Official Luthiers Forum!

Very nicely done, Nick and Rosie is one very lucky young lady!

Thanks Hesh, that really means a lot to me! It's going to be a little rough around the edges even when finished but so am I, so it's only fitting. I think I'm going to use a form and sidebender from now on. I'm getting a bit tired of asymmetry!

She has started asking when she's going to get her new guitar so I need to put a rush on it! She plays her little toy guitar every day so it'll get good use. I'm going to babysit occasionally to give her parents a chance to go out for dinner, Rosie a chance to have some lessons, and me a chance to see the guitar every now and then!

It sure looks great to me Nick!

If Rosie is a little person you might consider stringing it up with custom lights or even extra lights to help her with the transition from toy to real guitar? I set up instruments for kids often and they really seem to appreciate lighter gauge strings.

Gifting guitars is one of the best ways that I know of to learn Lutherie too. You gain experience AND will also experience what it's like to convey this very special gift, a gift of your time and skill to Rosie - priceless!

Be sure to get a pic or two of Rosie and her new very special Nick-made guitar for us to see?

Then I'll stop worrying about it! (Genuine big smile on my face!)

She's a very little person. (This is for her forth birthday so I made it based on measurements of the average 5 year old girl in the hope it will last her ok till she's 6, at which point the four extra holes in the bridge come to the rescue and it starts the rest of its life as a baritone uke) ... Hmm, maybe I need a rethink! I know it sounds like a really stupid thing to do but I asked here if anyone advised against it... Because of the really short scale and nylon strings, I thought low tension and would be an issue, so I bought a set of extra hard tension ones. I know it seems crazy but I thought I was doing the right thing. Maybe I should get the lights after all.

Though, I think the lights and extra hards are the same diameter and I'm only going to choose a tuning once I've got it strung up (well, once I've strung up the dummy test rig for working out saddle placement - bit annoying I have to leave that strung up for 5 days before they're settled, I'll try to make it so I can be dying the top and finishing the body during the wait.

Couldn't agree more! I made the first one for me, the second for my dad, this one for Rosie, the next is for my brother (maybe next two as he wants a Picasso guitar too now!)... Then I have friends who will pay cost price, and it won't be too long before I'm making a pair for my second cousins. I hope to make a Fleta classical for myself at some point too! Rosie's dad in an old mate so there's no one I'd rather be building for right now but I think her mum was a bit surprised at the amount of work that goes into it! A labour of love. I started beginning of November and haven't had a full 30 days in the garage yet so I'm quite pleased with the progress. EDIT: It also feels really nice making guitars for others. Less self indulgent for want of a better term! )

I'd like to, I'll ask her dad!

Gluing fretboard



Installing frets



Filing 'em



"Sometimes I whittles the future..."

Side view. Neck still needs refining with a scraper

I made a drill guide and drilled the holes in the bridge blank... (It looks out of whack in this pic but it's perfectly square, etc)



Drilled tuner holes



And made a 2 degree violin peg reamer for installing the tuners.

I held a blowtorch to a really rubbish chisel I brought back from India once until it was glowing red all over for a few minutes, (took ages to get it all red - maybe an hour - but could be done quicker I know, I started getting the hang of it toward the end), quenched it in water, then stuck a template on it and cut down to size with a hacksaw. I filed it but then when I went to the school to use their pillar drill, I whacked it on the grinder for a minute. Seems like it will work well! (I only learned how to do it from a very kind OLF user so thanks to him!)

Bit of an update:

Things got a bit, well, challenging, on this build!

I may as well admit to all my various stupidities, can't run off and leave this thread empty

I dyed the top... With water-based aniline dye. I didn't see mass warnings, so here's one for anyone using the OLF search function. Others may disagree, but...

DO NOT USE WATER BASED ANILINE DYE ON AN ACOUSTIC GUITAR! SPECIFICALLY, NOT ON AN INCREDIBLY THIN SPRUCE TOP!

