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This will be my 3rd. The second one is the baroque that is being bad. This is based on an 1829 George Staufer, (one f in 1829). I have the back and belly joined and thinned, and the ribs bent. The neck is adjustable. I figured that I'd start with that. It has the fancy tuners, but mine are fake; one half of a Chinese 12 string roller tuners cut off, and with extensions soldiered on the stems. I haven't figured out what I'm going to do with the brass for the back to make it somewhat cool.

I made the head in two pieces. It made it as easy as pie. To get the hole spacing right I spot drilled with a smaller center drill, and measured them with a caliper. I needed to move a couple some, so I used a Dremel with the router stand, and move one over .6mm, and another .3mm. they came out good.

I planned on putting purfling on the head to match the binding I want to do on the fingerboard. It looks kind of like an arch top with the elevated fretboard, and they do look nice with binding. Haven't done that before. I think I might end up putting binding on the head, and maybe face the top as well. The Spanish cedar is pretty soft, it would probably get all beat up. I planned on just doing the lamp black shellac.

I still might do that. Do heads get beat up more if they are soft, or does it matter? Will the cedar even work? The tuners are at least on one metal plate. I think the strings only have about 80 lbs. I might make some pieces to slip in the stem slots to eliminate the "sawed kerfing" effect. That would make it stiffer.

I don't know much about guitars, so I have all kinds of questions. They do seem to be a faster build than a violin. The necks are the most time consuming part for me. Once the neck is done it's gravy.

Except for the binding, and fancy stuff.

Anyway, these are the steps. I just sawed the outline, it needs some work. I'm using a simple cross between a scarf and a vee joint changed to a rectangle joint. It should be strong and easy to make.

If phone cameras are so good, why can't you ever get the color right? They aren't as good as they say. I took a photo of a half dozen bluebirds in the sun and snow in the brush in the brush by the road in front of my house this morning. I zoomed in. Couldn't find one of them. Yeah it's 100 feet or more away; but my wife and I could see them easy.

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Hi Ken,
It looks like you are off to a good start. Spanish cedar has been used on a lot of old Martins and seems to hold up fine if reasonable care is used. You can face the peghead with a harder wood veneer to add some toughness to the surface.
On the old guitar I have the metal plate has "tabs" that fill in the gaps where the button shafts come through. This might not be a bad way to go if this is the area you want to fill.

Looks great so far Ken. The tuners turned out pretty darn good.

Ed M

With that cool shape anything can look good. I figured out how to layout the joint today so that the inlay around the fretboard will blend to the ones on the head, so it looks like I know what I'm doing.

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I've started working on the fretboard, and I'm ready to cut out the brass for the tuner cover.

The fretboard was a piece of 3/4 X 3 X 24" katalux. I cut it in half to get two fretboards. Then I cut 3 pieces off the side that was all black to get binding material, and extra for who knows what. The small white are will almost disappear on the bottom, and be gone on the top. Then I got it flat to a wedge, about 5mm-5.8mm. It should end up about 4mm on the side with a 12" radius top. The plan said the original was 3mm. It also had bar frets. I'm not doing either.

Now I'm going to make a little tool to hold the board square, and have two blocks to use as a guide for the fret saw. Mark them cuts out, and cut right on the line. The fixture will have a depth stop on it, so they will all be deep enough.

Katalux is not easy to plane. I took my least favorite plane and changed the blade into a toothed blade with the Dremel cut off wheel. It works better. The katalux also is a bit of an irritant; the dust is very fine. I have the filter system on, but even your hands get covered.

I plan on doing inlays with the same thin wbw on the fretboard on the head. I matched it so that they would blend at the front edge of the nut. That leaves the nut about 3mm above the top of the head. The holes of the tuners are 4-7mm up from the head. The neck is at a 20 degree angle. I started thinking. I know it's a bad habit. If the close strings are wound low, 3mm or so, and that long ones are high, 5.5mm or so, the break angle would be from 17 degrees at the front to 18.5 or so at the back. I never thought about that before. Not a problem, I just never thought about it.

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Your coming right along with it. I toothed a #4 plane some time ago and was happy with the results. Your plane has me thinking it might be good to tooth a block plane. I have several yard sale finds, so having one with teeth might be a good addition.

