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DIY: Acoustic 7 string build "Gloria" (lots of pics)

38K views 180 replies 53 participants last post by  James 
#1 ·
Well, this will be a bit different from my usual build pic-stories. Aside from it being my first acoustic build, I'm going to post the pictures more closely to real-time rather than all at once at the end when it's finished. I've barely gotten into the build and already have over 60 pictures. Posting the entire build at one time would probably be way too much (and a lot of writing for me as well). So, why is it named Gloria? Glad you asked…

A co-worker friend, who is also a woodworker and musician, said he was cleaning shop and found some Cherry that had been cut from a tree that came down in hurricane Gloria. He said, "It's yours if you want it. I've had it this long and not done anything with it. You'll put it to better use than me." I was quite flattered, but wasn't sure what I could build that would have some meaning. He had been holding these boards for so long; waiting for a cool project. Then, while looking through some boxes of books I found the Cumpiano/Natelson book "Guitarmaking: Tradition and Technology" I got for Christmas the other year. That was it! I'll build an acoustic from the Cherry! So, I acquired some spruce for the top and bracing, and ebony for the fingerboard and got started…


It's not the clearest board, but I think there's enough to work with…



The board was a little warped so I used a hand plane to flatten one side and found this hole.


Maybe the other side is better…


Whew! Looks ok. I finished flattening with a #7 jointer plane and finished up with a smoothing plane.


Cut the board as wide as possible and squared up the edges…


…used a marking gauge to define the cut line…


…and started cutting,


and kept cutting.


I don't remember the last time my arms hurt so much! It took about 45-60 minutes to do that single cut. At least I stayed right on the line. Woo hoo! One down, one to go. Although, it does feel a bit thin in the middle…


FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF……

Ok, maybe that wasn't the right saw for the job. I'll make a frame saw, yeah, that's the right tool for the job…


Ugh…it works, kinda. It's the right type blade, but not so fast. So I used both saws and eventually cut two pieces for the back.


I told myself that would be the last time I re-saw a hardwood board that wide using a hand saw. It's hellish hard, sweaty work.


Time to do something other than sawing, like make the template and work board from the book. First, draw the template, then cut it out of pressed hardboard (masonite).


The work board is two 3/4" thick pieces of plywood glued together, cut to a little bit larger than the template and with extensions for better work holding.


Then a cork edging is made and attached to a piece of construction paper (not the work board itself). This is used to raise the edge of the plates to create the arch…if I remember correctly.


Time to start the neck.


I made a quick neck template to try and best utilize the board.



Glued and clamped, clamped, clamped!


Out of the clamps…


How about a wax-coated block of ebony to start the fingerboard?


I used a metal card scraper to remove the wax (sorry, no picture of that mess) then used the band saw to cut off the fingerboard slice.


Block plane to square it up…



…and a jack plane to level it.


This isn't the way I usually cut fret slots, but I thought it would be easier with a flat top. I was wrong. Regardless, here is how I did (and will not do again). Double stick tape is great, and if you can deal with the smell, so is spray glue.


Fret slots are cut to depth and an alignment block keeps the blade on track.


Fingerboard cut to width with a handsaw because I was concerned the band saw would have been too rough on the brittle ebony edge.


Edge is fine tuned with a jack plane on the shooting board.


Then I spent about 30 minutes trying to peel off the damn paper before trying naptha; done two minutes later.


Fingerboard radiused with sandpaper and block…


Fret slots are re-cut using the radius block as a guide and a depth stop made from piece of wood attached to the saw blade with double sided tape. This is how I prefer to cut fret slots and should have done in the first place.



Alright, time to try re-sawing by hand again. This time it's Spruce, which is way softer than Cherry, so it should be a lot easier.


The board only needed a little flattening, and then smoothing. I was really excited to watch this board clean up.


Ok, time to re-saw, mark the lines, start the cut, going well, much easier than the Cherry…


WTF!?!?!?!? !!#$%%@#%%^#$^%&($%!@! The hell with this!!!

(One week later)




Holy shit is this thing awesome! I was so excited that I forgot to take pictures of the boards after re-sawing. So, here the back and front plates are being glued up…(yay…more pictures of watching glue dry)




While the glue cured, I went back to work on the neck. Cutting it to length…


…and squaring it up with a block plane. A sharp blade is mandatory for getting clean end grain shavings.


Routed the truss rod…


…and cleaned out the end to allow the truss rod to pass through.


Laid out and cut the tenon cheeks.



