My Current guitar project.

[Phillip Patton]

Some of you might remember the thread I did a couple years ago detailing the building of my first guitar. Well, my abilities have progressed some since then. In fact, my next guitar is my first commission. As such, I thought I'd document the build, and if I'm going to take the pictures, I might as well post them somewhere.

Supper's in the oven (homemade pizza!), so I'll post the first round of pics later.

 

[Phillip Patton]

The first thing I usually do is the neck, but I didn't take any pictures of that, so we'll move onto the rosette.

I also didn't take any pictures of making the rosette, so let's move onto- well, I'll go ahead and describe how I made the rosette.

It's made by cutting a bunch of wedges of wood, in this case, ironwood, and gluing them together with some black fiber spacer material in between. I use CA and glue it all to a sacrificial board, which is cut off after the rosette is sanded flat and cut into a circle with a router. Make sense?

This is called a radial rosette.

Next, the soundboard is prepped, which means the outline is traced on (sorry I didn't get any pictures of joining the two halves of the top), the center of the soundhole located, and the show face is sealed with shellac. The shellac helps protect it from dings, and also helps the router cut more cleanly, leaving less fuzz.

Here the rosette channel is routed:

Then the rosette is glued in with Titebond original:

Then after sanding it flush, another channel is routed along the outside, and some abalone is glued in with CA:

After sanding that flush, the same thing is done on the inside:

 

[Phillip Patton]

After sanding that flush, then I cut out the outline with my new Rikon 10" bandsaw:

Then use the router to cut out the soundhole:

Next step is to sketch out the bracing. This is one of my favorite parts.

 

[Mitchell Knives]

Very cool! What kind of wood are you using?

 

[Phillip Patton]

The top and bracing is Sitka spruce, the neck is mahogany, and the back and sides are going to be East Indian Rosewood, should it ever arrive.

 

[Phillip Patton]

Got the bracing almost done, just have to carve the X braces and cap the intersection.

 

[Phillip Patton]

BTW, the new forum software scales the photos down to 800 by 600. To see them full size right click on the picture and select "view image". You might then have to click on the picture to blow it up.

 

[cbr900son]

I think knifemakers can appreciate true craftsmanship in many different forms since we use several to make a knife ourselves. Looks good! Can't wait to see more.

 

[Phillip Patton]

Finished carving the braces (and my thumb). Now I just have to clean them up with sandpaper (not my thumb), cap the X, glue the head and tail blocks on, and it'll be ready for the sides.

 

[Daniel Fairly Knives]

That is really cool! I have a couple of books on guitar building, this makes me want to make one.

It is coming along very nicely. I did a basic restoration on a cheap ibanez electric and it was a lot of work, nothing like what you are doing, I bet there is a lot of time in one of these. I really like the art aspect of guitars, I collect cool looking cheap ones, lol.

Thanks for posting it.

 

[Phillip Patton]

I got the braces sanded smooth, and the X capped. Some people use wood for the cap, some use cloth. I'm using cloth here.

Here's where the neck is at:

 

[Phillip Patton]

Got most of the work done on the finger board, which is desert ironwood:

The fingerboard blank was about 3/4" wider than I need, so before slotting, I cut off the extra in 1/8" strips. Two of these will be used for the binding on the edges of the FB:

 

[cbr900son]

How did you ever learn to do this!??!

 

[Phillip Patton]

How did you ever learn to do this!??!

LOL! It's not that hard. I have 2 or 3 good books on the subject, plus I'm a member of a great luthiers forum , which has a wealth of information too.

 

[Phillip Patton]

Here's what the X cap looks like after curing:

And here's the tail and head blocks before shaping:

The tailblock:

Glued on:

The headblock needs to be notched to accept the truss rod nut, and drilled for the bolts that will hold the neck on:

The sound board also needs to be notched for the same reason:

Headblock glued:

Now I've done all I can on the soundboard. There's more I can do on the fingerboard, then that's all until the back and side wood comes in.

 

[Diamond J Knives]

That is very cool Phillip. I really like seeing these progress pics. cant wait to see it finished.

 

[cbr900son]

How much does all that wood end up costing if you dotn mind me asking. Seems like a real investment.

 

[Phillip Patton]

How much does all that wood end up costing if you dotn mind me asking. Seems like a real investment.

It is more expensive than using plywood, like many factory guitars, but it makes a better sounding instrument, and a better looking one, in my opinion. Here's a rundown of the cost for this guitar:


Top: $32

Back and sides: $84 I'm using indian rosewood, which is pretty common and inexpensive. A set of African blackwood could be $500 or more.

Fingerboard: about $25

Truss rod: $17

Abalone: $165

Tuning machines: $65

Bridge pins: $10

Plus miscellaneous stuff, brings the total up to about $600 of materials. But a guitar like this, made by an established maker, would go for a minimum of $5000 or so. Just like a knife, the raw materials are a fairly small percentage of the total price.

 

[Phillip Patton]

I was intending to have the sides and back sanded to thickness by someone else, which I have done on occasion (most of the time I do it myself with a hand held belt sander) but I just ran across a cool design for a simple drum sander:

http://woodgears.ca/sander/thickness.html


So this afternoon I started building it. I'll post a few pics of that.

 

[cbr900son]

It is more expensive than using plywood, like many factory guitars, but it makes a better sounding instrument, and a better looking one, in my opinion. Here's a rundown of the cost for this guitar:


Top: $32

Back and sides: $84 I'm using indian rosewood, which is pretty common and inexpensive. A set of African blackwood could be $500 or more.

Fingerboard: about $25

Truss rod: $17

Abalone: $165

Tuning machines: $65

Bridge pins: $10

Plus miscellaneous stuff, brings the total up to about $600 of materials. But a guitar like this, made by an established maker, would go for a minimum of $5000 or so. Just like a knife, the raw materials are a fairly small percentage of the total price.

I totally understand. Amazing work! keep the pics coming!