My First Guitar-OM Blog

[mnmusic]

A primary reason why we are building our own guitars. Who wants to get stuck with a big dollar Martin or Gibson that falls in the 'average' or below category?

Interesting comment. I guess I never thought of it that way. But, I still have yet to build my first guitar. It will happen soon though.

Ed

[Diane Kauffmds]

Onto bigger and better things...

I figured out how to bend the curly maple binding.

Using an old steam cleaner that has been sitting in the basement, I bent the binding, using a lot of steam and my mold, which I wrapped in Glad Press and Seal plastic wrap. I routed the top and bottom for the binding and black wood purfling. I leveled the curly maple bottom wedge, which I intentionally installed a bit proud of the peruvian walnut.

Tomorrow, I'll glue the binding and purfling to the guitar. The "purfling" is actually inlay strips of black wood that I picked up from Woodcraft.

[Diane Kauffmds]

I finally got the binding installed today. I used curly maple with ebony purfling. I also opened the neck joint. I just got done with the binding, so it's not been cleaned up at all.

[MaineGeezer]

I'm probably more worried about routing the grooves for the binding and purfling than I am about anything else. It looks as though yours came out nicely uniform -- good work!

I finally got the binding installed today. I used curly maple with ebony purfling. I also opened the neck joint. I just got done with the binding, so it's not been cleaned up at all.

I blew this image up to about 1400x1900 and have to say... you do exceptional work. Clean and neat. No sloppy at all to be found.

[Diane Kauffmds]

I'm probably more worried about routing the grooves for the binding and purfling than I am about anything else. It looks as though yours came out nicely uniform -- good work!

This had me worried too.

I had a hard time handling the purfling and binding at the same time. I was scared of bending the binding, especially since it's curly. That ended up being the easiest thing to do on the entire guitar. I left the binding in the mold until I used it today. It had no chance of relaxing.

The ebony was easy to work with because it was very thin. But it was straight as well. Trying to install a long, straight piece under a stiff pre-bent piece was hard. It took me 3 hours and 4 hands to install the stuff. Luckily, my husband owns 2 hands. Lol

Everyone else is worried about setting the neck. THIS is what had me in a twist. The rest of the guitar may be time consuming, but it Sema downhill from here.

[Diane Kauffmds]

I finally got the binding installed today. I used curly maple with ebony purfling. I also opened the neck joint. I just got done with the binding, so it's not been cleaned up at all.

I blew this image up to about 1400x1900 and have to say... you do exceptional work. Clean and neat. No sloppy at all to be found.

Thank you Tom. I'm usually clean and neat, but I ended up with more glue on me, than the bindings today. Truthfully, about the last 1" of the binding, on the top left of the neck joint, slipped out of the groove on me. I unglued about 4", cleaned it up good, and reseated it. I'm glad it's finally on. Tomorrow I'll get it scraped.

Then it will finally be time to begin the finishing process. I put a thin coat of shellac over the entire box to protect it, prior to binding it. It gave me a preview of how the guitar's going to look. All kinds of dimension came out of that wood. I'm getting anxious to get it done.

[Chuck73]

How did you cut your binding channels? For me this is THE most nerve wracking step of the process. Guitar looks great btw. I really like the rosette.

[Diane Kauffmds]

How did you cut your binding channels? For me this is THE most nerve wracking step of the process. Guitar looks great btw. I really like the rosette.

I used a revamped KMG binding jig.

The original jig was good, but it needed improvement. The base of the original jig (that rides on the top of the guitar) was made of thin a thin fiber board and was small. It made controlling the laminate router hard, because it was top heavy.

I finally remade the KMG jig. I replaced the thin fiberboard base with a piece of plywood. Although the screws that hold the jig to the router are countersunk, I'll be gluing on a thin veneer of plastic, so that the jig glides across the top of the guitar. I've already put the plastic on the base that rides on the sides of the guitar.

Routing the channels is easy with a jig attached.

Here is the KMG binding jig with the new base:




I had practice cutting and binding when I worked on the project guitar, so at least I was familiar with the procedure; but like you, routing for the bindings was the most nerve racking, along with routing for the inlay. Mistakes made doing either of these two things, are very noticeable and almost impossible to cover up.

Thank you for the compliment. The rosette is actually my biggest disappointment. I'd chosen a beautiful maple rosette, with a raised rosebud relief, that would have looked really good with my choice of headstock inlay. I realized as I started to cut out the channel, that the rosette was entirely too thick for this top. Since it has a raised relief, it's almost impossible to thickness it down as needed. I had this rosette on hand, so I used it instead.

[Diane Kauffmds]

I laid the neck into the joint, and laid the fretboard and bridge on the guitar. Now, I can see where I'm headed. LOL

No, I've not finished the guitar, I just needed to see how it it looked with things in place.