jaycee Posted March 11, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 11, 2009 (edited) The bridge is more or less done except for some tweaking and general tidying up. The rosewood gave me a headache and affected my throat, so I had to work in a well ventillated area with a dust mask on. Overall I am pretty pleased with the outcome. I am not planning on any other way of fastening the bridge to the top other than glue. So the footprint is quite large and the strings which are attatched from the rear edge are recessed about 3mm to distribute the pull more to the centre of the bridge. At least that's the theory Edited March 11, 2009 by jaycee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaycee Posted March 30, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2009 (edited) I went back through the grits again starting at 320 and here is the result The finished polished board I am allways suprised by the amount of reflection you get on wood just using sandpaper. I started off with 80 grit to radius the board to 18" then went through the grits, 120, 240, 320, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1200 and 1500. After 400 you are more or less starting the polishing process as very little material comes off. I found a big difference between the 400 and the 600. At 400 the fret slots could be filled with sawdust quite easilly but at 600 it would have taken at least twice the time. The next stage is to apply rustins Danish oil and then put the frets in. Edited March 30, 2009 by jaycee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaycee Posted April 20, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2009 The end is nigh, at least for this build anyway, finally got the frets in at the second attempt. I used a different type of ca glue this time and it went off within 20secs resulting in the frets not sitting well on the board, so they all came out. So the second timeI decided to go the cumpiano way and use a slither of AR glue on the tang and that worked well. The bridge isn't glued on just placed in it's correct position, which took about 15 minutes to set up after checking the placement from various points and making micro adjustments. The next step is to tidy up the string grooves on the bridge and take it through the grits. And the machine heads are on order. I'm getting excited about this now, i've given myself until the end of May to finish it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaycee Posted April 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 21, 2009 Ok now comes another scary bit. After measuring and checking from various points, double checking my measurements, then double checking my double checking I transferred the position to a piece of A4 as mentioned in my last post. I then sanded down the top wiping away all traces of the bridge position so I had a clean top to work it all out again today. happily both measurements matched up. The bridge will sit in the cut out and be glued hopefully tommorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaycee Posted April 23, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 23, 2009 Here is the bridge being glued on. Those clamps are heavy and I didn't want to put the top under to much pressure, so I devised this to solve the problem The neck is very nice, I have sanded it 120, 180, 240 and it feels very smooth I may go to 320 before getting either Danish oil on it, or some satin varnish which is what is going on the top. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaycee Posted April 29, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 29, 2009 First couple of coats of varnish on The neck is awesome it has really come to life with the varnish on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sthell Posted April 30, 2009 Report Share Posted April 30, 2009 That looks beautiful! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaycee Posted May 30, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 30, 2009 I was pleased with the flatness of the headstock. Anyway this build is DONE. ;D, And in my and my mates humble opinion it sounds amazing, just like a real 12 string..lol. The sound has exceeded my expectations. I will post some pics later but here is the headstock I am calling it "dread-niamh". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaycee Posted June 3, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 3, 2009 A couple of pics of the heelcap which is Maple Burr or Burl depending where you live Courtesy of Wez Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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