Jim's First Build -- Custom 000 Short Scale Cut Away

Take us through building your guitar step by step. Post pictures and tell us what you're doing.
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jabbiati
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Re: Jim's First Build -- Custom 000 Short Scale Cut Away

Post by jabbiati »

Diane Kauffmds wrote:That's pretty low humidity. You're running the risk of cracks and problems with seams coming apart, unless you live in an arid area with low humidity as the norm. Do you have electricity? You can run a stand alone humidifier. Walmart, big box stores, and Amazon carry them, to name a few places.
Yeah....workshop is in my basement, so that's not gonna work long term. Sounds like I should move my materials upstairs for the winter and restart in the spring. Still mulling this over....
"Not all who wander are lost..."
ruby@magpage.com
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Re: Jim's First Build -- Custom 000 Short Scale Cut Away

Post by ruby@magpage.com »

Jim

Not sure where you live, but in a mixed or cold climate the RH is typically higher in the basement because of 2 things - there are more moisture sources in the surrounding buried walls and slab, and the temperature is cooler, both of which raise the RH.

Check to be sure, but it will probably be drier - lower RH - upstairs. Raising the temperature of the basement with also lower the RH.

Ed
Ed M
jabbiati
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Re: Jim's First Build -- Custom 000 Short Scale Cut Away

Post by jabbiati »

Thanks Ed... yeah, the RH is also dry as heck upstairs. I keep a spare bedroom temp/RH controlled, where I keep all my gits. I could move some materials (anything glued up) in there if I had to, but not a workshop. So I can either live with the temp/RH downstairs and continue, or store what I've done and pick it up again in the spring.
"Not all who wander are lost..."
JLT
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Re: Jim's First Build -- Custom 000 Short Scale Cut Away

Post by JLT »

If you're wondering why I'm reviving this dead thread, it's because I'm reviving a dead project.

Last year, Jim decided not to proceed with the build because he felt that he didn't have the specialized tools for finishing it. (I assume he meant the routers and Dremels and stuff to do the binding part, and the fret files and nut files, etc.) So he sold the unfinished kit to me, and I'm going to finish it and see how it sounds.

I do wonder how many unfinished kit guitars there are out there, because people got discouraged about completing them. It's a shame that so much potential music is unrealized on this planet. This is the second guitar half-built guitar I have finished... the first one was from a guy who had built a dozen or so guitars but gave up the hobby. I inherited about six molds, a bunch of binding, some unlabeled fretwire, and a few tools. The guitar was a dreadnaught which I finished and played for a while, but I wasn't happy with it, so I ended up re-making it as an acoustic bass guitar. That story is told here:

viewtopic.php?f=29&t=6732

First, I have to say that Jim did a fine job of assembling, for the most part. My only beef was that he left the top at 1/8" thickness, whereas I would have thinned it a bit. But he presumably didn't have the planes to do the job properly. I myself have a thicknessing sander but couldn't use it because the braces were already glued on. But 1/8" will probably work out fine.

I thought the braces were a bit overbuilt so I thinned them down, leaving them the same height but taking a wee bit off the sides. This was to lighten the top a little bit, since with the thicker soundboard, the braces didn't have to work as hard. I also tapered the ends of some of them, following a luthier friend's directive to have them flow neatly onto the soundboard.

Having done all that, I dry-fitted the top to the rest of the body and bolted the neck on. When I went to check the neck angle, I found that it was too great, and deduced that the body had warped a bit over the years. I could solve that problem by putting the body into a specialized mold that squeezed the body just enough to correct the neck angle, and then gluing the top on to stabilize it at the correct configuration. Does that sound like a reasonable plan?

I'll try to keep you all posted on the progress. And Jim, thank you for the work you've done on it. I'll try to make you proud with the result.
phavriluk
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Re: Jim's First Build -- Custom 000 Short Scale Cut Away

Post by phavriluk »

I get the idea that the top braces could be removed and the soundboard tuned, and the braces either get reinstalled or replaced. Backtracking, yes, but the soundboard is a critical and fundamental part ...
peter havriluk
JLT
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Re: Jim's First Build -- Custom 000 Short Scale Cut Away

Post by JLT »

That's true, but since John Hall has shipped out a lot of soundboard of that dimension with his kits (it was his kit that Jim bought), I'm sure they turned out OK. The thinner board was just my preference, but I'm curious about how this one will turn out.

As for the neck angle, I used a sort of vise arrangement to squeeze the tops of the tail block and neck block together, forcing the neck block to have more of a 90 degree angle to the soundboard. But it distorted the body so much that I decided to discard that approach. Instead, I'll just remove enough material from the wing of the neck to make everything right... something I've done many times before but never as cleanly as I would have liked. Well, practice makes perfect, and it looks like I'm going to get more practice.
Stray Feathers
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Re: Jim's First Build -- Custom 000 Short Scale Cut Away

Post by Stray Feathers »

It's not clear if the back is glued on. If not, would it make any difference if you unglued the neck block and realigned things for better geometry? You might have to adjust the way the two sides meet. Bruce W.
phavriluk
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Re: Jim's First Build -- Custom 000 Short Scale Cut Away

Post by phavriluk »

Maybe JLT has already done this, but a conversation with Mr. Hall might be worth having, as in setting the project right.
peter havriluk
tippie53
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Re: Jim's First Build -- Custom 000 Short Scale Cut Away

Post by tippie53 »

scrapers and just good sanding can do alot.
How thin did you want to make it? Old martins were .117 to .110
John Hall
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president of Association of Stringed Instrument Artisans
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JLT
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Re: Jim's First Build -- Custom 000 Short Scale Cut Away

Post by JLT »

Stray Feathers wrote: Fri Apr 21, 2023 8:20 pm It's not clear if the back is glued on. If not, would it make any difference if you unglued the neck block and realigned things for better geometry? You might have to adjust the way the two sides meet. Bruce W.
The back was already glued on. But I'm not sure that taking it off and re-aligning the neck block would do the job. It seems like shimming the neck might be the better way to go.

UPDATE: I decided to add shims instead of removing wood from the neck. The shims are ebony, and sort of blend into the lines already defined by the black plastic binding. If anybody remarks on this, I'm going to tell them that it was an "esthetic choice"... but you'll know that it was dictated by practicality.
Last edited by JLT on Tue Sep 05, 2023 3:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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