Installing the decorative end wedge

Now that the box is closed, I can install the "decorative end wedge" in the tail of the guitar. The end wedge serves a few purposes. One, as its name implies, it is decorative. That is the only use I am sure of. If you scroll down to the last picture you will see how decorative it is..and let me tell you...its freakin' decorative! It also covers up the joint between the two sides at the tail block, so if you didn't get it perfect like I did, you wont ever see it. Originally I had planned on adding little purfling lines next to the end wedge. They are also decorative.

The wedge taped in place so I can mark its
outline
on the body with pencil.

They would have been mitered at the top and bottom of the wedge to meet the purfling that went around the rest of the body. But in the end, (pun not intended but I am glad it happened) I decided the purfling lines did not go with the rest of the binding and purfling I am using, so I scrapped that idea and just installed the wedge au natural.

After I traced the outline, I then scored the
lines with
a razor knife as deep as the wedge will go.

Not using the additional lines also went with my theme of, "Holy crap, I don't really know what I am doing! Why am I going to try to make this more difficult for myself?" Here is a picture of a beautifully purfled (is that even a word?) end wedge with the purfling going around the wedge: If you click on the image it will get bigger and you can see how nice it looks. I chose this picture because it is an excellent example of what I wanted to do and didn't. I also used it because the red purfling really stands out. Yes...the red line is the purfling and it is what I have been talking about. I "borrowed" this picture from a company called Luthier's Mercantile International, Inc. They sell everything you would need to build or repair guitars. Check them out. They have some cool stuff. I bought the back strip that I used on this guitar from them. It was like $5 bucks. You can see it in one or two of the pics on this page. So that's where I am now. I am very tempted at this point in the evening to do more work, but I am tired and I don't want to mess anything up.

After the lines are scored, I used a
chisel to remove the
wood between the lines.
Here you can see the back
strip I mentioned.

I am testing out a new format for the blog. I put the pictures in the center with captions instead of at the side. Its easier for me to caption the pics rather than try to make what I am writing fit to the correct picture. Now, I can just space out the pics and as you read along, you can say, "Ooh! Look at what Tony is doing here! What the heck is he doing here? Or just skip the pic and come back to it when you finish reading the fascinating crap I have written. Let me know if you like it this way. And by you, I mean my three relatives and one friend who check it.

The wedge is in. I cleaned up the glue that
squeezed out and she looks
good. Now I have to scrape
it flush with the rest of the
body since I left it a little
proud of the sides.
(proud is wood worker
speak for "higher than" and it is used
because it saves so much time
over saying
"higher than" that an experienced
wood worker (or Amish guy)
can make an extra foot stool
each day.)

I still have to scrape the wedge level with the sides and trim off the overhang, but those are pretty quick tasks. I will have those things done before I move on to the next step which in the KMG manual is to tweak the fit of the neck to the body to make sure it fits correctly and that all the work I have done up till now has not been for nothing. Of course, if I really did screw everything up, at least I will have the neck bolted on so I can smash the guitar like John Belushi in Animal House. I don't think that is going to happen though.

The box is closed!!

As Brad Pitt said in "7"
WHATS IN THE BOX???


In the movie, its his wife's head.
Here, the answer is nothing, but.....
I closed the sound box!! Its really starting to look like
a guitar!!I am quite impressed with myself. If you
look into the sound hole, you can see the back braces
and all the other innards of the guitar! Prior to
tonight, when you looked into the sound hole, all you saw was...well, whatever happened to be behind the guitar.
Most often it was the floor...err..I mean my work bench.
Now you see the back plate in all its bracey glory!
Good times man. Good times.




I actually glued the back last night, but it remained clamped until tonight. I also trimmed the back flush with sides. As it comes, it is over-sized and you have to trim it down after it is glued. Not only did I glue on the back, but i glued it on correctly, with the back strip perfectly centered. I have to say it again. I am very pleased with myself thus far. I have never built anything this complex in my life. On top of that, not only am I actually building it, I am building it well! Sorry for the lack of humor tonight, I am just not feeling the funny. I am thinking of all of the aural I am going to get from this guitar!! WHOAH!!
Did I just say that? I think I did!
Please enjoy the pictures of my mostly completed sound box.
It still needs the binding and other stuff, but its a sound box and could be a guitar as is. With a neck. And tuners. And strings. And other things...but you understand.


