#5 Completed and Sound Clips

The #5 is consider completed for now.
The owner will be doing some modification (armrest etc) and finishing to the guitar.
He is a skilled woodworker so these mods are considered easy to him.
Here is some pictures of the guitar and sound clips

Fretting and Set-up

20140910
I also managed to start the fretting work.
Before that I strung up the guitar to have a listen to the sound.
It definitely sounded great much like my #1 with more and deeper bass.
Before I did the fret work I check the neck angle and notice the angle was off.
I had to remove more material near the 12th fret region to correct the angle.
After that I use my new tools to help with the fret work and they definitely help alot.
The tools I recently acquire are:
1) Fret barber from Stewmac
2) Fret tang remover from LMI

All I can say is they both work great!
I use the evo wire which is harder than normal fret.
The barb were reduce in size in minutes
And the tang was removed in minutes.
The fret went into the slot in a few quick taps.
I deepened the fret slot more after sanding down the fretboard.

Sanding smooth and flatten the fingerboard

Taper the fret slot to allow easier removal of frets for future re-fret work. To prevent chipout too.

The fret barber at work. The fret are pull across it reducing the size of the barbs

The bard size reduced

Thickness gauge to set how much to remove.

Fret tang remove from LMI.

The end tangs are remove. How much to remove doesnt matter to me much as I am not using fret board binding. Rather I just want to remove abit of the end tangs to prevent them from sticking out later.

Fretting. A quick few taps does the job. Much easier!

3 completed. A few dozen more to go.

20140918
I finished up the fret work and cut the nut and saddle.
Unfortunately the string height is still too high (wrong neck angle).
I need to reduce more of the 12th fret region.
The relief was just nice though.
I tried out the guitar and it sounded very balanced with more powerful bass than my previous guitars.
The harmonics isn't as strong and my other guitars but I think it will improve with time as they did with my other guitars

Frets all installed

Another view

Sawing the nut

Filing the nut slots

20140922
I have been trying to set up the nut and saddle for the compensation but I encounter a big problem.
When I tuned up the open string and check the 12th fret note it's flat.
Normally it will be sharped and when I file back the saddle it will be normal pitch again.
But if it's flat I cannot file back anymore else it will become flatter.
So I tried to bring forward the nut instead.
After moving forward by 1 mm the effect is still the same.
If I tune the string according to the 12th fret not, the fret below the 5th fret or so will get sharper.
So in simple words I can't get it in tune.

I think I have over-compensated the bridge. However my previous guitars #3 was compensated in the same way too and that intonation is perfect.
I had several options:
1) Glue piece of bone in front of nut to bring it more forward.
2) Glue a piece of bone in front of saddle to bring it back.
3) Remove teh bridge and reglue it.
4) Remove the fingerboard and shift it toward the saddle.

So after I made a block of ebony and place it in front of the nut the effect is still the same.
So that just eliminated my 1st option.
Out of curiosity I check the bridge location and guess what! I found out where is the problem: I had misplace the bridge. It is set-up more by 10mm.

Normally I use a meter rule to locate the bridge, I will place the 325 mark on the 12th fret
And from there I check the 652 mark for the bridge.
But this time round i place the 315 mm on the 12th fret.
This ultimately adds another 10 mm back for the saddle.
No wonder it's out of tune.

Now I have to remove the bridge and re-glue it.
After checking online on how to remove one, I began the process.
I just use a pallet knife one for spreading paint I think.
It's quite thin and flexible without any sharp edges.
So I apply heat to the frosting spatula and slowly work beneath into the bottom edge of the bridge.spatula.
Finally after 1/2 hour I remove the bridge.
There were some tear-out in the top but not much.
After sanding the top all is good.
Just to be safe I scrape off all the hide in the bridge too.
I relocated the bridge and drill the 2 pilot holes again.
This time round I double and triple check the position.

