Finished Pics! Psilos Phoenix Dreadnought Acoustic

[Jabba_the_gut]

Cheers for these details Andy, interesting to see the other tools and jigs required. Also interesting to see which jigs you can make and which you need to buy. Thanks for posting this.

Jez

[Andyjr1515]

Oh, my...

I designed and built this before the G&W one appeared on the market:

...and - though not faultless - was very pleased with it.  And so was reluctant to take the fairly hefty outlay of the G&W one.

 

But trust me - this is SOOOOOOOOOO much better!

 

Quicker, more accurate, MUCH easier to centre everything.

 

Less than 10 minutes got me this:

 

Then no more than another 10 minutes with the sanding block to get to this:

 

If I compare that with the two days it took last time I tried to sand ebony with a block only (AND that one came out skewwhiff after all that)...

Very pleased with the investment - even including the cost of the rather pricey extra radii for future projects. 

[Andyjr1515]

Matt is opting for a plain fretboard with just a couple of swifts at the 12th fret.

As usual, I cut the MoP shapes out with a jewellers saw:

 

Then pencil round them and rout out with a 1mm Dremel bit, using a precision router base:

 

Then mix epoxy with some ebony sanding dust.  In the morning this will be sanded flush and any gaps, etc, will be invisible

 

 

[SpondonBassed]

9 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Then mix epoxy with some ebony sanding dust.  In the morning this will be sanded flush and any gaps, etc, will be invisible

I'd be interested to hear how you avoid removing any surface material from the fretboard now that you've got the radius on it.  It's not just you going at it with abrasive paper is it?

[Pea Turgh]

He lasers it off with his eyes.

[Andyjr1515]

1 hour ago, SpondonBassed said:

I'd be interested to hear how you avoid removing any surface material from the fretboard now that you've got the radius on it.  It's not just you going at it with abrasive paper is it?

It is indeed

The fretboard will be sanded a number of times with a 16" radius block, progressively down to 1500 grit or so.  At that point it should shine without the need of anything on it.  At the moment I'm still using 120 grit so it's fairly brutal (and ebony being ebony, pretty ineffective).  Basically, the mother of pearl and epoxy will sand down way, way before the ebony does.

And yes - you all knew I couldn't wait until the morning....

[Dov65]

You've got a good pair of hands there bud, lovely craftsmanship

[Andyjr1515]

Next is one of the scary bits - routing the tenon on the neck and the corresponding mortice on the body.

First, I needed to work out the neck angle.  Clearly, there are very limited options for adjusting heights on acoustics, so this has to be pretty close before the final hand fettling.  In broad terms, the angle is going to be the line from the body joint to the top of the bridge.  The saddle will then lift the strings 2-3mm to give the requisite action height.  I use an engineers protractor:

 

My routing jig is a rough variation of the OBrien fancy rig, using an old Workmate and templates from G&W.  The neck is positioned with some studs that fit in the trussrod slot on a hinged (very rough) plywood board:

 

This board is held by the hinges on the workmate, and angled using a threaded bar/knob/ insert arrangement:

 

The a shorty flush bearing bit, and I get this:

 

 

The next bit is even more scary...

 

 

[Andyjr1515]

The next bit is even more scary.

Taking off the neck jig, I now suspend the body over the cellar floor using only the jaws of the workmate protected by some bits of cork!!!!!!  And then rout it!!!!!!!!! 

 

And to my great relief and surprise, it fits...

...and more surprising, it even fits in the right place (14th fret):

 

Happy chappy...until, of course, I get to the next scary bit....   

 

 

[Christine]

1 hour ago, Andyjr1515 said:

And to my great relief and surprise, it fits...

 

 

You lying sod You knew damn well that was going to fit before you switched the router on

Looking very good

[Daz39]

You could put some pillows on the floor below the workmate gap?

[Andyjr1515]

50 minutes ago, Daz39 said:

You could put some pillows on the floor below the workmate gap?

A rolled up old bath sheet towel to be  accurate

[Andyjr1515]

2 hours ago, Christine said:

You lying sod You knew damn well that was going to fit before you switched the router on

I hope, but I never expect

[Andyjr1515]

There are many parts of an acoustic build where it is better to take things slowly than rush.  None more so than fitting the neck.

And it's getting there - although is still a way off.

One important task is to relieve the joint area of as much wood as you can while retaining the main contact areas:

 

This lowers by a touch the insanity brought on by hours of 'flossing' a rock maple and ebony jointing surface:

 

And it's getting there, although a number of hours left to do.

 

The joint is starting to get close to the required gapless joint all round...

 

And the vertical angle is close to OK with the straight edge just touching the top of the saddle-less bridge...

