Starting Two New (old) Builds...

[Blackdog]

Hi again, it's been a while...

The original customer for whom my last build (the Korina singlecut) was made backed-off on me when the guitar was finished and ready to ship. I was really pissed-off but the guitar was great, so I was keeping the guitar for myself until a colleague at work got the chance to try it and fell in love with it immediately. We agreed on a good price and he now happily owns it.

The guitar is so resonant and light that I have been missing it since, though. Since I have all the necessary woods and parts, I decided to build one for myself.

A couple of months later, this same colleague had the chance to try my Sapeli doublecut. He wanted to buy it too, but I want to keep that one for myself (the figured sapeli neck is a very unique piece), so he commissioned me to make him one. So, the way things are now, I am building another run of the last two builds...

Up to now it has always been a one-off one at a time build process, so for me this is going to be interesting in two ways: I will try to drive the two builds pretty much in parallel and I will get to see how consistent I can be at building these things.

I was hesitant about starting another build thread because of the repetitive nature of these builds, but I think there might still be some interest (to see if I make the same mistakes again or all new ones ) so I decided to give it a try.

These are the two originals:

Sapeli DC24

Korina SC22

The cosmetic details will change slightly but the structural elements will all be there:

Korina SC22:

Two piece korina back, slightly thicker that the original at 41mm.

Bookmatched top-grade quilt maple top (16mm)

One piece korina neck with hot-rod and CF bars.

BRW fretboard w/flame maple binding and maple/macassar purfling. 25" scale, 22 frets.

BRW headstock faceplate, backstrap and heelcap.

Sperzel tuners, TonePros wraparound bridge, Bareknuckles pickups (BKP90 and Blackdog HB)

Nickel hardware. Pearl Inlays on the 12th fret, TRC and body.

Sapeli DC24:

One piece honduras mahogany back, 36mm.

Two piece figured sapeli top (18mm)

One piece honduras mahogany neck with hot-rod and CF bars.

Maccassar fretboard w/IRW binding and maple purfling. 25" scale, 24 frets.

Figured sapeli headstock faceplate, TonePros wraparound bridge, TBD pickups, but dual HB.

Gold hardware. Single pearl inlay at 12th fret.

[Blackdog]

A short status report, this is where I am at the moment with the Korina SC:

Thanks for reading.

[Blackdog]

And this is the (similar) status of the Sapeli DC:

Cheers.

[chops1983]

Theres always interest from my corner Blackdog. You build beautiful guitars! What sort of time frame do you complete these builds in?

[Blackdog]

Theres always interest from my corner Blackdog. You build beautiful guitars! What sort of time frame do you complete these builds in?

Thanks for the interest chops, I'm loving your last build too !!

With the available spare time my day job leaves me with it seems to take me between 6-8 months to build one of these: The original korina SC was started in early May'09 and finished right before Christmas.

I don't know how much longer it will take making two, but I'm taking advantage here of the fact that the customer is not really in a hurry.

Clearly, if time becomes a factor the commission will take precedence, for now I'll try to keep building both concurrently.

[Narcissism]

I don't always know what to say in build threads because I feel like a Steve jobs broken record. But I do take a lot of interest in your builds. I'll be watching this one especially when you start the carves and the neck!

[ScottR]

Theres always interest from my corner Blackdog. You build beautiful guitars!

Amen!

SR

Edited July 13, 2010 by ScottR

[Blackdog]

A few more things were done in the past days:

Routed both necks for the CF bars.

Thicknessed the headstocks and carved the HS part of the volute.

Added the laminations on the headstocks:

Brazilian RW for the SC (to match the fretboard), and a BRW veneer as a backstrap just for looks (will also have a similar heelcap).

Figured Sapeli for the DC, with a thin maple accent between faceplate and headstock.

Shaped the headstocks and drilled the pilot tuner holes.

I'm using an updated headstock shape, it was a bit too small in my previous builds. This version is just a bit longer and wider, should look more balanced.

Thanks for looking !!