Then glued thin strips of maple, with its grain perpendicular to the neck grain, on the sides of the tenon to provide some reinforcement against the barrel bolt pulling through the end grain. Glue bear looks on with approval.


Bolt holes are drilled in the tenon.


Neck side profile is drawn…


…then cut using the band saw.


The head is flattened and squared with a block plane.


To cut the neck and head to width/shape, it is attached to the cut away part with double sided tape…



…then cut out at the band saw. Tuner holes were also drilled.



The heel profile is drawn using the band saw throat plate (it was handy).


On of the heel side "ramps" is cut using a chisel and plane…


…but I found it quicker, and more accurate to use a saw.


I made a template for the heel curve out of this maple…


…and traced it on to both sides of the heel face.


Then used a rasp and mini-spoke shave to shape it.


The neck profile is rough-shaped with a spoke shave.



And finally, I got back to the working on the plates. Here they are cut to shape…



…and planed to thickness.



That's where it is as of last night. Lots of pictures, and it didn't start looking like a guitar until way at the end! Hopefully you've found it interesting! The pics will be posted in real time (within a day or two) from here on out.
 
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#31 ·
Got the bracing plan and spruce billet at the ready. The grain looks pretty straight.


Although it's not dead-on-perfect-vertical quarter sawn.


Take a paring chisel and line it between grain lines…


…and give it a wack with a mallet. It's looking ok so far…


…hmm…never mind.


Splitting from the other end of the board worked a little better.


Much better!




Got all the bracing strips split out!


Now I have to plane them square and to dimension…this could take a while...
 
#34 ·
:lol: Yeah...kinda. I did use the band saw to resaw the original billet, but brace stock is best when it is split from the billet. Because the grain isn't perfectly vertical, and the split edges are a bit wonky, the best and quickest tool for me to square up the pieces properly is a hand plane.

A new band saw was something I'd been wanting for quite a while. Re-sawing the cherry and spruce by hand with less than good results was the last straw. Also, I don't have as much shop time as I used to, so the band saw has been a huge time saver. I've already used it for a lot of stuff aside from this build.
 
#39 ·
Good point, but it's my first acoustic build so I won't be selling it. Definitely something to keep in mind if I do ever decide to build one for sale.

Sorry about the lack of update, but pictures of stuff being clamped together is rarely exciting, so let's just skip to the final picture. The soundboard bracing has been installed and carved to profile using a chisel, block and palm planes.


Next up is preparing the sides. They've been re-sawn, cut to width and length and are now planed to thickness. A sharp plane blade is a wonderful thing.


The boards are then soaked in water for 30 minutes…


…the bending iron is clamped to the bench, warmed up and the bending begins. Keep a spray bottle nearby to keep the wood damp so it doesn't burn.


I prefer to use the underside of the pipe because it seems like as the water steams out at the bottom of the bend, it also flows down the sides and keeps the bottom wetter for longer. Also note the gloves and glasses. Hot pipe is hot and steam into the eyes is not fun.


Holding the board to shape, or slightly over-bent, while it cools…


…then checking it against the template.


Shop dog is not impressed.
 
#43 ·
Thanks everyone! Sorry the updates have not been more often. Life...yadda, yadda, yadda..

Letting the sides sit aside, un-restrained, was not a good idea.


Dampened/soaked the sides, bent them slightly back to shape and taped/clamped them to the templates.


While making the head block, I realized it was a mistake to drill the holes in the neck tenon before the head block because now the holes have to be measured, rather than just drilling through both pieces at one time. Measuring can get close, but drilling both at once assures they are aligned. The holes in the head block were a bit larger to allow for some adjustment.
Something that had me worried, angry, and caused a bit of unnecessary work was the gap between the neck heel and the mortise face of the head block. On the top-side there is a small gap between the heel "tips" and the head block:


On the bottom-side, the gap is larger:


The difference is much more apparent from the side:
.

The tenon depth was the same along the bottom so….WTF??? After screwing with the mortise depth for a while, it dawned on me that the change in gap was because the sloping sides of the heel. At the bottom side, the heel wall is only about 1/8" high, but at the top side it is about 1" high, so the wall slope is more apparent. That's great and all but, the gap still varies when it's put together! AARRGGHHH! Although, it isn't put together with the sides and top…how about a quick mock-up.


When the sides are installed, and the neck is tightened, the neck tilts back slightly, allowing the strings to slope up to the bridge. At least, that is what makes sense to me. So, time glue on the head and heel blocks.