 

...but the side-to-side is still off:

 

The challenge is correcting this without making the other two factors worse

Perfect job to do while watching the Grand Prix this afternoon

 

 

 

[Andyjr1515]

Frets are in.  Next step is to add some blue Luminlay dots on the side before gluing it to the neck.  But still time for a quick mockup

[Andyjr1515]

I know there are cheaper alternatives, but I love Luminlay.  It is SO easy to fit.

I do recommend use of a good quality bradpoint drill (I use the Fisch ones from Axminster) but it's basically:

• Measure and mark the centre with a sharp centre punch
• Drill 3mm or so depth
• Check the stick goes in OK
• Pop a drop of CA on the end
• Push it into the hole

• Cut flush with a razor saw
• Sand the edge

Less than an hour in total and here we are:

 

Final job is filling the tang slots and it's ready to fit to the neck

 

 

[Geek99]

Can you stop doing all this so f ucking perfectly? I want to see pics where the chisel slipped, where you misread 3mm as 30mm and drilled a huge hole through the finger board making the truss rod embed itself in the wall, probably quivering slightly through its suddenly unleashed energy like a bad cartoon arrow 

grrr 

[Andyjr1515]

15 minutes ago, Geek99 said:

Can you stop doing all this so f ucking perfectly? I want to see pics where the chisel slipped, where you misread 3mm as 30mm and drilled a huge hole through the finger board making the truss rod embed itself in the wall, probably quivering slightly through its suddenly unleashed energy like a bad cartoon arrow 

grrr 

I most humbly apologise 

Maybe would it help for me to disclose that, because this was a reused neck blank, and because I started making the acoustic before deciding to give it to Matt, and when I started making it, I was aiming for a 42mm nut and the neck blank JUST fit, but then when I talked to Matt, he plays a 43mm nut to get a 37mm string spacing and so, actually, the fretboard overhangs the neck in places by almost 1mm each side and I am banking on the radius of the neck carve being tight enough in those places for the fretboard edges to be angled enough for the fretboard to merge into the neck and if it doesn't I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do and that worries me a bit and when things worry me a bit I start writing impossibly long sentences that make most readers give up half way through and, now I think about it, MrsAndyjr1515 muttered about doing much the same during what she describes as the tortuous forty years we've been together and that she regards THAT as the true meaning of a long sentence.   

  

[Geek99]

thanks - I've seen imperfections now and I feel a whole lot better.

You should get her a bunch of flowers. Today

[Daz39]

40 minutes ago, Geek99 said:

thanks - I've seen imperfections now and I feel a whole lot better.

You should get her a bunch of flowers. Today

*next door reports missing flowers*

Although - if Andyjr purchased a nice bunch of flowers, by the time he got them home he'd have repurposed some twigs into a tree sculpture featuring volute to display the flowers on - and hand trimmed the petals into swifts.

You've done this before for your lovely Wife, right? 

[Andyjr1515]

2 hours ago, Geek99 said:

thanks - I've seen imperfections now and I feel a whole lot better.

Yes - I think imperfection is probably the term MrsAndyjr1515 would also use.  Early in our marriage, I wrote her a short love poem:

 

"Completely, was I floored

When she struck me with the sword

Of how completely, I was flawed...."

 

[Geek99]

Ok forget the flowers, it’s a lost cause 

[SpondonBassed]

8 hours ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Maybe would it help for me to disclose that, because this was a reused neck blank, and because I started making the acoustic before deciding to give it to Matt, and when I started making it, I was aiming for a 42mm nut and the neck blank JUST fit, but then when I talked to Matt, he plays a 43mm nut to get a 37mm string spacing and so, actually, the fretboard overhangs the neck in places by almost 1mm each side and I am banking on the radius of the neck carve being tight enough in those places for the fretboard edges to be angled enough for the fretboard to merge into the neck and if it doesn't I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do and that worries me a bit and when things worry me a bit I start writing impossibly long sentences that make most readers give up half way through and, now I think about it, MrsAndyjr1515 muttered about doing much the same during what she describes as the tortuous forty years we've been together and that she regards THAT as the true meaning of a long sentence.   

Calm down and breath into this brown paper bag.  I promise it's not one of the ones that Ringo farted in.

[SpondonBassed]

7 hours ago, Daz39 said:

Although - if Andyjr purchased a nice bunch of flowers, by the time he got them home he'd have repurposed some twigs into a tree sculpture featuring volute to display the flowers on - and hand trimmed the petals into swifts.

If I haven't mentioned before... I do like a good volute.

[Geek99]

20 minutes ago, SpondonBassed said:

If I haven't mentioned before... I do like a good volute.

You sound like Jeremy f ucking Corbyn