Guitar WIP

James_Terrio said:
Wow, you're not messing around... nice work on the truss rod. Are you going to slot your own fret-board or buy a pre-cut one?
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I'm going to make my own fretboard, probably out of osage orange.


Here I'm making the headstock veneer and glueing it to the headstock. I was able to get 5 pieces of veneer out of one piece of osage orange burl.

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Phillip Patton said:
You're welcome!Don't worry, I won't make THAT mistake again. :eek:

The cuts are all healed up now. No scarring. :thumbup:
BTW, did you and your dad enjoy your camping trip?
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Good! And our camping trip was really pleasant to sit back with no real schedule. Then it got boring on the last couple days.

You should probably build the guitar in a humidity controlled environment, because acoustics are sensitive to too dry or too moist conditions. (said in a PM but thought I'd say it here for anyone else who might try this project)
 
This is the bridge blank and bridge plate:

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This is the finger board blank:

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And this is the bending iron, which I made today:

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Here are a few pieces of osage orange which I cut for practicing with the bending iron:

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I sanded the saw marks off or one of them and soaked it for about 20 minutes:

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After bending:


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I wasn't going for any particular shape, just trying to get a feel for it. I didn't burn or crack it, so I think it went well. :thumbup:
 
Is there ammonia in the water? Wetting wood with ammonia water always seemed to help it bend more in my experience. Nicely done! I'm teaching myself to play classical guitar with a goal of learning flamenco. I'll probably build myself a guitar one day also so I'm really digging following you along. :)
 
Bobby Branton said:
Looking good Phillip
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Thanks! Feel free to post some pics of yours.

Will Leavitt said:
Is there ammonia in the water? Wetting wood with ammonia water always seemed to help it bend more in my experience. Nicely done! I'm teaching myself to play classical guitar with a goal of learning flamenco. I'll probably build myself a guitar one day also so I'm really digging following you along. :)
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Ammonia, huh? I might try that, as long as it doesn't affect the color any.

Classical guitar is my mine area of interest, though I find most of "classical" repertoire to be boring. When I grow up I want to be like this guy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTwfTMBB-H0


Tomorrow I'll be getting the wood for the sides and back cut. I'll be taking pics and video. Those portable sawmills are a thing of beauty to watch. :cool:
 
HURRY UP GEEZE. Like playing cards with my brothers kids :D

Can't believe your rocking along as fast as you are. Lookin good.
 
Phillip, that's an awesome kid! heck, he's just awesome. A good friend of mine, Ziggy Luis, tells me to practice at least an hour a day. He's the best guitarist I've seen in person, used to be signed but left it all to stay home when his wife got pregnant. He made her a promise to be home every morning and he's kept it for the last 17 years. He only plays gigs if he can make it home. Very successful just playing in the area. My favorite part of his gigs is when he's just talking, he'll play flamenco out of habit while talking to his band or yelling for a shot and a beer (Cuervo and Bud, his sponsors.)

My practice routine is 20-30 minutes in the morning while I smoke on the porch, scale drills while concentrating on technique. When I get home I practice playing music. I'm doing it the hard way, learning to sight read. I guess the only thing that helps me is that I spent most of my years in school in choir (lots of girls :) ) so I understand reading music although I can't quite pitch my voice to the notes anymore :p

My goal for guitar is similar to my knives and archery, I wasn't happy until I took a deer with a bow I made and cleaned it with a knife I made, so one day I plan on playing a guitar I made.

Playing guitar is a lot like knifemaking, it's the journey and not the destination.
 
Here's the guitar I built from Grizzly's kit. I used Minwax Red Mahogany stain.


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Last night I did go and get my osage orange logs milled up. Here's some pics, and a link to my first youtube upload ever:

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syx43zRT0q8

Youtube seems to have added a lot of "white noise" to the video. Anybody know how to prevent that?

I haven't looked over the resulting stock yet, but I think I got enough usable material for at least 20 guitars.
 
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Here's a picture of one of my cats, who loves to sleep in the watering can.

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Neat! Did you rent that portable mill or just take the wood to someone to cut it? I'm impressed with the quality of the cuts. The thin pieces look great!
 
Phillip, how does that Grizzly guitar sound? I'm seriously thinking about making one to get a feel for being a luthier lol and another reason to start buying some tools. :)
 
Edro20 said:
Neat! Did you rent that portable mill or just take the wood to someone to cut it? I'm impressed with the quality of the cuts. The thin pieces look great!
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I know someone who owns one, and he charges $75 an hour to operate it. It took just a little over one hour of machine time to saw all this. Well worth it. :cool:
Now I just wish I had a drum sander and/or a planer.


Will Leavitt said:
Phillip, how does that Grizzly guitar sound? I'm seriously thinking about making one to get a feel for being a luthier lol and another reason to start buying some tools. :)
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It sounds a lot better then the first one I got, which was a $25 made in China POC from ebay. The G string on the Grizzly sounds off for some reason. Kind of an irritating twangy sound. It's probably the string, not the guitar.

I think the top is solid, but I suspect the back and/or sides are plywood. So I'm really looking forward to finishing this project, because it is probably the first guitar I'll have played that is all solid wood.

I've done some research and discovered that osage orange is almost identical to rosewood acoustically. :thumbup:
 
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