The top picture is of the completed sound box.
Notice the completeness of it.

Picture number two is of the completed sound box.
Please take note of the completeness of the sound box.

Picture number third is of the other side of the completed sound box. Please note its other sided completeness. Also note the sound port is much cleaner on its edges. That is because I cleaned it up yesterday. Remember? I got all side tracked talking about Bob Vila and Norm Abrams. I hate those guys and their skills.

Cleaning up the side port

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

The top is done, sound port opened

I trimmed the top flush with the sides tonight. It was not that bad, although I had anxiety over the process because I could have messed up the top. But I didnt. I used the flapper wheel method Ken at KMG suggests.
A flapper wheel is not a wheel made from one
or a bunch of these (flapper)--------------->





Not that I would have complained if it had been.
I just would not have used them on the guitar!!
Giggidy giggidy!!!

It is a wheel made of small flaps of sandpaper

that "flap" against the thing you are sanding, in this case, the sides of my guitar. It is less dangerous than a router but more dangerous than sanding the top flush by hand. I actually used a combinatio of flapper whell and hand sanding to get the top perfectly flush. There were no flapper girls present and I did not go to a speak easy before or after flapper wheeling my guitar. As I said, I finished with hand sanding to get a perfectly flush mating of the top and rim. It looks pretty good up close. Trust me.





Here is another picture from further away. In this picture the partial guitar is posing with a box of baby wipes. There is some real excitement going on here folks!!






I also took the opportunity to bore a hole into the side of the guitar to make a sound port, also known as a side port. It is supposed to allow the player to hear exactly what the audience hears from the guitar. I don't know if it works, but I am building this guitar, right? I have heard good things about ports though. I also heard that the bigger it is, the more bass you lose from the main sound hole, so I am keeping this one small. I will have a chance to make it bigger before the guitar gets finished anyway, so smaller is gooder in this case. At least until I can hear how it sounds. I think it will be goooood! The hole is really rough here. I have to refine it with sandpaper and files and other wood worky type instruments of potential destruction. I did use a Dremel to cut this hole though. That's kind of why its so rough. I was afraid to get too close to my lines and make the hole too big. That would have been hard to fix. Eventually I plan on putting some sort of binding material around the hole to make it look nice. Alrighty...off to bed for me.

Gluing the top

I glued the top on to the rim tonight. This is a big deal because now, I no longer have a rim, a top, and a back that can all be in different places. Now, the top and rim must be in the same place at all times. Yippee!!! It is a big deal though. Its a big step towards finishing this thing!!




I wrote a dedication to my son on the inside where I signed the top. Its a tradition to sign the inside of the top before you glue it on. My wife said, "What if G does not want to play guitar? What if our next child is a girl? You are writing this stuff to Giancarlo!" I said, "Well...it IS written on the inside so its unlikely any child we have is going to see it. Plus, I can always say that I built this guitar when we only had one kid. Which is true" She still thought I should hedge against offending any future children. I did not hedge. I'm just nutty like that.
Well...here are some pics!

The top picture is of the top clamping board during my dry run. That means there was no glue on the top when I put the clamping thing on.
Here is a view from the inside of the mold. If I had the ability to take EXTREME close up shots, you would be able to see how well this clamping system works. There is not a single bit of the top not touching the rim. Every bit is tight to the rim. That's kind of important if you want the guitar to last. Capish? (That means "Do you understand?" in crappy Italian. I don't speak Italian, but what little I do know is crappy.)
There are many ways to clamp the top on. You could do what is called "roping" where you use a long elastic strip to tie the top down. You have to wrap the elastic around and around to almost completely cover the top to ensure you get it tight to the rim.
With the method KMG uses, and how I did it, I was able to align the top, tighten a couple of screws to make sure the top didn't shift, then I used a cordless drill to mostly tighten the rest of the screws. I used a hand screwdriver to do the final tightening. That way I could tell how tight I made everything and not over tighten any of the screws. It was fast and easy. I am leaving it clamped overnight...and most of tomorrow since I have to work and wont be home until after 5:00. Although I really want to open it up now to see the damn thing!! I will have to wait.

I am off to bed.

One step forward, two steps back....

