Week 1 - Day 1

For those of you who haven’t lost interest already, Fil and I fronted up at Thomas Lloyd Guitars at Montsalvat near Melbourne.  Unfortunately I wasn’t feeling 100%, but some things have to be done no matter what – and Montsalvat is a particularly interesting location and facility and just being there is uplifting to the spirit.  And luckily for me the first day is a ‘late start’ of about 10:00am.

The Workshop . . .

Our first challenge of the day was finding how to get to the workshop!  We both knew the location, but some security gates have been installed thus blocking our planned entrance.  It was all solved when we went back to the office and we plodded our way through the magnificent grounds – only to be assaulted by the horrible squawking of a large white cockatoo who seemed to take umbrage to our arrival.

The workshop itself is located in what appears to be an old outbuilding of the main facility.  There are two main sections where we will be working – the workshop itself with about seven benches and a machine room just across the way.

Getting Oriented . . .

Once we arrived and plonked our stuff on a nearby bench we had a cup of tea.  It seems Fil and Chris are going to get on very well given they both drink about four gallons of tea a day each.  We chatted about this and that and of course Fil and I ‘fessed up’ to the fact that we had each built guitars in the UK and of course Fil is the proprietor of Filibert Guitars – but unfortunately he hasn’t focussed much on the sales department.

We also spoke of the type of guitars we wanted to build and, the most exciting bit, which Australian tone woods we would use.  It seems that Oz woods may be coming into their own – not only do they have some wonderful patterns and acoustic qualities, the world’s supply of traditional wood for guitar manufacturing is becoming scarce.  For example, ebony has been threatened for some years and a few weeks ago the relevant authorities announced that Indian Rosewood would be going onto the banned list – about 90% of decent guitars you find in the shops use these materials.

Perhaps I will come back to Oz tonewoods on another day.

Now - let's see how we can rearrange this!

Which Shape . . .

To normal people a guitar is a guitar!  However, the few idiots like us consider size, shape, thickness and curvature to be important.  For example, most acoustic guitars in the shops are called Dreadnaughts.  These are big guitars and the name is derived from the nautical term.  Another popular shape is the OM, or Orchestra Model.  These are a smaller guitar and are named after a popular Gibson model – and they also come in different proportions, like OOO, OO and so on.

In the end I have chosen to build a unique Thomas Lloyd shape call the CA (Classic Acoustic).  It is about the same size as an OM but with different dimensions and curvatures again.  Fil chose the Thomas Lloyd Parlour Guitar shape – a very small guitar.  They have a long history and were popular with American guitar music of the 19^th and early 20^th centuries and are enjoying something of a renaissance for those who like ‘mid-range tone, historic vibe and easy portability’.  It will be interesting to see it emerge over the coming weeks.

Which Wood . . .

Now for the really exciting bit . . . we were given entry to Chris’ Aladdin’s Cave of Oz tonewoods.  What a treasure trove of exciting materials he has in there; the possibilities just about did our heads in.

Too many choices!

Still like a pig in sh!t!

This might be the one!

It was really nice to be able to get our numerous pieces of wood that we might use for our backs and sides onto a table and have a good look at them in the sunlight – and then lay the mould for our chosen guitar shapes on top to get some impression of what it might look like when it is made up.

My choice was a lovely book matched pair of patterned Tasmanian Blackwood for the back and some beautiful ‘fiddle back’ Tasmanian Blackwood sides.  I sort of got the impression that Chris was sorry to see these sides go as he mentioned their premium ‘fiddle back’ qualities a number of times during the day.  So here’s hoping I can do all the woods sufficient justice!

Fil chose a gorgeous Tasmanian Tiger Myrtle book matched pair for his back and some stunning sides of the same wood.  His back was just about perfect for the Parlour guitar he is making as the intensity of the pattern may have been too much in a larger instrument.  That said, those of us who know Fil understand that his ‘too much’ threshold for nearly everything is way out there when compared to most of us!

What about that then!

And this is is simply stunning

Gluing the Backs . . .

So without any further ado or formalities we were into it . . . and the first job was to decide which way we would like the patterns of our backs to meet, clean up the edges and glue the two pieces together.  Simple, right?

The task went very easily for me . . . and instead of using a complex jig and huge (and expensive) planes to get a nice straight edge we used spirit levels with some sand paper stuck to the long side.  The two halves of the backs were clamped to the bench and the long sides cleaned up.  I had to take about 5mm off both edges of my backs on the band saw to remove a bit of a chip, but getting a good join was very simple.

Joining the pieces of wood is also much simpler than our previous experience.  In summary, one side of the back is placed onto a flat piece of wood and pushed against a stop (either temporary or fixed), a piece of wood placed under the join area and then the other stop (again, temporary or fixed) is brought up to the edge of the back.  Once the flat piece of wood is removed the two sides of the back are gently tapped into place with a soft hammer – and that’s it!

