|
The wood I use for headplates on my guitars is important to me. I like a certain kind of grain patter that I feel gives excitement and gravitas to the appearance of my guitars. So I cut these pieces myself from larger boards. None of the wood parts of my guitars are purchased pre-made. 
I cut the Spanish cedar that I use for necks from boards that are 12 feet long by 4 inches thick (not shown). The boards shown here, which I earlier cut to the correct thickness, have been drying in my workshop for a few years. 
Below are shown a neck ready to be joined to the soundboard, back, and sides of a guitar, and one ready to be joined to the heel block/foot. 
This guitar has a variation on a rosette I made a few guitars ago. All that remains is to make the nut and saddle and string it up.      Having carved the neck, the edges of the body are rounded with a cabinet scraper and the edge of the sound hole is rounded over with a knife and sandpaper. 
My necks are reinforced with pultruded carbon fiber bars so they won't warp. 
After the back linings were installed, the back edges of the sides were planed to receive the back. 
Side supports (pilaretes) were glued in place. 
The back linings were mortised to receive the ends of the back bars. 
The back was glued on. 
The fan braces have been glued to the underside of the soundboard and now their ends are scalloped with a chisel.  A small plane is used to shape the braces along their length so that their cross section is parabolic.   Not shown was the gluing on and shaping of the two harmonic bars. Here the completed soundboard is being glued to the neck, which was assembled earlier.  The sides were thicknessed and bent earlier and now they are fitted to the neck/soundboard assembly.  A tail block is fitted and glued to the ends of the sides and to the soundboard.  After the sides are joined to the soundboard with triangular glue blocks (peones) the back edges of the sides are tapered towards the heel, and back linings are glued to the edges to provide a wider surface for gluing on the back. ("May 2014" shows when the exterior mold I'm using was modified.)  |
AuthorEthan Deutsch, Luthier Archives
March 2026
|
RSS Feed