 
#46 ·
Thanks! Having the right tool(s) for the task goes a long way. :D

The sides were cut to align with the neck and tail blocks and a line was drawn on their inside edges for the start and stop points of the kerfing. Pre-made kerfing is quite inexpensive when considering the time involved to make it myself, so I bought it…and have no regrets! How many mini-clamps does it take to install kerfing? 35-40 for each side worked well. Good thing the clamps were only $0.37 each at the local hardware store. A couple of dry runs then it was time to glue 'em up being sure to keep the kerfing flush or slightly above the edge of the side.



The kerfing was sanded flush to the sides where required and, after several dry runs, the first side is clamped to the top. The cork-edged template is beneath the top to provide support for the edge so it does not distort under clamping the clamping force.



The other side is glued up the next day. The pieces across the top helped distribute clamping force.



The shop-bear-supervisor stops by for inspection…


…and tells me to stop slacking and get some work done!
 
#48 ·
Yeah, sorry about that. Our dog (the big bear one) has cancer and it's been a very bad few weeks. The house has been a real shit show, literally. Deanna has been taking her up to Waltham every day for the past week and a half for radiation treatment with one more week to go, so we're hoping for the best. Pet insurance has been a saving grace.

So, not so much the best time for guests. Unless you don't mind the smell of urine and shit. (expect a DIY on installing carpet sometime soon) Although, the shop doesn't smell, and we can always go outside and shoot stuff (airguns).
 
#50 ·
Thanks. It's been a hell of a year. If it weren't for Deanna, we would have lost the pup by now. She's a Veterinary Technician and knows all about the meds, and who to talk to and what questions to ask.

I did manage to get a bit more work done though. It's starting to look like a guitar!


Lots of stuff going on in this next picture. Inside the guitar, the missing kerfing pieces were glued above the ends of the x-bracing and upper main brace. The two long pieces inside are there simply to support the tail block while the sanding board is pushed forward. At the neck block, on the outside, a clamping/support block was made and is thru-bolted and clamped in place to provide support while the sanding board is pushed forward. Then, there is the sanding block; it is a 24"x24" piece of ¾" plywood with 60 grit paper double-stick-taped in place. I thought it would be helpful to leave a little space between the sandpaper sheets to give the sawdust somewhere to go. I was wrong. All it did was allow the paper edge to catch and peel off, tear, crumple and generally misbehave. Next time (did I say next time???) I would place the paper edges tight together.

The upper half-ish of the sides were sloped down to the neck block using a spokeshave and block plane, and then the sanding board was used to level and flatten the sides to match. The sand board was then used to flatten/level/even up the lower half-ish of the sides. Be very careful to keep the lower half horizontal. Pulling the sanding board with one hand and supporting the tail block with the other, while a bit cumbersome and more time consuming than pushing the board, works best to maintain horizontal. It's very easy to accidentally slope the lower half when pushing the board. That's what I did and then had to saw/shave/plane the lower half back to horizontal. Lesson learned.


The inside and outside faces were wiped down with naptha to remove sanding dust, kerfing strips were dry fit and cut to length and then glued in place.


I'm a little past half-way in the book, so, hopefully this means I'm about half-way done!
 
#53 ·
Thanks. The pup has her last three radiation treatments this week. We're hoping this gets us another 6-12 months with her. Back to the build...

Now it's time to inlay the center strip on the back. Using an electric router to cut such a shallow trench didn't have much appeal, so I figured I'd try using the small router plane. The tricky part is there is no guide fence. After a lot of trial runs, I thought I had a good feel for it. First thing, mark the edge lines with a knife.


Then use the small router plane to make short, shallow cuts.


Checking the fit of the inlay…looks good!


A solid hunk of wood is used as a caul to clamp the inlay. The strip is a bit taller than the back so it can be clamped easier, then it will be planed down and scraped flush.


Well…that didn't work so well!


Time to do it the easier and faster way. Lesson learned.


Much better…


The bracing layout is drawn on the back and then the center seam grafts were made and left a bit long so they can be cut back to fit the braces. A straight edge is used to keep the pieces aligned.


The straight edge is removed after the *** clamps are in place.


The back braces were then made to dimension and the arch was cut close to final shape using a plane and the shooting board. Using the shooting board made this process a lot faster.


Many thanks to Adam (Elysian) for leading me to find this next step! It's not a radius bowl, but I think will serve the same purposes. A sanding/clamping caul is made by cutting the back brace radius from a 2x4.




Sandpaper is attached to the curved edge with double-sided tape and the braces are moved back and forth until they match the radius. It's a simple way to assure all of the radiuses are the same.


The sandpaper is removed and it is used as a clamping caul for the back braces!
 
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