Once everything is lined up properly in the jig the wood is taken out, the edges glued and baking paper laid underneath the join.  Once in place it is all tapped into place once more and another piece of wood is laid over the top side of the join (again with baking paper underneath) and the whole thing is clamped into place.  Job done!

Well, when I say job done – it was for me.  I went on to ‘thicknessing’ (read ‘thinning’) my sides for about two hours (see below) and Fil spent all that time trying to get his back joined properly.  For some reason it just wouldn’t line up properly until he discovered once piece had a slight twist. 

Making an easy task easy - how hard is that?

Much easier method

And easier again . . .

Send me your photo of joining your back please Fil

Thicknessing the Sides . . . 

So my job for the next two hours was to reduce my sides from about 6mm to less than 2mm – which seems like a terrible waste of wood!  The thicknesser is a wonderful machine that has a constantly moving sandpaper belt.  Each piece of wood is put through separately before adjusting the gap down a little and doing it again – and again!  Unfortunately, it is only possible to take off about 0.0001mm in each pass otherwise the machine literally squeals and starts to slow down – so patience is a virtue with this beast.  

For me, I also needed to be sure I got a couple of ‘chinks’ out of one side of one piece.  This involved focussing primarily on this side but while getting the other side sufficiently clean at the same time.  And as mentioned, all this took more than two hours and it was 2:00pm before I stopped and had some lunch.  

Fil’s thicknessing was a much simpler task.  Not only were his sides much thinner to start with, the Tiger Myrtle is much softer and comes off easier, according to Chris.

Incredible as it seems we both were ready for the next job at exactly the same time!

I got to thinking if I could pay someone to put these through a thousand times!

My new best friend - we spent hours together!

Beautiful result

Practice Side Bending . . .

Bending – this proved to be my nemesis at the last guitar building course!  The good news is that we were given a side of the same woods that we are using to practise with.  This involved straightening an already bent side and then bending it the other way and fitting it into our moulds – something that neither of us new was possible.

There were a few other surprises in the bending department.  Instead of clamping the bending iron on the bench vertically it was clamped with the hot part extending horizontally.  This makes it much easier to control the bend.

Also, we only bent with wet wood.  We were each given a little spray bottle and constantly wetted the area on which we were working – which made things much easier.

And the advantage of have a split mould (the two halves come apart completely) is that once the back is about the right shape it can be clamped in the half-mould and heated for some final adjustments.  Simple really!

My sinister friend - I wonder who will win tomorrow?

Cutting Out the Sides . . .

A relatively simple task towards the end of the day was to cut our sides into the approximate shape we require.  A guitar is always thicker at the bottom compared to the top, so this task involved making the sides into a slight wedge shape.

Backs Revealed . . .

The final job for the day was to take our backs out of the jigs and admire their beauty!  Actually, they looked pretty ordinary with glue stuck and bits of baking paper stuck all over the centre part – but they cleaned up very nicely in the thicknesser.

I'm delighted already

Upon Reflection . . . 

There is a constant flow of visitors into Chris’ workshop.  Not only do many of his former students come in to say g’day, given the studio is part of Montsalvat ‘museum’ people extend their foozle around the grounds to include the workshop.  Sometimes it is interesting, but I am sure Chris gets driven nuts by answering the same questions over again – like do you build guitars here?  Fil and I wondered whether they thought we were building submarines!

Visitors . . . 

There is a constant flow of visitors into Chris’ workshop.  Not only do many of his former student come in to say g’day, given the studio is part of Montsalvat ‘museum’ people extend their foozle around the grounds to include the workshop.  Sometimes it is interesting, but I am sure Chris gets driven nuts by answer the same questions over again – like do you build guitars here?  Fil and I wondered whether they thought we were building submarines!  And we also had a Peacock at the back door!

 

Carrying on a Tradition . . .

Some things just have to be done.  In Lewes Fil and I would go and have a ‘swift half’ after each day in the workshop – so it was sort of axiomatic that we would do it in Melbourne as well.  The only drama is that we don’t have as many local brews and ales – and definitely nothing like Harvey’s Best.  Still, we can only work with what we’ve got.

Our first pub was literally on the way home from where I park the vehicle – and given there was a strong Irish heritage in this town, it was appropriate that we started at Pugg Mahones.  This is of course an imported franchise only vaguely related to anything Irish or Australian – but I was taken by the fact that the name may have been derived from Pogue Mahone, which was the last album of The Pogues.  Apparently it is taken from a variant of the Gaelic phrase póg mo thóin, meaning "kiss my arse".  That will do me anyway!

In fact, the owners were probably thinking the same thing when they charged $11 each for a pint of IPA.  As Fil said, no-one can afford to become an alcoholic around these parts!

Fil’s Mate Paul . . .

I understand that Fil’s cycling mate Pete is struggling to read anything that doesn’t include a bicycle . . . would it surprise you to know that Fil is in fact making a guitar like this??