I should really have worked that out by myself, but oh well... Needless to day, it went badly.

I made the first application, left it to dry for a while... And when I can back to it... It was like a nightmare!!!! The top had deformed. Badly. A cross-grain "wave" over the lower bout... Imagine a wave in the middle of the Atlantic ocean. During a storm. At full moon. When Poseidon was in a bad mood.... That was what I saw.

I didn't take pictures because, after the mental double take I did, I turned around and walked out of the garage in a state of shock and disbelief, waiting to wake up and realise it hadn't happened. No such luck. A straightedge over the top had up to 12 mm gaps under it.

Thankfully, there is a happy ending in sight...

It happened on a Friday. And my closest supplier is closed on weekend and Mondays. So the plan was to jump on a train the following Tuesday and buy some spruce, and then work out how to retop it. And little hope of getting this guitar done for Rosie's birthday.

Well, by Tuesday, that ocean wave had shrunk down to a ripple in a stream, and with the bridge clamped in place, the top is as flat as it could ever need to be. No gaps at all under a straight edge.... Amazing the centre seam didn't bust during "the great deluge", I guess that says something for my joint? ... But it seems a retopping is no longer necessary.

But things still aren't ideal. I'll continue my photo log now and explain as I go....



After drilling out the bridge, I had to rout the blank a bit. I didn't have the router bits I needed, so I tried to do it with a Dremel. Not a great idea. It took a lot of refining with a file and a knife, and a saddle slot more than 0.5mm wider than planned for, requiring the purchase of some thicker bone, that only just fit lengthways!



Apart from that it fits well in its slot now.



Then I used my Pat Hawley thickness sander to shape the rest of the bridge. All went well, though I'm going to shrink it down a bit now.



Then I glued the heel cap on ready for final shaping of the neck, etc... I also used that home made reamer to install the pegheds. I went a bit too quick for my own good but all is fine.



I final sanded the body and taped it up the top to protect it, leaving the binding untaped.



Oiled the back and sides, and the top surface of the top binding.

Then came the nightmare... Like I said, I didn't take pics because I was heartbroken... Just broken really. Anyway, it's fine with the bridge on, but....

It looks just barely lilac in some light...



---- continued in next post

continued from previous post -------

And quite clearly blue in most other light...



And to add insult to injury, the oil bled under the tape around the rosette, preventing the dye from properly penetrating the spruce and leaving unsightly un-dyed patches...





So.... I have ordered some purple tined lacquer. And as I don't have any spraying equipment, I've had to buy a can of it. I also got a can of clear lacquer to go over the purple. I'm hoping it will cover the unsightly patches enough to camouflage them a bit. And that I get something that can be called purple.

When the purple lacquer is here, I'll commence testing and strive to get it finished ASAP. I was despondent when I thought I had to retop. Now I'm just slightly nerve-wrecked, preparing myself for the next step.

I thought I may as well share all the gory details. I'm just going to have to do a better job on #4. If it weren't for Rosie, I may have put this one aside.

Here ends my babbling!

Steady on there, Nick. You're doing fine. And Hesh is correct: Rosie is a lucky little girl.
I've enjoyed seeing your well-documented process.
Best regards,
Patrick

Thanks Patrick! Glad you like the pics, I've enjoyed sharing them.
A wise friend told me that what I have currently is a good "base colour". I just need to build on it!

It's purple!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



And the dodgy areas around the rosette are fixed!!!!!!

I didn't think I'd ever be happy with this guitar again!

Looking good Nick.

_________________
The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Nick, the guitar is looking great. What a special instrument.

_________________
http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

Thanks Colin! I'm a lot happier now. It's getting there... I'm buffing it tomorrow! I'm also going to wax the back and sides now as the matt finish is a little dull next to the newly shiny top. Should have gone for satin lacquer!

