Luthiery

Usually I carve on the back first, but this time I started with the top. Now onto the back, and man, is that maple tough compared to the spruce. I cut the outline today, and started removing wood, getting towards the arching.

The silver piece in the upper left is a long arch template. I have my long arch fairly nice now, but it's still 19mm high in the center, so will need to come down a bit, more towards 16 or so.

Buried in the shavings on the upper center-right is a large gouge that I use (after the scrub plane) to remove wood fast.

In the c-bout is my large thumb plane, which actually removes a lot of wood in a hurry, too -- so much so that it actually gets quite warm to the touch.

I spent time today cleaning up the edge and the arching. For the cross-arching, I am using curtate-cycloids, which seem to follow Cremonese arching fairly well and are at the very least a practical concept for the arching. I have the edges down to about 4.5 mm, so once the edges are adequate, I can put the purfling in. First, though, I will get the back to near the same state to get the corresponding edges and overhangs somewhat coherent.

Here are a few tools and some of the tasks I use them for.

This small bench hook has become a necessity for trimming binding and linings, cutting nuts and bridges to length, notching braces and planing small parts.

I use a violin maker’s finger plane and paring chisels to shape braces. The sole of the plane is a little convex in length and width and makes it easy to add a gentle sweep to the shape of  braces.

My bandsaw lives in the garage and this knife has saved me trips to the bandsaw on rainy days or at times when I  prefer to take a little more time and enjoy the quiet while cutting soundboards, backs and sides to profile, slicing spruce for thin braces, cutting strips of veneer, etc.

 

Spent some time this afternoon marking out the top, cutting it, cleaning up the outline, roughly, not to the final, and a little preliminary arching. This is the fun part where lots of wood is quickly removed. This top was last discussed in this blog here.

The is guitar is a chattel with a soul often in part owning its owner and tantalizing him with his lack of perfection.

Carl Sandburg





Snow overnight and into this morning, a wet snow which this part of the country needs, the forest is so parched and dry I expect it to combust on its own. It's warming up right now, snow is falling from the limbs, highs back in the 60's by mid week.



Remember this shot from a post earlier this year? I installed frets that were wider and taller than I wanted and I discovered I did a so-so job on leveling the fret board.





I spent the morning filling in all the chips and divots with Hot Stuff brand cyanoacrylate glue and ebony wood dust. Stew-Mac came to the rescue with tips from their Trade Secrets on fixing chips on a fingerboard and some teflon to create a dam to keep the glue from going into the fret slot. I sure made a mess!




Here is the repair after paring away the glue pile with a chisel and sanding the fret board.




Frets are installed, I just need to do the 19th fret, then I will the frets in place with some more cyanoacrylate glue, again, another tip from Stew-Mac. (I did that on the cedar/maple guitar and I am impressed at how every note on every fret is loud and clear.) Then the frets will get leveled, re-crowned and polished.




I first learned about the great American composer, Charles Ives, from a PBS TV program on him that aired sometime in the late 1970's. I got the chance to research his works more in college and I still can't get enough of his music. I thought you might enjoy a YouTube of Hilary Hahn and Valentina Lisitsa playing the first movement from the Fourth Sonata by Ives.

 

Music I’d Like To Hear #31

 

 

 

 

This old Washburn Mandolin came into the shop suffering from being stored in very dry conditions.  Several braces were loose, the top was separating near the tailpiece, there was a separation in staves of the bowl, the binding and purfling were loose in several places, and several pieces of the lining had come loose.  With a little patient gluing and clamping I managed to get everything solid again.

I wanted to bring the action down a bit. Not wanting to modify the original bridge too much, and possibly going too low, I decided it would be safest to make a reproduction bridge and store the original.

For more photo click here.

Segovia('s)... instrument moans not, neither does it wail. It is at all times nothing more nor less than a transcendently well-played guitar-an honest and affecting sound because it is a beautifully handmade thing, in which the left hand always knows what the right hand is doing. And that, in the last analysis, is the point and purpose of the whole art of the Apollonian twang.

Frederic V. Grunfeld, The Art and Times of the Guitar, 1969


Four hours this morning doing the final rub out on the finish, worth every penny of the labor spent. I discovered that Meguiar's Swirl Remover worked the best for a gloss finish. When I took these photos I could see my reflection in the finish, me holding my camera and the guitar looking back at me.

This guitar started out as a bigleaf maple board that my friend, Leo Weber, gave me for the sole purpose of making something out of it. I re-sawed the board by hand with a Disston D-8 rip saw into the back and sides, the top I scavenged from a old pile of hand split cedar shakes that I found some where near the slopes of Lassen Peak and Brokeoff Mountain in northeastern California. The rosette is from manzanita burl that I harvested on my grand parents property, the rest is wood that was purchased from LMII: Spanish cedar neck, West African ebony fingerboard, bindings and bridge, it's outfitter with Sloane tuners and right now it has light tension LaBella 2001 strings on it.