I made my first major mistake. Let me walk you through what I did. I had finished bracing, carving and sanding the sound board and I was high on life and very excited. The next step in the build would be to attach the top to the sides. However, the X-brace and the shoulder brace extend into the kerfing on the side of the guitar and you need to cut little pockets for them to sit in. To do that, you have to put the top onto the rim and mark the locations where the braces hit the rim. Then you carve out the pockets. So I set about following Ken's instructions for attaching the top to the sides with rubber bands attached to the mold (which I did not think would hold it in place well enough, but worked extremely well and reinforced the fact that Ken knows what he is talking about and I am a fool.)

I marked the brace intersections with the sides, and cut little pockets that turned out beautifully and fit the brace ends perfectly. The next day as I was proudly showing my work to someone, I had one of those moments where your heart sinks and you feel like the wind got knocked out of you. I realized I had cut the pockets for the top braces to sit in ON THE BACK OF THE RIM!!! AHHHHHHH!!!!!

So stupid!!! The wind was completely taken out of my sails and I could not believe how stupid I had been. I knew the back of the rim was facing up. I knew I had to switch it and flip it over. I just forgot to do that before I started working on the guitar.

I quickly e-mailed Ken to ask him if my potential guitar was now a potential pile of fire wood. Ken assured me that everything was going to be OK. He talked me off of the ledge and told me how to fix what I had done. Its not even that hard of a fix. I simply have to fill the pockets I made by cutting and gluing in some of the kerfing material and then shave it back down to level with the top of the rim. Thankfully, I saved every piece of wood I cut from this kit. Ken said there are lots of things I can screw up and he can still tell me how to fix.

I do not plan on testing him.Notice how in the picture, "back" is clearly written on the mold. I wrote that!!! Idiot.

Once again, as Bill Cory of http://kitguitarforum.com/ said, "It ain't a mistake if you can fix it." The fact that I had cut through the rim was not an issue either since the maple binding I am using was supposed to cover that gap anyway.

Well...I have made some extra work for myself, but it is a learning experience, right? I learned to slow the hell down before I start working. I am now going to make a list of what has to be done on paper instead of in my faulty head. Then I can check things off as I do them instead of wondering if I did them, or thinking I had done something, and in reality I had not done it.

Back to work.

Back Strip

The back strip: Def: noun- 1)A decorative reinforcement of the joint between the two halves of the back plate. (see photo, right)
2)Something I forgot to route a channel for before I braced the back when it would have been much fricken easier.
Instead, I glued the first brace, then had an "OH Sh!t" moment. My choices were:
1) Remove the brace, clean up the spot where it had been, then lay the plate flat and route the channel.
2) Set up a complicated (for me, not an experienced router user type) system of shims and stops and rails for the router to ride on and against so I could make the channel.

Neither of these options was appealing. I decided to finish bracing the back (see the picture of my braced back plate over
there ---->)
and continue to think about what I had done. Bill Cory, the man who started the KitGuitarForum.com among other sites devoted to building kit guitars, and the inspiration for my undertaking here, has said, "It ain't a mistake unless you can't fix it."
Indeed he is right.
I chose to go in another direction. I figured that at some point in time, ancient guitar builders (people from my parents generation) probably did not have electricity, or maybe they were poor as my mother claims everyone was "way back when" and they could not afford electric routers. Whatever did these ancient luthiers do? I imagine that after rubbing two sticks together to make fire to heat their hovels, and so they would have light to work by (my mom insists that the sun never shone on her, so it must have been cloudy or the sun had not fully caught fire yet)they would have used a chisel to make the channel. That is what I did. I used a straight edge to guide a razor down each side of the channel to score the lines, then used a 6mm chisel to cut out the wood in between the lines. It worked!! I even got a really good fit! I have two spots that need some attention, but all in all, it was a great success. The pictures here are after I had scraped it flush with the rest of the back. I did not have the battery charged on the camera, so there are no in between shots or action shots. Sorry.
I am very pleased with my ability to adapt and overcome the first major obstacle in this build. I really wanted the back strip. Its not entirely necessary, but it made me happy to get it in there and it looks nice!!

