Nylon String Chambered Body

[Johny]

I'm a long time lurker here, first time poster.

Here is my last project!

The posts are copied from another forum where I also posted this

Enjoy!

Let's start from the start: the idea is to have a nylon stringed guitar that I can play at stage volume with my band.

Got a body on ebay:

It's a harmony Bobcat body from 1964.

I really could have done the body myself from a plank of wood, but I thought it was just more fun to use an old and cool piece and work around it.

You can see here the front and back maple veneers. The body is poplar

Here is the neck I bought, thinking I'd use it on the project. It's the last time you'll see it, because I decided to build the neck myself to really have it the way I wanted.

Stripping the body

Body stripped, you can see the green poplar

After a lot of routing, here are the rough chambers in the body, they will be fine tuned later on.

And here is a little mod I had to do on my pickup system

It's a DTAR Wavelength dual source, which is a undersaddle transducer with a microphone and a 18v preamp. The mod was just to cut that pc board and replace it with shielded wires, because I wouldn't use a round soundhole like it was meant to be installed on.

[Johny]

Then I started to think more clearly about the soundhole design I wanted.

Here are the options that made it to the final selection:

And here is a plank of african mahogany that will be made into a top

This is my first headstock design, based on Artinger's

I decided to tune the shape a little bit to make it more subtle and neat.

[Johny]

Ok, neck construction post.

It was my first neck, and I enjoyed the whole process.

Cutting the scarf:

Cleaning up the scarf joint (handplane, sanding blocks):

You see that I'm off my line right now, worked it a little bit more and then clamped it:

First mock-up:

Routing out the truss rod slot (double action from LMI):

There ya go:

Planing out the fretboard taper:

Edited July 13, 2010 by Johny

[kpcrash]

uhhh.... cool

[Johny]

Back to the top and soundhole thing:

No pictures of this, but I jointed the two halves, then glued them together, then cut the outline with a bandsaw at my uncle's shop.

Back to my dad's garage:

Traced the outline of the hole, I cut it with a coping saw:

Still rough

A plastic card behind sandpaper gives me some resilience to shape the curves, along with some files and razor blades.

Done:

Glued on the top:

Than shaped the neck pocket and neck heel:

The obligatory "hold the guitar by the neck to show tight fit" picture:

Here I glued on the ebony fretboard on the very rough mahogany neck, and I also rounded over the edges of the top with the router and some sanding afterwards:

And with some frets on:

Specs so far: 650mm scale length (standard for classical), 22 frets, 20 inch radius and gold fretwire from LMI. (I really love these guys, they are aweseome people to do business with)

[Johny]

Forgot to tell about the headstock shaping thing, I'll post better picture later on, it was still rough at this point.

Bought a spokeshave, tuned it and sharpened the blade, then began carving the neck (a lot of fun, to say the least)

The neck:

What didn't make it as a neck:

Shaped the volute and heel with a chisel:

And you see it in proportion with the body.

Fine tuned the headstock with small files and sandpaper:

With the world cup to keep me entertained (with those obnoxious vuvuzelas)

[Johny]

Then the sanding process began.

Gold MOP markers:

Less rough neck:

Filled the pores of the top with epoxy:

Sqee-gee and a plastic card to spread it around

Your eyes should be misty from the emotion at this point. Mine were. :love:

[Johny]

While the epoxy is curing, I decided to work a little bit on the tusq saddle I had.

Wanted it to have a slight backward angle in the slot, I 've read that it would help to even out the response from the piezo. So played around with CA glue and files and sandpaper, until I was happy:

Back to the neck: started oiling it (danish oil) and made sure the tuners were aligned:

Here is the only major "!"?$*!&$" moment:

I was beginning the application of the golden shellac on the body, which had had 3 coats of epoxy pore filling so far. Well I sanded back to wood in some places, the shellac penetrated the wood there and made it contrast. :eek:

Taking a deep breath, I decided to sand everything back so that the epoxy would be "just" in the pores of the wood.

Sanded it all off, then tested on some scraps with just the golden shellac on.

Victory!

So I began the application of shellac (mixed with denatured alcohol and applied with a brush) on the top.