Thanks, Leo.









Here's a YouTube of Sharon Isbin being amazing as always!

A little progress on the scroll.  Cut out on the band saw.  Mostl of the initial shaping done with rasp and gouge.  Drilled the string holes.


Roughing out the interior of the pegbox.  This goes fairly quick, but it is a work-out.  I still need to clean up the edges.  Lots of curl in this wood, which means it's very easy to get tear-out where you don't want it - which means I have to resharpen tools before finishing up.  But another day, I need to get back to repair work.


Following, or trying to follow, a scheme by Joseph Grubaugh and Sigrun Seifert for the Brothers Amati Scroll (Strad magazine, March 2006).  I'm not sure that I am interpreting the transition from flat paper to curved surface correctly, but am plunging onward.


A bit of work to cut out the sides of the pegbox and the first turn in the scroll.  This highly figured wood really likes to tear out -- lots of work with the rasp!

I enjoy listening to opera at home, occasionally, but I would much rather see it than just listen to it.

Sam Waterston

I've been in love with Cecilia Bartoli ever since I heard an interview with her on National Public Radio back in 1990 when I was working and living at Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site. To me she is the most amazing mezzo soprano in the world today. I love her voice and what she can do with it.

I wanted to share this YouTube not only for her voice but for the pine trees that are in this video. Wow, I have no idea where this was shot but these trees rival some the old growth ponderosa and western white pine in Lassen Volcanic and Yosemite National Parks in California! The trees in the video are massive and so very beautiful. If you truly are a woodworker or a lover of all things good in the world, watch the first 45 seconds of this video for some wonderful trees and a most magnificent voice. Enjoy! I'll post soon a video of Viktor van Niekirk playing the ten string classic guitar!

I caution against communication because once language exists only to convey information, it is dying.

Richard Hugo, The Triggering Town, 1979



Harney/Lastoka Barn, Milking Parlor and Milk House


I am always amazed at how my mind will subconsciously adjust my hand, my wrist, my elbow, my shoulder and the angle of attack and velocity of the hammer that I am swinging so I can redirect a nail that bends and drive it home. My eye sees the problem, mind corrects the body (if you are aware enough to allow it) so success can be achieved. It is such a little thing and yet so wonderfully elegant how our minds can direct the here and now.




The part of the building to the left is what is left of a mule barn that was associated with the Rex #1 coal mine that operated at this site from 1898 to 1917. We built new rafters for the barn and installed engineered trusses for the milking parlor and this week will put up the trusses on the milk house.


The mule barn would be behind the building to the right in this photo. There is a chicken coop that houses over 100 chickens right next to the shaft house!

I haven't found out when the Harneys bought the place, the Lastokas were the last to own the site and probably built the milking parlor and the milk house. Will and I are restoring the building to its previous run down character, the roof is to protect the building until Boulder County makes a decision on a future use for the site.



The casualty of working at carpentry-a broken thumbnail and a nasty cut. The music must go on!

 

 

 

 

This Rickenbacker came into the shop having had its bridge replaced with a later adjustable bridge, a rough replacement pickguard installed, and the wiring altered.  The original tailpiece had been cut down to accept the new bridge but by a stroke of luck there was a bridge from 1965 420 for sale on Ebay.  Fitting the bridge required redrilling a recess in the body which had been filed previously.  The tricky part was cutting a pickguard to match the original.  The shape and controls were a close match for the original but the cutouts for pickup and bridge had to be carefully reconstructed.

 

...since guitars were invented, those who devote themselves to a study of the vihuela are small in number. It has been a great loss, as all kinds of plucked music could be played on it: but now the guitar is no more than a cowbell, so easy to play especially rasgueado, there is not a stable lad who is not a musician on the guitar.

Don Sebastian de Covarrubias Orozco, Tesoro de la Lengua Castellana, o Espanola, 1611



Tools used by a master Spanish Luthier. From Guitar Review no. 28, 1965

Rob Reid of www.classicalguitartraining.com asked me if I would do a part 2 to a "Basic Handtool Kit for Guitar Making".

I've thought about it some and after looking at the previous posting on tools I see that I forgot to include some items.

A Word of Warning!

Before you go buy any of the tools listed here or in the other posting please read through, cover to cover, the following books:

Required:

Hand Tools: Their Ways and Workings, Aldren A. Watson

Guitarmaking: Tradition and Technology, Cumpiano and Natelson

Making Master Guitars, Roy Courtnall

The Guitar Maker's Workshop, Rik Middleton


Optional:

The Big Red Book of American Luthierie, Volumes I, II, III, IV and V (just kidding, sort of)

Make Your Own Classical Guitar, Stanley Doubtfire

Classic Guitar Construction, Irving Sloane (please don't try to make a guitar from this book! He does so you how to make some great tools)

Things about the Guitar, Jose Ramirez III

A Concise History of the Guitar, Graham Wade

The Segovia Technique, Vladimir Bobri (This book is to remind you of the reason why so many of us started playing the classic guitar!)