I started cutting out the 1/16" brass for the tuner cover. I thought the thin blades I had for my 6" fretsaw would work. Maybe for 1/8 hardboard, but they struggled, and broke on the brass. I have an assortment of skinny blades, and a jewelry saw in the mail. Those blade are really inexpensive. Probably very fragile. I did make up a couple engraver tools to etch a design on it similar to the original. That should be interesting.

I made a little fixture to cut fret slots. I was using the calipers to mark them. The caliper is too short, and somehow I got mm off at the 15th fret. I am only marking them, and the radius isn't on, and the fret would cover anything that was there anyway, I think. From now on I just use the 18 inch ruler, and use mm measurements, each mark is closer.

I wondered how close the slots have to be to perfect placement. For 6 cents, something that would be noticeable, I got 1.5mm at the 5th, and 1mm at the 12th fret with the 620 scale I'm using. At the 18th it is about .8mm. So something that you can see on a ruler. Cool. That's each way.

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Awesome Ken looking forward to following this one.

I have the fret slots cut, and I'm using a file to rough out the radius. I put a compound radius on the arch top. I bought fret wire that has a 12" radius on it, so I figured I'd just make it 12". I like the radius better than the flat fretboard on the old garage sale classical. I still can't do full bar chords though. I'm trying to learn a song I saw a video of, that has a tab; Favorite Things, by somebody. I'm trying to get good at a cool piece that is in my book I'm learning to play from, for guitar in 4 parts, but I'm putting a couple parts together, and it is hard enough, and sounds cool. But that one sounds like something old to play on an early guitar, or a classical; Favorite Things sounds like an arch top song. I switched the first two chords around to make them easier. Same chord, just different.

Anyway, I'm making a 12" radius block. A 4" piece of 2 X 4 because that's as tall as my band saw goes; saw it; true the convex side up; put sandpaper over it, and use that to true up the concave part. Then I'll have a 12" sanding block. I'm using the fretwork as a gauge. I drew a radius with my big compass, and didn't think of just tracing the fret wire.

I was using a bare bulb downstairs to fit the shape. I'm using a couple of files, a scraper, the side of a large cutoff wheel. I see that the SUN upstairs is about 1,000 times better. I like as much light as I can get.

I've never bought adhesive backed sandpaper. Are any of them better than others?

I'm planning another arch top. The same shape as the Stauffer I'm doing on the bass side, and a Stauffer Terz profile on the treble side. Both are about 25% bigger, and there is space between to make it fat. I have a board of quartered figured cherry for the back and sides. I don't have any spruce yet. Looking at the photo, I see that I moved the lower treble bout, and didn't change the c bout radius. I find more things in photos than just looking. I guess I need to take more photos of what I'm doing.

My saw blades, and jewelers saw frame came in the mail, so I can finish cutting that out, and getting that part of the neck done. The neck of a guitar is far more complicated than a violin, and this one doesn't even have a truss rod. It is a lot of fun though; I like figuring stuff out.

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I got the fretboard radius on today. shape it a little, mark it with pencil, sand with the block, and you can monitor how close you're getting. It took a couple hours, but whose keeping track? Best of all, the ends measure 5mm and 5,8mm just like I planned. It's always nice when things work out.

I'm making a violin fingerboard out of what seems to be the same stuff; different board. The guitar stock was sold as katalux, the other I think they called Royal Ebony. The light stuff is still hard.

Why do I pick hard figured wood for fingerboards? Glutton for punishment?

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I've done a couple "stupid people tricks" the last couple days. I got my jewelers saw and blades in, and went to use it yesterday, and realized that it will be GREAT for inlays, but I need at least a 4" deep one for the brass plate. I ordered a 6" one from a different site that has all kinds of saws, even the fancy knew concepts ones.

Then I noticed that my neck is short. How can that be? I held the stock up to the drawing before I cut it off LONG. The photo of the plan shows what I did. The neck blank needs extra length past the nut for the joint, and I held it up to the back of the nut. I didn't have the nut location marked. Maybe I did, and forgot. Nice. I can easily cut the end with a scarf joint because it tapers on the extension. I just have to draw it up, and see what I really have to work with.

You can see how an early Viennese guitar compares to an outline of an OM. The drew it with the bridge in the same place. The OM has 14 frets to the body, the Stauffer 12. The bridge of the Stauffer is close to the center of the lower bout. It is a tiny thing. I'm guessing it needs to be pretty light to get much bass out of it.

