Official Luthiers Forum!

Against my better judgement after seeing both Filippo and Chris V entering the ring, I'll enter the contest.

I'm building a Black Walnut Parlor. I might make it a cutaway, which will be a new design for me.

_________________
-Marcus
http://www.bailieguitars.com
Instagram | YouTube

I will be using Black Walnut for the back and sides for this guitar.

My parent's have a few black walnut trees behind their house that died a few years back. They aren't very big, but definitely usable.

Here are some pictures of my brother cutting down one of the limbs.



Walnuts... that are black!

_________________
-Marcus
http://www.bailieguitars.com
Instagram | YouTube

Black Walnut - $0 (as pictured from my parent's farm)
Sinker Cedar SB - $25 (got 4 sets for $100 from Pwoolson)
African Mahogany neck - $10 (cut from a 3" x 3" x 36" turning blank from woodcraft for $30)
Economy open backed tuners - $14 (stew mac, probably replace them after the challenge is over)
Nickle Fretwire - $5 (stew mac)
Spruce bracing - $10
W/B/W purfling - $10
Kerfed lining - $1 (I'll do my own cut from a large spanish cedar plank I paid $10 for)
Nut and Saddle - $8 (bleached from Stew Mac)
Z-poxy + Tru Oil finish - $10
Truss Rod - $16 (stew mac hot rod)
Inlay - $10
Ziricote Fretboard - $0
Ziricote Bridge - $0
Ziricote Binding - $0

Total is $119 so far.

_________________
-Marcus
http://www.bailieguitars.com
Instagram | YouTube

update!

Here are pictures of the materials (well, most of them)

black walnut


ziricote trim and african mahogany neck blank




I was looking around the garage last night and I saw a stick of Ziricote that i got for Christmas a few years back from my in-laws. I thought that would be a great addition to this build. I'll make the binding, fretboard (bookmatched), bridge and neck laminate out of it. The stick was purchases from the Rockler scrap bin, so it's not like it was that fancy anyway, $7.99, wooo.

cut the neck blank.


gluing a simple ziricote laminate

_________________
-Marcus
http://www.bailieguitars.com
Instagram | YouTube

Son of a *&#$!!

grrr.... so it turns out I suck at freehand resawing.

I tried to resaw what was left of my ziricote (after cutting out the bindings and bridge) without the use of my fence. It looked fine from the top, but it turns out the bottom of the piece was shifting around on me. So now I have two useless ziricote pieces.

I'm not sure what my recovery plan is. I could order a ziricote fretboard from LMI but they are $25. It's in my budget but it gets me pretty close to my cap. So i am not quite sure yet.

Woulda been purdy...


alas, it was not meant to be


Neck laminate turned out nice tho!


Sinker Cedar top:

_________________
-Marcus
http://www.bailieguitars.com
Instagram | YouTube

Neither piece is wide enough for a fretboard, i was going to bookmatch them as the fretboard. The thinnest it gets is like 1/8". I did consider using a scrap peice of wood (walnut or something) as a substrate and then just using very thin ziricote as the fretboard surface. I'd have to do a bound fretboard to hide the substrate, but that's not a problem.

Do you think that would work?

_________________
-Marcus
http://www.bailieguitars.com
Instagram | YouTube

I think that would work well, you just have to make sure that you don't go through when you radius the board.

_________________
Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

I have a piece of walnut around somewhere that I sliced like that - still haven't used it. Think I'd find another board.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Here are some update pics.

I'm going to try to use a substrate (probably mahogany) under my thinned fretboard. More pictures of that later.

Top and Back is joined. I also complete the scarf joint on my neck. I thicknessed the back, but im still trying to think of something cool to do with the center strip.

Pics.

Tape method.


thicknessed, rough sanded with 80 grit (drum sander)

w/ naptha

_________________
-Marcus
http://www.bailieguitars.com
Instagram | YouTube

That back looks good. One thing I've done before is just run a 1/16" black purfling line down the center. Looks nice visually but is easy to do. Could also do the same thing with a piece of binding.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I did a little bit of work on Friday. Kerfing the lining took some extra time. I finally figured out the back inlay, but no pictures yet, I'll probably work on that next.

I've got the sides bent (i didnt get any springback, so it doesnt fit real well in the mold), but I still need to bend the florentine cutaway and install it before I attached the bindings (duh)

Here are more pictures of kerfed lining than you ever needed.











Side bending

_________________
-Marcus
http://www.bailieguitars.com
Instagram | YouTube

Looking good !

