Members kwakatak Posted November 23, 2015 Members Share Posted November 23, 2015 Chapter 1: The Beginning You think I would learn my lesson as #2 is still piecemeal but I am now in the early stages of build #3. Officially, this will be for my 8yo son though I must admit to some bit of selfishness on my part. I've always allowed him to play around with my guitars - with a bit of nervousness I must admit: Never one to pass up an opportunity to endanger my children I let him take a role in the creation of my first guitar: These were taking a few years ago, but these past couple of years I've sensed that he's beginning to come into his own. He's developed a pretty good ear for music and has a creative nature that I am proud of so I think he's ready to take up an instrument - though it may not be guitar. That's OK, but still he likes to take them out and has played some rudimentary tunes on them. I saw this as a chance to bond and we've talked about him growing into my guitars a little more - unlike that previous photo with my Martin which dwarved him! I was about his age when my mother caught me fiddling around with her guitar which resulted in a similar push upon me. That guitar was not nearly as big and I eventually went on to take lessons on it. In fact, I still have it though it's not playable. To satisfy my own curiosity I had my little guy try it on for size and as it was for me it seems like a good size for him to grow into as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kwakatak Posted November 23, 2015 Author Members Share Posted November 23, 2015 Chapter 2: the Inspiration As we established, I'm using the guitar I learned on as an inspiration. There is nothing really special about the guitar other than its size and the memory that the callouses it gave me were excruciating. I'm hoping that what we end up making is not only higher in quality but also easier on the hands. Probably the biggest reason he won't be learning on this one is a curse that I take as a blessing: the neck is broken. Fortunately, I happen to have a neck - though there's no way that I would mate it with a plywood body. Here's where the old beater gets it purpose for its continued existence: as a template. It's almost fate that both necks are 24.9" scale. As you can see, I've made a little progress on the fretboard. More on that later. In the meantime, I have some measuring and tracing to do. I'm still not sure if I'll go crazy on making a mold like I did on my first build. I also have yet to actually acquire the materials for the body, just the blocks so far. More on that later as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kwakatak Posted November 23, 2015 Author Members Share Posted November 23, 2015 Chapter 3: beginning on the fretboard In a way this build began with my first. This neck basically fell into my lap thanks to the generosity of the luthier community. It was graciously donated by luthier John Hall of Blues Creek Guitars over in eastern Pennsylvania. For those in the know, John is active over a the Kit Guitars Forum and offers classes in building (either from kits or by scratch) from his workshop. He also has a professional relationship with Martin guitars in Nazareth, about 45 minutes to the east. Along with Dick Boak of Martin, he was instrumental in setting up ASIA, the Association of String Instrument Artisans. The neck he sent to me is a short scale neck with a modified V neck profile and a diamond volute. It's made of a single piece of Honduran mahogany and has a single action truss rod already installed. John also installed two brads into the gluing face of the neck which he uses as positioning pins when gluing on the fingerboard. For some reason though, John elected to not use the neck. I'm assuming the reason is that there is a crack halfway down the headstock. It appears to be repaired and given that I have yet to glue a veneer on the headstock - and I intend to glue another on the back - I don't have any concerns about it spreading. I've always liked Martin's Vintage line of guitars. I was also positively stoked that the neck has a diamond volute. One thing that I don't like about the 28 series is the lack of fretboard binding (something I love about the 35s) so I am going to bind the fretboard of this build with curly maple. In these pictures you can see that I make use of my extensive capo collection to dry fit the fretboard and binding into place. The neck width is proud of 1-3/4" which gives me wiggle room when sanding out some rough edges. FWIW it appears that my son has inherited my stubby fingers so this may be a stretch for him but I learned that by planting the thumb at the apex of the V and dropping the wrist I can still reach adequately. I'm also going to inlay diamonds on this one's fretboard - though on this one I'm "cheaping" out on imitation pearl. Originally, this fretboard was to be my "practice" one but I have a feeling that it may come out better. The homogenous imitation pearloid appears to be much more durable than the stratified yet natural paua. I'm also better-practiced at marking out the markers positions. Without further ado though, I have some work yet to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted November 24, 2015 Members Share Posted November 24, 2015 I'll be watching along with a lot of other folks. Go for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Emory Posted November 24, 2015 Members Share Posted November 24, 2015 When I saw "kwakatak" I wondered if you were going to build a U of Oregon Ducks guitar (Quack attack was some promo phrase I recall). I think you from somewhere in Pac Northwest, so what the heck. Your son is a very fortunate young man having you as Pops. (OOPS. My bad I thought Freeman was doing this. Your son still fortunate, even in PA.