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.

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.

clamping f/bd to neck

gluing neck to body          The fingerboard is thicknessed to 5mm and the slots marked out for the scale length chosen. The slots are cut by hand on a miter box.The frets are either pressed into place or tapped into place with a small hammer.File all the ends level with the f/bd edge, and bevel the edges.These last steps can be done on a strip of 120 grit sand paper stuck to the benchtop.

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

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.

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