Andyjr1515

The bandsaw looks just the ticket!  Count me as envious  

It's frustrating about the pickups, though.  Hopefully they will arrive this week.

Still haven't got to the bottom headstock plate, but I have added a swift to the heel cap:

And no - the mahogany isn't pink...it's just last year's x8 iphone camera showing its age!

Looking forward to it.

I have a tenor uke mould on order and will wait until that arrives before starting anything related to back. top and sides.  Still a few more jobs that can be progressed on the neck.

I cut out the side profile of the neck and added an extension to the heel.  And that meant I could start carving:

And that included getting the neck spine down to final thickness and starting the initial carve of the profile.  It will probably end up a little less U shaped but I'll see how it feels once the necks fitted with the fretboard, which won't be for a little while yet.  Here's how it's starting to look:

Yes - sunshine!

Next couple of days I'll sort the back plate for the headstock and then wait for the body mould to arrive

The guitar is looking great.  That neck joint looks neat.

The neck won't have a trussrod, but it will be thinner than a standard guitar and the total string tension will be similar to normal and so I'm opting for some 4mm square, hollow carbon fiber rods inserted to keep everything straight:

I've also been giving some thought to the design features of the rest of the build:

- I'm planning to use ball-end nylon strings but a steel-string type bridge rather than the more conventional classical guitar horizontal through bridge.  The reason is that I think (probably erroneously remembering vectors from my 50-year-ago engineering studies) that design gives greater pull tension on the top and greater break angle potential on the saddle.  Someone will no doubt correct me that they are going to be self-cancelling 

- Conventional 'folk' X-brace pattern rather than the more common classical fan or ukulele ladder pattern

- 25 foot radius top, 15 foot radius back

- A relatively high saddle position, again to increase the break angle.  And wider bone saddle to increase the opportunity for intonation adjustment 

- I might incorporate a side sound hole as well as the front one.  The more satisfying it is to play should mean the more likely that flitting-interest children want to play it...and side sound holes sound better to the player!    

I photo'd the last one I did with the tools I used @ADFinlayson but had a boot drive crash recently...and guess what drive the photos were on  

I've modded your pic to show the effect, @Bizman62.  It's not to scale but hopefully illustrates basically what happens:

As Ash says, you need to change to solid pins but I've had great success on two or three acoustics where the sound has been transformed and the owners think I'm some sort of magician!  Seems a shame to explain it's just physics and dispel the myth...so I don't   

4 minutes ago, ADFinlayson said:

I know what you mean, I was actually thinking I would try solid bridge pins on this one. Just need to make sure I've got the tools to properly notch the fronts of the slots. 

I use a small triangular needle file to form the groove and exit point and then , on the thicker strings, a small round needle or the modded triangular needle which I have filed one edge smooth to use for rounding sharp edges off the fret ends.  

The other thing you can do is file the 'v' grooves at the front of the peg holes so that the string at the rear of the saddle sits straighter and at a greater break angle over the saddle.   I'll try and find a photo to illustrate what I mean. 

Thanks, folks

It is, of course, going to slow down from now on.  That said, I do have some lovely sitka spruce for the top just arrived, and I found a complete acoustic back and sides set in plain mahogany in my shed's small wood rack (when I bought that ,and for what, has disappeared with their respective little grey cells).

And on order - should arrive relatively soon - is a tenor ukelele mold.  Yes - I could have made one.  But y'know...

I'm hoping to have thicknessed the top, back and sides by the end of this coming weekend so hopefully next week should see some hand bending of the sides.  Hmmm - gosh - a uke - those are tight bends!!?!  What could possibly go wrong   

2 hours ago, mistermikev said:

should make for a pretty lil gtr.  purpleheart bridge might pair nicely - just sayin'!

Yes indeed - already in the plan

And talking about pairing, well, how about a little bit of purpleheart in with the traditional but maybe slightly staid ebony headstock top plate 

So, bringing the proceedings fully up to date, I cut and shaped a thin sliver of purpleheart to go in the middle section of the headstock:

Then cut some thin ebony sheet to match, adding a little bit of purfling as I did it, glued those and cut myself a mother of pearly swift:

Out with the Dremel and a 1mm bit fitted in the precision router base:

And then, finally fitted some MoP dots and the frets. 

So here it is, now in real time.  Clearly, things will slow down a bit from now on 

Thanks, guys.

