Re: A Repair, Revisited/Finally Done After 2 Years.

Danl8 · Post by **Danl8** » Thu Dec 17, 2015 4:32 pm

Diane Kauffmds wrote:....Danl8, how did the piece made with BW turn out for you?.....

I made a playable classical guitar. Built with Irving Sloane's book on my bench and a handful of hand tools, it surprisingly looks like a guitar. But the sound quality is quite nice, very even across registers and sustains forever. I gave it and my playing in general a ten year rest that re-awakened last year with the steel string guitars I built. I had thought about ripping it apart and rebuilding into a 00-14 or something like that, however my sons put an abrupt end to those plans. I might take the duct tape off and fix the cracks and maybe work on the neck some, but it looks like it will last intact longer than me.

BTW, the BRW came from Jim Sherry's warehouse. Jim had accumulated a huge store of Brazilian/Cedar and EU Spruce planning for the US set-up of a Ramirez shop (I 'm pretty sure it was Ramirez) that never did happen. I bought as much as I could afford at that time and haven't used hardly any of it since.

-d.

Diane Kauffmds · Post by **Diane Kauffmds** » Fri Dec 18, 2015 8:41 am

Danl8 wrote:
Diane Kauffmds wrote:....Danl8, how did the piece made with BW turn out for you?.....
I made a playable classical guitar. Built with Irving Sloane's book on my bench and a handful of hand tools, it surprisingly looks like a guitar. But the sound quality is quite nice, very even across registers and sustains forever. I gave it and my playing in general a ten year rest that re-awakened last year with the steel string guitars I built. I had thought about ripping it apart and rebuilding into a 00-14 or something like that, however my sons put an abrupt end to those plans. I might take the duct tape off and fix the cracks and maybe work on the neck some, but it looks like it will last intact longer than me.

BTW, the BRW came from Jim Sherry's warehouse. Jim had accumulated a huge store of Brazilian/Cedar and EU Spruce planning for the US set-up of a Ramirez shop (I 'm pretty sure it was Ramirez) that never did happen. I bought as much as I could afford at that time and haven't used hardly any of it since.

-d.

BRW is known for cracking, especially if it's not humidified. I think it's a problem for most RW, but Brazilian has a definite tendency to do it. My first guitar repair was to my IRW guitar. My husband sat the case on top of a heat vent and I didn't notice. It developed a crack in the back.

If you don't mind an unsolicited opinion, I would put that beautiful instrument in a case with an Oasis humidifier to hydrate it and protect it; or at least, make sure that it's humidified by putting an Oasis or HuMIDIpak. It's quite an investment. And PLAY it for heaven's sake! Your sons were right.

You may not have been qualified to use the BRW, but your guitar is beautiful, and if it plays nice then you made a good choice to build the guitar from it. I doubt I'll ever build a guitar made from BRW; the wood is simply too expensive.

Danl8 · Post by **Danl8** » Fri Dec 18, 2015 11:05 am

Diane Kauffmds wrote:
...If you don't mind an unsolicited opinion, I would put that beautiful instrument in a case with an Oasis humidifier to hydrate it and protect it; or at least, make sure that it's humidified by putting an Oasis or HuMIDIpak....

I welcome unsolicited opinions! And that is a suggestion I am going to follow. -d.

Diane Kauffmds · Post by **Diane Kauffmds** » Sun Dec 20, 2015 11:42 am

I've got the rosette in, the soundhole reinforcement and bridge patch. I will work on the bracing today.

The soundhole itself is not sanded to complete form yet. Although beautiful, the rosette was quite out of round, so I had to use the 1/8" chisel for the most part, to do the inlay. The rosette has additional colors, like aqua, that doesn't show up in the photo. Once the top is installed on the box, I'll do a final scraping, before french polishing, which will define the rosette even more. Although dusted off, there's still sanding dust on it when I took the photo.

johnnparchem · Post by **johnnparchem** » Sun Dec 20, 2015 1:02 pm

Looks like a fun project. I look forward to watching the guitar come together.

Kevin Sjostrand · Post by **Kevin Sjostrand** » Mon Dec 21, 2015 12:22 pm

Attractive rosette. It will be fun to see this one repaired

Diane Kauffmds · Post by **Diane Kauffmds** » Sat Jan 09, 2016 3:05 pm

Kevin Sjostrand wrote:Attractive rosette. It will be fun to see this one repaired

Well Kevin, it WAS an attractive rosette...the curse of "Delilah continues...

For those new to the forum, "Delilah" is my Cherry/spruce 00, named after a very bad girl in an old bible story. To make a long story short, I ended up scrapping my first attempt at the 00, because of too many problems. I used old lumber from a local lumber company to build my second attempt at the 00, and it fought me the entire time. LOL

Well, the top I was going to use on the classical, was one that I had thinned too much for mu original try at the 00. I kept the top and knowing that classical guitars have thinner tops than steel strings, I thought I could use it for the classical. After installing the rosette, I started bracing it. Every brace telegraphed through the top. I mean, it looked really AWFUL. I routed the rosette out of the top and I was going to reuse it today in the new top that I glued up, but I realized it was so thin that if I touched it with sandpaper, there would be nothing left of it.

So, this is the new top and rosette that I just installed. I just glued in the rosette and I'll scrape down the purfling here in a few minutes. This is the top that I used my new safety planer on to thickness it. Needless to say, it did a much better job than I've been able to do with hand tools.

Anyway, here is the top with the new rosette glued in. It's not cleaned up yet.

SUES SECOND TOP.jpg

SECOND ROSETTE.jpg

Diane Kauffmds · Post by **Diane Kauffmds** » Wed Jan 13, 2016 8:19 pm

I've got the bracing in. I decided on a variation of a Torres 7 finger fan brace pattern. I ran across a photograph of a similar bracing pattern on the internet and in my quest for a bracing pattern that represents "less is more", the pattern intrigued me. It's the basic fan brace pattern, with the exception of 3 of the fans (left to right, #2, Middle, #5), which are wider and planed very thin. In order to achieve this, I glued the 1cm wide braces (which started life about as thick), notching out the bridge plate area. After gluing, I planed them so that they are extremely thin over the bridge patch, but thicker on either side of it. The first photo shows 2 of the strips planed down and the third in the process of being planed.

The remaining 4 finger braces are very narrow (5mm), but tall, which lends a lot of stability, without weight. I've shaped all of the fingers, before putting the last 4 braces in the gobar deck (the 2 transverse braces, and the bracing under the fingers. In this particular bracing scheme, the transverse braces are quite substantial. There are gaps between the fingers and the lower transverse, as well as the braces below the fingers, by design.

strip bracing.jpg

high finger.jpg

rest of rough bracing.jpg

Kevin Sjostrand · Post by **Kevin Sjostrand** » Wed Jan 13, 2016 8:51 pm

Now you are making progress, always fun to get the top into the Gobar deck

Diane Kauffmds · Post by **Diane Kauffmds** » Fri Jan 15, 2016 6:18 pm

Bracing is on and profiled. The back/sides/neck are stripped of the old nasty finish. I'll get the top glued tonight, then tomorrow I'll get it bound. moving along...

top front.jpg

20160115_153300.jpg

20160115_153150.jpg