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kwakatak Posted November 25, 2015 Author Members Share Posted November 25, 2015 Nope. I'm in Pennsylvania. Freeman Keller is in Oregon. I do happen to share a surname with a Belgian Brewer and I used to play a Takamine though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeepEnd Posted November 25, 2015 Members Share Posted November 25, 2015 Cute kid and you're a great dad for wanting to build a guitar for him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DeepEnd Posted November 25, 2015 Members Share Posted November 25, 2015 Isn't Freeman in Washington State? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Freeman Keller Posted November 25, 2015 Members Share Posted November 25, 2015 Yup Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kwakatak Posted November 26, 2015 Author Members Share Posted November 26, 2015 Yesterday I mapped out the double diamonds and patiently routed out the holes to drop the markers in. I bought some cheaper bits at Harbor Freight that were smaller than small. I broke three in the process but this time around there was much less filling to do. I installed each marker using a single drop of gel CA glue on the back of each and puffing a little ebony dust into the holes to serve as both a bed and filler to be forced up the sides as I pressed each in. There are still gaps but before gluing on the binding and installing the frets I'm going to wick some runny CA into the gaps then sand the entire board smooth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kwakatak Posted November 26, 2015 Author Members Share Posted November 26, 2015 Moar pics: I'm satisfied with the way things turned out. These inlays are much more durable than the blue paua ones but don't look nearly as nice. They look more metallic than like pearl. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kwakatak Posted November 27, 2015 Author Members Share Posted November 27, 2015 I took a couple of minutes to glue on the bindings. I have a conundrum: I one coil of fretwire and two necks in progress. This one is further along but has no body; the other's fretboard has yet to be narrowed to accept binding and the neck has yet to be carved and the body is just the sides with the blocks and kerfing installed, the back and top have yet to be braced much less glued on. What to do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Queequeg Posted December 2, 2015 Members Share Posted December 2, 2015 FK moved from WA to Oregon? What?Very nice, Neil. Your boy will cherish this all the days of his life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kwakatak Posted April 3, 2018 Author Members Share Posted April 3, 2018 Mega zombie bump. I figure I'm not getting any younger and I hit the big 5-0 next year. Given how long #2 has taken me I think that this one needs to be a kit and am thinking that taking a class with John Hall in Heglin PA (about 260 miles east of here) might be a nice 49th birthday present in July, I need to work on my sales pitch with my wife and nail down the particulars though. Once it's down the old Kay is going in the trash - and so is the Takamine, BTW. I need to declutter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted April 3, 2018 Share Posted April 3, 2018 Mega zombie bump. Once it's down the old Kay is going in the trash - and so is the Takamine, BTW. I need to declutter. Maybe you can find a young player or someone who'd like to start playing in your area and donate them to them instead of tossing them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kwakatak Posted April 4, 2018 Author Members Share Posted April 4, 2018 Both are unplayable. The Tak is in 3 pieces and the Kay is unplayable with the heel of the neck split and its plywood top has delaminated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Queequeg Posted April 11, 2018 Members Share Posted April 11, 2018 Mega zombie bump. I figure I'm not getting any younger and I hit the big 5-0 next year. Given how long #2 has taken me I think that this one needs to be a kit and am thinking that taking a class with John Hall in Heglin PA (about 260 miles east of here) might be a nice 49th birthday present in July, I need to work on my sales pitch with my wife and nail down the particulars though. Once it's down the old Kay is going in the trash - and so is the Takamine, BTW. I need to declutter. Hey Neil. I remember my 50th (vaguely). Quite a while ago now. Hope you can negotiate the John Hall class with your wife. Looking forward to catching up with you at McJam in June. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members guitarcapo Posted April 12, 2018 Members Share Posted April 12, 2018 Photobucket killed all your pics...damn them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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