Once you have read all these books you will have a better understanding of the work that goes into to make a classic guitar, what skills you will need to work on and what tools to purchase.

Again, the following list is by no means complete, but it is enough to get started. So shown in the photo above are the following and buy as many as you can afford,



"C" clamps of various sizes

Deep reach "C" clamps

Pony brand Spring Clamps (buy a bucket load of these clamps in 1", 2", 3" and 4" sizes, 60 of each size would suffice!)

Irwin brand "Quik Grip" clamps (I used these alot when I was a finish carpenter)

Jorgensen or Pony brand steel bar clamps, 12", 18", 24", 36" lengths, at least four of each length.

Cam clamps: buy these from LMI, Stew-Mac, Japan Woodworker, Grizzly (if you buy them from Grizzly be prepared to modify the jaws!) Better yet, make your own! Fine Woodworking has many articles on making these; Classic Guitar Construction by Irving Sloane shows how to make them; so does Stanley Doubtfire's book, Make Your Own Classical Guitar; Lutherie Tools, by the Guild of American Luthiers has several articles on how to make them. Again, this is not a complete list of books or articles.

I'll talk about what sharpening stones to consider along with tenon saws, crosscut and rip saws in Part 3!




My "Mae West" Lacote, after a Legnani Model by Rene Lacote, circa 1830. I spent about an hour french polishing it this afternoon.

You Tube of the Post: Who says the 4 string guitar is dead!

The height of a workbench is governed not by a rule of thumb but by a rule of knuckles.

Roy Underhill, The Woodwright's Apprentice, 1996


What does a Stanley No.0 level have to do with classic guitar making? Absolutely nothing unless you want to level your workbench. I had to include a post on a "whiskey stick" because I found that Rob Gates and Scott Grandstaff (see "My Level") both have great articles on spirit levels currently on the Internet.


The Offcut, is a wonderful blog, and in his latest posting Robin Gates talks about the wonders of a spirit level. Rob's posts always bring me back to what woodworking is all about, elegance and style. (Thanks, Rob!) Somedays I worry about production and getting things done (or lack of getting thing done thanks to a regular job) in the shop, lately when that happens, I stop myself and remember what it is about the sound of a classic guitar that captured my heart when I was a kid and why it is that no other instrument thrills as much. We, in our current culture here in the United States, need to remember what simplicity is all about and the satisfaction that comes from using our hands. We need to value the work that we do with our hands and find amusement in such a simple thing as a bubble locked in a vial filled with 190 proof alcohol.

By the way, the level belonged to my father-in-law's brother-in-law, Henry Altwater, a man who was a skilled carpenter and owned some really nice tools, which my father-in-law gave me. Henry later became the gardener for the Gilpin County Courthouse, Central City, Colorado. I haven't cleaned up the level to see what wood it is made out of, maybe I won't and just appreciate it for what it is.

 

Music I’d Like To Hear #30

My bandsaw lives in the garage. The garage is really more of a shack. Well, it was a shack but now it is a run down structure housing garden tools, a variety of wildlife and my funky old 14″ imported bandsaw.

This bandsaw works well enough to have not earned scorn and replacement but if it was being setup for a blind date it would be described as having “an interesting personality.”

The biggest quirk is the way raising or lowering the guidepost throws the upper guides far out of alignment. There is no adjustment to fix this problem on this particular bandsaw. I have learned to compensate for this and can usually tweak a setup very quickly before sawing.

Once set up the saw works very well. The wheels turn and the blade goes around and wood gets resawn. There is not much more I can really ask for from a bandsaw.

There are various methods for getting a bandsaw set up to produce slices of even thickness. Some people angle the fence to compensate for blade drift, some say a properly tuned bandsaw should cut straight and true without compensating the fence for blade drift.

I do whatever works for me and that seems to change from time to time. I use a 1/2″ blade with 3 teeth per inch. My fence is a piece of plywood screwed to a chunk of 2×4 held to the table with 2 clamps. I use a square to get the table, fence and blade square with each other. Sometimes the bottom of the fence needs to be shimmed with pieces of tape to get it square to the table and blade. I make a few test cuts and if there is a problem with blade drift I compensate the angle of the fence till the cuts are straight.

Then comes attention, patience, and a lot of sawdust.

 

(Hector) Berlioz himself was a guitarist-not in Paganini's class, perhaps, but from all accounts a remarkable player.

Frederic V. Grunfeld, The Art and Times of the Guitar, 1969