First Build- Washburn Style Parlour Guitar.

[sevendeadly]

Hi all,

This is my first post to Project Guitar.

I'm a student on London Met's Musical Instruments degree- where I am learning how to build acoustic guitars.

I have to keep notes on the builds we do so I figured I would post them here as I might get some tips form some people and still have a record that I can copy/paste at the end of the year to hand in.

The first year build is a Martin Travel guitar and the second year is a Washburn parlour guitar.

I've started on the Washburn first as some other people in the class are still sharpening tools and we start the travel guitar at the same time.

Hence I'm preparing some wood for the Washburn.

It will look something like this by the time I am done:

My body and neck will be mahogany, spruce top, rosewood fingerboard, cocobolo headstock veneer and a rosewood bridge.

So far I have planed the neck blank flat and square, cut the scarf join, planed that flat and glued it up.

Not too bad for a first effort.

I have also cut the pieces for the neck heel and made them flat and square, ready for glueing next week.

That is it for now- will post again soon.

James

Edited December 2, 2012 by sevendeadly

[verhoevenc]

Parlors are mad fun! Best of luck!

Chris

[sevendeadly]

Parlors are mad fun! Best of luck!

Chris

Thanks Chris.

[Prostheta]

Hi James and welcome to the site! Great idea about documenting your build as an aid for your course.

You're right about that scarf too - looks very clean. I only tried my first "over and under" scarf myself last week and had a little slippage aligning my neck lamination pinstripes. They'll be under paint anyway, however I thought the practice would be useful.

I didn't realise the London Met did that course. I presume it is a full three years for a BA or something? Crazy expensive course to be doing....!

[sevendeadly]

Hi James and welcome to the site! Great idea about documenting your build as an aid for your course.

You're right about that scarf too - looks very clean. I only tried my first "over and under" scarf myself last week and had a little slippage aligning my neck lamination pinstripes. They'll be under paint anyway, however I thought the practice would be useful.

I didn't realise the London Met did that course. I presume it is a full three years for a BA or something? Crazy expensive course to be doing....!

Thanks mate- yes glad I joined, learned a lot already from reading threads.

That scarf join took me a while to do, being my first one.

I got it level mostly with my block plane, which I find more comfortable to use than a smoothing plane or a scraper.

We are discouraged form using sandpaper at any stage during the builds and mostly work with hand tools.

Obviously the scarf is cut on a bandsaw but everything else with regards to thicknessing is done by hand plane.

Not sure if that is typical or not- I see people sanding a lot but it is something they really don't want us doing.

It is a 3 year B.Sc and I'm looking at the masters straight after.

Not cheap but we get a lot of shop time, study acoustics and it is a great environment to be in to learn I reckon.

[Prostheta]

I can understand why. Sandpaper is a cheat and rarely produces a true flat surface unless you know how to manage its shortcomings. Hand plane work is far more economical and healthier too....shavings don't clog your nose and lungs up like dust does, plus an edge can be resharpened with nothing ending up in the bin before you can start work again.

Do you get discounts on materials or are they at market price? I get crazy cheap prices on woods here where I am studying however they are not specifically cut or meant to be instrument grade. Plenty of diamonds in the rough if you're willing to ransack pallets!

[sevendeadly]

I can understand why. Sandpaper is a cheat and rarely produces a true flat surface unless you know how to manage its shortcomings. Hand plane work is far more economical and healthier too....shavings don't clog your nose and lungs up like dust does, plus an edge can be resharpened with nothing ending up in the bin before you can start work again.

Do you get discounts on materials or are they at market price? I get crazy cheap prices on woods here where I am studying however they are not specifically cut or meant to be instrument grade. Plenty of diamonds in the rough if you're willing to ransack pallets!

The way it works is they give you the wood to work on.

If you want to buy it at the end of the year (ie keep the guitar) then you can pay for it.

I think the materials for the parlour guitars is around £30, so heavily subsidised.

You don't have to buy it- I probably will.

The degree is £7k a year so I guess we pay in one way or another.

I'm using mostly their wood for the parlour guitar, although I've obtained a nice piece of cocobolo for the headstock that I am going to take in.

[sevendeadly]

Ok- some changes were made today.

Firstly, the ribs and back will be made from cherry, not mahogany.

I found a nice piece that has some figure.

Today I made the neck heel and glued it up.

Then I put my spruce soundboard on a shooting board.

and then glued the two pieces together.

It all happened quite quickly today- I was surprised to be honest.

Here are some pics of the back and sides:

Next job will be getting the sides down to 2mm, shooting the back, glueing it together and then planing the back and top to around 3mm.

Reckon that is a couple of weeks away but I'll update as things happen.

[sevendeadly]

Today was good.

Neck blank is ready now:

The top that I glued yesterday is fine too- no pics of that though.

Spent the day planeing the ribs- they are tearing out a bit so will get on the scraper quite soon.

I have 1mm to drop first though.

Won't be doing anything until next Wednesday though.

Will glue the back up too.