HD28 Kit - First Build

[Rick S]

I was able to eat just one guitar

David L

Hello David. If this doesn't go well, I might try seeing how some brisket might taste smoked with mahogany and spruce. In terms of cost, one might say ate the guitar. If this happens, I'll eat just one too.

[Rick S]

My kit has arrived with my official denim Blues Creek Guitars hat! Thanks John. So far so good. I've gone through about half of it and everything I've seen so far is about how I expected.

[darren]

congrats!, no work or sleep till its done - food is optional.

[Rick S]

congrats!, no work or sleep till its done - food is optional.

Thanks Darren. I'm glad you at least made food optional as I do require my 3 squares a day. Bill Cory says to wait a week or so before starting the build to allow the wood to adjust. I suppose I could get caught up on some work and sleep until then. Oh wait, I still have to buy some more tools - chisels, clamps, router bit and bearings, adhesives, files, various grits of sand paper, calipers, fret kit, various set up guages, precision inlay tools, etc, etc, etc. So, there's the dilemma. I think I might have to work to pay for those things. And, if I gotta work, I've gotta sleep. I know it's not fair but I'm pretty sure my boss will fire me if I fall asleep on the job.

You know John must be doing a great job. In a short time, I've heard from New York, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Washington and California. And me, I represent fly over country. John's got it covered.

[David L]

Rick, my HD28 is nearly complete, will be the final sanding/polising on the neck this week-end, and three weeks later the same for the body. The only thing left after that is the set-up. If you have a couple of months of spare time check my building documentation in kit guitars under blogging Fatso. I documented nearly every step of the process with lots of pictures and even more questions. I am taking a long time to complete this guitar for several reasons 1) Asking lots of question and re-asking again and again until I think that I have grasped an understanding of what I'm inquiring about, 2) I have been slowly buying the specialty tool that contribute to the end product being of higher quality, the processes being more efficient and safer for build and builder alike (I'm not wealthy so I save a little, buy a tool, save a little, buy a tool etc...) 3) not cutting corners to save time, when cure time is a week, I wait a week, when cure time is a month, I wait a month. This is not a race, I have no schedules or deadlines that I'm bound to, so I am truly having fun!!!

David L

[Rick S]

Rick, my HD28 is nearly complete, will be the final sanding/polising on the neck this week-end, and three weeks later the same for the body. The only thing left after that is the set-up. If you have a couple of months of spare time check my building documentation in kit guitars under blogging Fatso. I documented nearly every step of the process with lots of pictures and even more questions. I am taking a long time to complete this guitar for several reasons 1) Asking lots of question and re-asking again and again until I think that I have grasped an understanding of what I'm inquiring about, 2) I have been slowly buying the specialty tool that contribute to the end product being of higher quality, the processes being more efficient and safer for build and builder alike (I'm not wealthy so I save a little, buy a tool, save a little, buy a tool etc...) 3) not cutting corners to save time, when cure time is a week, I wait a week, when cure time is a month, I wait a month. This is not a race, I have no schedules or deadlines that I'm bound to, so I am truly having fun!!!

David L

Great advice David. I'll be sure to check out Blogging Fatso. I will be buying specialty tools along the way as well. Getting things set up in my garage the I way I want them should keep me busy during cure times.

[tippie53]

Tony is on the money , tooling is as individual as babies , There are some tools that you need but the best tool you have is imagination. A good book to start is Bill Cory's building martin guitar kits. Start slow and learn from your mistakes and don't be afraid to ask questions .
You may get 4 opinions from 1 question but the key is that there is more than 1 way to do anything . I would add that the body geometry is critical for neck alignment and final set up. You can see this at this link . It is something to think about as you plan your build but there are many ways to do it .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYHPCeVRUA4
I have tutorials on my website
http://www.bluescreekguitars.com/tutorials.php
Ken has some at KMG and I am sure he will chime in. We all have our one techniques so find one that fits your needs and have at it.
We are here to help and there is a good base knowledge here .
Keeping the strings on the outside does help

[David L]

Sounds like a good plan!!!

David L

[Rick S]

Tony is on the money , tooling is as individual as babies , There are some tools that you need but the best tool you have is imagination. A good book to start is Bill Cory's building martin guitar kits. Start slow and learn from your mistakes and don't be afraid to ask questions .
You may get 4 opinions from 1 question but the key is that there is more than 1 way to do anything . I would add that the body geometry is critical for neck alignment and final set up. You can see this at this link . It is something to think about as you plan your build but there are many ways to do it .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYHPCeVRUA4
I have tutorials on my website
http://www.bluescreekguitars.com/tutorials.php
Ken has some at KMG and I am sure he will chime in. We all have our one techniques so find one that fits your needs and have at it.
We are here to help and there is a good base knowledge here .
Keeping the strings on the outside does help

Thanks John. Great advice as usual. I bought Bill Cory's book on your recommendation and I've read about a third of it. I'll read each section before I do each step.

I'm a big fan of your videos on youtube. I have "Blues Creek Guitars" as a youtube search item on my DVD player. I've watched most of your videos several times. There's even one out there where you're playing the guitar with a couple of your students. A good time was being had by all. I understand completely what you're saying about the importance of the body geometry and neck angle to the action of the guitar and the final result. When I get to the point of pre-radiusing the sides I plan on watching the video at the link that you provided again. As I recall, you have a unique finishing touch to your "drive the bus" technique to flip the sanding disk over to the flat side and you briefly sand the area above the heel block. You then press down on the radiusing dish to check the gap between the bottom of the radiusing dish and top of the side at the opposite end above the tail block.

Your video where you set the dovetail joint is also excellent. The thing that I took from this video was that I need to constantly use a straight edge to do three checks as minor adjustments are being made to the dovetail joint:

1) Neck alignment (use a straight edge along each side of the neck to find the intersection points at the tail block. Splitting the difference between the two intersection points should be at the center of the guitar sound box),

2) Neck angle (use a straight edge to make sure that the top of the neck (without fingerboard) would create a gap of 1/2 inch at the approximate location of the front edge of the bridge),

3) Neck joint (height, tight fit of joint) (I'm stretching my memory on this last one).

I don't think I've seen any of the KMG tutorials or videos.

Thanks again for your videos, tutorials and help!

[Rick S]

I did a test fit of the sides in my mold this evening. If the goal is for the sides to have firm contact with the mold all the way around, I had to work with the sides quite a bit to have firm contact and also get the sides to meet at the heel block. I have about a quarter of an inch of overlap at the tail block. Since the area below the neck at the heel joint is visible, I know it's critical for the sides to meet to make a good joint. The thing I don't know, is it better to:

1) Let the wood relax a bit, have the sides meet at the heel block, but don't be concerned if there is a little bit of a gap between the sides and the mold at curves of the upper bout, or

2) Work the sides a bit in the mold to make sure that there's no gap at the heel block and as much wood as possible is pulled up from the waist area so that there's solid contact with the mold in all areas of the upper bout?

I also finished looking through the rest of the kit and I found a couple of things that I couldn't figure out what they were for. In the plastic bag with bridge pins was a thin, one inch square of white plastic. Is this suppose to be shaped to a cap at the bottom of the neck joint? There was a curved piece of white plastic wire that was about 3 inches long. I don't have any idea what this is for. Also in with the bridge pins was what looked like a fat bridge pin. Is this for a strap knob at the end graft?

Thanks in advance.