DISCLAIMER!!!
The author of this post realizes that there was in fact electricity
and sun in the 1950's. The reference to that time period as
"ancient" is merely a cheap shot at the author's mother.
She is not ancient and she never complained that there was no sun
shining during her childhood. However, she will probably tell the
author to stick this post where the sun don't shine. To which he can reply, "Where?
In your childhood? I am not H.G. Wells and I do not have a time machine!
Stop trying to control me!!!" There may be some crying at this point.
DISCLAIMER ABOUT THE PREVIOUS DISCLAIMER!!!
The author of the disclaimer has no proof that the author of the post cries
when yelled at by his mommy. It was artistic license.
Or another cheap shot.
You choose.

Corrections

I had to make two corrections to some info I put out there:

1) The rosette around the sound hole is NOT just for looks. It is actually there to prevent the wood from splitting. When you cut the hole in the top, you expose the end of the wood grain. The rosette serves to bind the end grain together and prevent any splits from occurring in this area.

2) The top of a guitar is NOT in fact domed like an egg to withstand the crushing forces of a mama chicken's ass. I was very wrong about this point and I apologize. While the guitar CAN indeed stand up to all but the most rabid chicken's ass attack (or ass-ault...lol), the doming of the top is not intended to do that. My egg analogy was my cheap attempt at humor. I apologize for that.

3) The sound board of the guitar is also not domed to withstand the pulling of the strings. The strings PULL, not push on the top. Therefore the dome has no effect on this. The braces on the underside of the sound board prevent the top from pulling off. Rabid chicken attacks notwithstanding.

I hope this clears up any misunderstandings. Ken Cierpilowski from KMG e-mailed me to let me know where my info had gone awry.

Holy Braces Batman!!

I got a lot done today. I now have almost all of the braces glued in. The only ones missing are the three little ones around the sound hole. These three little guys a called the "sound hole braces" although nobody can tell me why. Anyway, I still have to measure and cut those, but the rest of the braces are in. I even started shaping some. Shaping the braces is what gives the guitar its sound. It balances the treble, mid-range and bass. How? Hell if I know. It has something to do with the shape of the braces. I did a lot of reading on the shape of the braces. I could have gone with any number of shapes, but I chose a scalloped brace pattern. The early guitars made by the C.F. Martin Company have scalloped braces and they sound pretty damn good. The people at Martin know a little more than I about building guitars, so I will follow their lead. Ken Cierpilowski at Kenneth Michael Guitars has drawn a scalloped pattern onto the braces supplied with my kit. I am using those lines as a guideline. Ken told me to do what I like with the braces, keeping in mind they need to support the top. So I followed close to his lines but changed a few things here and there with the shape of the braces. Nothing major. A slightly higher peak on one brace, and a slightly different taper into the valleys and the end of the braces. Mostly because I liked how my way looked vs. the pencil lines Ken had. Nothing personal Ken.



Here I have started to shape the bass braces. They are also called the lower face braces.












Here is a closer shot of my rough shaping work. Trust me, they get better!! I am saving the shavings so I can make it look like I did more carving than actually took place. Plus it makes me feel like I really did something when there is a big pile of shavings.I know...I have issues. Really though, I did not save them.

WARNING:ACTION SHOT!!!

Here I am shaping the braces with a small block plane. I took this myself. Nice camera work, eh?
I would have asked my wife to take some action shots, but she was busy taking care of our child. Evidently, you need to feed them even if you are shaping braces. I on the other hand, skipped a meal. I am clearly more manly than my two year old. Plus, I can really afford to skip a few meals if you know what I mean.







Here is a close up of the braces after sanding the lower face braces. I also roughed out the scallops on the X-brace. That will look nicer in a day or two as well.
As you can see, its really beginning to look like something. I don't know what, but something!
OK...it looks like a part of a guitar that most people never see. Really it does!
The shape of the small braces that but into the X-brace is different than suggested by Ken. Not intentionally, I just shaped them from memory instead of looking at the picture first. I have been slowly making them closer to a traditional shape.
The more weight on the sound board, the more you deaden the sound since it can not vibrate as easily. Thus, you must reduce the size of the braces as much as possible without compromising the strength of the board to the point that it collapses when you string up the guitar. I am leaving my braces on the heavy side, but still lighter than most any factory produced guitar. At least that is what I am telling myself. I am going to send Ken a picture of the carved braces when I get closer to what I will call their final shape and ask his opinion. I will then ask anyone who will look at them and has any guitar building experience. Then I will take all of that input, get totally confused, drink half a bottle of Grey Goose and cry like a baby in the fetal position for several hours. After that, I may take peyote and ask my "Spirit Guide" to help me shape the braces to perfection. See the picture of my "Spirit Guide."
OK...its Native American Barbie, but I couldn't find any good pictures of Native Americans that were public domain. I really did not look that hard. I am just as good at finding peyote by the way. I also think a Spirit Guide might be an animal, not a Barbie doll. Whatever. I just need to carve these braces correctly.

