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Father/Daughter guitar


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One evening a couple of years ago my daughter asked me if I could build her a guitar. I suggested that she instead should pick one of all guitar in the house. However she explained that as she have quite short fingers she found most guitar pretty hard to play. So I contemplated a bit on the topic and then put a Capo on a guitar to test out were she was comfortable to play. It turned out that at the third fret she could reach around and fret chords in a much more comfortable way. So based on that I drew up a smaller guitar, with a smaller body. It turned out it can be considered an Alto Guitar, having a 21" scale. Its a scaled down version of my current EvenStar Acoustic based on some ideas from the Kasha/Scheider guitars. The back and sides are Bloodwood, the top Sitka spruce, the neck is flamed maple and the fretboard, sound hole ring and bridge is also made from bloodwood

However when I presented the plans for her I got inspired by John's (Avengers63's) Father/daughter build and told her that I wasn't the one to build the guitar. She had to do it herself. To my surprise she actually agreed under the conditions that I should supervise the build and operate all dangerous machines (band saw etc). So we started this over two years ago. I forgot to snap pics on most of the process but some pictures exist and I would like to share them with you.

No pics of the sides being bent. I have a fox style bender with heating blankets and a LMI heat controller. I build with a quite heavy neck block that extend over the top/back pretty much like a spinach heal does. However I screw the necks on, more about that later. This is were we had the sides bent, the neck block contoured and the kerfed lining installed. The body was sanded against dishes clad with stick-it abrasive.

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The top being cut out and the young luthier refusing to be on cam...

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The luthier sanding top bracings to an arch, using a beam clamped to the top of a radiused dish to ensure they are perpendicular to the surface

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The top bracing system kan be seen here, in rough shape, still not glued to the top.

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The top being glued to the sides

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And the luthier still refuses to be on cam...

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I must mention that she was 16 when we started this build. She has now turned 18, soon to be 19. Time really fly...

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When the top was glued in place and the excess wood trimmed away we routed the neck pocket. Yes, I build using an electric guitar neck pocket. It gives more stability and as I use a larger the normal neck block I believe it will eliminate the need for future neck resets and the neck/body transition hopefully will be much more stable. Time will tell.... Anyway, the neck pocket routed

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building up the neck heel using double stick tape to protect the body from glue...

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...as we use the actual guitar as part of the clamping system. This way the heel block get the best possible fit to the body.

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Like that

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The heel is "hollowed out" so that is only has contact with the body for about 5 mm along the perimeter of the contact surface. That way it is easier to sand the "joint" to a perfect fit.

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Then the neck was rough shaped (no pics) and fret markers drilled for and added. We used 4 mm aluminium rods for markers.

The luthier herself, measuring for the side dots

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actually measuring going on

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Drilled for side dots

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And side dots glued in place

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next the dots are filed flush, the neck shaped and finish sanded. No pics of that...

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The back strip is glued in place

We also made X-shaped back braces, here is my daughter sanding those to an arc as with the top braces.

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And the box glued up and presented to the LMI binding machine

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The binding is glued in place

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And then the bindings are scraped flush. She chose a red celluloid binding with a four black and white accents on the top.

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More scraping

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I realised I don't have any pics on us cutting the sound hole or making the sound hole ring or bridge or anything. However a last pic of her drilling for the bridge pins.

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After this; a lot of sanding, set up work, including routing for the bridge sadel, drilling for tuners, making a nut etc etc, but this is what I have. So whats left? Just taking the glamour pictures and entering the guitar in

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Mucho respect for that build Peter....Peter and the luthier that is.

The luthier may not want to be recognizable on cam....I understand that as I hate having pictures taken of me (at least when I know it is happening), but I see she is perfectly willing to display her arsenal of fingernail treatments. :)

SR

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I just had a peek ot the GOTM entry.

The luthier needs to be placed on a pedestal and bowed to.

And the master deserves an evening to himself with his favorite adult beverage while he quietly contemplates an impressive job well done. You taught her soooo well.

SR

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Thanks a lot Scott! Both me and the daughter appreciated your comments.

Yes I am proud of the work we did together. It also gave us quite some true quality time. On top of that a really nice instrument with a tone of its own. It is tuned 3 semitones higher than "normal" and it is interesting that while your fingers go for those familiar pattern (or same old boring chords...) the sound is different and you start exploring new areas within the same old routine. I might need to build a guitar like this for myself now...

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Thanks guys!

Re: Strings we used a pretty standard .012 Phosphor Bronze set, Ernie Ball. As the guitar is tuned three semitones up the tension is the same as it would be on a standard scale guitar. We tested to tune it to standard tuning. It worked, but the guitar need a bit more tension to really drive the top. I'm thinking we should try a 014 set or possible a Phosphor Bronze resonator set. They come as heavy as 016!

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