Finished! A Guitar Bouzouki - (no basses were harmed in the...)

[benh]

51 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said:

There are some great kits about and it's a great, great way of starting to understand the geometry and what matters and what doesn't matter for both solids and acoustics.  And I mean, if you're talking acoustic...Martin do some superb kits...

I think I would be rather out of my depth with an acoustic, in kit form or otherwise! Sorry for the thread derail @Andyjr1515, looking forward to seeing the next steps.

[Andyjr1515]

27 minutes ago, benh said:

I think I would be rather out of my depth with an acoustic, in kit form or otherwise! Sorry for the thread derail @Andyjr1515, looking forward to seeing the next steps.

No problem.  There are some excellent bass and electric solid body kits on the market - and some at unbelievable value for money (have a look at the Gear4Music ones!)

And onwards...to the next scary bit, the end graft rout.

This required again the body to be suspended over the concrete floor clamped by the modified workmate - this time to be routed with my Dremel:

From the offcut of the fretboard, I have been able to slice a thin strip that will contrast with the back woods, but key in with the fretboard.  It's generally best to avoid too many different species so we have:

Red Gum Walnut: Back, Sides, Rosette, Headstock plate

Spruce: Top

Macassar or lookalike (ie, the bindings): Fretboard, bindings; end graft

Should all coordinate nicely.  I'll decide whether the heel plate would be better in macassar or Red Gum Walnut when the rest is sorted

Anyway - the above slot had to be cut at this stage, but the end graft can't actually be fitted yet.  But eventually it will link into the binding feature lines with its own lines something like at the top left corner here:

 

 

 

 

[Andyjr1515]

Normal stuff - happy to show what I do and why...but don't assume this is the way it should be done

Binding.  The problem I have with wood binding is that - even when it is bent to shape (which mine always is) it is very stiff and it is very springy.  So the traditional way is glue it - tape it tightly - wrap the whole body very, very tightly with a fabric strip or bicycle inner tube like an Egyptian mummy.  Then leave it overnight for the glue to fully dry

And usually - in my experience - when you unwrap it the next day there are gaps.  And you burst into a rage and jump on the almost complete body until it is a pile of matchsticks and start everything all over again. 

And, folks, life is just too short for that.

So what I have done the last three or four builds is iron on the bindings - in the same way that I iron on veneer.

Basically,

- I use Evostick 'Resin 'W' PVA wood glue:

- I put an even coat on both the binding AND the binding channel

- I let it dry.  (30 mins or so)

- I then get a hot dry iron (I use an old heatshrink iron but any iron will do) and iron it on. (I forgot to take a photo while I was doing it but hopefully you get the idea):

- the heat melts both layers of PVA which merges and when it cools holds the components tight.  It's repeatable so if there's a gap, I just heat it up again, hold the joint tight with my gloved hand for a few seconds and it is done

And here it is...done, ready for final sanding:

No tantrums.  No firewood.  Not the way the books say to do it - but it works for me! 

 

 

[SpondonBassed]

It was bound to happen.

[Andyjr1515]

A quick look out of the window to remind myself what swifts look like as they scream round the house before they go off in the next few days back to Africa:

That's strange...that looks like woodgrain in the sky!!

Oh - hang on...let me just invert it...

So guess what I'm going to be doing over this weekend

 

[SpondonBassed]

This is where some unscrupulous members of the forum might have posted a clip of Peter Griffin doing The Bird is the Word.

Thankfully, you have been spared.

 

[Stub Mandrel]

Have no fear!

 

[SpondonBassed]

Oops.

[Andyjr1515]

24 minutes ago, SpondonBassed said:

Oops.

Now look what you've done...

[GisserD]

this thread has awoken my build gland. great work!!!

[SpondonBassed]

53 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Now look what you've done...

It was Stubzy... you all saw it.

[Andyjr1515]

And so it starts with pencilling around the shape and routing with the Dremel in its precision router base:

 

Then some diagonals, parallels and perpendiculars to mark the centre-points of the other dots:

 

And then the key dots routed for a set of diamonds:

And glued using 30 minute epoxy mixed with the sanding dust from the fretboard which will glue them and invisibly fill any gaps, including the diamond cross-cuts:

And so later on, I will be able to sand these flush and that will mean that, soon, I can start tapering and fretting the board

 

But before I put the Dremel away, there are three more swifts to rout for - the heel end cap (1) and the headstock plate (2).  In both cases, I will rout the chambers before I cut out the components shapes so I have a larger surface for the precision router base to work from.

 

[Andyjr1515]

1 hour ago, Andyjr1515 said:

But before I put the Dremel away, there are three more swifts to rout for - the heel end cap (1) and the headstock plate (2).  In both cases, I will rout the chambers before I cut out the components shapes so I have a larger surface for the precision router base to work from

Done.  Time for a cuppa, I reckon.  Been on with this most of the day

[SpondonBassed]

I've been assembling these:

Spoiler

Do you think I should do a build thread?

[Stub Mandrel]

4 hours ago, SpondonBassed said:

It was Stubzy... you all saw it.