Gluing the X-Braces a.k.a. X-Rated

I finally glued the X- braces. Its a big deal since they are the main braces on the sound board and all of the other braces butt up against them. I could really mess this guitar up if I had glued these in the wrong spot. But I didn't. I took my time, cut the lap joint, sanded it and filed it until it was perfect and check the fit about eleven and a half times. The lap joint is a type of joint that you can make while the wood is on your lap because its so easy. OK...actually its a joint made by cutting a slot in each piece of wood that will accept the other piece. Neither piece is cut fully through. They are only cut half way. They overlap and I think maybe that's where the name comes from. What do I know? I never used a chisel before I started this project! Although...I did watch my grandfather use one many times. Anywho, the lap joint is a little tough to get right, but if you take your time and slowly remove wood a little at a time, you can get it right. I know because I did it. Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures of my awesome lap joint apart, I only took the shots you see here. Your loss. It was truly a thing of beauty. Well, here you see me gluing the braces one at a time. Then you see the braces all glued on. The braces have an arch cut into them on the side that is glued down. The top of the guitar is arched by the braces. The radius of the arch is 40 feet. That's a big circle!! The arch is visible, but its not severe as you can imagine. It is there to give strength to the top of the instrument. Similar to how an egg is, well...egg shaped, the two domes of an egg give it the ability to not crack under the crushing weight of a mama chicken's ass, the dome of the guitar top gives it strength to withstand the pulling of 200lbs of force the strings exert on it. Coincidentally, the guitar top can also stand up to the crushing weight of a mama chicken's ass. Which I will try to take a picture of if a chicken(hopefully a mama chicken) takes up residence in my new guitar. Most likely that picture will go untaken for many a year. Unless I am forced to move to a farm. Then it might happen sooner.
If you were wondering about the white and blue X's under the top while I am gluing it, I will explain. I may have mentioned this before, but I am too lazy to go check my other blog entries. In order to make my work board, which is totally flat, conform to the curved shape of the guitar, I can do one of two things:
1)Buy an expensive "radius dish" from one of the companies that sells them for like $100. Or,
2)Stack index cards under the braces to match the radius. If you fan out a deck of cards on a table, you will get the idea. They actually form a perfect curve, and if you slide them one by one under an existing arch, you can get them to hold up that arch. All I had to do was tape them to keep them from coming apart and viola!! I spent about 4 bucks instead of $200 since I would have had to buy a 40 foot dish and a 15 foot dish for the top and back respectively. I like KMG's method better.

Side Tracked...

I got a little side tracked today because my veneer sheets came in the mail. What are they for you ask? Here is a picture of me clamping some veneer onto the inside of the rim. What fer? You just asked that!! Ok...I'll tell you. To make a sound port of course! A sound port is a little hole in the side of the guitar that allows the person playing the guitar (that would be me) to hear what the listener (that would be someone other than me) who is in front of the guitar is hearing. Normally, you don't hear as clearly since the sound is being projected out in front of you. What you do hear is a distorted version of how the guitar really sounds. Think of it this way, you know how when you hear yourself on tape you say, "Do I really sound like that?" Its kind of the same thing with an acoustic guitar, except with the guitar what you hear in front is better than what you hear when its on your lap. The port allows the true sound of the guitar to reach the players ear. Some people say it makes the guitar louder, some think it decreases the bass. I don't really care because what everyone does agree on is this: to the player, it sounds fricken sweet!! So I will be boring a big ass hole in my nice hole-free sides. OK..not a big hole...just a small one. Stupid? Maybe. Worth it? I will find out. I can not find any guitars locally that have one so its really a big experiment for me, although I like what I have been reading about them. You can read about and see some sound ports at McKnightGuitars.com. Tim McKnight is a big supporter of sound ports and did some decibel level testing of a ported vs. unported guitar. You can read what he found and see some pictures of some really beautiful ported guitars here: http://www.mcknightguitars.com/soundports.html

I will get back to bracing the sound board soon. Quit yer whining!!