[chops1983]

Theres always interest from my corner Blackdog. You build beautiful guitars! What sort of time frame do you complete these builds in?

Thanks for the interest chops, I'm loving your last build too !!

With the available spare time my day job leaves me with it seems to take me between 6-8 months to build one of these: The original korina SC was started in early May'09 and finished right before Christmas.

I don't know how much longer it will take making two, but I'm taking advantage here of the fact that the customer is not really in a hurry.

Clearly, if time becomes a factor the commission will take precedence, for now I'll try to keep building both concurrently.

Cool. 6-8 months seems do-able. My last build was ongoing for around just under 15 months but i was away for 6. Like you the day job gets in the way. I find when i build, it consumes a lot of my spare time and my playing time is nearly nil. Gonna take a break from building to figure out what i want to do next. I have some plans in my head though

Keep the pics coming!

[Blackdog]

...I find when i build, it consumes a lot of my spare time and my playing time is nearly nil. Gonna take a break from building to figure out what i want to do next. I have some plans in my head though

Man, I know what you mean !!

I'm starting playing in a band context again after a good 8 years, and it's getting tough. I find that I should devote more (some ?) of the available free time to practicing, but then I love building... It's a struggle. Maybe I should just quit the day job.

[chops1983]

...I find when i build, it consumes a lot of my spare time and my playing time is nearly nil. Gonna take a break from building to figure out what i want to do next. I have some plans in my head though

Man, I know what you mean !!

I'm starting playing in a band context again after a good 8 years, and it's getting tough. I find that I should devote more (some ?) of the available free time to practicing, but then I love building... It's a struggle. Maybe I should just quit the day job.

Now your talking! You build great guitars, im sure their must be some interest from other musicians around you, You got a website?

The new geet just had its first gig...Went great guns!!!

[Blackdog]

Just a bit of an update.

Things have been a bit slow these days because I've been doing some amp work too, changing output trafos and blueprinting my old 64 Princeton...

Anyway,

I have cut the pieces for the 12th fret inlays and they have been glued on top of the fretboards for scribing around... Trying to convince my wife to do it. Not succeeding so far...

I started with the tops. The sapeli one was significantly cupped, but since it was a good 23mm thick and I only needed 18mm I joined it all the same, and planed it both sides afterwards, down to the 18mm needed.

I rough cut the shape and it is now being glued to the mahogany back.

The maple one is a bit more problematic. One of the halves was significantly cupped, the other one was not. This topset is 16mm thick and I can't afford to make it any thinner, so I followed the method that seems to be the most popular around this forum: I sprayed the cupped side with some warm water and I put it over a verified flat marble tile, and under pressure.

Let's see how cupped or flat it is after a few days.

That's pretty much all for now, thanks for reading.

[Blackdog]

Got some things done this weekend.

The top on the Sapeli guitar was trimmed to size and I eun a roundover bit around the back, it's incredible the difference it makes... I also routed clean the cavity from the top glue process, just for the looks, because it will require deepening further on anyway. After a bit of sanding it looks like this:

[Blackdog]

And the maple top of the korina guitar flattened pretty well after the marble tile treatment. I could join the halves, rough cut and glue it to the body back.

For this guitar I decided to add a thin macassar veneer to highlight the maple to korina transition. I will do the same with the fretboard as it will have a flamed maple binding.

This was a bit tricky because I did it all in one operation which meant 4 surfaces to apply glue to and the careful alignment of the top and back had to be quick.

It all worked out great and the center seams of the top and back align perfectly.

I also run the roundover bit on the back of this one. This Korina is terribly soft and light, it's worrying me a bit, I really hope it sounds good !!

Also the cavities were cleaned, and I wet the top a bit for the pictures, it's going to be an impressive quilt.

Thanks for reading.

[Blackdog]

Hey Luis, I always love to see progress on your guitars. Will these finally get a headstock logo?

Hi there José Luis !!

Well, yes and no...

You see, the feathers inlay I'm putting in the customer's guitar 12th fret has become the de-facto logo...

