Andyjr1515

Looks lovely

Very, very nice

Looking good

Great job

Lovely job

Those who have seen my previous builds know that, with the way I apply gloss finish - polyurethane varnish brushed on - I add and sand back coats until I judge I am unlikely to be able to do another one any better. I can't replicate top pro finishes, but do try to get something that is fit for purpose and 'looks OK'. So when I get a coat that I think will achieve that after final polishing (done after a week or so of hardening) then I STOP...because I know that further coats are more likely to be worse rather than better. And I'm stopping here. There are bits where the finish has sunk into previously invisible hollows, there are bits where the grain ripples are a little more pronounced, but I don't think I can do any better than this however more sand backs and coats I do: So it will now sit for a week to harden and then will be polished up (and should polish up nicely) and reassembled

The common alternative is GDAE for the Irish bouzouki, which I think is the same as a mandolin and violin? But GDAD is another regular tuning. And then there is the Greek Bouzouki which, I gather, is different again. Fascinating stuff....

Thanks! As always with acoustics, it's best heard through headphones but it certainly has a pleasing richness and complexity of overtones in real life...even when I'm playing it It's tuned to GDAD Final varnish coats are going well so far - back and sides have both had their final coats. The top will be ready for one last super-light coat that will go on tomorrow

OK - just one more thing I had a try at playing it before disassembling it. This is recorded on my little Zoom mic recorder. I was going to call it "A Tune To Play If You Are Playing Something You Don't Know How To Play" but it wouldn't fit in the Soundcloud title box. So instead, I've called it "Ignorance is Bliss" :

Thanks! I had some in my bits drawer for this, but usually I buy it through their website so it comes direct from Japan. I haven't checked recently but I don't think they have any distributors in UK and maybe not in Europe in general. It comes through pretty quickly, all the same.

There's going to be a whole load of nothingness to see over the next week while the final coats are applied, dry and harden. So final shot for a bit...this is broadly the colour the neck will end up as: Yes - that's all for now but thanks for looking anyway

OK - definitely into the final furlong Trussrod cover cut and fitted with magnetic catches, heel carve and headstock carves are finished, frets levelled and recrowned, action height sorted, intonation sorted and template saddle cut. Here's what it looks like now. Fully playable but final finish not on the body yet and finish also not yet on the neck: So tomorrow will be disassembly and final varnish coats started for the body and the satin finish started for the neck. And then it's...well, done

Mid range from a decent supplier will usually be fine. While Hipshot are good, it is very much a law of diminishing returns. Real cheap ones tend to have fixing screws that snap when you are fixing them. A £55 Gotoh set will work fine. Axesrus also have some splendid licenced-by- hipshot lightweight ones. Northwest Guitars also have a decent range, including Wilkinson whose mid range ones are decent.

This week is in between two sessions of family commitments so I am trying to get it to final finish stages so that it can be hardening off ready for final polishing while I'm distracted again next week. Spent a fair bit of time sorting the neck angle to get the action right. This included a number of email discussions with P as I'm not familiar with the string tensions on a bouzouki which affects both the pull on the neck but also on the bridge. I also have experimented a bit with a set of phosphor bronze strings - which I would usually fit to an acoustic - and a set of nickel wound strings which P usually fits to his other bouzouki - and both have different tensions which then changes that pull. It's another clamber up the learning curve on this build! But it's close - it has a decent action, everything appears to be stable and sounds great. I'll finalise everything when I've levelled and re-crowned the frets over the next couple of days. I also fitted the side dots. I've fitted Luminlay dots - not because P necessarily needs their soft glow-in-the-dark ability, but because their black-sleeved dots really set things off - especially when you have that black/white/black demarcation line. Here's one going in: And here they are after trimming and a quick scrape. See what I mean about that black surround? : And lastly for today, I got two of the strings moved across to correct my calculation error in terms of the gaps between two of the pairs of strings. This entailed plugging two of the holes with a pair of bridge pins with their tops taken off and then re-drilling 1.2mm further over and re-tapering: So tomorrow is finishing the heel carve, fitting the heel cap and final neck sanding. If I get time, I'll also level and re-crown the frets and sort a truss-rod cover. Then the neck finishing can start

That'll do nicely Sounds great!