And thanks John! That's lovely to hear! It's special for me, and she's seen it come together so hopefully it'll be special for her too. She's looking forward to getting it but she's also been really patient, happily accepting the length of time it has taken to make.

The nice baritone ukulele hard case arrived for it the other day. The guitar fit in it, but as per sod's law, too tightly. So I've cut out the padding, bought some thinner foam and replacement faux fur, and when I'm done, it'll fit perfectly even with the strap attached (only a cheap strap but cream and brown so a reasonably good match for the guitar until she gets a nicer one). I've even got some purple crepe paper (almost exactly the shade of the top) to wrap up the case in, and some black satin ribbon (matching the tuners and the strap pins n'all [got to be matching! ]) to neatly tie around that, so it should be fun for her to receive and open!

Her book, "Making Rosie's Guitar" is also coming a long nicely. Newly reformatted and down to 17 pages @ 6 photos per page + pages of photos of it finished, the design, and a note to her. I'll send it off for printing once I've got a shot of her playing it for the last page.

Thought I'd share a few pics of it while I get my courage up to scrape the bridge location!
These pictures are very kind to it really. Errors may be more visible in person.

Steady on there, Nick. It is really coming together very nicely. Post a few more when you get the strings on it.
I like it!
Patrick

Thanks Pat! I do give myself a hard time but it's my own fault, I should just do better work and then I won't have to beat myself up! Occasionally I get a glimpse out of the corner of my eye, and get to see it without of all the "creator's eye bias", and I think it looks quite nice. I'm really glad you like it!

-------

Pic of oiling the neck. The massive neck blank only had the flame you see here... I love it when a plan comes together






Here I'm scraping the finish under the bridge back to bare wood using a chisel burnished to have a burr on the flat side. The pic is poorly staged - I actually held it in a pencil-grip and scraped it back and forth. I put safe corners on the chisel too. (Am I using enough tape?!)

I was worried about scraping, I taped my first two prior to finish. I did order some single edge razor blades and I was annoyed that they still haven't arrived till I tried it this way. It went really well in the end - or at least it has so far, I just need to work on the perimeter slightly and finish scraping the fretboard extension area.

I also cleaned up a little with 3/4 inch scraper I cut off my "super-scraper ruler". (The ruler had burrs on each edge when I got it and it turns out that it's quite a good little scraper.)



Difficult to get into the corners of the wings! Maybe the safe corners on the chisel is the problem.

The bridge is clamped!!!!


I had to make a slightly weird, two-part clamping caul to go inside either side of the central fan brace. Cork on top the bridge, 3 cam clamps through the sound hole and one lightly on each wing. I cleaned the rosewood with acetone prior to gluing. Glue cleanup went well. The tape "wall" around the bridge location was a revelation for me. I had trouble using positioning pins through the saddle slot on my last two, this was much better.

The strings are on!

It sounds.... quite surprisingly good. With such a tiny body, I had prepared myself to be less than thrilled with the sound. I did everything I could though to give it every best chance, maybe at the risk of making it quite delicate for a child to own, and it seems to have worked. I just hope it holds up to string tension.

Somehow, it's in standard tuning at the moment and the strings all feel fine. The high E did stretch a lot getting up to pitch but feels ok now.

It's responsive. The bass strings sound really fantastic. Not brash as such, but clear and rich. Not small either really. With a soft plectrum (I have no nails), the trebles sound sweet and sonorous, without it they sound ukulele-like, but they may open up a lot more... I'll save any further description. I'd record a sample now but I can't really play my usual repertoire (limited as it is) due to the narrow string spacing. [I can alllmost play it though, so I'm sure it will be ok for her till she's 7 or 8, I reckon. Would be nice if it had a good while as a guitar before she grows out of it and it becomes a 6-string uke.] Maybe I'll try to record something tomorrow.

Pray to the wood gods for me that this thing stays together!