BASS!! (bars) How low can you go?

Today I started gluing the bass bars. These are the
two sound plate braces that are between the tail block and the X-brace. They are responsible for making sure the bass notes my guitar will eventually make are loud and clear. But not too loud that they overpower the mid-range and treble. But just perfectly loud enough. I will have to carve the blanks to shape in order to achieve the perfect balance, but that happens later. How will I know when I have sufficiently carved the braces into the perfect shape to produce the perfect level of perfect bassiness? I don't really know. Fortunately, there are plenty of places I can go for info, and KMG has drawn on a shape that I can choose to use, or ignore. I might be well advised to use his brace shape since he has built a guitar or two and I have so far built exactly zero guitars. If you click this particular "KMG" link, it will bring you right to the section of his instructions for the bass braces. Read them....if you dare!!! HAHAHAHAHAH!!!!! They might not make sense if you don't read everything up to them,
but you can see the shape.
Due to my limited tooling, I have glued the braces as blank sticks of wood. I could have cut out a rudimentary brace shape close to Ken's pencil lines, but that would have made clamping more difficult. At least for me. But I am a major league simpleton and clamping square items is easier for me than using cauls. I did cut the end that butts up against the X-brace however and I used the little piece I cut off as a caul to clamp that end. Once the glue sets up I can clamp bass bar number two and then...check the directions to see whats next!! I took the top picture without the flash
because it just looks nicer that way, the second
pic has flash, but look closely at the sound board,
check out the nice book matching of the wood between
the left and right halves. Also notice how close the grain
lines are. This here is good quality guitar making wood!
Thanks Ken Cierp!!

Gluing the Bridge Reinforcement Plate...or Anchors Away

I glued the bridge reinforcement plate today. Its the first step of bracing the sound board. The first picture here is of me cutting the bridge reinforcement blank to size. Do you want to know what I had to do to get to that point? No? I thought for sure one of you might be interested. Well I am going to tell you anyway. If you look at the second picture, you can see the X-brace which is only clamped in place. The bridge plate is the "anchor" for the X-brace, which is the anchor for most of the other braces. Thus the second title to this entry, "Anchor's away." See how witty I am? In order to locate the bridge plate, I have to tape the plate blank down in its location. My KMG kit has a line traced on the back of the sound board that corresponds to the front edge of the plate. I lined up the front of the plate with that line and taped it in place. Then, I clamped the X-brace in its proper location. KMG also has the brace locations marked in pencil on the back of the sound board. Some kits do not do this and you need to line up a set of blueprints on the sound board and trace your own lines. While it is possible to screw up the marking of the brace locations, its not the hardest thing in the world to do with blue prints and I don't think it means that I didn't build the guitar just because I didn't trace some lines. After dry fitting the X-brace and clamping it down, I drew the lines onto the bridge plate blank where the X- brace went over it. Then I had to cut the blank to size and sand it all nicey nice. I dry fitted the plate in its home one last time and then glued it in. Once again, I did not take a picture of the clamping process because I got ahead of myself and took all the clamps off without getting the camera. Its a pretty standard procedure but you need to use a "caul" which is another piece of wood shaped like the bridge plate that helps distribute the clamping pressure across the thin plate. It also keeps the clamps clear of the x-brace so they don't interfere with the clamping. Now I can move on to the meat and potatoes of the bracing process. Bracing the sound board is what makes the guitar sound the way it is going to sound for all of eternity. Unless you smash it over some smart asses head....but again, you should use a cheap Target or Walmart guitar for that. Never use your home built guitar!!

Early on in this process when I removed the rim from the mold for the first time, I said that the guitar had no soul yet but that would come later. Bracing the top is what gives the guitar its soul. Over bracing will cause it to sound dead and under bracing it by carving the sound board braces too much, will cause the guitar to eventually implode under the tension of the strings. A steel string acoustic guitar has somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 lbs of string tension pulling on it. If you under brace and carve away too much material from the braces, eventually the bridge of the guitar will start to pull up and make it difficult to play. If you really under braced it, that tension will cause the top to cave in. That is not a desired result after all of this work. The best sounding guitars have a delicate balance of bracing that is just shy of implosion.

