Acoustic Neck Glue Up

With just three weeks to go before graduating RV, we have a LOT to do! This last week was spent buffing the acoustic and final fitting the neck to the body. I left the neck to glue up over the weekend so tomorrow morning, I'll have a guitar!

Well... almost.

I still have to fret the neck, make and install the bridge, cut a nut and saddle, make the pickguard and tweak the final setup. With guitar repair guru, Frank Ford, coming by school for a two day lecture this week and the NAMM show next weekend, time is on short supply. (Guitar Geeks will also love Frank's website, FRETS.com and the store he runs, Gryphon Strings.)

Here's a shot of the wedge on the butt of the acoustic: Indian rosewood back and sides with matching rosewood binding. The light strip is maple purfling which, with the matched rosewood binding/back & sides, gives the guitar a sharp pinstriped look. Below, an early photo of fitting the wedge followed by a shot of the final product, lacquered and buffed to a mirror sheen:

Below are two shots of the neck gluing up to the body. The heel bolts to the neck block with two 2" bolts accessed through the sound hole. Glue is only used to adhere the fingerboard to the top of the guitar. Future serviceability is the name of the game with this style neck joint, as opposed to a traditional dovetail joint. Most guitars will inevitably need a neck reset at some point in their lives. A reset entails completely removing the neck from the body and reassessing the neck angle. With a dovetail joint, you have a ton of glue to deal with which means a more involved process of steaming off the neck. The process goes much smoother if you only have glue beneath the fingerboard to deal with.

Guitar #1... Done!!!

Well folks, I'm proud to say that I've finished my first guitar: a solid body electric based on the instrument Paul Bigsby built for Merle Travis in 1948. See previous post for more info on that one. This guitar turned out great, exceeding my expectations in tone and feel. Although it looks pretty close to the Bigsby instrument, the actual construction is more like a Gibson Les Paul. It features a solid 1 1/2" thick mahogany body with a flame maple top and tortoise binding, a mahogany neck with a bound rosewood fingerboard, Gibson scale length, Jason Lollar dog ear P 90 pickups, a Tone Pros locking tune-o-matic bridge and an American made Bigsby vibrato system. It's finished in Lawrence McFadden nitrocellulose lacquer. It weighs a ton! 9.8 lbs... in the ballpark of your average Les Paul Custom. I can't say enough positive things about the building process. I've learned an amazing amount of information and developed some crucial hand skills. The instructors at Roberto-Venn know their stuff and hammer us with info every day, pushing us to craft the best instruments possible. Again, my thanks to R.C. Allen, owner of Bigsby #2, for lending me the headstock template Paul Bigsby himself made and used to craft his iconic guitars. This same template is featured on page 49 of the recent The Story of Paul Bigsby book.

So here's the guitar posing up against the old Ford pickup on the back lot of R-V, minutes after final completion:

Some more glamor shots:







So that's one big step closer to the launch of my own line of hand built, custom guitars. Much much more to come...

Nearly There...

I couldn't resist a quick mock up of the electric. Here it is, finish buffed but not perfect yet:

Ah, The Gretsch...

A new website detailing the introduction and metamorphosis of the iconic Gretsch 6120. Many of the photos are credited to Chris Guido, a fella I met while working at Rudy's Music. Heck of a nice guy with a drool inducing collection of Gretsch guitars.

Inlays & Heels

Big push to finish to work on the acoustics this week. We have to put the electrics on the back burner (though mine is cured and ready to be buffed and assembled) so we can get the acoustics into the spray booths asap. Today I inlaid my acoustic fingerboard with a simple fret marking theme. Below, a shot of the fingerboard drilled out for the mother of pearl dot inlays:

After drilling these holes, I set the inlays in place, packing some ebony dust and super glue around them. The below photo shows the inlays crudded up with dust and glue. Once the glue dries, a quick zap with some sandpaper levels everything out and erases all the excess garbage, leaving a clean fingerboard.

And the sanded finger board:

The rest of the day was spent carving the neck heel (where the neck meets the body):

View of the heel from the back:

Another mock up of the acoustic:

At this point I have to carve the rest of the neck, finalize the neck fit to the body and finish sand the whole guitar before the lacquer booth. This guitar is looking great!

We're getting there...

Acoustic Shots

Here's a shot of my acousic headstock, inlaid with the G logo and mocked up with Schaller tuners:

A shot of the whole instrument mocked up. This coming week we'll be carving the neck and fitting it to the body.

First thing Monday I'll be pulling the electric off the drying rack, buffing the finish to its final shine and running through the final hardware assembly. This thing is almost done!! Below, Lady Carolyn holds G #1 just before taking off for Thanksgiving:

Acoustic Sprint Week!

We've got a short week to finish a TON of work on the acoustics. Since we're off Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving, we've got two less days to get these guitars ready for the spray booth. As of last Friday afternoon, we've bound and fit the bottom wedge on the body; shaped and inlaid the headstock and are on our way to binding and inlaying the fingerboard. There is much to be done and I'm loving the fast pace of it all. We're being pushed to get a lot done quickly... we only have 8 weeks left! A couple shots:

The acoustic body: binding glued and taped on both top and back:

The back, taped:

The binding went on yesterday and I let it set up overnight, pulling the tape off this morning. It needs a bit of finessing (scraping, sanding and gap filling) before calling it 'done' but all and all everything came out looking pretty sharp. I'll post photos of the final sanded body and bottom wedge tomorrow.

Below, Joe Parker holds my Bigsby/Travis electric which is still hanging in the humidity room while the lacquer cures. Come Monday morning, it will be ready for wet sanding, buffing and final assembly. I should have my first guitar done in about a week... fingers crossed.