#1 in progress: cedar/mahogany medium jumbo scratch build

[Jim_H]

Not too shabby Neil. I can assure you that almost everyone who has built a guitar has had to amend their purfling plan for similar reasons. It's an excellent learning experience though, and lets you expand your creativity.

You can use some nice sharp chisels and a hard sanding block to true up the edges of the channels to get an even edge for your purfling to line up against.

Keep it going !

[nkwak]

Yesterday I took a little time and fired up the bandsaw to cut laminates for the neck. I cut out a template from a sheet of 1/8" plexiglass earlier in the week and used it to trace outlines on some riftsawn wood that I bought from Rockler a couple of months ago. Then I did a dry-fitting to see how they lined up. The outer layers are mahogany (I believe they're African mahogany,) the inner layers are maple and the center layer is walnut.



Comparing against the plans and the template:


I cut a little extra to the thickness and length of the headstock. The plans also call for a volute which is tricky to cut out close with my little 9" Ryobi bandsaw so it looks ugly but I'm not worried. I may go without the volute altogether though.


I put a fresh blade on the bandsaw but it's got a pretty big tooth and left some bites that I'm going to have to plane smooth. I also need to glue "wings" on the headstock but that will all be hidden by a rosewood faceplate:


The three center layers measure exactly at 3/4" which is what the plans call for the width of the tenon. I have a pre-mortised neck block in the body so I won't know for certain if it will be a perfect fit until I rout away the sides around the mortise:


Once I cut out the wings I'll glue it all together. I may need to buy more of these clamps; they only cost $3 apiece at Harbor Freight. Then I'll move on to routing out the truss rod channel. I haven't decided on a shape to the headstock yet but I really like the look of Collings' headstocks. They're sort of Gibson-esque:

http://elderly.com/images/new_instrumen ... nt_sm_.jpg

Later on last night I went over to my friend's place and installed the rosewood end wedge. It took much longer than the neck and a couple of tries to boot - and it's still not perfect, but it'll do.

Thinking ahead, I need to fill some mistakes on the upper binding channel then it's on to binding. IN the meantime, I need to order a truss rod, some rosewood veneer and some fatter purfling for the back binding.

[johnnparchem]

Looks like you can get creative with the purflings. The neck looks good but I would take a plane and true up the face fingerboard side of the neck including the head stock before you make too many measurements. All of your other measurements will be off of the clean face. When you plane the headstock level it will move the nut position toward the heal, you will need to plane the finger board face to move it back up.

[Jim_H]

Nice work Neil! Looks really good!

[nkwak]

Looks like you can get creative with the purflings. The neck looks good but I would take a plane and true up the face fingerboard side of the neck including the head stock before you make too many measurements. All of your other measurements will be off of the clean face. When you plane the headstock level it will move the nut position toward the heal, you will need to plane the finger board face to move it back up.

Thanks, John. I understand and will take all of that into account. The original boards were S4S and I chose to use the finished sides for the fingerboard face but I admit that I will have to check with a straight edge to be sure. I left a little extra outside the outline of the headstock on the template to work with. That should give me some room to adjust where the nut will be positioned.

[nkwak]

OK, guys. I'm not sure if a blog thread is the place for this but I've got to order a truss rod. One of you recommended Allied Lutherie's double action truss rod but I can't get their site's shopping cart to work. Is LMI's double action truss rod a good alternative?

[johnnparchem]

I used LMI double action truss rod on 2 guitars and like them. I do take a flat mill file and clean up some of the welds so they fit in my slots.

[Kevin Sjostrand]

I've been using LMI's truss rods too. I like them. I have a Stewmac 2 way rod for this current build. It is shorter, so doesn't stick out very far from the heel block, but it must be okay, just takes a longer wrench. The Stewmac rod did NOT come with a wrench, the LMI rod does.

Kevin

[darren]

I think allied's are a finer thread which allows for more precise adjustment and less effort to turn - it really is a noticeable difference - I'm using an lmi one right now and it feels like I'm gonna break the nut off after using a few allied rods. The allied ones are also stainless. Their cart is kind of finiky but it's always worked for me.

Both will work for you though.

[nkwak]

Tonight I cleaned up the end wedge:







I know: it's not perfect but given that this is my first and it's for me I'd say it's "good enough." I already know what I'm going to do differently next time: do the wedge just after gluing in the blocks just like that O'Brien guy on Youtube says to do. He makes it look soooo easy.

I also glued up the neck blank. I'll take pics when it's presentable; there's lots of glue slop and I need to trim all the rough cuts to match the target profile.