Most mass produced guitars are over braced to cut down on warrantee repairs and because it makes them better able to stand up to abuse. The Martin company does not know who is going to buy one of their guitars or what they will do with it so they over brace to make it stronger. I know exactly who will be playing this guitar and I know I am going to treat it like a baby. Not like Michael Jackson's baby that he dangled over a railing, or that baby in the movie theater that wont shut up. Like a sleeping baby...all gentle like. Understand? I hope so.

I am off to brace the rest of the soundboard and add some soul to this baby!!

Gluing the rosette

Today I glued the Rosette. That would be the name of the dark circular thing in the picture here. The rosette serves no purpose other than decorative. No matter how good or bad your rosette looks, it will not affect the sounds produced by your guitar. You might not want to play a guitar with an ugly rosette, but it can still sound good. On KMG's site, the directions call for a glue called Duco. I looked all over the damn place for Duco and although Ken told me he buys it at Home Depot, Walmart, and even drug stores by him, in my area it was not to be found. You would think you could get anything in NY city. But I guess that only applies to drugs and prostitutes...and maybe a few other things. It certainly does not apply to Duco glue. I searched for three days. I called about a dozen places and went to 6. I gave up on finding Duco. You can order it online of course. But I had just made a couple of online purchases and didnt feel like a)paying yet another shipping charge and b) waiting a week to do this rosette.
I also looked on many luthiery sites for insight and inspiration. The book I bought, Guitar Making Tradition and Technology by Cumpiano and Natelson, which if you buy it, go to this link to do so and support the forum that made this build a reality. Here is the link:
http://www.nichebooks.com/kits/booklinks.html
It Bill Cory's site and the purchases are actually made through Amazon.
Anyway, Cumpiano's book is widely considered the bible of guitar building. I didn't have to nerve to contact Ken from KMG and ask him if I could use Titebond, the glue I did everything else with, so I check online and with Cumpiano. The general consensus was that I could. Some people say the water in the glue will swell the wood rosette and cause issues. I took that chance. Why? Because I am crazy...and very very stupid sometimes.
The top picture is of my dry fit test run of gluing the rosette. Everything fits nicely and I think I am ready to go. The extra piece of rosette material is sitting there because it wanted to watch.

The second picture is of my Uber-professional clamping technique. Can you guess that I am also painting? I am. No worries though, that there is No VOC paint. So it does not smell like paint. In this particular application, it makes no difference what type of paint it is, but I felt obligated to let you know since someone might want to duplicate this technique exactly. It is pretty sweet. Notice my "shop" is a bit messy. I have since tidied up so lay off!! You might be saying, "Hey!! I thought you were working in your house, not in the garage!! Whats with the lawn mower dude?"
Well sir, that lawn mower is a toy. It belongs to my son and it will stay right there during many night of building. Until he gets tired of it. Then it will go away.
As you might imagine, I was quite nervous since I once again broke away from the instructions laid out by Ken C. I glued it up, checked in once, twice, three times...then I had to go out. The whole time I was out I was thinking, "The glue made everything swell and the rosette popped out of its channel." I got home and rushed over to my shop to check that my expensive, professional clamping procedure had worked. I threw the paint cans quickly on the floor in a haphazard fashion and as I was about to unveil the results...my wife said, "Hey!! WTF? Put those paint cans away! I cleaned last night and this place was spotless and your "shop" is a disgrace!"
Reluctantly, I moved the cans and neatly put them away. THEN I rushed to unveil my work. And here, without further ado, is what I saw:

You may be saying to yourself, "Hey...that top circle thing isn't closed!! You messed up dick!! Ha ha!! You should have listened to KMG!!!
To you I say, Yes, it is not closed and I probably should have listened to KMG. But here is the thing, that top circle does not have to be closed. It will be covered by the end of the fret board. As will the middle circle. But I went ahead and made that one perfect. In fact, the arrows of the herringbone pattern are almost perfect at the seam. Click on the pic for a bigger version. You'll see.
There you have it. I glued it in, it looks pretty good and the wood that got darker around the sound hole will be sanded and scraped away later on. So I am pretty pleased. I expect to get an e-mail from Ken soon. I did what I had to do and I make no apologies! I hope it works and does not fall out one day while I am playing.

