'm experimenting with the rosewood pore filler and haven't quite got it yet.  I'll do a bit of research online to find out what I'm missing.  Here are a couple of shots of the wood from a couple of different lighting perspectives.

Just a couple of coats of satin lacquer

Same piece, different lighting (satin, not Satan)

Some family stuff.  A Mercer Clan reunion (descendants of Arthur Morgan Mercer) is to be held at an unspecified (here, that is) time and place.  We expect about 20 or so people from around the US and Canada.  It's been a long time since I've seen them and I'm really looking forward to the visit.  More on (not moron) this soon.

Thatsallfornowgdevening (sp?)

TOP O' the mornin'

Working on tops (several, but I think I've narrowed it down to THIS ONE):

Best rosette inlay

Why?  Because I think it is the best rosette inlay I've ever done, AND this piece of wood has awsome sound characteristics as far as I can tell.  Some testing will tell. 

Next steps:  1. Thinning this top to final thickness; 2.  Making sure back and sides are the right thickness; 3.  bending the sides  4.  making and installing braces on top and back; 5,  putting final touches on neck, headpiece and spanish heel;  6, ASSEMBLY and bindings; 7. Attach bridge; 8. PREP AND APPLY FINISH; 9. install frets and nut and STRINGS!!! and final setup 10.  SIT DOWN AND PLAY THIS AWESOME GUITAR.  /Still a bit of time involved, and I want to invest the time to make every step absolutely the finest work I've ever done.  The elements are all here, its just a matter of time.