Project 2 underway - Rosewood/Englemann dred
Posted: Wed Aug 14, 2019 3:02 pm
I am behind on posting about my other 2 active projects so why not start yet another thread? I don't know if I'd call this a kit but it's not scratch. Here's where I am:
A friend gave me his LMI project from 1980. East Indian rosewood back and sides, Englemann spruce top.
He bent the sides and glued them into the blocks and installed some interesting home-made lining back then and then abandoned the project.
I joined then thicknessed the plates using planer to 1.20" then Stanley #5 block plane, cabinet scrapers, sandpaper, and a lot of work down to about .11 for back and .10 top. about. Used old stewmac caliper and worked to get the entire top consistent.
I then added the rosette which I bought from John at Blues Creek. I got the spacing messed up. Dry-fit went well but I just could not get the rosette strips to go in with glue so had to make the center channel bigger which then messed up my spacing. Also installed the vintage style back strip from John as well. I learned about the side reinforcement on this forum: Tesa 51608. Worked great.
I got some glue drips inside when installing the top last. Going to try to avoid that next time.
Next, I bought John Hall’s super nice scalloped Adi bracing set and 1937 forward shifted rim templates. Really enjoyed working those and doing final shaping. which I did to make it more visually pleasing as I made no connection to shaving braces and the tap tones on try number 2. I would like to make my own braces next time but geez those are nice. I left off the popsicle brace just because some reference guitars I looked at didn't have one.
Now I have the box. I have celluloid and plastic binding appropriate for D-28 style. Bent bold herringbone purfling gain from John Hall.
I plan to purchase a Martin dovetail neck from Stewmac and make my own inlays. The big challenge left for me is cutting the dovetail slot. I am considering options such as the Stewmac router bit or using my fret saw and chisels. Since the block was already glued to the sides when I got them, I decided to wait until now to try it. One note on the blocks. They are a bit oversized compared to the Martin spec and the grain runs vertically. Prob better for me when cutting the dovetail but we'll see.
Pretty happy with this! Not really a cost efficient way to build guitars I guess but right now they are all for me so am trying to make them as nice as I can while building my skills so I can go more “scratch” as time goes on.
If anyone got his far, here is a decision I have to make:
Would you stain these sides? They are bit light. I like the back as-is. Even the pre-stain conditioner on my scrap pieces make it too dark for me so am just going to seal, fill, and finish that but the sides are not a color match. Would you work to match the back and sides in color?
A friend gave me his LMI project from 1980. East Indian rosewood back and sides, Englemann spruce top.
He bent the sides and glued them into the blocks and installed some interesting home-made lining back then and then abandoned the project.
I joined then thicknessed the plates using planer to 1.20" then Stanley #5 block plane, cabinet scrapers, sandpaper, and a lot of work down to about .11 for back and .10 top. about. Used old stewmac caliper and worked to get the entire top consistent.
I then added the rosette which I bought from John at Blues Creek. I got the spacing messed up. Dry-fit went well but I just could not get the rosette strips to go in with glue so had to make the center channel bigger which then messed up my spacing. Also installed the vintage style back strip from John as well. I learned about the side reinforcement on this forum: Tesa 51608. Worked great.
I got some glue drips inside when installing the top last. Going to try to avoid that next time.
Next, I bought John Hall’s super nice scalloped Adi bracing set and 1937 forward shifted rim templates. Really enjoyed working those and doing final shaping. which I did to make it more visually pleasing as I made no connection to shaving braces and the tap tones on try number 2. I would like to make my own braces next time but geez those are nice. I left off the popsicle brace just because some reference guitars I looked at didn't have one.
Now I have the box. I have celluloid and plastic binding appropriate for D-28 style. Bent bold herringbone purfling gain from John Hall.
I plan to purchase a Martin dovetail neck from Stewmac and make my own inlays. The big challenge left for me is cutting the dovetail slot. I am considering options such as the Stewmac router bit or using my fret saw and chisels. Since the block was already glued to the sides when I got them, I decided to wait until now to try it. One note on the blocks. They are a bit oversized compared to the Martin spec and the grain runs vertically. Prob better for me when cutting the dovetail but we'll see.
Pretty happy with this! Not really a cost efficient way to build guitars I guess but right now they are all for me so am trying to make them as nice as I can while building my skills so I can go more “scratch” as time goes on.
If anyone got his far, here is a decision I have to make:
Would you stain these sides? They are bit light. I like the back as-is. Even the pre-stain conditioner on my scrap pieces make it too dark for me so am just going to seal, fill, and finish that but the sides are not a color match. Would you work to match the back and sides in color?