He insisted on this and the previous customer (for whom the korina SC was originally built) also requested the "Blackdog trademark feather inlay" at the time...

I'm thinking about commissioning somebody to provide me with the already cut pieces for this inlay so I don't have to cut the same design over and over again...

Regarding the headstock, there's not much real state there to put anything, even with the redesigned one. Specially if the TRC gets an inlay, which in the case of mine will, it may look too busy.

I guess that the place for my "logo" is the 12th fret in the end. But all my guitars get my signature on the back of the headstock, anyway...

Thanks for the support !!

[Blackdog]

Wow !! Long time no post !!!

I better catch up with this build thread before I get banned from the GOTM competition !!!

Jokes apart, I've been busy with these two. Fortunately I have been able to carry both builds along so far.

I have routed the ledges of the tops on both guitars, and angled the top of the Sapeli DC. The Korina SC has a dual slope top angle, so I haven't done that one yet.

But I have indeed done a lot more on the fretboards and necks. Both necks are carved, volute and heel included. Fingerboards inlaid, bound, attached and radiused to 12" by now (the pictures show the necks before radiusing).

Remaining work on the necks: finesse carving, these are just in the ballpark but I intend to do an asymetric profile on mine, just for kicks. I will do a compound radius on both, so I'll go to about 10" at the headstock and blend it into 12" towards the bridge. Then I will be ready to fret both necks.

Then I'll route the first angle on the SC top and I will be ready to cut the templates and route the neck pockets.

Thanks for watching !!

[Blackdog]

Long overdue update to this thread.

Quite a lot has been done to these builds. The necks are pretty much finished, fretted and levelled, fine fretwork still to be done. The TRCs and their recesses are routed on the headstocks.

The pictures show the necks with the tuners being fit-tested: Gotoh Kluson styled, locking, and TonePros Kluson Deluxe.

The bodies have the tops angled and neck pockets routed. The pickup cavities are also in place. Finally the back countour and treble horn scoop have been carved.

Now I have to start with the top carve on both.

Thanks for reading.

[Blackdog]

The woodwork of these babies has been finished.

t has been a very successful experience so far, as I could carry the two builds together pretty well.

The final fretwork was done, the carving of the necks and tops finished. The hardware was fit-tested and the proper alignment of the neck and bridge verified as I usually do.

This was the status of both builds by the end of the year:

And this is where the two builds started separate paths...

[Blackdog]

I gave priority to the Sapeli DC24 as it is a commission. The guitar has a simple nitro natural finish over the pore filled mahogany, but it proved a bit more problematic than I expected.

The pore filling didn't go all too well. Apparently it shrank quite a bit and the pores kept popping back under the lacquer.

It took a few iterations of level sanding between lacquer sprays to get to a potentially flat finish (that is not too thick). Now it is happily curing. Hopefully it will be sanded/polished and assembled by the end of this month.

For the Korina SC22 we will apply the pore filler in two steps to try to minimise this problem: Apply, let it dry overnight, apply again, let it dry overnight, final sand.

I may also rub a coat of nitro sanding sealer on the guitar before commencing the nitro spraying.

[Blackdog]

With the Sapeli DC24 curing it was time to resume the Korina SC22 build.

This one is a build for myself, and sports a pearl inlay on the top.

The pieces were cut from white and gold MOP, green rippled abalone and rippled awabi.

These are glued in place for scribing. We use a thick nitro based nail lacquer as the glue, as it is tough enough to withstand the lateral forces of the xacto knife for scribing and it is then easily softened with acetone.

The pictures show the final product with a wet top for contrast.

Now we are working on the masking of the top and sides, just exposing what will be the maple faux-binding. We seal this with nitro sanding sealer before staining the top.

The colour tests have also started with a couple of maple off-cuts from the top. This will be interesting, fror the little I've seen so far the quilt of this top will be amazing !!

[Blackdog]

Update time: The finishing stages have now started.

