FINISHED! Dreadnought Acoustic

Andyjr1515

Thanks, folks!

In between some unavoidable outdoor jobs I've tried to continue small bits of progress.

 

The main one was to get the dovetail absolutely spot on.  I used Glenn LaSalle's excellent Blues Creek videos as a guide and gently, gently eased everything so that the fretboard was absolutely square to the body, that the neck angle was correct, that there was no movement top or bottom in the dovetail joint itself and that the sides were flossed to an even tight fit to the body.

 

At the end of all of that, with each adjustment taking a tiny bit of wood off the joint, the resulting joint was smack on, but now a mm or so low.  I had machined the neck slightly oversize, but not quite enough.  No probs, though - I've just glued a strip of hardwood veneer onto one side of the neck joint which has also corrected a small offset in the neck position itself.  It's worked a treat and I'll know next time to allow for a touch more 'wiggle room'.

 

I'm pleased with the joint.  It's rock solid, and it's in the correct position on all planes:

 

 The joint has been 'flossed' with 240 grit and, when the joint has its final glues whack, will be firm against the sides all round:

 

The end of the fretboard will have the small magnetic pickup that is one half of the Shadow Sonic Doubleplay system.

 The other thing I am going to try, is to make the pickguard from an offcut of the side lacewood:

 

I've done most of the immediate  garden construction / decorating duties for the time being, so I am hoping to be able to concentrate on this now up to the finish post.  In the meantime, I wait with great interest, @WezV !!  

paulnb57

Superb craftsmanship as usual Andy, the idea to use side wood as a pickguard is inspired amd will tie in nicely.....now customary wow issued!

Andyjr1515

paulnb57 said:

Superb craftsmanship as usual Andy, the idea to use side wood as a pickguard is inspired amd will tie in nicely.....now customary wow issued!

Thanks, Paul 

I've got another tweak I might make too is the measurements allow.  I will reveal all if it turns out to be possible  

paulnb57

Matching truss rod nut cover/headstock veneer?

Andyjr1515

paulnb57 said:

Matching truss rod nut cover/headstock veneer?

Possibly will be doing that anyway. What I'm pondering is more subtle, visually. I'm thinking of putting a light veneer between the neck and fretboard. On the demarcation between a fancy top and the back wood on a solid build, it adds a real touch of class. Not seen it done on a fretboard but think it could add a little something. Need to double check the neck depth first though!

Andyjr1515

Took maximum advantage of the SUNSHINE (!!!!) and profiled the fretboard:

Note the pencil line which is my 'I've reached where I need to be' reference.  I started on 80 grit then progressively down to 600.

Then - as it STILL hadn't clouded over - added the frets.  On an acoustic I find it a lot easier to get the fretboard pretty much sorted and then glue it on once the neck has been glued to the body.  

I buy coiled fretwire, allowing me to do the 'bead of titebond; position fret; whack one side; whack the other side; whack the middle' technique.  I do three frets at a time and while I'm cutting the next three, I clamp the radius block over the three I've just done for good measure:

Then laid that to one side for the glue to dry while I started the rough carve of the heelblock:

 Finally, wrapped the trussrod in clingfilm and clamped a piece of the walnut inner splice as a truss-rod cap while the glue dries.  Here I've rough-trimmed the fretboard too:

But by now I was worried about getting sunstroke in the 6 degree heat so went back indoors into the comforting gloom...

Andyjr1515

A tip I picked up I think from another forum (Howard / Howie ?? ) was to use egg white as a grain / sanding sealer.  I've tried it on solid bodies in the past but not on soft, thirsty wood like a spruce top.  If I remember correctly, it's an old method used by traditional classical guitar makers.  I also understand it was the basis of tempura in early Medieval times used to prepare a plaster wall for mural painting.

I have to say I'm really pleased with the result.  It's tough!  Not impossibly tough-to-the-point-you-wish-you-hadn't-bothered epoxy-kind-of-tough, but tough enough that when you sand even the soft spruce, for a long while you are pretty much polishing the sealed surface rather than cutting through straight down to the wood.