Contouring the rim...a.k.a. The rim job

Today I sanded the contour into the back of the rim. The reason for this is that the "flat top" acoustic guitar is not actually flat. The back of the guitar has a slight radius from front to back and side to side. A dome. To achieve this one must sand the radius into the back. You can buy a radiused sanding disc for like $80 bucks, but my kit came with sanding bar that had the radius CNC machined into it. I don't know how easy it is to use the disc, but this method worked very well for me. Look at how I have skillfully turned the wood into sawdust. LOOK!!! Nice.


I marked the edges with chalk to make sure I was getting the contour all the way to the edges. If I didn't, it would make gluing the contoured back onto the flat side quite difficult. If you click on one of the pics to the right, it will get really big and you will be able to see the area where I sanded off the chalk, and where it was left behind. I still need to sand where it is all chalky. Capish?



Here is the tail block after sanding. Soooo smooth. So silky. I know you want to touch it. But do not. It is just a picture on your computer screen. Do you know how bad those fingerprints look on the screen? I hate that. And they are so hard to get off...especially if you are eating potato chips when you touch it. Damn fingerprints. The radius is difficult to see, but it is there.




Anyway, here is the radiused sanding bar that came with my kit sitting on the tail block and neck block perfectly conforming to the curve I just sanded into them. I actually found it easier to sand in a circular pattern as directed if I put an index card under one end so I was only sanding one edge at a time in the beginning. Once I had the sanding started, I stopped using the card and was sanding both edges together. You have to pick a center point in the body and sand in a circle around that point, like a propeller spinning. That is how you impart the correct angle on the rim. I will find out if I did it correctly when I finish the back and try to put it on. I can always sand some more then. But really, how hard is sanding in a circle with a big radiused stick?

The back is braced!

I finished gluing the braces on the back. I made a bit of a mistake too. I wanted to inlay a nice little marquetry strip on the back over the seam, which would have been much easier to do when the back was flat, but I forgot to order it and I braced it. So now I have to rout a channel in a curved back, but it wont be any harder for me since I don't know how to rout anyway! Here is a pic of the fully braced back. I still have to carve the braces, but I will do that after I get the strip and inlay it. I need the back to lay flat and the flat tops of the braces will help. The back is now curved and nice.




I'll post more pics if anyone comments and asks for them. Otherwise, this is what you get!! My son decided he needed to "help" take pictures of the back, so he ran over to help me. The picture of the back is the one he helped with. He pretty much just pushed the button while I held it, but it was very helpful.

Bracing the back...Part Deux

After doing one of the projects that I have to do around the house, I headed over to my "workshop" which tonight was on the floor in my living room. I'm not sure if I mentioned that my working conditions are not exactly the best, but they are not. I can't work in my garage because there is no heat or AC out there. There is also no way for me to control the humidity. The wood for the guitar must be maintained at 45-55% Relative Humidity for optimal building and longevity of the instrument. There are other technical reasons, but thats the gist of it.
Anyway, I decided to break away from KMG's instructions for the evening and glue the first brace on the back of the geetar. I have limited space, tools, equipment, lighting, and brain power. As such, not doing everything according to the instructions is probably a huge mistake. But, I love a challenge. I also decided not to follow the directions for another step with the back braces. I decided not to cut the braces to shape before gluing them in. If you look, you will see the brace is completely square on its edges but it will not stay that way. I did this because I do not have a ton of clamps that will work for this operation and cutting the braces before I glued them would require me to make "cauls" that are shaped to the brace to better hold it while gluing. I do not have the saws or anything I might need to adequately make the cauls, so I will shape the braces after the glue dries. I feel it is the same thing, but just a little harder after the braces are on. Besides, once they are glued, it will be much easier for me to hold them while carving. I simply have to clamp the whole back down instead of a little brace. If you look, you can see that I am actually trying to do this correctly and I am checking the brace to make sure it is square to the face of the back plate. Look at the square in the picture. If you look closely at the wood clamps I am using, you might notice that they appear to be burned near the metal rod closest to the camera. That was my first screw up of the build actually. And I had not even started the build yet.
See, my kit came with those clamps, but I had to assemble them and glue them together and drill and stuff to make the clamp parts into clamps. I thought I was a smart guy and I used wax on the metal shaft thing to keep the glue from sticking to it when I glued the two halves together. It worked!! But then the clamp wouldn't well...clamp. The wax made it slide when it should have been sticking in place. So I burned the wax out with a lighter. Thus the burney parts. Lesson learned. Don't put wax on things that are not supposed to be lubed up like that.