We stain with water based StewMac concentrated colors, so the grain of the top was raised with a damp rag and sanded down to 320grit three times (until no more grain raised), and the top was fine sanded to 400. Then conveniently degreased with naphta.

We did some color tests, the blue and greeninsh-blue were quite nice, but I thought they flattened the quilt too much. We opted for the black-copper, which incidentally is the same color of the previous Korina SC22 I built last year.

The faux binding was sealed with nitro sanding sealer. I learned this masking and sealing trick from some other forum member whose name I can't recall right now. The masking is a pain, but it produces the cleanest faux-bindings.

The first stain was pure black. It was washed off on the spot with a some clean cotton cloth and water as much as possible.

The black was sanded off when dry, avoiding the edges to keep the sealing intact and to keep all the black stain there. Then a second staining with black was applied to the edges and blended towards the center, to create the burst effect.

After it was completely dry the third stain, the copper color, was applied to the whole surface. Left to dry overnight and a couple of nitro clear coats were applied for sealing. I'm liking the results a lot, the color looks a lot deeper on this wide quilt than on the tight flame of the previous one. The burst effect is much nicer and smoother on this one too, we're fine tuning the procedure. Obviously, the same double staining (sans the burst) was applied to the maple knobs, HB ring and P90 cover, as seen in the following pic.

Next step was the (very messy) application of the pore filler to the back and the neck.

Now I'll have to sand all that stuff off and seal the back and neck with a coat or two of lacquer before setting the neck in the body. Looking forward to starting the "official" finish spraying on this one…

Thanks for watching.

[Blackdog]

There has been some progress on these two.

The singlecut is being sprayed right now, and the Sapeli DC has been finished.

Here are some pictures of the Sapeli Sisters. My original one from 2009, with the top inlay and the figured woods all around, and the new one with a simpler look.

In these side-by-side pictures it can be seen that there were a few design modifications introduced, apart from the obvious control layout and cosmetic details.

Even though I never had a problem with the neck stability in mine, being the new one a commission I decided to make a slightly bigger heel and the fingerboard extends a bit longer into the body, which increases the gluing surface a bit. This can hardly be noticed when playing, anyway.

I will open another thread with some more finished pictures.

...and I'll go and continue with the singlecut finishing...

[FireFly]

These are nice! I really like the quilting on the single cut!

[Blackdog]

OK, almost there....

I think that today's will be the final coats for the korina SC.

I'm really disappointed with the korina piece I'm using for the body.

When I was choosing the pieces for the build I had two korina blanks. One was a 1-piece blank and the other was a 2-piece. I ended up choosing the 2-pc because it was significantly lighter.

But the thing is so soft that you can dent it just by looking at it with intent !! It scratches so easily too. I have spent a lot of time sanding and re-sanding until everything was finish worthy...

And to make maters worse, in the middle of the blank it has some darker streaks that appear on the sides, the cutaway and the belly-cut in the form of darker, blackish pores. It makes it look dirty. The back is spotless, though.

The neck korina was always a bit darker, and the blank had a huge darker area. But with the carving in place that dark section is almost completely gone. There's still a spot on the back of the neck about mid-way, but it will be just a character mark...

I like mahogany so much better !!!!

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to finishing this one. With all the hardware on and as a playable instrument, everything will be forgotten hopefully...

[Blackdog]

With the Korina SC22 now finished, this is the end of a successful experience: to drive two builds pretty much in parallel and to re-build what were essentially copies of the previous two builds.

The Korina guitar plays beautifully, and as it has been the case for the last three builds now, the fretwork was very good. After stringing up to pitch for the first time the guitar was perfectly playable. Only fret polishing was required.

I'm liking the neck profile I'm achieving these days, slightly more slender than a 50s rounded neck, it plays great. And it is also deliciously light (7.25lbs )!!

The sound is very interesting. A lot lighter and high-mid focused. It's a fresh new sound compared to the other guitars I own.

Just the single mandatory picture to close this thread, as there are more pictures in the "finished" thread.

Thanks for reading.