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This was an adventure. That Schneider gramil that I mentioned arrived, and it's a pretty great little tool for some things, not so much for others. I quickly discovered that its intended use is for flat-top guitars; with the arched plates, it has a tendency to cause deep, ugly gouges. Also, I will never understand why this Schneider fellow decided that the tool needed so many sharp corners that come into direct contact with your precious wood. Thankfully the gramil-induced gouges are all in the recurve area of the plates, which will be scraped away.
So in the end, I wound up using the gramil to score the edges of the binding channels as deeply as I dared without damaging the plates too much, and then doing the rest the old-fashioned way.
Here is the result of a good deal of quality bonding time with my 1/8" chisel. (There is still a bit of clean-up to do with a flat file.)
Next I decided that the hideous joint where the sides meet at the tail needed to go. I scored and chiseled out a wedge...
... and inlayed a moderately less-unsightly chunk of Puriri.
The astute observer will notice that it is slightly crooked. That is because the mid-points of the plates (on which each end of the graft is centred) are off by a mm or so. These, these are the things we learn.
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10-23-2014 04:43 PM
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Hmm, doesn't look off to me, Jay. Looks more like a "design feature" and I defy anyone to prove otherwise...
Originally Posted by Jehu
Richard Schneider was a very talented innovative classical builder and a good buddy before his untimely death in 1997. And as was the case for most of his many friends, I destroyed many a brain cell helping Richard keep the Jack Daniels distillery of Lynchburg, TN up and running. We did our part, of which we were proud, for the sour mash whiskeys of the world...I think...
It's true that his gramil doesn't work as well as one would like on arch tops but they are wonderful little tools for the flat-top instrument. The earlier production run examples are actually much better in terms of finish with smooth faces and nicely rounded corners. I got a second one a couple years back and was disappointed with it compared to the one I picked up when Richard was still alive. I think he would have had something to say about the new batch. Same design but a little rougher in finish.
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I'm hoping that these kinds of things will eventually make this guitar "highly collectible". Like the stamps with the upside-down airplane. Originally Posted by Scot Tremblay
Hmm, doesn't look off to me, Jay. Looks more like a "design feature" and I defy anyone to prove otherwise...
Thanks for the info on Richard Schneider and the original model... interesting connection! (Someone's gotta do that hard work -- I understand that JD is distilled in a dry county. Personally, I'm doing my best to keep Scotland afloat.)
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Very nice job!! I did this similiar exercise a few years ago but made the mistake of using northern hard rock maple for the back and sides (didn't know there was soft western maple at the time) and it about ruined my carving hand!!! Came out pretty good, though, 5 piece flamed maple neck and all. I sold it to a guy who wanted to do his own finish and the shipping company managed to break the neck and never paid off on it. That's about the time I went to building Telecasters! Good job, though - archtops are not the easiest thing to build without some sort of carving machine to rough them out.
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Gah! That's terrible about the neck break. Maybe it was the gods punishing you for trying to sell your first archtop build!
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This was infinitely easier than binding the f-holes, despite the challenges of working with more than one layer of binding at a time without the aid of a third hand. Thanks, Chris -- wherever you are -- for the Weld-On 16 tip. It worked splendidly. A bit messy, but that's just inexperience.
But enough banter; you're here for the pics! I got the binding all glued into place...
... and then had great fun scraping it clean and flush.
And man, those little shavings get everywhere. They cling to your clothes and travel with you wherever you go. I'm going to be finding them in my sock drawer six years from now.
Once that was done, I noticed a number of sliver-sized gaps where I didn't have the binding taped down quite tight enough (sorry about the pic):
One of the awesome things I've learned about ABS is that it melts with acetone. That's why, as Chris mentioned, Weld-on works so well: it's actually melting the binding to form a bond with the wood. (In fact, I recently saw a video of a luthier who just uses straight acetone in a squeeze-bottle to attach his bindings.) By dissolving chunks of binding in acetone, I was able to brew up a gap-filling slurry that melts invisibly into the existing binding.
In the end, I think the bindings ended up looking quite nice.
Next up: Scrapin' the recurve, ifyouknowwhatImean! (That getting old yet?)
