So Fil and
I met in the middle of the night (6:30am) and headed out to Montsalvat. When we arrived at about 7:15am Chris was
already in the workshop – but he hadn’t had a cup of tea so he could not have
been there long! This building a guitar
routine really is a bit like going to work – walk in, say g’day and then crack
on with whatever it is that you are doing.
However, today was always going to be a special day in that our ‘quality
control’ officers are arriving in the late afternoon for a progress
inspection.
Cracking On
– My Sides . . .
Perhaps
that is a bad metaphor . . . but my first task for the day was to stand back
and admire my successfully bent sides.
It seems my failure rate has just dropped from 100% to 66% - so that is
a marked improvement! Once the
veneration session was done, I marked where the sides were in the mould (there
is quite a bit of excess material).
The next
step involved squaring the ends from the flat (not curved sides). In other words, the square needs to be taken
from the ‘top’ side (and not the curved bottom). Once it was all marked up I chopped off the
excess wood with a Japanese hand saw.
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| Looking good |
The Pace is
Increasing . . .
Now it was
on to my rosette. For all the normal
people who are still reading this, a rosette is a totally pointless decorative circle
around the sound hole of the guitar. Its
purpose is entirely ornamental as it makes no acoustic difference at all. That said, there are some ‘conventions’ about
rosettes that are respected by most people.
The
accepted ‘norm’ for steel stringed guitars (like the ones we are building) is a
10mm gap between the sound hole and the rosette – and as a ‘rule’ the rosette
is 15mm wide. Classical guitars have a
much wider rosette and it typically comes much closer to the sound hole. You won’t be surprised to know that Fil
didn’t respect either traditions – he just did what he thought looked good!
So I cut my
piece of Fiddleback Blackwood down to a more manageable size of 150mm by
150mm. The next step involved finding
the right spot on the wood for the rosette and then drilling a hole in the
middle of where it would be created.
Next step
was to get out the Dremel board. This a
piece of particle board about a metre by a metre with a conveniently placed lug
on which to place the Dremel attachment.
 |
| Drill the wood and use double sided tape to hold it in place |
 |
| And then some double sided tape |
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| Start slow, shallow and slow |
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| Looking good - and then the Dremmel packed it in |
Dremel . .
.
Perhaps it
is appropriate to chat about the handy little Dremel machine. They are a marvellous invention and to luthiers
they have become a verb, much like Hoover has in the UK. Simply ask someone to ‘Dremel that down’ and
you will be perfectly understood by other guitar makers. According to Fil, they are one of the most
essential pieces of kit in an instrument maker’s workshop. Although they were invented in 1932 (by
Albert J Dremel – but now owned by Bosch), they look pretty much the same as
they ever did.
However,
they are also known to go kaput or fail in other ways. Given the Perry curses on my guitar sides,
this stunning little machine chose my job to give up the ghost. Chris had to shoot down to Bunnings (hardware
joint) to get another one. And he had
yet another dead one laying around the workshop.
 |
| New Dremel |
 |
| 1947 advertisement for the Dremel Moto-Tool |
Back to the
Rosette . . .
 |
| The colours are going to work well |
Installing
the Rosette . . .
The next
task involved using the same gear to route a channel in the top of the guitar
and install the rosette. You sort of
need to take a deep breath before you say that – this has the potential to go
horribly wrong (just ask Fil about resetting the depth of the router!) for the
installation of a totally useless piece of wood from an acoustic point of view.
Sound Hole
. . .
Although
the sound hole is cut out later, the obvious reference point for the rosette is
the absolutely true and correct centre of the sound hole. This is point is measured exactly 155mm down
from the neck end of the guitar shape – and then checked twice more before
drilling a hole through the top!
Rosette
Channel . . .
I now need
to route a 2mm channel in the face of my guitar top! As with the rosette itself, routing is
started in the waste area between the marked channel. Because we are routing circles, it is only
necessary to mark the circle in one spot – and that is done in the ‘safety
zone’ closest to where the neck will be installed. And you always start with test cuts and
router resets in the this zone as well as any slips here will be covered by the
neck – which will run all the way down to the sound hole. Have a guess where Fil made his little ‘slip’
– his whole life is in the danger zone!
Once an
appropriate depth is set on the router, it is then adjusted so the blade moves
towards the desired line little by little – small cuts are important so as not
to rip the wood. The process is then
reversed to cut out the other side of the channel.
Gaging the
final width of the channel is down entirely in the ‘safety zone’ until of bit
of the rosette tightly fits into the channel.
Finally the entire circle is cut and the rosette squeezed into the
channel for a test fit. Once everything
looked good it was glued into place and various clamps used to hold it down.
 |
| This is serious stuff! |
 |
| Proceeding with care |
 |
| Done |
 |
| Trial install of the rosette |
 |
| Ready for gluing |
Other
Workshopers . . .
As
previously mentioned, Chris’ workshop has a constant flow of formal and
informal visitors. Today we had three
other blokes who are at various stages of building their guitars. Laurance returned (he was there the other
day) and he managed to get his top fitted and glued – and left a happy man.
