Jan 27
Guitar, 4 string tenor
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Fitting m/hds and nut
The finished instrument
Here’s a couple of more pics that should have been with the previous post, to do with the finishing touches.
Jan 27
Guitar, 4 string tenor
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Clamping bridge to top
First coats of sealer
- Tail binding strip
One of the last things I do to finish off the binding scheme, is to fit the back tail inlay. This will be from the same wood as the rest of the binding. The guitar is held between two 1″ dowels protruding out from the workbench.The waist cradles the dowels while you work on routing out the area of the endstrip. An amount equal to the depth of the sides is removed, and the wood inlay is glued and clamped in place with a long klempsia clamp.Once dry, the inlay can be scraped flush with the sides. The instrument is given a thorough sanding through the different grades of paper, and lacquering can begin.
The lacquering process can quite long and tedious, especially if you are wanting to fill the grain without using grain filler.I find that grain filler, once applied and sanded off, changes the overall colour of the wood. I prefer to use lots of sanding sealer and keep sanding until there are no sparkly bits (where the pores are deepest), and then apply the finish coats. I hand sand everything. I never use electric palm sanders. I suffer from all sorts of strain injury from using one side of my body for too long. I try to use my left arm as much as I can, and rest often. Being tall and lanky doesn’t help either. Breathing in the dust from sanding the lacquer sets off nose and throat irritations, and one can become quite ill. I would apply at least 10 coats of sealer, and 5 coats of high gloss lacquer. Allow to dry at least a week before sanding and polishing to a high gloss.
Once the soundboard is finished being polished, the bridge can be glued on, but not before the lacquer is scraped away where the bridge will sit. You have to carefully place the bridge in its correct location, and with one hand hold it in place while the other hand scribes around the perimeter with a sharp knife. Use a 1″ wide chisel to scrape away the lacquer. Put a burr on its cutting edge to speed up the removal. The bridge can now be glued and clamped in place.
The machine heads and nut and saddle can now be fitted. String up the guitar and adjust the nut slot depths and saddle height.
Jan 16
Tenor guitar
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gluing neck to body The fingerboard is now ready to be clamped and glued to the neck. Leave to dry for several hours.The neck can now be shaped to the proper round while held in the vise.I find a surform is a great tool for shaping necks, as well as the usual spokeshave.
neck shaping
Biscuit joint
side dots
Dec 18
Tenor guitar
Cats: tenor guitar| No Comments »- This neck for the tenor guitar was made from sapele (Africa), and an overlay of blackwood was used on the head. I seemed to take less photos at this stage, so I can’t show too much of the neck construction. The neck was joined to the body with a ‘biscuit’. The joint was cut using a biscuit jointer, and it is a tricky exercise holding the machine at right angles across the narrow sides. I use these biscuits for ukelele neck / body joins, so I thought I’d try them on the tenor guitar.
Oct 11
Tenor guitar
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- Binding channel routed
Once the binding ledges have been routed, the binding can be fitted in place. If you have pre bought the binding, take it to the bending iron and bend them to shape. If you make your own, bandsaw and sand them to size.When you fit them to the ledge, cut the ends square where they meet the top centerline. Glue up the ledge and tape the binding in place with strong tape. Leave to dry for at least four hours.
- pre-fitting the ebony binding
half of binding taped in place
Sep 04
That photo
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- The resonator cone hole!
Friends have asked me why I picked this particular photo for my blog page. Well, I took it myself with one hand, and it had a piece of wood in it, relating to instrument making, but unbeknown to me, the instrument part was excised, and there you have it.
