1Q22 Challenge - Roland’s guitar build

Jalapeno

Roland said:

TTony said:

Wish I'd thought about that when we had the large (diseased) Ash tree chopped down.

I wish I’d thought of it when the neighbours Spruce came down, but it probably wasn't suitable for making acoustic tops:

https://i.imgur.com/J9L5rYU.jpg

Bottom bit may have been good !

Roland

At some point during my non-Covid stupor I seem to have ordered a bandsaw. (Must remember to tell my wife before its delivery on Tuesday!) Whilst clearing space for it in the workshop my chip collector lid imploded. Being a cheapskate I had built it using a 30 year old plastic brewing bin. It took an hour or so to make a new lid out of plywood. Not difficult, but another step. 

I do fear that the scale of this challenge is growing. No sensible project manager would have allowed the scope to grow, encompassing the use of untried timber. He would however float the idea that the challenge might not be completed by 1st April, particularly with the gardening season starting as soon as the weather improves.

downbytheriver

I’m going to call it ambition rather than mission creep, but this is a seriously interesting project

Roland

A couple of design decisions this week. With so many challenges in choosing and using locally grown wood I’m sticking with components that I know well. 

It’s going to have Telecaster pickups. I’ve already got an Oil City Wapping Wharf which I pickup up from the Classifieds last year, and I’ve ordered a Californian to go with it. On the workshop shelf I’ve got pots, knobs, a jack socket, and a 5-way superswitch. I was so pleased with the Grainger neck ferrules and hex bolts which I used on my Klein build that I’ve ordered a set of them too. 

Now, conventional Tele shape or headless? I’m leaning towards headless, but I’m going to leave the final decision until I can see what the wood looks like.

Roland

Yesterday I cut a body blank from Cedar of Lebanon. It's slightly too narrow for a one piece, and will need jointing somewhere around the control cavity. Last time I did this the cut out for the top edge curve was plenty large enough to be used.

I also cut a 3mm slice from the face of the blank which will provide a grain matched control cavity cover.

Despite the Cedar having been seasoning for years this morning I noticed a crack as pressures were released by cutting. If it doesn't split any further then it might fix with sawdust and glue, and be hidden by a cap of Yew or Sycamore. If not then there's plenty of wood in the stack.

Roland

A little step forward today. These three pieces are contenders:

Top - Sycamore for the fretboard. 

Middle - Field Maple, which is just big enough for a headless neck. Stiff enough, particularly if I slice it in three and reverse the middle slice. As an alternative I’ve got plenty more Sycamore.

Bottom - Cedar body blank. That crack fits nicely into the lower cut-away.



Next step is to cut the Yew for body cap. Then get it all planed. Finishing by 1st April is achievable if I don’t spend too much time gardening.

TTony

Some nice grain patterns in those pieces.

Roland

Unfortunately the Yew is not quite wide enough for a book matched top, and would have to be three pieces. I’m wondering about a Sycamore cap, either in natural, or stained blue. This is a test piece, sanded to 240 grit.
1. White stain from Chestnut stains.
2. Rubio Monocoat Natural.
3. Rubio Monocoat Pure.
and electric blue wood dye.



I’m wondering about a white stained neck and blue body.

ThePrettyDamned

Roland said:

Unfortunately the Yew is not quite wide enough for a book matched top, and would have to be three pieces. I’m wondering about a Sycamore cap, either in natural, or stained blue. This is a test piece, sanded to 240 grit.
1. White stain from Chestnut stains.
2. Rubio Monocoat Natural.
3. Rubio Monocoat Pure.
and electric blue wood dye.



I’m wondering about a white stained neck and blue body.

That's a pretty blue, but I reckon multiple applications of the white might make for a really interesting looking for guitar. 

Roland

Body blank glued up. The curved piece cut from one side just fits on the other. The grain is not a bad match, but will only be visible from the back.



 You can’t see it, but I’ve also cut a triangular slice from the front face so that the guitar will be thinner at the top, and thicker at the bottom.