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I cut out the brass, now I have to sharpen up a couple of tools, and try my hand at doing some engraving. I practiced a little, and it looks like someone hand engraved something. It shouldn't look terrible. I just got my eyes checked today, and she said that the left eye was off from the other one. Doesn't help depth perception. Cool. It should be better in a week when the glasses come in. I came up with a design somewhat like the original, and a copy. I don't need that many screws to hold it down, it fits in fairly tight, and; it's just a cover. I marked where they could go where there is actually wood. I took the Dremel, and sunk it in for the cover. I think that it was a video by John Hall that I saw the trick of a TINY piece of tape to clear away chips. It works. Even using a tiny 1.2 mm bit to clear away all that stock wasn't bad, but the base could be wider for something like that. Not much wood on the one side.

I drew the neck up to see what I really have. I changed the fretboard, and made it 4 mm instead of 3mm on the side, and a 12 inch radius instead of being flat, that adds a mm to 1.8 mm besides. I had a flat fret classical guitar. Wasn't impressed. The original has the neck coming to a point at the end of the fretboard. I have room to make it a little beefier than that. So I think I'll just to a scarf joint from there; I do have some more Spanish cedar. If the neck seems too close I can always trim it back. The neck is just bolted on with one bolt. A dowel and the dovetail hold it in place, and it pivots on the small step.

I would guess that most people would never understand the amount of choices that you have to do when making a musical instrument. Maybe doing production there wouldn't be as many, but when you are doing things for the first time there are a LOT of decisions to make. I used to make a lot of choices roughing out dies for the forging presses, and management figured that you just put the program in and press GO.

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Well, I guess I could have done worse! I didn't think to clamp it to the table until I completed a couple of the long lines. Hey, you gotta give the apprentice a shot sometime. The circles are by far that hardest part.

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I've done a bunch of little things, and I'm almost done playing with the neck for a while. I still need to glue the 3 piece heel on. It is supposed to be like a ice cream cone, and might still look like one, but the stack is easy!

Sawing the angle on the fretboard is easy with a hand saw. You can set the light so you can see the pencil line.



I glued the head on. It fit good, and 4 spring clamps worked nice.



I cut the slot for the nut. I had it planned to cut it right at the glue line. I thought that seemed like a dumb idea, and moved it north about 2.5 mm. I used the Dremel with the StewMac purfling tool. Just a couple spring clamps holding a scraper made of shim stock as a fence. Eyeball the first cut in from the edge, and dial it in. The end mill was pretty dull. A 4mm deep pass is a hefty feat for a 1.2mm end mill! I took .6 or so passes after the initial slot was in. The nut fit perfect. I thought I'd have to file. When it starts going in, you wonder if you blew it.



The 4 mm depth worked too. That's a little over 2.5 mm over the fretboard. The frets are jumbos at 1.4 mm. That should be enough.



I started getting the pieces ready to glue the braces on the back. It only has a 2-4mm cross arch, but the long arch is 10mm high. I'm going to make a skeleton mold. I guess that's what I'll call it. A wooden form under the center, and the 3 braces, notched together. I just sliced them out of a 2 X 4. Here I'm roughing the long arch in. I'll shape it to fit the chain as a catenary curve. The others will be joined to this one. We will see if it will work.

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Talked to a guy yesterday who actually builds those machine heads .... Over seas, but interesting non the less .

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The weather has been unusually nice, so we've been working outside, I haven't done much. Today I'm in the basement.

I think the iron acetate is going to work well on the Spanish cedar. It doesn't do much to the Katalox, or a piece of maple I tried it on. But it DOES make the flame on the maple really jump out. That''s interesting. I'm almost done with a fingerboard for a violin out of something labeled Royal Ebony. The white wood is much harder than the sap wood on the Katalux is. Why do I buy curly hard wood for fingerboards?

I'm wondering. Has anyone used CA on a neck?

I like it on fingerboards. I'd like something on it that would have a bit of protection, and it will need some fill. The CA looks good on it, and the finish gets real smooth feeling. This is the "transparent" black I was talking about. It is black, but not painted.



I decided to add bling on the fretboard, and some wbw is in the mail. I have some bwb to use to measure the notch I need for the inlay inside of the binding on the fretboard. I used a purfling marker to scribe, scratch the depth. On maple I could CUT the bottom. The Katalux isn't having it. I set my bit a mm or so past the bottom of the guide, and moved it up to just clear the bit. I cut until the bottom piece starts flaking off. Then I file it smooth.