Funny thing is when I apply the hide glue and re-clamp the bridge.
I actually glue it back into the original wrong position.
Luckily I took of the central clamp and check the position once more.
I discover the same mistake and quickly remedy it.
And so I remove the bridge while the glue is still have not set and glue it back to the correct position.
Then after I double and triple confirm the position before applying the clamp.
Now hopefull all will be well; finger's crossed.

Wrong position of the bridge. It's off by 10mm!

Slowly removing the bridge. Apply heat only to the spaltula / pallet knife. This won't affect the brace glue below the top.

Bridge removed!

This time round ensure the 325mm mark is correct

The final length is 652mm

Prepare to glue

Apply hide glue

Glue and clamp

20140925
I set up the guitar and now the intonation is spot on.
I didn't need to adjust anything.
I tried the guitar and the bass is indeed powerful as previously mentioned.
The treble seem to lack the brighness of my #1 but have that lovely mellow tone.

After trying out the guitar I glued on the heel cap.

Prepare to glue the heel cap

Glue and apply the clamps

20141001
I rework on some of the frets as they are buzzing.
I remove the frets and sand and scrape the fingerboard to adjust the frets
After that I hammer in the frets and try again.
The buzzing improved a little but I think there are still some to adjust more
After that I sand the neck and shaped the heel cap and heel.
Now its considered almost done.

Adjusting the frets to reduce buzzing

Shaping the heel cap

Planing the heel cap

Sanding the neck

Shaping and sanding the neck profile.

Carving the heel and neck

20140910
I worked on the neck thinning the neck to a comfortable thickness and shape.
I also work on the heel and heel cap.
The heel cap was from a bridge blank which was defective due to cracks.
Using the freshly sharpen chisel definitely feels great.
One thing hard was the heel and neck had different direction of runout.
So carving the heel was difficult.
I roughly carved the heel and finish up using my drum sander attachment
All looks good.

Thicknessing the neck.

Mark the shape of the heel cap

Saw away the excess

Shape with my rebate plane

Done.

Shaping the neck

Marking the back of the head

Shaping the back of the head

Heel carved and shaped

Neck roughly done. All is left is sanding to smooth out the carving marks

Gluing the fingerboard and bridge

20140909
Finally the moment have come, the completed guitar.
Before I glue the fingerboard I need to prepare and ensure the fret slots were deep enough.
Actually there will 1 more round after sanding the finger after gluing.
I check with the no fret tang barb fret to ensure the fret can go fully in.
For those slot which is not deep enough, I will saw a little more.

After that I aligned the fret board and drill pilot holes in the 2nd and 11th fret.
I have a clamp caul which has holes for the pilot holes.
I use the 1mm drill bit with the RTX and drill the pilot holes.
After that I use the very simple but useful metal wire (which was left behind by my late father) to align the fretboard.
All is set for the gluing.
I did a fast caul for the underneath the top to have a relief for the UTB.

To glue I heat up the surface and apply the glue.
Before gluing I heat up the glue again after the application.
And use the metal wire to align the fretboard.
After all is aligned properly, I apply the clamps.
Now I just have to wait for the glue to dry.

Check the fret slots depth

Saw deeper the slots for those not deep enough slots.

Saw away the zero fret extra. It is saw just before gluing the fingerboard to prevent accident chipped off.

Check the alignment before drilling the pilot holes.

Pilot holes drilled.

Apply hide glue

Glue and clamped.

After the glued dried sufficiently I remove the clamped and check for the bridge alignment.
The bridge is placed at 652 mm with 2 mm more for compensation.
After I check and satisfied for the alignment I tape the bridge and drill 2 pilot holes.
The two holes are near the center brace So I know it will avoid the brace itself.
The safest way to shine a light inside to avoid the braces
After that I prepare all the clamps needed and heat up the surface apply the glue and glued. The clamps are applied swiftly.
Now I just have to wait for the glue to dry before string up.

Drill the guide holes

Apply glue

Clamp