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While the varnish was going on, I was making a bridge clamp of the through bolt variety, seeing as I don't have enough cam clamps. I also made an mdf bridge locating jig.


You simply line up the end with the nut and the sides of the fingerboard, and the other end rests against the front of the saddle.


Scraping off the finish.




The bridge clamp in action. It seems to work ok.


I added a cam clamp to increase the pressure.

_________________
"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

https://www.facebook.com/FenskeGuitars

And a few more photos:

_________________
"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

https://www.facebook.com/FenskeGuitars

Very cool, Peter. Quite a first effort.

ALMOST FINISHED!!!

I finished filing the fret ends, installed the tuners properly and glued the fingerboard down.




Then filed the slots into the nut, roughly shaped the saddle and strung it up.




Nothing snapped off - not even the bridge! It sounds great already and it's only been strung a couple of hours. Really bassy at the moment, but I suppose that will settle down a bit. It's really loud too. The action is still too high and I haven't intonated the saddle yet, but it's finally a guitar.

_________________
"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

https://www.facebook.com/FenskeGuitars

Peter this is really an impressive first build. I can't wait to hear it. I really dig your clever home made jigs and tools too. I'd also like to see a close up of that heal, I've never seen anything like that and it looks really cool.

Peter, very nice indeed. Isn't it great to get almost to the end!!

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

It certainly is!



Thank you. The heel was an attempt at copying this one by Michihiro Matsuda:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/matsudagui ... 391918722/
I really love his work. He also gave me the inspiration for the headstock design and the rosette is copied from Somogyi - nothing new really!



The end cap is a really strange bit of wenge (I think) - it's white and brown instead of brown and black.

_________________
"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

https://www.facebook.com/FenskeGuitars

Well it looks as though cutting yourself is catching! I've just got back from A+E after cutting halfway through my thumb with a handsaw. No more guitar playing for a few weeks. Fortunately I have recorded a couple of videos but they are really bad quality and don't represent the true sound of the guitar at all. I think they will have to do though as I'm going home for a two weeks and not bringing the guitar with me (300 miles by train and London underground in a gig bag... er no ). At least I have some nice photos.

_________________
"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

https://www.facebook.com/FenskeGuitars

Oh, no Peter! I'm so sorry you injured yourself. Every time someone posts an injury, it reminds me to stay completely present during woodworking, and not even go into the shop if tired, distracted or if it just doesn't feel right. Best wishes for a rapid recovery!

A saw cut takes a lot longer to grow back than a knife. We're sure not doing a very good job of promoting the safety of hand tools over power tools But at least your thumb is still attached, unlike what would probably have happened on a bandsaw or table saw. Hope you recover quickly and don't have any lasting damage.

How about doing a one-handed video? Maybe just tune it to DADGAD or some other open tuning, and pluck and strum a bit to give us an idea of the natural sound of it, to help mentally translate the poor quality videos into what they should be

Well it wasn't guitar building related, blame boat building instead!
Unfortunately, the video quality is more to do with the camera than the playing. Its really annoying, because I'm getting a microphone for christmas, but I won't be back in time to make the deadline.



Yes tiredness was the cause this time. Its dangerous because you don't really notice it until it's too late.

_________________
"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

https://www.facebook.com/FenskeGuitars

Ok, here are the final pictures.

_________________
"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

https://www.facebook.com/FenskeGuitars

Some more:

_________________
"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

https://www.facebook.com/FenskeGuitars

And the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0VTEweks28
Can anyone tell me how to embed it?

I'll try to upload a better quality one as soon as possible, but that will be after the deadline.
How many pictures are we allowed in the voting thread?

_________________
"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

https://www.facebook.com/FenskeGuitars

I think there is an 8 photo limit per post and we're supposed to keep it to a single post.

Awesome job for a first - congratulations

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Looks great!

To embed, I think you put the link in between these: [youtube] [/youtube]

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Regards,
Phillip Patton

http://www.pattonblades.com

The bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of low price has faded.

https://hoosierbladesmith.wordpress.com

There we go. It's really picky about formatting of the URL. Had to change the https:// to http://

So from the editing window, it looks like [ youtube ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0VTEweks28[ /youtube ] without the spaces in the youtube tags.

Very nice work! First guitars don't get much more successful than that

Extremely well done !!

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Really well done, Peter! The song seemed to showcase the sound well. It sounds very mellow. Amazing first effort! Congratulations

Thanks for the nice comments

I have been testing my new recording setup and it sounds great. Can't wait to try it on this guitar.

_________________
"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

https://www.facebook.com/FenskeGuitars

Looks great! If you wind the treble strings the other way around the posts, you will get straight string pulls through the nut which will also look nicer. Great job and hard to believe it is your first.
How did you make the side dots for the fret board, or did you buy them?
I like 'em!

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PMoMC

Thanks again. It's definitely the first, but I did spend about 6 months reading everything I could about guitar building before starting. That made it so much easier.



Funny I didn't notice that - especially as I was aiming for straight runs . My current guitar is a steel string with a slotted headstock, so I'm not used to these sorts of tuners.
The fret markers were a bit of plastic tubing that I found in my odds and ends drawer, filled with rosewood dust and CA glue.

_________________
"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

https://www.facebook.com/FenskeGuitars

New video with a proper microphone.

_________________
"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

https://www.facebook.com/FenskeGuitars

That is amazing Peter! You did an incredible job, even if this were your 10th instrument. The voice and sustain are awesome. You should be very proud of that guitar

Thank you all again for the compliments.
I've been seriously playing the guitar for about 3 years as a hobby and the guitar that I had been learning on had certain features that I wished I could change, such as a 12 fret neck and a neck that almost needed a reset to get the action lower. I then found Steve Summerford's blog on building a guitar in your kitchen, and seeing as I had a room full of machinery at my disposal, I thought I would give it a go! It's very different to boatbuilding though - tolerances are about an order of magnitude smaller - so it was quite a learning experience.

Before committing myself to building, I spent about 4 months or so just trawling through websites of lutherie information and generally getting an overall picture of how they are built, what tools I would need etc. and through this I came across Somogyi and Matsuda's work which really inspired me to try doing things differently. Somogyi's bracing method just seemed to make sense, as it spreads out the load over a wider area, leaving the top to vibrate more evenly.

And the most important thing I learned from the challenge? Working to a deadline and that you don't need expensive materials to make a nice sounding guitar! (apart from tuners - mine rattle occasionally )

_________________
"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

https://www.facebook.com/FenskeGuitars