Nicco

Thanks Biz. Yeah, I think that's what I'm going to have to do in the short term to get the soprano finished. I've got a little blow torch from back when I did a bit of silver casting back in the day, so hopefully that'll get me out of trouble. 

Congratulations matey. The overall aesthetic of this guitar is lovely. You've done really well

Yeah, thanks Biz. Definitely agreed that the black strip is all it needs. 

Having said that, now having 3 piece binding strips I'm finding them an absolutely pig to bend. I don't have a particularly good set up... soldering iron clamped to the bench. Ha ha. 

I'm going to need to revisit how I'm going about it, because it's just leading to frustration at the moment. I might just bite the bullet and get one of the proper side bending irons. 

To save getting too frustrated on the soprano binding, I moved back to the tenor. I've finally got it out of the form and it's looking lovely. I've started laminating the back together and I've glued the soundboard up. Glue is still drying on that. 

Old binding is off. I tested some black abs bonding on the back and it looked sensational - it really made the tiger stripes in the myrtle pop. 

Buuuut, it made the front look really cheap. Hrmm.

I played around with different bits and pieces from the off cuts bin and eventually came back to the qld maple but now with 0.5mm black veneer glued to the bottom edge and the back to be kind of a faux purfling.

Also, the tail inlay got a little chewed up by the router. I was going to do some tricky repairs, but now I'm just going to pull it out and go again to match the new binding scheme

Yeah nice. All solid reasons! Ha ha. Looking great, btw

How come you're using steel for the cover plate? I've not seen that before

Quick mock up. 

I threw a little finish on the top and sides to see a bit closer to how they'll look at the end (impatient! Ha ha) and I'm thinking I'm going to change the binding. The binding currently is an offcut from the neck, but in my head the honey coloured qld maple would contrast against the pinkish myrtle sides. It doesn't really, and I'm not a fan. Plus there are a couple of little gaps where I could have got it tighter, so going to cut it off and do that step again. 

Btw, fantastic looking guitar, Ash.

12 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Yes - very much this.

However, even with only one variable - the brace shaving - I have come to the conclusion that the only way to know how far to go when shaving off wood from the braces when tap tuning is to make a number of guitars (and each would need to be made to completion) and each one shaving more and more mass off the braces until you go too far...and then just edge it back a bit.  Trouble is, for most of us that would take most of us a lifetime and fortune...  And then your offspring could maybe try the same thing with a different bracing pattern 

 

I believe you can apply engineering principles to hone in on the "right" set up for your individual bits of timber. Ie: test your timber for density, youngs modulus, etc then use maths to pump out ideal bracing sizes. Then use a frequency recording (oscilloscope?) to fine tune the braces. 

There's an aussie based, predominately acoustic, luthier forum that I read quite a bit and there's a commonly referenced book that they all pretty much use as the bible for this stuff. 

I've not read it myself, but it sounds like the books run you through every step of the process. I'm going to buy a copy very soon cause I'd love to have a go at an acoustic one day. 

Sounds like a nice shortcut around spending a few life times building. 

Yeah, those inlays are looking sensational. Nicely done. 

The box is closed!! Whoo! Big milestone there, very happy. 

The bottom binding channel has been cut now, I've got the neck fitting and being aligned to centre line but I'm going to need some creative clamping while I'm gluing it, the joint could be tighter. The fret board has been pinned in place on the neck with a pair of 1mm drill bits so now I can start final shaping of the neck. 

I got the fret board sides and tail end all shaped up last night, and then put in the 6mm MOP dots... taking care to do the ukulele specific dot not on fret 9 but 10; I almost got that rather wrong.

Next up, final sand the fret board top surface then bring the back down to final thickness.

Ha ha ha, Thanks gents. 

I needed to just hold the neck and fretboard in place (with my giant hands ) and see how it looks. Very keen to get the bottom binding done then get to neck shaping 

And the box is closed on the soprano. I really need to sort out some spool clamps, I will get away with using normal clamps for this one, but it won't work for the tenor. 

Also snuck a little message inside for mum that she can see through the sound hole. 

It's all been pretty quiet on the shed front lately, between post-covid brain fog, and the toddler not wanting to go to bed at night lately (grr)

I did however get to have a go at doing a new method for get slot cutting. My old, laser cut mitre box was getting a bit flogged out and sloppy, so time for a change. I picked up some 0.5mm end mills and used the base and 3d printed pins from the old mitre box as the base. Lock the x axis on the little mill and just travel y back and forth to cut the slots. Not actually super quick given how steady I had to go to not break the end mills, but significantly easier than cutting by hand!!

The mortise is mostly done for the soprano neck now; there's a hair of fiddling left to get the neck to sit flush with the soundboard, but I was in the wrong frame of mind last night got doing that sort of fiddly work. Save it for another day. Ha ha. It's exciting seeing the neck and body together though. 

We've been struck down with covid this last week, it finally caught up to us. It has been rather nasty, especially being quarantined at home with a sick 2.5 year old... he's just about broken me! (Still love him though. Ha ha) 

I've barely had enough energy to eat, let alone do shed work. I did make some progress on the soprano though; neck tenon cut, hole drilled through the tail block for the end pin jack, rebate cut for the binding, and bent up some binding. Unfortunately the binding cracked so now I've got am awkward join to make. Job for another day. 

I know I commented on the carve before, but wow, that forearm bit especially looks just fantastic.

More progress on the soprano. 

First I got the bracing and bridge plate onto the top and shaped the braces. The bridge plate is a piece of the original mulga fretboard that I accidentally cut too thin, so it was a nice way to reuse the scrap. 

Next I got the tail graft done. The outer pieces are qld maple offcuts from the neck; I'll be using it for the binding as well, so it will all tie together nicely. I'm actually surprised how close in colour it looks compared to the pinkish myrtle, but when it oxidises a bit it'll turn more golden. The centre strip is obviously more mulga to tie together with the fretboard, rosette and bridge. 

Lastly, I got the soundboard glued onto the sides. Looking forward to getting the clamps off it tonight and having a good look at it. 

I've made some important progress on the soprano now that I'd been putting off for ages; brought the sound board down to final thickness. 

I've not got either of a thicknesser or a drum sander, so I tackled it with a bunch of pilot holes to about the right depth, electric planer to take the bulk off (man that thing is a butcher's tool) then hand plane to get it all down to between 1.5mm and 2mm all over. 

Scary but I'm glad it's done. When the weather comes good I can get the braces on the top then close the box, which is super exciting

Lovely work. Your carves are looking great. 

On 7/7/2022 at 10:19 PM, Akula said:

I like the accent lines and contrasting timber you're using. What kind of veneer is that?

Thanks mate. The black veneer is a dyed, 0.5mm maple. Aus Luthier Supplies was the only place I found it, a bit expensive for what it is, but it comes up so well

Bah, that last photo makes my wrist look like it belongs to someone who's 250kg! Ha ha ha 

Thanks for the feedback, fellas.

Akula, I see your hardwood dowel and raise you a ground and hardened steel dowel. Ha ha. Rather overkill, but I had them lying around. Ha ha. Just gotta work out how to extract them now. Ha ha. 

Yeah, the jarrah can be pretty tough on router bits, blunts them pretty quickly. I've had a hell of a time trying to plane it, but that was before I knew as much about sharpening. I also blew up my first Ozito bunnings special plunge router in jarrah. Ha ha. 

So I've decked the top of the necks and I'm very, very happy with how they are looking! 

Looks gorgeous mate, lovely bit of timber. Unfortunately no advice for you on the cupping though.