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.

More snippets from Frankenstein's luthiery

I'm awaiting some more supplies, so there's little more to show for no. But, it's wintertime, which means the humidity is low and the conditions are ideal for bracing tops and backs.



Here's a freshly braced top for a parlor sized guitar. It's teeny-weeny! I only need one lower face brace, and one finger brace per side. PGM gave me his copy of "Clapton's Guitar," a very enjoyable book about master luthier Wayne Henderson; I drew inspiration from the photos of his braced tops in shaping these braces.



This is the parlor's braced back. That's mostly cocobolo with a wedge of zebrawood.



Finally, I drilled out the player port on Mr. Sapele. Both sound and reptiles are directed at the player's face. If the carbon fiber rods would ever get here, I could reinforce the neck and end blocks, then install the top, trim the overhang, rout for binding and purfling and finish off this body.



I also bought this cocobolo set from Allied in California. Pretty wild, eh?

Don't leave them cold and damp ....

Okay, so lutherie hasn't actually dominated my life in recent weeks (as it had during the holiday break). My schedule is settling down a bit, and I'm finding some time in my week when I can get some work done.

This is the braced underside of the top for the sapele guitar. Now that the sycamore and mahogany SJ (small jumbo) is done, I've returned to this Orchestra model. My aim is to make it as good a guitar as the mahogany and cedar guitar Eclectic Guy and all the fine folks at HalcyArt liked so much. So I have high hopes for it.



You can see the striped figure so prevalent in Sapele. I asked the folks at LMI (Luthier's Mercantile International in Windsor, California) to pick some super-stripy sapele sets when I ordered a few sets last fall. I wedged in an ultra groovy strip of cocobolo down the middle just for giggles.



And, here's the back's innards. I glued the back to the sides earlier today.

I like building guitars because they are alive. I mean, in the end they have voices of their own, sometimes in fulfillment of your vision, and sometimes in what amounts to an utter surprise. And they come to life at early stages, not just after the wet sanding, rub-out, set-up and strings. Sometimes the wood does exactly as you expect (and makes you feel really capable, a genius the world is aching to discover), but other times ... .

It seems to me you have to follow the wood and do what it allows you to do. A more seasoned craftsman than myself might be able to coax exactly what he (or she) wants from every piece of wood. Perhaps I'll be able to in time. I can usually win my way with every stick, but sometimes the wood doesn't do just what you want it to. Or, sometimes it does, but you reach a point at which you stand over a half-completed neck, or a freshly bound and sanded body, and re-assess just what it is you have.



Here's the sycamore and mahogany SJ cutaway. It's a big, deep box. The bracing all over is stiff, and that top is really stiff. This box is whispering to me "Coach, let me play 12-string! I know I can do it!" Coach is thinking, kid, you look like a 12-string. Maybe this is a good idea.

But, what about the 12-string body I made in December?

And, more importantly, what about Eclectic Guy? I was thinking SJ would be his guitar for some time.

Eclecto is born and bred a classical player -- he just wants to play and hear the ringing harmonics of steel. I'd thought the cutaway would give him upper fingerboard access he's not got on his nylon instruments, might open up some areas to his thinking. Of course, he's not suffering for a lack of ideas. And, moreover, when we talked about this in WV during December, he says he cares not one whit about getting more than 12 frets clear of the body. I should listen to him, he's the player.

So, now I'm thinking Mr. Sapele is for Eclecto. It's light, light, light. Back bracing is uber stiff, and flying buttress carbon fiber will make it more so. Top is less stiff, and is actually scalloped near the bridge to allow more rocking. Silk and steels will mimic nylon string tension for his left hand and feel closer to nylons for his manicured fingernails and classical technique.

I also patched the bass side upper bout rib to drill out a "player port" -- an extra sound hole aimed at the player's face.



This is the 12-string body I built in December. Or, so I thought. It actually has only two finger braces per side (rather than the three I saw in a Guild 12 top) and two lower face braces (again, rather than the Guild's three). The X members are actually only a little over 1/4" wide, and not all that tall. They aren't scalloped -- but neither were the braces on the red guitar. Now, the X does have a 120 degree spread. Other than that, the ONLY difference between this box and the red guitar is that this top is engelman spruce and red was, of course, western red cedar.

So, I think this guitar wants to be another orchestra model a la red. Mahogany back and sides, flame maple binding, minimal purfling. Oh, yeah, that's what this guy needs to be.



This is another Engelmann top, but Sycamore back and sides. Flame maple bindings, lots of bwb purfling, herringbone, and that back strip is two flame maple binding strips with a highly figured hunk of sycamore down the middle. I think this one will look really cool when it's finished -- all those medullary rays in the sycamore, all that flame maple. I hope to make PGM's guitar much like this one. He wanted the redwood top, and I don't blame him at all -- the figured white back and sides with that dark, rich, straight grained top will look really cool.

I could throw this at Eclectricity man. But it's a risk. I braced it for a tailpiece. The X is really stout, no scalloping at all. Of course, no bridge pad on the underside.

But, I did put three fan braces between the X under the bridge, and one finger brace on each side. Even without a bridge pad, I could do a pinless bridge. I did a pinless bridge for Addison Willis' guitar, and it works just dandy. A pinless bridge for eclectoman would be quite reminiscent of the classical. In fact, I could do EXACTLY a classical bridge! A 12-fret join! A slotted peghead! What a rig that would look like, if we stuck a magnetic pickup in something looking that much like a straight classical guitar!

In the end I don't know. Right now I'm leaning toward Mr. Sapele for Eclectic Guy.

Several nights of insomnia ought to straighten this out. Guitar building is a sleep disorder.