Aug 31
Tenor guitar
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Top overhang trimmed
Back edges trimmed
- Gluing top to sides
I am now ready to sand the linings level. It is best if one has a 24″ square sanding board covered with 80 grit paper, but most of us will have to make do with a 3″ or 4″ wide stick. The ends of the braces on the top and back should be positioned inside the outline drawn on them, if not, trim off the ones that are too long. The top and back are test fitted on the sides, then it is time to spread the glue (Titebond) all around the kerfing and end blocks. Position the plate being fastened and use as many clamps as possible. The top is glued on first and clamped down to the underside of the workboard, and allowed to dry, whereas the back is clamped in a separate procedure. The body remains free floating and the clamps applied from the top plate to the back plate. Because of the curvature of the back braces, one cannot place the back on a flat workboard and start clamping up, or else the back would be deformed. Allow 3 or 4 hours to dry. The overlapping sides can now be trimmed back.
- Top and back overlaping sides
Back being clamped to sides
Jul 30
Tenor guitar making
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Top and bottom lining in place
- bent sides,endblocks glued
The shape of the body is drawn on the workboard, and the vertical posts are placed around the perimeter at strategic spots.The bent sides are placed in the makeshift mold and spreader clamps can be placed across the sides to hold them in place while they dry. Remember that a few minutes before all this, they were immersed in a water trough before the bending started.Leave overnight before gluing in the end blocks.Careful alignment of the blocks is needed before the blocks are clamped.Do not get glue on the workboard, as we want to be able to get the side assembly out.
Kerfed lining can be cut to form on your bandsaw, or it can be supplied by luthier supply places.Select a length of it and glue it to the sides using camping pegs as clamps.Cam clamps may be needed to hold the sides vertical on to the posts.Leave to dry for 3 hours before going on to the next phase.Small pieces of kerfing may be needed to close off any shortfall.
Back braces being planed to shape
- Lining being glued to sides
After all the back braces have been glued to the back, use a small hand plane to shape them. If the braces have been precurved, be careful that you plane from the center of the back to the outer edge.The braces can then be fine sanded to 280 grit.
Apr 03
More tenor guitar
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- Soundhole ring
There seems to be a little too much glue spread around here, but a couple of passes through the drum sander with 240 grit paper will level this ring nicely and remove the excess glue.I just love the wavy figure on this redwood top. It is time to cut out the soundhole with the circle cutter. I can use a hand held circle cutter, or the dremel tool with the router bit doing the cutting, or the circle cutter held in the vertical drill press. The latter is by far the quickest way, but a little daunting. Once the cutout is complete, hand sand the edges of the hole smooth. Cut out the bridge reinforcement plate and thickness to 3mm, draw the cross braces onto the underside of the top, position the bridge plate over the location of the saddle and bridge pins, glue the plate down to the top with the rods of the go-bar deck. The floor of the deck has a 28′ radius scouped into it. Leave to dry for several hours.
Gluing the centreseam brace
Once the back has been thicknessed, the spruce centreseam, salvaged from offcuts from the soundboard, are glued inline down the centre of the back. The locations of the back cross braces will be marked later on, and small sections are chiselled out to take the braces.Try to precut the spruce so it ends at the tail block and neck block.
Gluing done on the bridge patch
- Gluing the bridge reinforcement patch
Bandsawing out the shape
Mar 21
Making a tenor guitar
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- marking out soundhole rings
- cutting out recesses for soundhole rings
- clamping the glued in rings down
There has been a slight delay since my last post, but here I am again, continuing with my tenor guitar soundboard preparation. This is a redwood top, and it has been thicknessed down to about 2.5mm on the 16 inch drum sander.The 4″ soundhole is positioned at the end of the fingerboard. The rings are made up of thin plastic sandwiched together. A dremel tool is used with a soundhole jig attached. A 3mm hole is drilled in the soundboard to take the guide post, and the tool is swivilled around this post, cutting the recess. Careful placement of the cutter is needed to ensure an accurate fit of the rings in the recess. If the recess is wider than the cutting bit, then you will need to adjust the diameter of the cutter each time you go around.Clean out any sawdust from the recess, then fit and glue the rings in place. A wide board is needed to clamp these rings down. Allow to dry for several hours. The rings can be sanded flush under the drum sander once dry. The dremel can be used again to cut out the soundhole.Hand sand away the sharp edges of the soundhole.
