Official Luthiers Forum!

Hello all,

I know I've been here on and off for a long time now and nowhere near as experienced as I should be but I have an excuse: I've been raising and advocating for a young man with severe autism. I could write a book but I won't drag you down that rabbit hole.

Suffice it to say, I've been dealing with sleep deprivation and PTSD for a while and this tinkering thing has been both a diversion and sometimes a distraction. Now that said young man is grown and living in a group home (don't worry, I visit him twice a week) and I'm looking to make it the next act in my life.

Along the past 15 years I've completed two builds, bought a lot of tools, made and bought a lot of jigs, patched up one guitar and currently have two builds in progress and another repair on my workbench. This thread will now be focused on the first of these two builds, a Martin 000-28V inspired build in black walnut/sitka which has a bit of a story of its own. Here's where I am with it after 10 years on and off - though the bulk of the work was done last year with this year being catch up after a mistake that I'll get into in due course. I'm in the final phases (currently French polishing it and shimming the dovetail joint) with hopes of stringing it up once the winter weather breaks.

So this build technically began in 2009 when I kicked off my first build when I was gifted with a neck. It’s a second from Martin and is a 24.9” scale single piece mahogany neck with a dovetail and a diamond volute. It’s also 1-13/16” at the nut, making this a vintage series neck best suited to a 000-28V or 000-28EC. In 2019 I bought a slotted ebony fingerboard from LMI and inlaid notched MOP diamonds in it. I also bound it with flamed maple binding. Finally, I put a bookmatched ziricote faceplate on it then installed Grover Sta-Tite tuners.

Also that year I bought a set of black walnut from RC Tonewoods and put a zig zag backstop on it. Then I traced my Larrivee OM-03R, made a mold and cut out the back plate:

My first real screwup came when I made my own drum sander then went overboard with thickness sanding it. I made the top way too floppy. I ended up using it as a template for the following tops - yes, this guitar is on its THIRD top.

I mentioned building and buying my own jigs. At some point t somebody gave me a photocopy of LMI’s Fox style side bender which I made from plywood made with a little Ryobi band saw that they also donated to me. I also bought a router table and a flush cut router bit which I used to make both the bending forms and outside molds. This was actually more fun than working with the Tonewoods, which stresses me out sometimes.

I also made my own gobar deck a few years back. It cost me about $60 in materials. I put a piece of bead board under the top and used a cable routing kit from Harbor Freight fir the flexible rods.

I’m skipping ahead because you all know the process well enough. Binding is my least favorite part of the build. Space and budget are two of my major concerns so I also made my own binding router jig. I did splurge on the Bosch router itself though.

What I lack is dust collection so I roll the free standing work bench into my garage and out into the driveway. That’s where I rout and sand. Last April while routing out a botched herringbone purfling the body got pulled out of my hands and pile driven on to my driveway. It was a sickening moment that set back the build over a year.

Here's what my setup looks like for doing the dirty work. I do have a Shop Vac but all it does is blow the dust around. For the drum sander I bought a corded drill from Harbor Freightthat has a lock for the trigger so that I can keep it on. The expensive part of the drum sander was actually the bearings and steel rod but it was still much less than a basic Jet drum sander. The biggest challenge is passing it underneath by hand.

I thought I could save the top but figured it was beyond me so I opted to just replace the top as carefully as I could. I’m sure Stewmac sells a nice pricey jig and iron setup but necessity is the mother of invention as they say.

So I ordered a new spruce top amd bracing billet set and two months later the new top was ready to go on. Ironically (no pun intended) I feel like the bracing and rosette came out better than top number two. Top 1 IIYR never got braced or installed, Top 2 had a Stewmac herringbone rosette with BWB outer rings. Top 3 just has black outer rings like my Martin D-16GT has. I like it for its simplicity. The new top also has less runout. Finally, the lap joint on the third top is a much better fit. Number two's bracing was preshaped that I bought from the Guitar Maker's Connection.

Of course, I was right where I last went off the rails so I rethought the process a bit. I hate power tools for the most part so at some point over the past few years I bought a purfling tool meant for violins but it came in handy here for creating a pilot cut. I still used the router but not as extensively.

This is the second build that I used flamed maple for the binding and this was the second set so I'm happy with how it turned out. I admit that the binding jig doesn't create a square ledge so I had to get creative with black purfling to address the gaps. I'm happy with how it turned out:

I've been linking smaller resolution sized images but every image I've taken since is still full size and too big to post here. I have posted several videos on my YouTube channel though. Here's the latest where I started French polishing it.

https://youtu.be/SE0agLWJWJw

Just as I was starting this process the weather started to get colder and the furnace has started to run more, drying out the air in my house. I have a humidifier on the duct return but the RH still drops to below 40% so they told me it was time to get a case for this. Fortunately, I also got an email from Martin (I registered my D-16GT to be in the owners club) and was notified that the 1833 Shop was having a sale on B quality cases for a ridiculously low price. After pulling the trigger on the 000 size case it came to my home and it fits this guitar like a glove.

Presently I’m still working on the neck set. I bought a jig to check the centerline, a StewMac saddle matic and have a good straight edge and action measuring card so all the angles look good. It’s just that the tenon is only about 98% tight (probably because of the low RH) so when I try to clamp down the fretboard to the top the heel pops out. I’ve been adding shims of mahogany veneer but we’re talking about less than half a millimeter tolerance. This is my first dovetail joint so I’m not fully up on the tolerances but it won’t do to have the neck pop off if I pick the guitar up by it. Once I have that all resolved I'll start French polishing the top.

There's still a bit of work to do though; I have to shape the saddle and nut and slot the latter. Up to this point this has been more of a woodworking project but I'm admittedly weak on actually setting up my guitars. I wish there was a class I could take but am tempted to ask my local guitar shop if their tech could walk me through it. Somehow I don't think they'd want to though!

Hey Neil

Thanks for posting! It's always fun to see how different folks break into the guitar making adventure. We've all been through the process of figuring out a plan and all the jigs and fixtures.

Then come all the refinements to technique and the process.

Good luck finishing what you have going and post updates along the way.

Brian

_________________
Brian R, Wood Mechanic
N8ZED

Thanks!

I'm currently about 8 sessions into French polishing it. Pore filling could've gone a little better. I use pumice powder with the attitude that "less is more" because I don't want it to show up as white. FWIW each layer is coming out more smoothly. I was using too much oil at first but padded it with denatured alcohol and sanded it smooth. Now I only use 1-2 drops of oil then go back afterward and spirit it off with more denatured alcohol. I know that I'll have to wet sand it again and undo that gloss in order to get a more mirror like surface. This is when having OCD pays off I guess.



This is my first with a dovetail joint but the neck and neck block both came from Martin so that part is like a kit. I haven't glued it together but there's good enough contact to lock it in and hang it (2nd from the right) with all the rest of my guitars while it dries after each session.