I glued up the cone heel. I'll glue it on the neck after I get it cut to the fretboard shape after the binding is on. It is a certain distance from the 12th fret. After that I can shape the neck up. I think I'll work on the form to place under the back when glue the braces on with the whatever it is they call the board that I'll have hanging from the ceiling to glue stuff, while holding them with the rods I haven't made yet.

Yes. It took me 5 minutes to google "gluing braces on with a solera," to find GO BAR DECK. Don't tell anyone.

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I finally got done with the binding on the fretboard. Most of it is good. On the end, it's not as good.



I'm almost done with the form to bend and glue the graces on the back. I started to cut the long strip on the wrong side. I fixed it, but the roughing I did was a waste, because gluing the top back on, it didn't stay straight. I should have done it the next day, instead of rushing. I'm using a catenary curve with my chain. It is similar to a radius, but you can see here what the difference is. It is the shape that bridges are, and the shape that electric lines are, and what sticks want to bend to if you push them in the middle. The back should bend right to form pushing it down in the middle.

I think.



The arch has a rise of 10 mm and is equivalent, sort of, to a 8 foot radius. That is about the same as the back of a cello with a high arch. My violins and viola go from 800, to 1200 mm radius. This is about 2400mm. I will be cool to start doing the body. I need to get some braces started. I haven't thought about that. I have bass bar stock cut, but not guitar braces. I do have wedges of spruce long enough.

The piece down the center of the back, (I can't think of what it is called) I've read to use cross grain. Where would you find a board that wide? Even this little guy is 17 inches long. Or are they glued in sections? Or was I just imagining that I read that?

Anyway, this is the form. I don't think the bottom is that crooked. It wasn't yesterday!

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For the cross-grain strip I just use an offcut from the top. Usually enough extra length.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Like Steve I use off cuts from the top. I try to join the strips at the brace locations so the strips are unbroken between the braces. If it doesn't work out that way that's O.K. too.

I cut a couple of violin wedges up, so they just need to be cut in half. I got some 1/4" thick slices for braces.



I found another piece that I think was extra big, and I got one violin off the one side already. I can't arrange it to get another, so it gave me some cross grain pieces for the center of the back. I did have to glue the frame to a piece of shelving I bought for forms. The thing bent like crazy on me. I cut wood; it bends. It's so weird. The frame looks fine now, and should work.



Now I see that the blocks are hiding in there: It's time to saw them out.



I made them so the end grain is on the side. In ten years I NEVER thought of doing that. Is it wrong?

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I had to make a pattern for the outline. I usually have a drawing that I get a copy made, and then just glue that on. I like using hardboard. This time my drawing was drawn over another plan. I don't recommend doing that. So I got out the big compass, and drew it on the hardboard, and cut it out. I just went back downstairs and wrote Stauffer 1829 on it with a fine black sharpie. You wouldn't believe how many violins I've drawn up, with no label.



So then I cut out the plates. I used a fine blade in my saw I just bought. It is a 1/0. It cut really nice; sometimes it would spurt fast, depending on the grain. It didn't quite reach the middle: missed it by that much. So I tried the finest coping saw blade I have in my big fret saw. It is a strange thing. It's nice. All aluminum. Uses straight blades, but 160mm long ones! Where do you find them? I made a couple little pieces to convert it to use regular coping saw blades, but I lost one of them a while ago. Probably ended up in the shop vac. The way it is now I have to break the end of one side of a blade to make it work. I'll see if I have a piece of aluminum to make another. I like it better than a coping saw.



So I cut the belly with the 20 tooth/inch blade in the aluminum saw. It worked pretty good, but it is a lot nastier on the bottom. A bit too aggressive. The pieces look more like guitar parts now. The back has tap tones from low E to a nice chime at high e on the guitar. The back is more even; the top is about c# and the low is maybe G. It doesn't have as many overtones. I'll play with them some. The back bends easily in the form.