Bob and
Garry were also working on their instruments.
Garry is building a classical guitar (nylon strings) and spent most of
the day struggling to align his neck.
The first problem that the head was 8mm out of alignment. He managed to fix that but noticed that the
other plane is out of wack. So he still
has quite a bit of work to do to get that right.
Bob spent
most of the day working on this neck.
His is a steel string guitar and he is interested in playing quite a bit
of slide guitar. But his immediate
challenge is to get the neck and heel nice and smooth with hours and hours of
sanding.
 |
| Bob working on his neck |
 |
| Garry still trying to align his neck |
 |
| A study in concentration |
Back to the
Thicknesser . . .
My
favourite machine beckoned me across the passageway once more . . . my task was
to very carefully take any proud areas of the rosette away without
‘thicknessing’ the sound board any more.
So it was a slow and careful job – which took about 30 minutes or so.
Another
trick of the trade was revealed here. It
is important to measure the distance from the top (of the wood) to where the
marked guitar outline starts. This is
because we need to re-draw the guitar shape again (from the mould) in EXACTLY
the same place it was.
 |
| Taking it down VERY carefully |
Sound Hole
. . .
Marking Out
the Bracing . . .
My next
major task was to mark out the location for each of the braces on the back of
the top. A similar principle to the
guitar back applies here – it is important to leave as much of the wood to
vibrate freely while giving the instrument sufficient structural
integrity. And while it all appears
rather scientific and precise, I suspect it is yet another dark art from the
annals of luthiery.
To lay out
the braces I first needed a reference point.
Using a special scale ruler (as in scale length and designed for making
guitars), the precise distance from the 14th fret to the top of the
bridge is marked – exactly in the middle.
A mock bridge is placed in location xxmm from the top of the outline of the guitar
(need to check the rest with Chris so I can write down).
An outline
is drawn around the X-Braces and the four Finger braces (see below) are then
marked onto the back of the top.
 |
| Re-mark the outline of the guitar shape |
 |
| Using the scale ruler - mark the position of the bridge |
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| Using a complex formula - mark out the location of the X-braces and Finger braces |
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| Looks good |
 |
| Ready to glue |
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| Glue and clamp |
Shaping the
Braces . . .
As with the
back of the guitar, the X-Braces need to be sanded to match the proposed curve
of the top of the guitar. So I spent
about 45 minutes sanding the braces in the top dish to get the right shape.
The next
job involved making a join so the X-bracing could interlock. Unfortunately the marking that Chris gave me
were a little bit out, so I had to do some trickery to force them into place so
they could be glued into place.
 |
| Don't cut one X-brace too short like I did! |
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| Shaping the brace |
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| Notch the two braces for joining |
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| Check it fits - which mine didn't |
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| Once sorted - glue it all down |
More Hot
Pipe . . .
The bending
iron is known as the ‘hot pipe’ in this workshop – and it is my least favourite
tool in the joint! My next task involved
taking some of the stress out of my sides by rolling them around the hot pipe
and quickly clamping them into place – and then doing it again and again.
 |
| My friend the hot pipe |
Quality
Assurance Examination . . .
The entire
workshop was in trepidation waiting for the visit from our two Quality Control
experts. Those who were silly enough to
read my last guitar building blog would know that we were making application to
join the Ancient Order of Luthiers – and there was quite a process attached to
that. I am pleased to say that while our
instruments met the standards, Fil and I have so far failed the ‘fit and proper
person’ test for admission. Being a fine
upstanding young man, Patrick is probably already a Fellow of the Ancient Order
by now, but Fil’s and my applications are still ‘pending’. That said, we agree with Groucho Marks who
famously said “I don't care to belong to any club that
will have me as a member".
This is one
of the reasons we chose to come to the colonies and seek membership of the much
lesser Oz society of luthiers . . . the Federation of Antipodean Guitar
Structuralists (FAGS). The Ancient Order
refuses to let us convicts use the term ‘luthier’ – even though we have
reminded them it is in fact a French word.
Suzi and Lorraine have been given ‘referred powers’ to determine whether
our instruments are up to standard. The standard of the guitars is still good, but luckily there is no ‘fit and proper person’ test in Oz – if you can
spell luthier you’re in!
 |
| Even Garry came in for an examination |
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| Will this bloke become a FAGS |
 |
| Two FAGS candidates and Chris |
Fil’s
Progress . . .
Fil is
really getting on with his instrument in the ways he already knows how. His soundbox is complete, except for the
binding, and he has started work on cutting his neck and gluing the reversed
section for the faceplate. Luckily this
was discovered early enough to make the correction.
.
 |
| Bracing done |
 |
| Sound box nearly done |
 |
| Starting on the neck and face plate |
Quick Beer . . .
Our beer
research standards and methodologies have pretty much reached rock bottom. Rather than having to shout to be heard or
being charged a King’s ransom, we had lovely Aldi beer in Fil and Suzi’s
apartment this evening. How nice it was
to sit in a decent chair, talk in normal volumes and not be thinking about the
$12.40 pints!
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