This was after a couple of coats:

I've since done what is probably the last coat of egg white before the first coats of varnish so, while that is drying, I've been cutting my moniker swifts.

Like many others, I use a jewellers saw and very simple slotted mdf board to cut them out:

...and here they are - three for the headstock and one for the heel block:

Andyjr1515

I like getting to the inlay stage because it tells me I'm getting near the end...

The process is well documented elsewhere.

Tracing round the inlays:

Dremel routing the chamber:

Gluing with epoxy mixed with sawdust (in this case mahogany):

...and sanding off.  The extra one is for the heel cap:

paulnb57

Very nice Andy, with a bit more practice you could be quite good at this guitar building lark!

Andyjr1515

paulnb57 said:

Very nice Andy, with a bit more practice you could be quite good at this guitar building lark!

)

I still make the most monumental cockups from time to time...

Andyjr1515

OK - egg white has my vote (and I remember now where the tip came from...it was paul.howarth from the UKGB forum.)  

After the easiest and most convenient grain filling I can remember, this is 'the reflection test' after one very thin coat of wiped-on varnish (and before you ask - this isn't still wet, it is after it is touch dry) :

I maybe overly optimistic, but I reckon a couple of days and the body will be fully varnished....

 

mart

This is looking gorgeous - really inspirational. But it leaves one big question ...

... what did you make with the egg yolks?

paulnb57

Is yours the Stewmac router base for the Dremel Andy?

WezV

mart;1009215" said:

This is looking gorgeous - really inspirational. But it leaves one big question ...









... what did you make with the egg yolks?

maybe some kind of mousse. The recipe for espresso mousse I looked at earlier today was for 4 yolks and 2 whites

Andyjr1515

mart said:

This is looking gorgeous - really inspirational. But it leaves one big question ...

... what did you make with the egg yolks?

Last time I made a rich omelette. This time I went modern world decadent and bought a carton of egg whites from the supermarket. I don't like to think what the supermarkets do with the yolks...

Andyjr1515

paulnb57 said:

Is yours the Stewmac router base for the Dremel Andy?

it was a uk supplier ( I'm not sure they are still around) but it is basically the same as the stewmac one

Andyjr1515

WezV;1009259" said:

[quote="mart;1009215"]This is looking gorgeous - really inspirational. But it leaves one big question ...









... what did you make with the egg yolks?

maybe some kind of mousse. The recipe for espresso mousse I looked at earlier today was for 4 yolks and 2 whites
[/quote]

Great idea...next time

Andyjr1515

The final varnishing of the body is ongoing (wipe-on thinned polyurethane varnish as normal) so while the various coats are drying, it's time to make some more progress with the other bits.

As I have said, this is a surprise birthday present so I don't have the opportunity to take the neck profile shapes from his own present acoustic.  However, he's played my OM and was pretty complimentary about the feel, so I'll start off with a similar size and shape.  I prefer to do the final tweaks when it's fully strung up (and probably once it's been passed to it's new owner) but I'll get it close enough to just need a bit of scraping / sanding to his ideal later.

I therefore used a profile gauge to take the profiles of my OM:

  

 Because I go by feel as much as by measurement, I temporarily stuck the fretboard on with 2-sided tape:

 

Then started off with a medium fine rasp to rough shape at the 1st and 9th fret positions:

....and joined the two up with a spokeshave:

 

As I neared the target, I switched to the safer cabinet scrapers.  To be honest, with a neck as small as this, and in the relatively soft mahogany, I could have just used scrapers and skipped the spokeshave:

Then chisels and the ridiculously good but tiny Ibis plane to start getting the headstock and heel transitions:

Also cut out the teardrop scratchplate and gave it an initial Z-poxy coat - our vocalist gets very enthusiastic with his guitar-pick strumming  

I couldn't resist a couple of mock-up shots:

Still plenty to do, but it's really starting to look like a guitar now...

joeyowen

I hate these threads, because you make it look so easy, and I feel so useless

(I love these threads)

BigMonka

@Andyjr1515 your mate is very lucky to have a friend like you, I wish I did!

Anyway, its looked fantastic all the way through the build but I've got to say that the beautiful scratchplate really tips it over the edge into looking epic!