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RE: Building two classicals on a dea... (in reply to estebanana)
This is a project I’m team building with a guitar maker in San Diego California It’s a commission from an ethnomusicologist. The project is an electric Persian Tar, because the guy wants to play metal Persian music.
I designed it and built the body, it’s in San Diego now getting fitted with the electronics and frets.
Behold the Death Tar
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RE: Building two classicals on a dea... (in reply to estebanana)
I’m lost, thinking mode, I don’t know WTF I’m doing at the moment. So I’m taking the night off and throwing things up on the table to think about next year.
My small grisaille painting of a British WWII troop glider up there.
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RE: Building two classicals on a dea... (in reply to estebanana)
Purfling and binding must be made for current guitars but it’s not going to get made tonight. Tomorrow I have to teach the community guitar ensemble class, eat lunch and come back here and clean it up so I can think about how these guitars will be bound. I usually have this stuff figured out in advance, not this time!
This is Kuwa wood native to Kyushu. I’m going to make a classical or flamenco with it next year. It’s damping quality is similar to Brazilian rose wood. Did I test it, no. I just felt like saying that…. 😂
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RE: Building two classicals on a dea... (in reply to estebanana)
Last week was a wash, all I could get done was making enough binding and purfling for four guitars. So my next two after these are covered.
Yesterday, Saturday the 5th we had a city Bunkasai, culture festival. The jr. High brass band played hokey music for 80 years olds to groove to. ( not that your music is hokey R.J.) and the elementary kids played keyboards and recorders, drums and other annoying things. Several different kinds of Japanese folk dance clubs performed, to mix of live and canned music. And my guitar ensemble played. So I spent my extra time last week rehearsing them. But I got this binding /purfling smoothed out.
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RE: Building two classicals on a dea... (in reply to estebanana)
Back on track, but I was a bit naughty schedule wise because I went fishing from 7 to 11 am in my friends boat. That didn’t help my deadline efforts…but caught a very plate-able grouper. Locally a grouper like that is about 15 to 18 dollars during good weather, but in Tokyo that probably fetches upwards of 26 dollars or more.
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Posts: 2699
Joined: Jan. 30 2007
From: London (the South of it), England
RE: Building two classicals on a dea... (in reply to estebanana)
Thanks for posting all these pics stephen. I love a pic!
Looks lovely too. I like your rosette and your label!!
hahah sorry sounds like its the kind of comment one makes when they cant find anything nice to say......Ermm yes its interesting....I err ...erm... the strings are nice!
Nah it all looks great. I would be delighted if I was capable of producing such fine stuff
I prefer my flamenco guitar spicy, doesn't have to be fast, should have some meat on the bones, can be raw or well done, as long as it doesn't sound like it's turning green on an elevator floor.
RE: Building two classicals on a dea... (in reply to estebanana)
I don’t feel like writing much, but I’ll share a picture tutorial with a few tips.
I make the top purfling with this thing by lashing cord over the veneer strips, which creates a veneer ribbon about 3/4” wide.
I use an etching printers roller to spread the glue on the veneer. It’s important because it layers enough glue evenly and you don’t get dry spots that delaminate later.
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RE: Building two classicals on a dea... (in reply to estebanana)
Next - I make these knives for slicing purfling off the ribbon. I run the knife on both sides and it takes about 4 minutes to skillfully make a purfling already bend and perfectly laminated. Clean up with small block plane.
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RE: Building two classicals on a dea... (in reply to estebanana)
Next-
This ugly but useful tool cuts the line into the top. It’s a tool I have made copies of a few times, but I’m always dissatisfied with how cumbersome it is. Next iteration will be more sleek. But for what it is it’s ok.
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RE: Building two classicals on a dea... (in reply to estebanana)
After that…..
I use a chisel. And how can you achieve an even channel depth just by eye?
Look at the side of the chisel and understand how deep the chisel is into the work. Use that as a gauge to keep the depth constant.
Then go back in with a small Warding pattern file and clean the vertical and horizontal surfaces of the channel at the same time. And keep in mind the thickness of the file. Making the channel the same depth as the file is thick gives a fairly overall evenly done purfling ledge.
This is where the difference is made between a crisp worker like job and a job that’s not as sharp. Get down on every Centimeter of this ledge and binding channel and fit a scrap section of binding and purfling to make sure you take down and micro obstructions.
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RE: Building two classicals on a dea... (in reply to estebanana)
A bit more..
I use a router to hog out the rosette channel, but I score the circle first with this circle compas. Copy of a tool made by guitar maker in Israel named Matthew Masail.
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RE: Building two classicals on a dea... (in reply to estebanana)
The veneer scraper seems amazingly effective. Very simple and stable. I enjoyed the pictorial overview Stephen. Instrument building looks incredibly labor intensive. 👍
RE: Building two classicals on a dea... (in reply to estebanana)
Thanx for taking the time to show all that.
I made my binding the other way, 90 deg to yours, then sliced off strips vertically, then bent. The inner perfling strip I glued on the the binding first then on to the suitably routed rebate. Plenty of ways to skin this cat, oops did I say that ;)
HR
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I prefer my flamenco guitar spicy, doesn't have to be fast, should have some meat on the bones, can be raw or well done, as long as it doesn't sound like it's turning green on an elevator floor.
RE: Building two classicals on a dea... (in reply to estebanana)
And with this binding and purfling comes to a close.
Macassar is interesting. Sides taken consecutively from the flitch can show this much change between them. I love the asymmetry of the flitch with a glitch.
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RE: Building two classicals on a dea... (in reply to estebanana)
Fingerboard time. Both bodies are rough scraped and tops sanded a bit. I’m anxious to get the fingerboards on and shape the necks and finish the headstock detailing. Because that means I can start putting shellac on them to prepare for pore filling.
One fingerboard is Macassar ebony and the other is black ebony, but I don’t know from where. One customer wants a 50 mm nut and the other 52 mm ~ here we go tomorrow morning
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RE: Building two classicals on a dea... (in reply to estebanana)
I put the Macassar headstock veneer on the Macassar /Sakura body and the rosewood veneer on the rosewood body. I wish I had done it the other way around, because the Macassar fingerboard guitar has a lot of wood the looks the same. But then again because I used the Sakura back the unity of all the Macassar gives it continuity. I’m not going to worry further.
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RE: Building two classicals on a dea... (in reply to estebanana)
Thanks, I'm really enjoying this thread. You've given me a few ideas on hand tools. I have three types of ebony in my stash. The Macassar is easy to tell but the Indian and West African can be a little trickier. In my experience, the Indian is harder and more brittle, so a little sanding or planing and I check the surface. Once again, thanks for all the pics of your process.
RE: Building two classicals on a dea... (in reply to estebanana)
quote:
I’m glad a few people are interested.
I am interested too. I enjoy your luthier threads, thanks for uploading them. I rarely post on these threads because I'm not a guitar maker so usually have nothing of value to add.
RE: Building two classicals on a dea... (in reply to estebanana)
Thank you guys for following along.
20th fret? Such an interesting problem to resolve because there’s no standard traditional way of doing it. Only rule, make it look like you intended it.
It’s ok to pare down a neck at the end of the day when you’re only working by shop light after sundown. I stop there and wait until the next day because for me nothing is better than coffee and morning light to work on the final shape of a neck.
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