I like that very much. Great job!

Thanks. Not sure just how well my little handheld zoom recorder picks these things up but in real life it sounds pretty lush to my ear :). I'm not sure what style P plays on these types of instruments but I'm hoping it should cover all bases. They can be played single-note or strummed and in both cases the trick is to try to have even volumes between each string pair (same with an acoustic guitar) and no dull spots up the fretboard on any of the strings. I will know for sure when it can be properly set up but so far nothing untoward jumping out at me.

Now - DON'T get too excited. This is far from finished. The initial coats of varnish are on the body, hardening before the flattening and final coats, and the basic neck shape is carved. But before doing that final varnishing, there is the all essential check and fit-and-function fettling. With a bass and solid guitar, this is usually all handled with tweaks to the hardware - but on an acoustic, pretty much everything is hardwired and so involve sanding, chiselling and sometimes drilling! So the best time to do that is before the final finish coat goes on. But in all other respects, it's a 'live' mockup. A sacrificial set of strings, a temporary bit of bone in the saddle slot, truss rod tensioned and tuned fully up to pitch at GDAD tuning: The great news is that is hasn't clapped hands in spite of the string tension! Things that need tweaking: - neck angle still not right. Not a surprise as now we are dealing with real wood under real tension rather than a line on a drawing. Action is too high at a 'normal' saddle height and so the neck angle needs increasing by more filing at the heel - the spacing of the bottom G pair of strings isn't quite right, allowing for the thickness of the strings, the gaps between each pair to the other pairs should be even and the lower G is about 1mm out. While irritating that my arithmetic clearly had a flaw, it's actually quite a straightforward fix and a lot easier - again - now we have actual strings in actual place and tension to meaure. Oh...and it sounds GREAT (OK...I admit that is based on a hunch of what a guitar bouzouki should sound like ) Best with headphones, but here's a quick clip: Pre-setup sound check -

That's a stunning piece of veneer. Good choice of orientation too. Looks like arrow feathers

Well, if you're going to suffer a split, it may as well be a proper one! That red still looks good

And to the neck carve. Although I use a spokeshave and microplane to get much of the bulk out of the way, I do most of my neck carving with a humble cabinet scraper: It is very controllable, it is gradual - and with neck carves it is very easy to end up with a dip or a thin bit where you didn't intend one to be! And - while there is a lot of confusion about scrapers and they are only a couple of £'s each - they are planes in their own right. Here are the shavings: I had sent P a profile gauge to take the neck profiles from his present bouzouki. While I can't replicate these exactly because he has asked for the fingerboard to be wider and shallower than his present one, I will be replicating the 'soft V' at the lower frets (still a bit more to do here!)... : ...progressing to a more 'C' shape further down (a lot more to do here!): Ah - that's a bit better... : Now I'm a bit odd. I always have to 'air guitar' a build to see if the profile is right - even if I've never played a particular instrument. While I have never played a bouzouki, I can tell if it feels as I would expect based on P's profile measurements. Besides...it gives me an excuse to do a quick gratuitous mockup with the 2-coats-done-2ish-to do-body Bear in mind that the neck will darken and amber up a touch when the finish is put on: The neck actually feels great even though it is significantly deeper than a guitar or bass. The relative slimness and that V at the lower frets makes fretboard access a breeze. So, so far so good....

I agree with the above - move the whole nut across. 1mm should do it. In that second video you can actually see what is happening. As you pull off with an open string, the whole string is vibrating and so the section of string between your pull off and the nut is still vibrating when it hits the corner of the fret chamfer. You can actually see that in the video. I reckon 1mm would do it but I would also consider tighter tension strings - that looks very floppy to me

Love that radius jig, @spacecowboy ! It's all looking extremely good from over here

OK - I fibbed! I promise I won't do any of the subsequent coats...but this is the first coat:

And the top with its first coat of varnish: Some nice chatoyance (ripples, @Si600 ) showing in the spruce. The rosette's tidied up nicely, too. I won't do regular updates of the finishing - it's a bit too much like watching paint varnish dry. But fear not, those who have run out of anything else to look at in lockdown, I'll do the updates of the neck carve. Andy