_________________
The Shallower the depth of the stream , The Louder the Babble !
The Taking Of Offense Is the Life Course Of The Stupid One !
Wanna Leave a Better Planet for our Kids? How about Working on BETTER KIDS for our Planet !
Forgiveness is the ability to accept an apology that you will probably NEVER GET
The truth will set you free , But FIRST, it will probably Piss you Off !
Creativity is allowing yourself to make Mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to Keep !
The Saddest thing anyone can do , is push a Loyal Person to the point that they Dont Care Anymore
Never met a STRONG person who had an EASY past !
http://wiksnwudwerks.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/GatewayA ... rAssembly/

I could have used a few more shots of the kerfed linings.

_________________
http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

I did a bit of work on the build. I'm juggling about 5 or 6 different guitars at the moment. Some repairs, some builds, mostly spraying finish. Since this is a pretty fun little build, I try to find time to work on it.

I rushed the back inlay design a bit. By the time I finished routing it, I decided that I didn't like it. Since I'm not going to resaw another back (I don't think I have enough material anyway), I'll just make this the inside of the guitar and make another design on the other side. It should look interesting, I don't know anyone who inlays the inside of a guitar!

Pics of the back inlay:












Here are some pics of the cutaway bending and gluing.





I got the lining (kerfing, hur hur hur) all installed last night. here is a picture of the soundboard side installed. You can also see the overall shape of the guitar.



I suppose it is also worth mentioning that this will be a surprise gift to my older brother. He's the one in the picture that helped me harvest some of the Black Walnut.

_________________
-Marcus
http://www.bailieguitars.com
Instagram | YouTube

Thanks Filippo

Just realized what a hellhole my shop is from these pictures. I guess I will be spending time tonight cleaning!

_________________
-Marcus
http://www.bailieguitars.com
Instagram | YouTube

Lookin good! I'm jealous, everyone is farther along than I am. That's what I get for screwing up a set of sides, I guess.

A clean shop is a sign of someone who isn't doing anything or who is overly obsessive (like Hesh).

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

looks good Marcus -

Steve - don't feel bad - I haven't even started ! and don;t plan to till mid Sept - makes it more of a challenge !

_________________
It's this new idea from recent decades that everyone gets a participation award. - MUX

Then there is hope.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Update time!

I've got the back attached to the sides. I've got an idea for the rosette now, so I'll start laying that out soon.

Pics!




Final Inlay of the back. I didn't put the purfling in since i want to miter it with the outer purfling. I'll install it after i route the channels.


Center strip being glued.


Visiting the local lumber supply. I could spend all day in there!


Center strip marked, ready to be notched out.


Notched out


Braces radiused, ready for gluing.


Braces being glued


Mock fitting, time to cut notches in the lining for the braces.


blah blah blah




yadda yadda




I'm finishing the inside of this with a coat or two of Tru Oil.

_________________
-Marcus
http://www.bailieguitars.com
Instagram | YouTube

Inside of the back looks cool, too bad all design changes can't be handled so easily. What does it look like on the show side?

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

The final design will be this.



I am thinking about using white/blue/white for the purfling. I am contemplating using black/blue/black, but since this is a walnut guitar with ziricote trim, i think it will be dark enough.

_________________
-Marcus
http://www.bailieguitars.com
Instagram | YouTube

Cool - I am just not that artistic.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Here is a very needed update. I've been working on the rosette, I just didn't want to post pictures without being able to show the finished rosette in the same post.

Here are probably way too many pictures of the rosette process:

Concepting, I didn't like the literal design, but the idea I did like.


Changed the design a bit, applied to soundboard. Note: measurements were waaay off on this one. Figured it out before i started routing though. Phew!


First channels routed


Channel cleared out, ready for some shellac to seal


Ziricote glued in. It wasn't a great fit, but since most of the ziricote will be routed away for the other channel, it ended up working ok. This little mishap made me avoid the shop for a few days.




Channels for the black walnut.


All routed and cleared








Channels for purfling being routed. I am using White/Blue/White


Started installing. Pretty tedious work.




All inlayed, pretty crappy picture...


Sanded flush. I think it turned out pretty good. I could've been a little better with my mitering.


I sustained my first injury on this project when I was chopping my miters on the purfling.


Also put in my soundhole label. Woo...



The blue purfling turned out very very dark, almost indistinguishable from black. We'll see what happens under the final finish.

_________________
-Marcus
http://www.bailieguitars.com
Instagram | YouTube

Wow. Nice job!


Posted from my Toaster oven using Tapatalk

_________________
http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

Wow! That is all I can say. . .

_________________
Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.