Edited July 13, 2010 by Johny

[Johny]

Masked the top and began working on the back and sides.

I Wanted to have a black semi-satin finish on the back and sides, so I mixed some black pigment (actually ashes from vine tree) with the shellac mix and then went at it.

You see the coats are not opaque by themselves, but the accumulation of them gives off a nice and warm black finish.

After a few coats, I wet sand the thing with olive oil as a lubricant to bring back a flat surface, then clean everything and put on some more coats

3 coats of oil on the neck, in the meantime:

[Johny]

Unmasked the top

Then the job of applying finish continues, as I need to get rid of the ridge the black has made around the tape.

Basically: apply shellac with a brush, the next day sand everything with 400grit and olive oil, then 000 steel wool, clean everything, apply some more, etc.

You also see in these pics the Traynor all tube guitar holder I have.

We're getting there

[Johny]

Finishing is done, you'll see better pics at the end.

Masking around where the bridge will be:

Then scraped the finish down to bare wood:

And glued on the bridge (which I reshaped a bit and stained black to make it look like ebony)

Shaped the nut:

Some of you might really not like what you're about to see, but it worked out pretty well for me on my last projects.

The nut slotting monster:

Which is a big ass knife with 220 sandpaper on the back of the blade

And at this point I stringed the thing up, did the setup, had to put a shim in the neck pocket, removed a bit of saddle material, adjusted the intonation just a hair.

[Johny]

Finished everything with a good wax and a hand buff.

And there you have it:

You can kinda see the two small thumbweels which control the mic volume and master volume of the system.

[Johny]

One of the many guitars I want to build one day, is a chambered or solid nylon string, because I used to play classical guitar back in college. I hope one day I get the chance to. Your headstock design is absolutely perfect and fitting. I will have no compulsion in using it and giving you credit for it.

The rest of the guitar looks fantastic as well.

Hey! Thanks, and feel free to use my design! It'd be an honor to inspire others, having myself been inspired so much around here.

[Johny]

(Yeah, I'll put on some new screws with real bushings in the near future)

I love it! Plays really good and sounds impressive. Needs a little bit of tweaking still to get a really even response from all the strings on the piezo.

If you have any questions, please go ahead!

[verhoevenc]

I REALLY like the headstock! Congrats. Looks great. I was a little worried when I saw the first couple pics, but you really turned that body around!

Chris

[Duke]

Wow...that turned out GREAT!

[Our Souls inc.]

No questions really, just wanted to say :

I wanted the third soundhole pictured and read with baited breath - relieved to see you went with it. The more I read , the more I liked the build.

4 words....

Guitar. Of. The. Month. ( IMO )

THAT is the epitome of a "project guitar" . Congrats.

My only little nit-pick is the angle that the strings wrap around the tuning pegs on that *beautiful* headstock. ( which is nothing but a personal, desperate attempt to find SOMETHING to improve upon , lol )

I <3 this guitar! funny neck screws and all !

[theodoropoulos]

After a lot of routing, here are the rough chambers in the body, they will be fine tuned later on.

my question is how do you fine tune the chambers..............

[chops1983]

Really impressive build mate, that soundhole looks fantastic. Congrats!

[Drak]

Beautiful Project, I love it! :D B)

[decadentjon]

that really is a very cool build, the first pictures had me a little frightened also but that thing is beautiful. love the body/headstock design, timber choices and finish. really neat take on the slotted headstock!

[Johny]

my question is how do you fine tune the chambers..............

I just removed some more material around the bridge area and deepened the cavities a bit more.

I wanted the "top" to "vibrate" and move some air as much as it could.

Hey and thanks for the comments everyone. I might just try GOTM...

[Andronico]

This is a fantastic guitar ! I love her ! The headstock is beautiful but you need a logo for it !

Congratulations !

[plinky]

Awesome work! Now you got me thinking about some of my old clunkers lying around.

[Ripthorn]

This is an awesome guitar. I have been wanting to do a nylon string guitar for a while, but was not able to get past the startup cost of doing an acoustic classical. This project has added one more build onto my list. My wife will be cursing your name in no time.