Rooting around my wood offcuts for something that would be OK for a fretboard (a bit of a challenge as I tend to buy fretboard blanks for specific projects and so my offcuts tend to be softer woods, not really suitable) I stumbled across a narrow but long offcut of purpleheart.  I often use it for laminated necks and have, in the past, used it for a fretboard - but then remembered @mistermikev's immaculate and stunning entry to this month's GOTM...and that has more purpleheart than you could throw a tree at!!  

So - purpleheart fretboard it's going to be. 

Great thing about such a small form instrument is that things like 'using a radius block to radius a hard wood' actually becomes physically feasible.

And 30 minutes later we have a radiussed board:

Next was fret slotting.  I had originally assumed that I would need to mark out by hand, but then remembered that you can, of course, create a full scale from any fret of a fretboard - and so I would be able to simply use any of my G&W fret mitre-block saw scale templates, simply starting further down the fretboard.  I chose 5th fret onwards of a 25.5" template, which should give me a 17" scale:

The blank was a little narrow, and so I added a tapered binding, cut from the same purpleheart blank to either side and planed and radius blocked that flush with the board top:

Hmmm...if this is going to potentially just be hung on the wall, it needs to look a bit fancier than this...

I was thinking of the top plate being ebony.  Classic, yes.  But "Oh Grandpa, you are very clever!" enough?  Hmmm, perhaps not.  Passive-aggressive competition between grandparents is an important factor.  Let's think about this a bit more 

There's quite a bit of stuff in my bits-box and wood racks that should be good for this.  Even found a set of nylon-string tuning pegs!

And the offcut of mahogany I thought I might be able to use for the neck  is exactly the right width!!

So that's where I started. 

I chose a 10 degree headstock angle, cut that and drilled the three through holes:

And then cut the headstock core to thickness (it will have plates top and back):

I rough-cut the two access slots and - well, this might just work!

I used the principle but cobbled up a simpler, cruder version using a cheapo £15 folding workmate-type bench (ah, Maplin - where did you go to???) and some plywood.  It actually takes up very little room although, admittedly, doesn't have the elegance.  I haven't used it in a while and probably have cannibalized bits for other uses, but it did work pretty well. 

My building is slowing down a bit and I decided last year to start doing some of the more personal projects and not let them slip from the familiar 'Oh, I'll start that after this one...hmmm, and that one...oh, and that one' syndrome 

Earlier in the year was the Swiftbird/Fireswift, built for my son-in-law, which you kind folks voted as June's GOTM

And this one is a special one.  It is a mini acoustic 6 string for my two grand children as they grow up to pick up and learn to play if they want to, or use as a tennis racquet/racket or wall hanging if they don't.

So why not start them off with a ukelele?  Well - if either of them are eventually interested and want to play guitar going forward , then it is a lot easier if the starter instrument already has the right number of strings and tuning.  Admittedly, a ukelele would work just as well on the tennis court... 

So my plan is this:

• Build a tenor uke-sized 6 string acoustic
• Incorporate all that I have learnt over my acoustic builds and rescues over the years to try to get the best sound that I can from such a small-form instrument
• Add a bit of Andyjr1515 fancy stuff just in case it does end up as a wall hanging.

And so I drew out a full-scale highly detailed construction plan simple outline and have started on it 

I made a 'roughly in the same ball park design-wise but made with bits I had in the shed' homemade version of this jig:

It actually works surprisingly well (there are other videos on his channel in use).  I think I remember that you can get hold of the plans to make one - I haven't looked at how much LMI charge but it's usually eye-watering!

Oh - and I fully agree that a high bridge and therefore steeper break angle can transform the tone of an acoustic. 

Great stuff.  Precision metalwork is all just on another level!!

Only just caught up with this.  Fascinating concept and build.  Sounds good too - great bass response!

I like that design very much - and the finish is going to be the icing on the cake!

22 hours ago, Asdrael said:

Hey I just realized your name rings a bell... You are credited as a major contributor to the TruOil finish process I am planning on using (https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/331219-95-tru-oil-finished-guitar-a-how-to-guide/ ).  So... Thanks?

I'd forgotten I'd done that topic!  It's a great method but one that I learnt from other kind folks - so can't take all the credit  

On 8/21/2023 at 12:32 AM, woodfab said:

 I just drilled the pot holes deeper with a forstner bit and chiseled in between them.

Getting close.800

Lovely - I like that a lot

Nice work @Asdrael 

That is breathtaking @mistermikev     It is off the scale. 

If you haven't already done so, I think you should put it forward to No Treble in their 'Bass of the Week' feature.   

I can see the finished headstock already in my minds-eye and it will be knockout.   There is something quite special about that forward carve at the back of the headstock.