Sen Guitars

2011-09-23

Next commision

Well my next commission is a Pink Ivory B/S Lutz Spruce top.
I made some measurement of the density of this Lutz top and it's about 370 kg/m3.
This is light and good stuff.
According to my luthier friend Alexandru Marian, the spruce is the same log as the master grade Lutz that he have.
The only reason why it was downgrade was the presence of knots but for the FE 17 build, the knots are out of the plantilla :)
I love stuffs that are good quality but at a bargained price.

I learned more about the back and side wood: Pink Ivory from an experienced steel string guitar luthier at the OLF
John Mayes.
He is very kind to share with me the critical points of dealing with the Pink Ivory.
According to him, Pink Ivory bends like Maple (very easily), just need to spritz it and bend it.
Looks like I am in luck that Pink Ivory is not a hard wood to bend!

The plantilla is a FE17 the Torres guitar, which was used by the famous guitarist Francisco Tárrega.
The original FE17 is using a flamed maple as the B/S but this time round I will be using a beautiful set of Pink Ivory.
Scale length is 640mm.
I haven't decided if I want to include the tornavoz inside.
Maybe as a parallel build, I will make the original maple B/S FE17.
One thing though, I won't be making the elevated fingerboard in this build as the body size of the guitar is very small if the elevated fingerboard is included the internal volume will be affected.
As it is the geometry of the elevated fingerboard is very complicated, if I want to include the tornavoz... it will be too complicated.
Anyway that's for further review when I build the solera for the FE17.

Here is some teaser pics:

Pink Ivory B/S

Lutz Spruce top

2011-09-08

Sawing the braces

Well I am not exactly done on the neck but for now that will suffice.
I proceed on to making the braces from the blank.

A good question now arises: saw or split?
Splitting brace from the blank isn't exactly easy.
I try to split one from an Englemann spruce blank but Englemann spruce are very prone to twisting (run out) so I didn't get anything usable from the splitting.
So instead I saw the braces from the blank and let the saw follow the natural saw line.
So I did get bigger on one end and smaller on the other but that's alright I can plane them flat.
I colored the ends to see the grains better.
After planing I got all my braces
Following that I began to size them accordingly for the 7 fan braces, 2 traverse brace and 2 closing brace and the side braces beside the sound hole.
I had to square the end and use the shooting board method to square them.
I use the aluminium bar as a stopper.
Quite accidently I actually plane the aluminium bar.
The A2 plane iron is definitely harder than the Al bar.

Here are the pictures.

Sawing the brace from blank

Planing them accordingly to the grain line

I colored the ends to see the grain orientation more clearly.

Here's one that need lots of squaring to the grain orientation.

The planing setup. Al bars as stoppers

Width of 7mm

The bracing layout

The bracing layout after I marked the layout on the template and transfer to the top.

I need to trim the braces.
I weigh the top and all the braces it's a hefty 300+ g...
Typical traditional fan bracing top should be under 200g probably close to 185g to 190g.
A classical double (composite nomex) top weighs about 120 or so.

Next to come will be the gluing of the braces watch out for it.
But before that I need to build my go-bar deck.

I cut the braces to size and lay them out on the top.
Also I trim down the height to about 5 to 6 mm 1st.
More will be trim to the final height of 3 mm
Also I cut the donut soundhole reinforcement to size.
I was deciding on along grain or across grain orientation but decide to follow my previous across grain.
I weigh them the whole top is about in the 220 region.
More weight to removed considering I have not cut the harmonic bar to size and trim down the braces.
But I have not add the 2 support braces beside the soundhole yet.

Cutting the donut soundhole reinforcement

Sawing the braces to length

Layout on the top.

Trim braces to height

Trimming the donut

Weighing the top 228g more shaving to be done

The layout ready to be glued

2011-09-02

Gluing the headplate / Making neck

I also glue up the headplate for the neck.
It was pretty easy with no fuss.
I just apply the HHG to the veneer one by one, and finally paste on the IRW (from back) on the veneer.
The only thing is have to work fast with the HHG, so I didn't have time to take more pictures.

But I did use up my batch of HHG and had to remix the glue.
I didn't weigh the HHG but instead remember the viscosity of the fluid when I mixed it.

Applying HHG

More HHG

Gluing the Headplate

Clamping it

Mixing HHG

Checking the crystal dissolving in the hot water

There was some gaps so I apply more HHG and clamp tighter

Gaps closed and the excess headplate / veneer leveled.

Planing the excess veneer/headplate

Leveled

Next is to cut the excess part from the end of the headplate so that it can support the nut.
Because the head is at an angle (15 deg) to the neck, we need to make the slot vertically down perpendicular to the neck.
So I plane a support block using the head and shooting board method.
I put some scrap wood to protect the neck.