 

The Spondz made me do it!

17 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Done.  Time for a cuppa, I reckon.  Been on with this most of the day

That's your favourite bit, isn't it?

[SpondonBassed]

32 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

The Spondz made me do it!

Like you needed your arm twisting...  pfft

[Stub Mandrel]

19 minutes ago, SpondonBassed said:

Like you needed your arm twisting...  pfft

I've never even watched Family Guy. I thought Peter Griffin was the leader of the BNP until I you posted that stupid video!

[SpondonBassed]

6 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

I've never even watched Family Guy

[Andyjr1515]

I'm pleased with this.

[SpondonBassed]

I wasn't sure what you meant by "diamond cuts".  They really set the shape off.

[Andyjr1515]

The frets were de-tanged at either end, ensuring that none of the tang metal was proud of the un-bound fretboard.  As usual, I fitted the frets with a teeny thread of titebond, hammered in and then clamped with the 12" radius block:

 

The frets force the fretboard into a mild curve and so, to sand down the fret ends to the exact overhang, I first clamped it to a straight edge beam, with the fret ends clear for sanding:

Then I could turn the whole assembly round 90 degrees and sand all of the fret-ends straight and accurately along my long sanding beam:

This made it quite easy to get the fret overhang even along the whole length and accurate to 10th of a millimetre.

I repeated for the other side and then rounded all of the fret ends.  So now, if my calcs are correct, I should have the target width of fret, and the binding less than 0.5mm deeper than the overhang - which they are and which it is  :

 

So now I just need to plane the top of the binding so that the bottom feature line is flush with the bottom of the fretboard.  And then glue the bindings on each side:

So tomorrow, I should have:

- a silky smooth set of fret ends

- a teeny binding overhang to round off

- a trio of feature lines to set it off against the maple neck

Fingers crossed!  

 

 

[Andyjr1515]

Yes - I think that is OK.  Phew!

Clearly, the fretboard will be eventually properly finished and the binding will be rounded - which I will do once the neck is carved.  But you can see the overhang of the binding here (which will slim just a touch when they are rounded off) which should mean that sharp fret-ends won't happen even as the neck and fretboard ages.

 

The demarcation stripes should  also show up nicely once the neck is carved:

 

Oh...and, of course, the obligatory mock-up

[Andyjr1515]

There are relatively few steps left before I can start the finishing process...but most of these final steps will tend to take a proportionately longer time because there will be lots and lots of accurate measuring involved, trial and error assembly and disassembly, etc..

And none more so than fitting the neck.

I'm going to break from convention for the neck fitting.  My preferred method is mortice and tenon with sturdy bolts and threaded inserts, which is also what I will be doing here (I did succeed in one build with a dovetail joint but can't afford the post-trauma psychiatrist bills again!) :

But I have found - on my own OM and a dreadnought I built for a fellow band member that over time the bolts slacken.  It's an easy thing to fix - just a quick nip up with an allen key - but I don't want that to happen to an instrument that is a few hundred miles away.  I think that it is that the mahogany - great quality and lightweight from David Dyke - simply compresses a teeny bit over time and temperature change and, eventually, this lessens the friction on the machine screw head.

So what I now do is do everything in the conventional way with a bolt-on - up to and including finishing and a fully strung-up test of the action, intonation, etc, and then as a final step, take the neck off, add some wood glue to the joint and re-bolt.

And so what about if in the distant future it ever needed a neck re-set?  Well, see the heel?  I will drill a small hole from here into a small chamber at the joint to allow a luthier to use their steam needle (that's what they use to remove set necks) to be able to insert it to soften the glue.  Normally, a luthier would have to remove the fretboard for access to the joint (that's what they do to fix a Gibson Les Paul and SG set neck), but providing access here, all that needs taking off will be the heel end cap:

And the flaw in the scheme?  Well, as far as I know, no-one else provides this facility and, as a neck reset is only usually needed after around 30 years or so hard playing - and even then rarely needed - then P will have forgotten that this facility exists and almost certainly I won't be around to remind him 

Anyway - next task is getting the neck joint accurate and at the correct up/down and side/side angles.

It's a shame that it is needed because, as a roughcut-straight-off-the-router, this is the best fit I've ever achieved(and it's just as close a fit the other side)  :

And is it needed?

Well, it would be most unusual if it wasn't.  I have found that the best way is to use a carbon stiffening rod - they are dead straight - to line up along the frets and centre-line of the fretboard.  You can see here that the left right angle needs a tweak (a very small tweak in the angle at the heel makes a BIG difference at the bridge):

And now I have the actual fretboard with the actual frets in place, I can fine-tune the up/down angle - which needs a small adjustment to end up with the bottom of the rod flush with the top of the bridge:

 

So that's the next job

 

 

 

 

[Andyjr1515]

Well, that went better than I expected!

With a decent fit of the heel to the body (final action will be to 'floss' the neck/body join with emery to end up with a perfect join), the neck is now in line with the body:

And the carbon rod is at the same height as the bridge

 

[Frank Blank]

It’s details like this that make @Andyjr1515’s builds absolute class.