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I thinned down the belly after checking the thicknesses and finding they were maybe .5mm bigger than the plan. I thinned it down about 1/2 of that, Now it is 2.5-2.75 around the edge, and 2.75-3mm in the middle. Some spots on the plan are less than that, but when the braces are on, and it is glued together as a unit, I can play with it. It is way flimsier than it was. I tried to see how much it deflected at first. Pressing down with my hands, lightly, with 1/4" strips on the ends, it wouldn't hit the table. After taking .02" or so off, I pushed down, and I was surprised that it hit the table. I found a neck block and a violin wedge, that added up to 5 pounds, and it hit the table.

Cool.

But this one has no bracing besides 2 horizontal bars above and 2 horizontal bars below the sound hole. I put the 1/4" pieces where the lowest bar will be and the one below the sound hole, and when I push down, even hard, it doesn't move much. So its seems to me, that maybe the test gets you in the ballpark? I could set up an indicator, and see what I really get. but the only way to easily do it is from underneath, at least if you want to measure the weight you put on it.

Then the bridge. This one is fairly long, not too wide, but very thin; the top of the SADDLE is only 9mm or so. Even so, it will add some stiffness. It doesn't have a bridge plate on the original. I wondered about that. Maybe a thin strip of maple to keep the strings from digging into the spruce? Thin it down to nothing at the edges?

The back is an even 3mm, about the same as the plan, and that seems fine.

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Waiting on FG rods for gluing. I decided to get the neck closer to done. I roughed out the shape, still thicker than the plan, but thinner than I've made necks before; 19.5 - 22mm across the fretboard to the neck at about the 2nd and 9th fret. I left a big radius in each end. It just seems so thin to me. I roughed out the heel some and glued it on.



The heel is set back some from the fulcrum point that is almost an inch in from the body join into the block. The extension floats over the belly. by a few mm. The fulcrum point in on the neck piece, and the heel will have the dowel hole, to keep it located, and the bolt hole to clamp it down. It is adjustable, but I can't imagine that it is adjustable on the fly. You loosen the strings, and add a shim top or bottom to accomplish what you want, and tighten the bolt back up. The heel and neck should both be up against wood; not just held by screw tension.



It was the first time I used a 1/16 drill, and a couple 1/16 pins to locate the fretboard in place. It worked great for cutting out the neck, and I'll use it for gluing so it doesn't move.



I started to saw the outline and was a bit shocked. How in the world do I even stand up without falling over?

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I put the go bar deck on the ceiling. I forgot to mark which side was front. Now it's marked. It is a tight fit, my wife doesn't like when it goes on. For some reason, even though the corners are the same height, it ended up crooked. But it needed feet under the table instead of the rollers, so it would be more stable, so I made the one side taller than the other. I cut and assembled the fiberglass rods, and cut up some wooden ones, out of a mostly clear 2x4.



This is a test run. It works good! I can walk all around it. It seems like the back is pressed all the way down on the form. It holds with pressure, but not enough to squeeze all the glue out. Now I can glue the braces on.



I forgot that I have to put the rosette in the belly, and cut the sound hole before I glue the bracing on! It will have the same pattern as the outside edge on the belly. So before I can make the rosette, I have to make up that binding thicknessing tool that was shown here on the forum a while ago. I want the padauk band to be at least somewhat close to the same as the outside; I'm using that as the binding on the top. The other pieces are store bought.

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I trimmed the braces on the back. the plan said the center brace was about 20mm tall. That's all that it said. I tuned it along each bar and started by roughing it out like a violin bass bar. I use an exponential regression; or something like that. Measure the height in the center, and add the thickness of the plate. 1/4 of the distance to the end divide it by 1.11. Then take that, and for each 1/4 more multiply by 1.11 squared, 1.11 cubed, and 1.11 to the fourth. It turns out that it tuned up at close to the numbers.





I think it is easier to tune the bar sideways than lengthwise. I've always wondered about thinning the top of the bar. I tapped it, and then tapered the sides of one bar. Either I imagine it, or it gets brighter and livelier. Cool. I did all of them, and then tapped it from center to edge again, and trimmed down high spots, and tapered them again. It seems good enough.

Now holding it on the center brace and tapping the lower bout at the edge, I hear a low rubbling A an octave below the 5th string. Everywhere you hold it, and tap it you get different sounds. I have no idea what any modes would be on it.

I was disappointed when the long arch disappeared when the clamps came off. The center ones do actually WORK though. Fitting the upper block, the form wasn't flat enough, and I ended up splitting the center seam. Even thick CA seeps into these pores.

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