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And just so I'm not keeping Mango in suspense too long, here is a rough idea of what I have in mind for the headstock. A round head with two big, floppy ears. (To be bound, etc...)
Last edited by Jehu; 11-05-2014 at 03:44 AM.
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Nice headstock design! Reminds me of the Baroque era (1700s) 5 course (double string) guitars and the late 19th century Torres design...good combination IMO.
That's interesting about the ABS melting in acetone to make filler. I never use the stuff so have little experience with it. I have an old arch top that I'm fixing up for myself which will probably have bindings of ABS (unless I find the time to bend some wood ones) so that's useful to know...
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very nice and unusual pattern of binding, with the thick outside black layer.
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Cool... do you happen to have any pics? I tried some Google-fu, but I'm not sure I'm finding what you have in mind. Originally Posted by Scot Tremblay
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Hmm, for some reason I'm having problems uploading photos from my Apple laptop so had to swipe a couple from the inter web. I hope these guys don't mind an admiring plug...
Jose Torres head design ca. 1880...actually an exact copy by American Master luthier Kenny Hill...
Head design taken from Spanish Baroque guitar ca. 1750 copy by Japanese luthier Kiyond...
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Hi Jay,
beautiful as always !
christophe
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Looks great! Love your headstock aswell.
You must be a very patient man. I get frustrated just by changing strings.
Anyway, keep it up and have fun!
Cheers
Ted
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How about this one: Originally Posted by Scot Tremblay
Untitled Document
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Inlays are a little to busy for my taste.
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Thanks, Scot; I can see where you're coming from now. That Baroque one is pretty cool!
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Despite my apprehensions, this part wasn't terribly difficult, just time consuming.
I started with cabinet scrapers to dig the channels around the perimeters of both plates to depth, then smoothed them out. I went slow (not that I had much of a choice), and frequently stopped to apply a bit of the ol' thumb pressure to check the flex of the plate and tapping to see how the tone changed.
The difference is actually quite dramatic. The pitch of the tap tone deepened, but more importantly it became much more resonant, like a low-pitched bell with a very fast decay.
Not the world's smoothest transition from recurve to arch, but I decided to resist the urge to tinker my way to catastrophe.
The top is somewhat less dramatic (on the left you can also see the rounded Puriri saddle for the tailpiece strap):
Still quite a lot of surface prep and general tidy-up to do, but that just about does it for the body.
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Hi Jehu,
what part of the dog will be used to figure the tailpiece ?
christophe
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sooo smooth! :-)
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Sorry I haven't checked in for a while now, especially with the name check an' all....
Well, you've done the head tastefully and and I really like it. Doesn't look much like a dog at all, in fact.
So I guess that you won't be needing these, then, for the dog's head thing. I was just about to wrap 'em and post 'em, too.
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That's just because I haven't attached the googly eyes yet. Originally Posted by mangotango
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With my recently acquired confidence in my binding skill, I decided to give the headstock a go. (I did have pictures of attaching the veneers, etc., but they mysteriously vanished from my phone.)
I dug out the binding channels as before, using the gramil/chisel combo. The gramil worked much better with the flat headstock surface to bear against. However, once I got to that wonky top part, I realised that the gramil was of no help, so I did the top edge freehand with a chisel, which is exactly as harrowing as it sounds. No major mishaps, but I'll probably find a less anxiety-provoking method if/when I do this again.
Then binding I did bit-by-bit and layer-by-layer over the course of about a week, getting mitres right and waiting for the cement to harden before moving on to the next part.
I had to take a couple of runs at it. My first attempt at the top edge wasn't terrible, but it certainly wasn't great and I wouldn't have been happy with myself if I left it. So I dissolved the cement and started over. Eventually I made my way around the perimeter.
Not D'Angelico quality, but I don't think the result is too bad for some schmoe trying to make a guitar by hand in his alcove:
Last edited by Jehu; 11-23-2014 at 01:10 AM.
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Great job, Jehu. Can I send you half a dozen heads to do for me?...
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Wonderful !
christophe
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Scot, judging by the beautiful stuff on your site, I don't think you want me within 500km of your work!
To all: Anyone interested in seeing the real deal should visit Scot's website. There is some truly stunning craftsmanship going on in his shop.
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