Finished construction on my Koa Parlor Guitar.

[johnnparchem]

Nice job John. I do something similar to locate holes, only I drill the holes in the neck block first, then place the neck tenon in the mortise and insert bolts that I have ground to a point through the neck block holes and press them into the tenon for marks for the inserts. I also clamp blocks on either side of the tenon while screwing in the inserts. Best to be safe, right?
Question, do you after routing the tenon and shaping your neck heel, relieve the cheeks a little back to the tenon so only a small part of the cheek is making contact with the guitar body?

Kevin

On my last guitar I did not, as I did not have to do any adjustments. If I have to adjust the angle I do relieve the cheeks near the tenon to make it easier to change the angle. On the neck I goofed up I did have to adjust the angle, actually the angle was OK but the side to side angle was off a bit. Then I did relieve the cheeks on both sides before taking a little off of one cheek.

[BEJ]

John, great thread to see how it is done and see how to go about fixing things that don't always come out like you intended.
Good to see someone from the Seattle area on the forum, looks like there are alot builders in the greater Seattle area.
Like the pics of your shop, is there some posts somewhere on what you did to construct it? Guess it's some kind of crawl space/unexcavated foundation dig out from what you mentioned on a post. Looks alot better than my garage! Will keep looking for more posts on this project.

Bruce,

[johnnparchem]

John, great thread to see how it is done and see how to go about fixing things that don't always come out like you intended.
Good to see someone from the Seattle area on the forum, looks like there are alot builders in the greater Seattle area.
Like the pics of your shop, is there some posts somewhere on what you did to construct it? Guess it's some kind of crawl space/unexcavated foundation dig out from what you mentioned on a post. Looks alot better than my garage! Will keep looking for more posts on this project.

Bruce,

Hi Bruce,

I ran a shop build thread while I was building it. Great to hear from another Seattle guitar builder. It looks like I will get another day "working from home" as we still have a lot of unplowed snow.
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2290

[johnnparchem]

I have one hiccup that I need to finish fixing. Other than that I ready to move toward the finish stage for this guitar. Yesterday I shot pictures all day without a data card, so the record of me mucking up the guitar while finish sanding is lost.

I am using Purflex a manufactured purfling with very fine detail but very thin wood. When I installed I installed at flush to avoid what inevitably happened; I sanded through the wood portion in a small area. I an not sure how I did that but I suspect at the spot the Purflex was up a bit. I any case I cleaned out an area of the purfling from the top of the guitar to aways past where the sand through happened. I have a strip in the mail to replace the part I took out. Purflex is build so that it can seamlessly mate. I very carefully cleaned up the installed end I need to mate with so that I can get a seamless joint. Other than that I made my pearl logo (just taped on in the photo) have the back and sides finished sanded. I also put a few coats of shellac on the top as it (at least in the non-mucked areas) is finished sanded.












I have one hiccup that I need to finish fixing. Other than that I ready to move toward the finish stage for this guitar. Yesterday I shot pictures all day without a data card, so the record of me mucking up the guitar while finish sanding is lost.

I am using Purflex a manufactured purfling with very fine detail but very thin wood. When I installed I in stilled at flush to avoid what inevitably happened; I sanded through the wood portion in a small area. I an not sure how I did that but I suspect at the spot the Purflex was up a bit. I an case I cleaned out an area of the purfling from the top of the guitar to always past where the sand through happened. I have a strip in the mail to replace the area I took out. Purflex is build so that it can seamlessly mate. I very carefully cleaned up the installed end I need to mate with so that I can get a seamless joint. Other than that I made my pearl logo (just taped on in the photo) have the back and sides finished sanded. I also put a few coats of shellac on the top as it (at least in the non-mucked areas) is finished sanded.

[Darryl Young]

Looks great John! Did you have the body wiped down with mineral spirits in the next to last shot? This is myrtle back/sides isn't it?

[johnnparchem]

Looks great John! Did you have the body wiped down with mineral spirits in the next to last shot? This is myrtle back/sides isn't it?

Thanks Darryl,

I wiped it down with Naphtha, The back and sides are Koa. I wipe it down looking for glue stains, mustly around the bindings on the sides.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

Love that headstock! You will fix the purfling up nice, I know you will. I love that Koa, can I have some?

Kevin

[RnB]

Very nice John. A bit of detail in that parlor. Quite challenging to say the least...!

[johnnparchem]

Thanks,

I am going to be starting to pore fill this weekend if I get time. I have everything finish sanded.

[JVan]

That is one nice looking guitar ! WOWO..can not wait to see finished pics! Headstock is really cool! Keep up the nice work !