Finally when it's down I use my ryoba saw and started sawing the protruding headplate and veneer.
Finally I clean up with a chisel and sanding block
Looks good.

Marking the starting of the nut.

Marking using white color pencil

Shoot / Plane the support block to correct angle

Aligning the support block to the line drawn.

Starting sawing. (pic is abit blur)

Sawing the headplate 1/2 way

Sawing the veneer

Cut and clean up with chisel and sandpaper.

Next I proceed on with the neck making.
I measure the 12 fret marking with 5mm for the nut and 325mm for the 12 fret mark.
This is a 650 (1/2 of it is 325) scale length guitar.

Marking the 12 fret

12 fret mark 325mm from nut space

Nut allowance 5mm

Then I add another 125mm for the elevated neck and cut off the excess
I use another neck blank for the stack heel.
I square shoot the end grain of the cut blocks.
and prepare the block for gluing.

Cutting the excess

Cut!

All blocks cut

Aligning the blocks

Drawing the 12 fret line and curve of the heel

I proceed to cut the slope on the neck for the elevated neck part.
After removing my sawing, I plane the rest of the neck to be almost flush with the solera.
A bit of fitting more to go.

Cutting the slot with a block (hidden) as a guide.

Sawing the excess part.

The slope sawn.

Planing using a shoulder plane so that I can reach all the way into the edge.

Close up view.

The main bulk is done using block plane

Almost done. You can see the pencil line there is some more allowance to go for fitting.

To fit into the solera I need to cut the wings of the elevated part of the neck.
Conventional fingerboard is < 65mm (62mm at the 12th fret) for this part I set width at 69mm for some allowance. I also have to cut the protruding part of the solera at the 12th fret. After cutting and fitting into the solera I check the slope of the elevated fingerboard part. My blank was definitely higher: So I have a choice of lowering it to fit the solera or add another part into the solera. I am tending toward the latter as I think a higher elevated fingerboard would be easier to play. Point to consider is also the slope of the doming of the topboard that will be forced by the elevated fingerboard.

Sawing the wings off. I have to becareful as sawing along grain can easily cause splitting.
As a safeguard I cut the crossgrain cut at the 12 fret to prevent over splitting in case it happens

Done

Trimming ends at 12th fret

Trimming the width with chisel

Cutting the solera at the 12th fret

Fitted neck into the solera

Now the dilemma: fit the solera to the neck or neck to solera?

Well I solve the dilema, just raise the solera.
I feel that a too low raise fingerboard would not be effective (might as well do without).
My current neck blank's angle and height is just nice.
So I would rather the solera fit the neck blank.

Anyway I use a scrap piece of wood mark the excess angle and plane it down.
Next I glue it to the solera.
After that I glue the heel block.
The slots would need to be cut before I glue the heel block to the neck.

Planing the addition piece of wood

Gluing it to the solera

Preparing to glue the heel block

Glued. With HHG I don't have much to time to take the in between pics

As a treat this is roughly how the elevated neck will look like.

After removing the clamps

I level the additional 2 blocks to fit the neck blank.

With the heel block

Next to cut the slots in the heel block

For that I will be using my neck jig that will have a angle in the slot as defined by the jig.
The side do not join the heel block in a 90 degree but at a slight angle probably around 89 or 88 degree

I square the heel block roughly and marked out the center lines of the block.
This will be align to the neck later on.
The center line is also required for symmetry purposes.

I discover that it's impossible to clamp the heel block.
So I need to glue a scrap piece of wood to the heel block in order to cut the slots.
I glued it with 4 drops of PVA white glue; just enough to hold the block and need to remove the scrap after that.
In a normal neck I just clamp to the neck part but in this elevated fingerboard neck, I cut the heel block separately from the neck.
This cause the problem of not enough places to clamp the heel block.
The next time I can cut bottom most piece longer enough for me to clamp the heel block.
After sawing the slots I can cut the excess away for another heel block.

Squaring the heel block

Gluing a scrap piece to the wood for clamping purpose

After that I began to mark the slot.
The jig has a proble: it was not square...
I had to put a wedge to correct the angle.
Then I began sawing.
I didn't have a physical stop for me to stop sawing but use my eyes to check the sawing mark.
Once I hit the mark I will stop sawing.
Once completed I realised the angle for both sides isn't the same...
That is the problem of a poorly made jig... Think I need to rework on it.
Anyway I began sawing the back slot with a slight taper for the wedging effect.
And chisel out the in between.