Jump to content

Second amatuer acoustic guitar build now underway!


kwakatak

Recommended Posts

  • Members

As a few of you may know, number 1 is getting really close and I've been collecting parts for build #2:

 The top is Carpathian spruce courtesy of knockwood and the tap tone on this stuff is phenominal. It's got a kick like a bass drum and I've only just begun to plane it thinner. The back and sides are east Indian rosewood from RC Tonewoods. The neck I got from John Hall at Blues Creek Guitars. It's cut from a single piece of mahogany and was probably intended for something like an OM-28V; the profile is a modified V, the nut width is 1-3/4" and the heel is not as tall as a dreadnought. The pieces parts

Speaking of which, I will be building a dreadnought akin to a HD-28V or D-28 Marquis. The neck is short scale and I want to keep it simple by doing a 14 fret dreadnought so I'll have to shift the X braces forward. As far as I know, Maritn has only done this with one model, the recently discontinued D-18 SS. This will have 28 series appointments though. including grained ivoroid binding and zig zag back strip. I'm still on the fence about herringbone purfling though; I'm going with a herringbone rosette just like on my D-16GT:

 

zig zagherringbone rosette on Carpathian top

I went ahead and order the plans from Stew Mac:

plans

 

So without further ado, the other night I used my no,5 jack plane to shoort the joint and I glued the two havlves of the soundboard together with Titebone I. I used Kinkead's method of using nails and weights to provided the clamping pressure:

 

joining the top

Then tonight I took it out, sharpen the plane to scary sharpness and starting making ribbons of spruce all over hte basement floor. It was MUCH more satisfying that using the drum sander, as I did with my first build. There's also something supremely satisfying about a how a properly sharpened plane will just slide across a surface! :

 

thickness planing by hand

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 11 months later...
  • Members

One year later...and build 1 is complete minus final polishing and setup. In a few weeks I'm hoping the humidity stabilizes enough to begin on the body over at my friend's shop. I've opted to make use of the CNC'd Martin style neck with installed truss rod that I got from John Hall. After much deliberation I've opted to make a short scale rosewood dreadnought, something that Martin hasn't done outside of the custom shop for a long time, if at all. This one will be done with vintage style 28 appointments but with a herringbone rosette and trim. Here are some pics of the backstrip going in last year. The backstrip has since been scraped level but I didn't glue on the reinforcing strip because I still need to sand the thickness down a little more.

 

8AF8E578-orig_zpsae963353.jpg

 

EE766E49-orig_zpscd05de8d.jpg

 

Along with the neck I've ordered a serviced fretboard of 1st grade ebony from LMI. I want to bind the fretboard and considered using grained ivoroid but opted instead to go with curly maple. I also ordered the fretwire (stainless steel jumbo size) and small pearl diamond inlays. At a later date I will be ordering an ebony Martin bridge with 2-1/4" string spacing at the saddle and herringbone trim prebent to dreadnought dimensions from Stewmac. The only major complications I foresee are that this one will have a dovetail neck joint and I will have to shift the X bracing 1" toward the soundhole to make it short scale.

 

Right now I'm focusing on the neck and fingerboard while spring gets around to springing. The inlays are going to be tough to do but I'm looking forward to the challenge. Meanwhile, the RH in my friend's shop is in the upper 30th percentile (which is good for woodworking) and I took all my materials over there last week to acclimate. In addition to that my friend has all the forms and profiles to make a Martin style dreadnought. He's also building a rosewood dreadnought but already closed the box so the forms are now available. I also need to make use of his drum sander and Fox bending machine.

 

PS: this also means that retopping the old Takamine is now on the back burner. Building is so much more fun that demolishing!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members
Yea wood bindings is the way to go. Plastic trim just ruins a nice guitar in my opinion.
That, plus you don't have to pay extra for shipping because the ivoroid material is technically a hazardous material. This binding is for the fingerboard though. When the box is closed I'm going to order the same but have them bend it. I've heard horror stories about maple breaking easily in the bender.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...