Category Archives: instrument building - Page 5

things done and not done

Posted by j.c.w. on April 30, 2009 No comments

no sketch this week. why? i blame my mom. because i can. it’s not really her fault at all, but her visit is pretty convenient. a more honest explanation is that i haven’t had it in me this week. too much going on and too many things competing for my mental attention.

that said, i have been working on my guitar building. i’m still finishing up the kit. the progress has slowed now that i’m in the detailed sanding and preparations for finishing. the neck is almost done with the shaping, the frets are in and the fretboard is installed. all i need to do is finish smoothing out the back and sides and glue the neck on. after that, it’s many days of french polish and getting the nut and bridge ready.

part of my kit progress has been derailed by my starting a new guitar from scratch. my progress can be found in this gallery

[ http://othertime.com/galllery/main.php?g2_itemId=840 ].

see, it gets really hot and humid in houston pretty soon and i hate it. working in the garage becomes painful even in the early morning on the weekends. i want to get as much of the garage work done as i can before that heat sets in. so far, so good. most of the bandsaw stuff is done and i will be able to minimize my time out there soon. i also finished bending the sides (i’m quite proud of the results!) so that piece of temperature intensive work is all done. important note: don’t use an electric heat gun as a part of your bending iron. go propane all the way. that solved all of my problems. also, work with wet hands so that you can hear your finger touching the pipe before you feel it. that is solid advice.

with all of this done, i’m down to carving the neck. i’m going to do it spanish-style. that is to say, the neck goes through the sides without any dovetail joint or bolts. the difficulty and time traded around works in favor of my current skill set, so that’s my plan. of course i will post pictures as i get there.

also, Classical Guitar Making: A Modern Approach to Traditional Design by John Bogdanovich is brilliant. it’s an excellent companion to the Cumpaino book that every guitar builder has somewhere. brilliant pictures and some really nice prose on the art of building as well as the craft. i know i have found it useful. it bounced me to A Cabinetmaker’s Notebook by James Krenov which should be required reading for anyone who does any creative work. great stuff there.

next week i will be back with a sketch and maybe some good pictures of a guitar that looks like something. i have never done any real finishing so this will be an adventure.

guitar fret calculator

Posted by j.c.w. on April 20, 2009 No comments

this is probably useful for a dozen or so people, but man is this cool: http://www.manchesterguitartech.co.uk/fret_calculator.php

i just finished up figuring out the scale of my first from scratch guitar using this thing. good stuff. and i hope that the 1 person of the 2 or 3 that read this blog and might have need of such a thing finds it handy.

sawdust and fear

Posted by j.c.w. on March 19, 2009 No comments

since i got my sketch posted early this week, i took last night off and sat in bed. i was doing a little light reading. i saw that my trash was full on the laptop and went to empty it. somehow, my entire desktop directory made it in. quick fingers managed to save only one directory from oblivion. this was not good. fortunately for me, my beloved wife nagged me into using time machine not too long ago and i was able to recover everything except a couple of tracks from my most recent sketch. not too bad all told.

lots of time in the garage this past week. the kit guitar has been routed to accept the bindings. i can use my new bending iron this weekend and get everything tucked away and glued up with any luck. tonight as i was routing the back i noticed that what i thought would be an epic failure was averted by binding of exactly the right height. better lucky than smart.

i have to say that i hate working with power tools. routing out the sides was nerve wracking. a sneeze or false step can destroy hours and hours of work. i much prefer hand tools but for tasks like this i just don’t have the time. all that said, i still find working on guitars to be supremely relaxing and fulfilling. i spend all day making things that can’t be seen or felt. it’s such a joy to be able to reach out and touch something in which i have invested much and time and thought. this is fun.

pics will be posted sometime next week. i need to do something worth showing a picture of and i think the herringbone purfling with rosewood bindings will be just the thing.

permission

Posted by j.c.w. on March 10, 2009 No comments

probably the single most important thing i have ever done creatively was giving myself permission to not be good at everything that i do. in school i was a part of the nerd brigade. advanced this, a.p. that. the expectations were high and my performance was generally pretty good. the downside of this was that i didn’t encounter a lot of failure and when i did, there was such a negative reaction that i quickly found myself in the mindset of “if i’m not good at it, i won’t do it and then i can’t fail.” this is not a very useful way to get through life.

no one person is going to be good at everything and trying to be must lead to a painfully neurotic sensibility that can’t be much fun to be around. we have to be free to try new things and make mistakes. without mistakes, there is no learning. after all, when was the last time anyone learned something from doing it perfectly?

this all leads to my instrument building. taking things down to the bottom is a lot of fun. sometimes it’s not enough to simply play the guitar, one must build it first. it all sounds silly, but it has brought unforeseen levels of satisfaction. i started with a kit a long time ago (or so it seems) and now i have a lot more than just a pile of good looking kindling.

starting from a kit has taught me a lot. i can see how everything fits together and without having to fabricate the parts i can focus on construction. there has been time to build jigs, acquire clamps, and fashion a workspace that is flexible and functional. the way i’m thinking now though, it will be guitar number four that will be the first “good” instrument. maybe.

this first guitar is from a kit and it has some issues. i made several mistakes from which i couldn’t really recover. the next guitar will be from scratch so who knows what i’ll screw up when fabricating the parts. the third guitar will likely be more shaking out of bugs in my process. but number four should be something decent. or maybe it won’t. it doesn’t really matter because i’m just excited to be doing it. and that’s the way things should be.

here are some pictures of my current progress:

braced top

clamped top

side braces

clamped back

music is coming up this thursday. i have a sketch that feels pretty good and i’m expecting it to come together nicely by then.

keeping pace

Posted by j.c.w. on February 26, 2009 No comments

i will freely admit that i’m not particularly pleased with this week’s offering. but this isn’t about the inner critic getting his swipes in. this is about getting it done. this tune has very little resemblance to what i started with. let’s just say that there was a lot more banjo and a lot less electric guitar. when you swap those two, something very different will emerge.

all irritations aside, i think that the tune has legs. it just needs a little (lot) of work. dig it below.

something to know about hollow body guitars: they are a great place to store linky doos. i’ve been playing the guitar for many, many years and had no idea that they could serve this purpose. the things our children teach us!

linky doo guitar

also of some import, i got more of the bracing done on my building project. it’s really coming along. i need to make a trip to ye olde woodworking shoppe this weekend to get some supplies but i’d say i’m closer to finishing this project than i was a week ago. um. yep!