Here are some updates from over the weekend. I got a TON of work done on #2. This guitar is moving along MUCH much faster than the first. I suppose that is to be expected.

Loads of pictures ->

Working on a neck takes a lot of effort.

It seems to me that you have to be pretty darn lucky to get a good neck. So far I am 3 for 3 on neck shaping, I think it’s time to buy a lotto ticket…

I like the way the fretboard meets the soundhole. Although it makes it a pain to bolt on the neck.

More pictures soon, I promise. I have to engineer my own binding rig now…. yuk.

Woof, I did a TON of work this weekend. I am proud to say that I competed the neck. I took a bunch of pictures, so I am going to split this into two posts: one for fretboard, one for neck carving.

I am nervous about my fret slots, they seem a little screwed. I guess I will find out soon enough. Everything else I am fairly happy with.

yikes, that was a lot of pictures….

So I started attacking the neck. I can’t figure out if I really like doing it, or I really loathe doing it. Either way, it needs to get done. The only change here is going to be the heel profile. I used a standard steel string heel last time, but this time I’m going to do something a little more robust. Hopefully it wont be as tricky to carve.

To be honest, I’m not 100% sold on the headstock design either, it looks kind of…. thin. I dont know, i think I will have version 3 coming up shortly.

Pics.

I got the box all sealed up. There are some definite problems that are there and will be there. It appears that i went waaaaaay too thin on the back. The upper bout (on the back) is starting to flex dangerously easy, I suspect there is some cracking too. The sound-port didnt quite turn out like i had hoped, but it will do. I cut the brace channels on the sides a little too deep, I dont think the binding will be able to cover them up.

I hope to keep the determination to finish this one. I still need lots of practice with fretting and setup. I did start on #3, hopefully I can juggle the two.

I am well underway with #2 now. Things are going fairly smoothly. I sorta, kinda messed up on the rosette. You cant really tell unless you really have an eye for detail. This is my first construction of my own heel block, I am nervous because I am not sure i made the groove big enough. Oh well, we shall see.

Up to this point, I will be profiling the sides and then gluing my kerfing on. Then the back and top gets glued on!

As you can probably see, I did a hybrid of Spruce and Cedar bracing on the top. I am pretty eager to hear how that turns out.

Pics!

Here are some pics. I think I have all the necessary materials to finish this one. I might have to order a few things. I’ll make a post about what I’m going to do with this one, but for now I just want to put some pictures up of my progress so far.

I’ve just been doing busy work on #2 while I wait for parts to come in.

This soundboard is going to prove tricky to keep alive. Every time i put a piece of sandpaper on it, the rosette starts to fall apart. I just flooded it with some CA to protect it and I’ll deal with it later.  One of the pictures is of a patch job i did on the veneer because I sanded through it (again).

I laminated the back braces, I always wanted to do that, I think they look really cool. I realize the idea is to put a thin piece of hardwood as the laminate and not fiber paper, but for now I just wanted the look, not so much the function. I shaped the soundboard braces as well and finally thicknessed the back. Thicknessing is still a trick without a drum sander, but I am trying out a solution (shown in the pics) where I take data points around the outside of the plank and write it on the board. Those metal discs that i use for thicknessing work really good.

So I was able to avoid a complete disaster (hopefully).

So I have this pretty cool piece of Carpathian Spruce that I am going to use as a soundboard for my next guitar. And since I am waiting on some parts in order to move a long with guitar #1, I figured I would do some work on #2.

I thicknessed the soundboard to where it had a nice tone and moved really nicely. I knew I didn’t have much thickness to work with, but I didn’t need much since the veneer sheet i was using wasnt actually that thick. Things went pretty well for the most part, but I didn’t route my channel deep enough, so my veneer rosette was standing proud. So when i sanded it down to level, i had some blank spots where I sanded all the way through the veneer.

Crap…

I decided to incorporate my funky design into the soundhole… it was either try that or snap the soundboard in half and toss it (I almost did that).

This poses a new problem though… I think some of those funky holes are going to mess with my guitar bracing.

This should be fun…

Guitar #2 has been started. I was waiting on some materials that I needed for #1 and got kind of bored, so I figured I could do some work on #2.

I didn’t do a whole lot, just joined the pieces together and cut out the rough shape.

Specs:
Soundboard: Engleman Spruce
Back & Sides: Black Walnut

I’ll keep everything else a surprise. Another words, I’ll just wing it.