(Got a nice wide saddle to do some compensation! Will wait 5 days for that. I seem to have got the bridge in just the right location though, the low E is sitting on the [slightly rounded] back of the saddle and is intonated well off the bat. I've got 4.5mm to get the rest of them intonated now!)

Oh, and as for string height at the bridge... I aimed for 11mm, at the moment, it's at 12mm with 4.75mm-ish action on each string. If I take the bass side down to 11 and the treble side down to 10, I reckon the action will be ok... Fret leveling went pretty well too, can't find any buzzes yet.

Nick, my friend,
All I can say is that it looks just FINE sitting there in its case. Rosie is one blessed little girl, for sure. And you have done a very fine thing. Congratulations!

Okay, my man, what do you have in mind for your next project?

Patrick

CONGRATULATIONS!
It looks awesome, I'm sure she'll love it. Actual purple, and not all flat and lifeless plastic looking And the lightweight tuners should help with the balance. Does it still feel neck heavy with the maple, or is it just right?

And even if you can't play it, I'd love to hear a sound clip of the open strings, and a few individual fretted notes Or we could just wait until the owner gets her hands on it...

As for its long term survival, how does the deflection from bridge torque look? Check how much of a dip there is between the bridge and soundhole with a short ruler, and monitor it over the next few days to see where it stabilizes. And of course watch the bridge for any signs of glue failure, because that could actually be dangerous if it flew off suddenly.

But from the current look of things, it appears to be a job well done, and you should be proud

Congrats Nick! Well done!

_________________
Doug

Don't let fear or common sense stop you from trying to build something

Sound sample!!! http://picosong.com/eSj6/ <===========================

(No effects. Tuning: Half step down from standard but it slips out of tune quickly at the moment! And it hasn't had the strings compensated yet. It's very difficult for me to play because of the narrow string spacing (fretboard is 38mm at nut - almost every measurement is in the region of 3/4s that of a full size classical - and has decent fretboard clearance so as not to slip off a fret!) I'm really quite surprised at the sound. I'd love to hear what others think. I reckon a really good female guitarist with really small hands could make it sound great! Action: 4mm, string height: 11mm, relief: 0.1mm)

Dennis, Thanks mate, I'm trying to hold off on the pride till I know it's gonna last And thanks for the tips, I've checked the soundboard and everything seeeems ok. Will keep an eye on it. I'm so relieved that it is actually purple! Not washed-out-maybe-lilac-if-you-squint-and-force-yourself-to-see-it! She won't be disappointed in the colour that's for sure! She was excited when her dad showed her a pic of it purplified.

The tuners are sooo lightweight, they're fantastic. And not even slightly an issue that they are 4:1 rather than 14-18:1! Really nice to tune. And so easy to de-and-restring! (I tied figure of eight knots in the ends of them rather than tying round the block and frankly, I can get them off to get to the saddle quicker this way than any other.)

It is slightly neck heavy but not by much at all. The whole thing is so incredibly light that it almost feels lighter than air. Like it might float off if you don't keep a firm grip.

Patrick, Thanks so much! I said when I started that there's no-one I'd rather build my #3 for, and I stand by it! I think she'll be really excited. I hope so. I'd not really thought of it as a big deal but a few people have remarked that it is. I mean, I'm doing it as an act of friendship and "family", she's the closest i have to a niece.

(EDIT: I forgot, my next is likely to be an English Walnut 12 fret, slightly smaller than 000... Maybe even for the 2014 challenge. Not sure but I may build the ziricote one for my brother at the same time.

Before that, I'm going to Slovakia for 2 weeks (driving there with a mate, 24 hour journey through France, Germany and the Czech Republic), and I'm going to make a bunch of jigs from Trevor's book! In fact, I'm just about to unwrap the English Walnut now, it arrived today!)

And thanks for checking out my thread Doug! Nice that people are interested and take the time to comment!

yea! it has a good deep sound. Have you given it to her?

Congratulations.

_________________
http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com