Roland

Neck blank laminated: Field Maple and Sycamore, with the grain reversed on the central piece. This is for rigidity rather than looks, so there’s no contrasting wood, and the Sycamore strips are 6mm thick.

It turns out that the Sycamore blanks I’ve cut so far aren’t wide enough for body caps, I need to find a way of making the Yew fit.

Tomorrow I’m off to meet a man who has a planer.

Roland

Inching forward. The Yew is now planed, split in two, and the new faces planed. 

Ideally I would have edged it up before splitting, and done a proper book cut. There’s not a lot of width to spare, and I was worried about cutting it too narrow, so I’m doing it the hard way and jointing each piece separately.

Roland

Several further inches forward this afternoon. Sycamore fretboard slotted by hand. Not a task I was looking forward to, but it wasn’t too difficult. Years ago I was given a mitre cutting jig, and of course I never used it. Today I got it out for the first time.



The first thing I’d say is that I wouldn’t use it for cutting mitres. The wood guide had to be shimmed to get the cutting line square to the neck centre line.

The fret positions were marked with a craft knife and set square, using a table of measurements from Melvyn Hiscock’s book. I was hoping to cut the slots with one of my Japanese saws. Their blades are plenty thin enough, but the kerfs are too wide. So pictured is a proper fret slot saw with the depth guide removed. The slots were then deepened without the jig, and with the guide on.

Lastly the glue up:

Next step is fretboard radiusing.

davros

Watching this come together with interest. There's some nice interesting grain in the elm. Is Elm heavy?

Roland

davros said:

Is Elm heavy?

Elm? I guess you mean the Yew for the body cap. The Wood Database gives Yew a dry weight of 42 lb/cubic foot, the same as European Ash. English Elm is a bit lighter https://www.wood-database.com/english-elm/

I’ve thicknessed the Yew panels to just over 16mm to avoid adding too much weight. The back half of the body will be thicker, and made from Cedar of Lebanon, which is 32 lb/cubic foot.

davros

Duh, sorry Yew, no idea why I said elm!!

Roland

This is where I could do with some opinions. What colour do I bind the body? The hardware is black. The choices are black to match the hardware, or ivory to match the Sycamore and the Yes sap wood, or possibly some version of tortoiseshell. White wouldn’t look right.

What do you think?

paulnb57

I like the black for the binding, nice contrast to the lighter woods and matches the hardware

Roland

Before I made my first guitar neck I thought that neck shaping would be difficult. In practice sitting down with a wood rasp, spoke shave, and cabinet scraper proved a most relaxing experience. You feel close to your materials. On frosty days I’ve even sat in the kitchen without creating much mess.

This is the fretboard radiusing jig that I made years ago. With care it does a good job, especially if you run a test piece first. There are better designs on the internet, but at one or two guitars per year it would take me a long time to recoup the time and money needed to make one.



The table saw saved work in cutting the neck to depth. My favourite neck is 21mm deep at the first fret, increasing to 22mm at the 12th fret. I actually scraped it fully strung, checking the feel between strokes of the cabinet scraper. This one is 22mm, rising to 23mm. It was tapered to width using a router. 

After that the neck profile was cut with a rasp and a spoke shave. To give stiffness the neck is laminated Sycamore and Field Maple, with reversed grain sections. The cabinet scraper wasn’t much use. It kept digging into the grain of one section or the other. 

Sanding was harder than usual. I’m used to Maple. Sycamore was similar, but softer. Field Maple was a pig. The fibrous dust clogged ordinary sandpaper within two strokes. Luckily I have a supply of Abranet for the disk sander, and I was able to use these wrapped around a sanding block.

It looks long because it hasn’t been cut to length yet. It’s easier to get a smooth profile all the way along if there’s a “run out” area at the end. I also haven’t decided how much space to leave between the zero fret and the headpiece which retains the strings.

Roland

Neck finished, apart from shaping the heel. EVO Gold frets. Lumilay side dots. Osmo 3032 finish. This is the player’s view:



The Sycamore has worked well. The Field Maple less so. It was only used because it came from my own garden.