Jack is a pig

I have a crush on your skeleton

Some of the best work I do is with the bracing. I think it's the part of the building process in which my skills have made the greatest improvements. And, it bugs me, because all that work is hidden. Now, in the completed guitar you can peer through the hole and see with the naked eye the back bracing -- at least, the two back braces nearest the neck. But that's not a big deal. The most important bracing (most important in regards to making wood sing) is under the soundboard. A dental mirror and a flashlight can render that visible -- but who, other than a dentist, has dental tools?

Well, here 'tis. I use a 90 degree X-brace, but mine is de-coupled. That is, rather than joining the two braces, my bass-side brace arches over, and the treble side arches under. Then I laminate a smallish brace atop the treble side member so that it traverses the bass member both under and over. I figure I might snag some extra mid and upper partials by having the two members operate independently rather than in lockstep. Otherwise, it's a Martin bracing pattern: two lower face braces, two finger braces per side (all but the fingers are scalloped), and a maple bridge plate. The only maple I had was leftover european flame maple, but that figure will be locked in the box.

I'll match the bold herringbone rosette with bold herringbone purfling around the edges. That's maple soundhole binding with a very mild flame.

I blogged the back before. Here's another view. The two lower rungs of the ladder are this super stiff, perfectly quartered western red cedar with beautiful cross-grain silking. It was left over from the cedar the builders used on our front porch when they built this house in 2003.

Waste not, want not.

Mr. Sapele and his binding; PGM backstrip treatment

As you know, I have several projects underway. The sycamore SJ cutaway with the mahogany top, topic of December and January posts, has been re-assessed. I am not happy with the way the binding turned out. Top and back purfling, side purfling and binding strips need to be installed simultaneously, with lots of gooey, sticky glue. The purfling seated too deep. I've sanded too deep in spots, and still haven't gotten the purfling flush. In the process of binding Mr. Sapele, I discovered a marvelous technique for simplifying the installation of binding and purfling. So sycamore mahogany SJ will have his binding/purfling removed and replaced. Besides, I think sycamore next to flame maple looks cool.



Speaking of Mr. Sapele, here he was earlier today, bound and gagged. The last bits of binding and purfling were getting glued in on the upper side of the upper bout.



And, here he is after getting cleaned up. I am quite pleased with the new purfling technique and how well it worked on this guy.



And speaking of PGM, here's his back with the backstrip installed. It's a strip of flame maple binding set off by two tiny strips of bloodwood purfling. All these photos are taken with the laptop camera, so I'll only know if this is visible when you do. If you can't see it, well, I can, and it does look very nice.

I hope Eclectoman and PGM agree.

I am Bombadil

Here it is -- a map of the domain of the University of the South. If you click it, or open it in a new tab, you'll get a much larger view.

I live on the circle right above where it says "Clara's Point Road." I can jump on the yellow fire road either by cutting through my back yard or by walking up the street 40 yards. From there I can go anywhere. The yellow bits are fire roads, the red bits are perimeter trail, the green and dashed black lines are other trails which appear mostly to have at one time been roads. There are other roads and trails not marked.

A typical walk for me is to leave home, jump on the fire road marked as "parallel trail" (as it runs parallel to Breakfield Road, a decent gravel road beyond the equestrian center), walk all the way to the end, just past Brushy Lake, make a right and go up to Dotson point, take the P-trail back to Breakfield at Solomon's Temple trail, and come back on Breakfield. That takes about two hours. Last weekend, I took parallel almost to Brushy, made a left at the G10 cross road, took p-trail along Armfield bluff to the dashed black road that runs past Brushy's little arm, right on Breakfield, p-trail from Solomon intersection to the forestry cabin, fire road past cedar hollow lake, right on perpendicular road to equestrian center, then home on Wiggins Creek Drive. That took three hours.

Three hours of bliss.

The supply lines are moving

I am sorry to be slow in getting updates posted.

Two weeks ago I took my wife's ancient digital Kodak out to the perimeter trail to get some photos of this year's biggest snowfall. Bear in mind, that's a qualified description since we get very little snow here in Sewanee these days. Still, it was quite beautiful. I shall post once the correct USB cable is located.

For me, a really good day involves, of course, lots of sawdust and epoxied fingers, but also a 2-3 hour walk on the domain (that is, the largely undeveloped property of University of the South). Documenting the perimeter trail and the web of old fire roads is in the back of my mind as a blog project. I'll get a map up, by hook or crook, and point out some features.

But my posts have become less frequent of late due to the busy spring semester synchronized with my dwindling lutherie supplies. I have sought to correct the latter. The photo above shows Mr. Sapele -- now firmly in my mind as going to Eclectoguy -- with the flying buttress carbon fiber bracing installed. My hope is that the single end-block brace may have a sound-post like effect, transferring some of the vibration due to string pull directly from the top of the end block to the middle of the back. The neck block bracing to the waist area of the back is now standard.

The top is glued, clamped, and is presently drying in the shop. Once I've trimmed the edges, routed a binding ledge, glued and tied the purfling and binding on, I'll photograph and post again.

More re-supply is underway. I have frets, side dots, tuners and spool clamps coming in from Stew-mac. I've gotten truss rods and the killer cocobolo back and side set from Allied. Allied is also sending me a Carpathian spruce top with some bold herringbone rosettes and purfling for PGMs guitar. With the flying buttress carbon fiber tubes, I got also -- from a kite equipment supplier -- some flat carbon fiber rods for neck reinforcement. Some of this is here, some will arrive this week. As it arrives and I get time downstairs, I'll post on progress for Eclectoman and PGM.

Sorry to be a geek, this is all very exciting to me.