Building a classical guitar

[Phillip Patton]

Howdy folks,
Well, I'm thrilled that they finally created a subforum for this sort of thing, though I guess it's old news now. Some pretty interesting stuff you guys have posted here. I thought I'd share some pictures (and text, if I have the time) of my current non-knife related project.

For those of you who haven't read any of my past guitar builds, I got into luthiery a couple years ago as a distraction from knife making. Boy is it working. I've finished 10 guitars, and almost done with my 11th, which is this one. It's a nylon string classical, to replace my best one which I sold a couple weeks ago.

I'm using osage orange (which grew in my backyard) for the back and sides, and the soundboard is Sitka spruce. The neck is mahogany, and the binding is curly maple. The bridge, fretboard, and rosette are desert ironwood.

This isn't going to be a real in depth thread, because I don't have the time right now, but hopefully some will find it interesting or helpful.

One of the first things I do is the rosette. This one is what’s called a radial rosette. It’s made by cutting a bunch of wedges of wood (desert ironwood burl, in this case), and gluing them to a sacrificial board with some black strips in between:



Then a router with a circle cutting jig is used to make it round on the inside and out:






Now the ring is cut free of the board:




Now the channel is routed out on the soundboard:


And the ring is glued in:

[Phillip Patton]

Next, the main ring is sanded flat:




Now there are two rings (called purflings) that go around the inside and outside of the main one. These are white and black laminated veneers:



As you can see, it’s straight. So, I have to bend it. I used my bending iron, which is heated with a propane torch:





I didn’t get pictures of routing out the channels, or bending, but here’s the purflings in their channels:





Now the purflings are flooded with Crazy glue:





After the glue is hard, the extra is carefully trimmed off with a chisel:





Then it’s all sanded flat:





Now it’s ready for bracing. The figure of this will really pop when finish is applied.

[stevewest]

Phil - I really enjoy your WIPs - both knives and the guitars. The craftsmanship shown in the guitar threads is way up there. I can hardly wait to see what the osage orange looks like - you must have a heck of a big piece to book match the back!

[mete]

Beautiful ! Now I'd like to hear the final sound of my favorite classical guitar music.

[fast14riot]

Amazing work! Your attention to detail is second to none. I wish I could play guitar, been on a waiting list for private lessons for almost a year now.

Looking forward to seeing this progress.


-Xander

[Phillip Patton]

Phil - I really enjoy your WIPs - both knives and the guitars. The craftsmanship shown in the guitar threads is way up there. I can hardly wait to see what the osage orange looks like - you must have a heck of a big piece to book match the back!

Thanks!
Yep, I have some big logs. I put an ad in the paper asking for large osage logs, and got some good ones that way. This classical is a pretty small guitar, but I have pieces big enough for a dreadnought.

Amazing work! Your attention to detail is second to none. I wish I could play guitar, been on a waiting list for private lessons for almost a year now.

Looking forward to seeing this progress.


-Xander

Who are you going to get lessons from? Anyone famous?

This guitar is most of the way done, I'm just behind on posting. Right now it's hanging in my closet.

[Phillip Patton]

So, here's some more pics.

The bracing:






Gluing the top to the sides in my new go bar deck:




My label:




Putting on the binding and purfling:

[Phillip Patton]

[Phillip Patton]

The bridge:









Spraying:

[Phillip Patton]

The neck/fretboard:













And that's all the pictures I have for now. In a week or two, if the lacquer is hard enough, then I'll finish it.

[John G]

Beautiful work so far. I'll be following this thread to see you finish the project!

[The Warrior]

Incredible craftsmanship my friend.

[Phillip Patton]

Thanks fellas!

Here's some more pics. Yesterday I "finished the finish". I used an orbital sander with 400 grit to level the lacquer, then 1000 grit to remove those scratches. I usually go higher, but decided to quit there and see how it looks. It's not too bad. If this were for a customer, I'd put more time into it, but this is for me, so I'm stopping there.

Then it gets buffed to a mirror shine.

Then the bridge is glued on. The bridge I showed earlier was desert ironwood, but I decided to make one out of rosewood for a couple reasons. One, DI is too heavy for a classical bridge, and two, I made the saddle slot too close to the edge, and I'm afraid it might split there.

I used to use deep c-clamps to glue the bridge one, but now I use a vacuum clamp, which is soooo nice:



The way it works is, you apply glue to the bridge, put it in place (a masking tape border is used to make sure it doesn't shift around) put the clamp on for 10 minutes, clean up the glue squeeze-out, then put the clamp back on for 20 minutes.

[Phillip Patton]

Now I've got the neck bolted on:




the (bone) saddle made:




and the nut (also bone) made:




That's all I can do until the tuners arrive Friday.

[Zanuha]

I want to see the rest of this. Looking great.

[mete]

How do you use the fig bars for finishing ??

[Phillip Patton]

How do you use the fig bars for finishing ??

They're the fuel that keeps the builder running.

[proud2deviate]

Fantastic work so far You have some skills, sir.

[Phillip Patton]

Fantastic work so far You have some skills, sir.

Thanks! I do have a stupid streak though, which you'll see in the next round of photos...

[Phillip Patton]

OK, here's the semi-final batch of pictures. I need to find some good lighting to take some glamor shots, but here's some of installing the tuners and stringing it up.

First tuner:



Both tuners:



Now, I put the tuners on the wrong sides. In my defence, I looked, and one was marked "L", which I took to mean "left", and one was marked "R", which I took to mean "right". Sounds logical, right? Well, I installed the one marked "L" on the left, and the one marked "R" on the right, and it was obviously wrong. So I took them off and put them on correctly. Now there's a couple screw holes to fill.




The strings:





Putting them on:








Then action is too high, so I'll have to adjust the neck angle, but that was expected. I'll let it settle in for a couple weeks before I do that.

They say you shouldn't judge the sound of a guitar right away, because things will change over time, but it does seem better than my previous classicals. It's louder, and the trebles and bass are more balanced.