What's On Your Bench?

jb2060 · Post by **jb2060** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 9:54 pm

On my Bench - I am close to finishing the latest guitar. The guitar has been sprayed with acid cat lacquer and I have just cut it back and polished it. I have also added a coat of hard canuba wax for protection. I will post some finished pics when done.

Hesh1956 · Post by **Hesh1956** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 10:19 pm

Wow Jason that guitar and it's finish are looking excellent! I just watched Santana on the tube (tube is kind of a term of the past that does not apply well to today's TV's....) last night and he was playing a green PRS Santana model that the color looked exactly like what you have there.

Very nice work M8.

Sister Lillian your guitar is looking fantastic!!! Scrapers do make for sore fingers and hands here at Heshtone too...

As such I try to keep my scrapers as sharp as possible so that they do the majority of work and I am only present for the event...

jb2060 · Post by **jb2060** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 10:36 pm

Thanks very much Hesh, I am really happy with the finish on this one. The green-ness of the finish changes a lot depending on the lighting. I mixed a bit of blue to get the malachite colour. I am going to go and search for that Santana video now - probably on You"Tube"

Lillian · Post by **Lillian** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 2:07 am

Jason, that's gorgeous. And it does look like malachite.

Hesh, yeah, I know that is another skill set I have to work on. Getting the edges very sharp and stopping to resharpen when they start to get dull. I've gotten better about stopping to sharpen, but the damage was done with that first big session and now I'm limping along trying to get it done while trying to not use my thumb so it can heal. I've had to go back to regular mice for my computers and put the thumb balls away. I'll be placing an order Lee Valley soon. Part of it is going to be a few extra scrapers so I can have several to use and not be tempted to go a bit longer before I stop and resharpen the one I'm using.

Allen · Post by **Allen** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 5:52 am

Wow, thats simply gorgeous! I saw the first picture, and wondered what the heck it was. Scrolling through the images was a bit like opening a present. Great photos, and beautiful work. Thanks for sharing.

Paul B · Post by **Paul B** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 8:34 am

Hesh; is that the blistered sapele from Don Williams? I'm working on it's sister set if it is.

Lillian; nice work. That's a good colour combo. I've done one using the same colour palette - you have good taste.

Jason; that green thing just rocks!

rocket · Post by **rocket** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 3:24 pm

wow jase, fantastic finish, it's gonna look great with the fit off.

Hesh1956 · Post by **Hesh1956** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 10:49 pm

Jason the Santana concert was recent and recorded at the Filmore but I don't know if it's on YouTube.

Paul yes it's sapele but I have no idea where this set came from...

I usually write on my wood notes so that I can remember but somehow I didn't do that this time....

Rod True · Post by **Rod True** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 5:15 am

This is what is on my bench. I started it at the end of July so I've cooked through it pretty fast.

This is a gift for my father in law. It's his 60th birthday. It was sort of a colaborative effort by me, my wife, her brothers and sister and our kids (grandkids). Each one came to the shop and did something on the guitar. The kids helped glue in the liners, shaped some braces with my ibex plane. My sister in law did the rosette. One of my brother in laws made the bridge etc... It's been a lot of fun. Final set up will be tomorrow. It gets presented this Friday.

This is based off a 1927 Gibson Nic Lucus Special, thanks to Tim McKnight for the body tracing. Scale is 25.6 with 14 frets to the body.
A first for me is the sound port. I'm very excitted to hear what this brings to a guitar as I've never heard a guitar with one before.

Here are the specs:
Cuban Mahogany B&S
Adi Top and braces compliments of Hesh (thanks buddy! Great top) which came from the ANZLF group buy last year some time.
Tazzie Blackwood fretboard, headstock veneer, bindings, tail wedge and bridge.
Cuban Mahogany rosette with b/m/b purfling lines (same for top and back purflings).
One piece Hondo Mahogany neck with Allied truss rod and CF reinforcing bars.

There is very little 'finish' on the guitar right now as I was running out of time. Just 3 seal coats of shellac, not even the pores are filled. I will finish it at some other time, when Dad is ready to give it back

Here are the pics.

Some non-bench shots

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 5:31 am

Nice job Rod, your father in law is going to be one happy camper. The timbers together sure look puuurdy! The bindings are a nice subtle contrast too without being at the complete opposite end of the scale, they work well.I like the body shape too, has that jumbo rounded bottom thing going on without the physical size of a jumbo.

Allen · Post by **Allen** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 5:39 am

There's some inspiration to pull out some of that same Adi that we got in the group buy. Nice birthday present the father-in-law is getting Rod.

Hesh1956 · Post by **Hesh1956** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 5:47 am

I've been wondering where you were Rod my friend and now I can see that you have not been spending your time on adultsheepfinder.com.

(reference to current thread in the "anything goes" section)

Your latest guitar is absolutely killer in every way! Your Dad is going to love it I am sure. The blackwood fretboard and bridge really look cool too.

Great job my friend!

Joe Sustaire · Post by **Joe Sustaire** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 11:53 pm

Beautiful build Rod!!!
What a great gift from the family, over the top. I love the shape also!

Joe

Kim · Post by **Kim** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 12:59 am

Lillian,

Good to see you progressing sure and steady this will be a great guitar when your done and the next should roll right off the line now you have most the jigs and tooling done.

Jason,

That is a cracker of a finish bud, awesome work.

Rod,

Must agree with the general consensus, that really is one sweet guitar.

Cheers

Kim

Mark McLean · Post by **Mark McLean** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 5:52 am

A beautiful package Rod. I recently made a Nick Lucas and I love the design. I am sure your Dad is going to think it is very special.
Mark

Taffy Evans · Post by **Taffy Evans** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 6:25 am

Very nice so far Rod, I agree with all the others comments too. I've just finished a guitar that has had a heap of family input, bit of a worry at times.
Very nice gift, one happy pappy coming up.

Lillian · Post by **Lillian** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 12:05 pm

Sweet looking guitar Rod. Good on you for allowing everyone to help and for them doing such a great job. Remember to take pictures at the party that you can post. Isn't that the best part of building, watching their face light up when they realize it's theirs?

Thanks Kim. I'm hoping to drastically cut the build time for the next one.

Rod True · Post by **Rod True** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 1:43 pm

Thank you all for your well wishes and comment. I put string on it tonight, tomorrow I will do the final set up, but for right now, it sure sounds great. I really like this little guitar alot.

Oh, and totally rude of me to not comment on the other great stuff happening on other people's benches.

Lillian, great to see where your guitar is at. You will so enjoy it when it's finished. You're really getting there! Well Done.

Allen, those ukes are awesome looking. I'm thinking I should build a couple but I don't know how to play one

Jason, that is one amazing looking axe you got there. Tell us more about the polishing procedure please. Is that one of those hand drill buffers from Stew Mac? I need to get me a couple of those. Buffing by hand really sucks.

Hesh, thanks again for that adi top and bracing. This is my first spruce topped guitar (completed to date that is) and I have to say that I really am liking the sound and look of a spruce gutiar. I think I'll have to make me another of these L-00, maybe with a black Lutz top

I'd probably go with sapelle for the b&s though.

Arnt · Post by **Arnt** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 6:23 am

Nothing you haven't seen before here, but since I made it and took some pictures, I thought I'd show and tell...

It's a neck / body mortise jig, nothing fancy, in fact I should be ashamed of how shoddy it looks, but it works! Until now I have cut both neck tenons and neck block mortises on the table saw, but I have wanted to make a jig for routing these for a long time. Finally took the time to make one, and I based it on versions I've seen on the net and in books over the years. I made it out of scraps as usual, in this case I had some leftover OSB but I used some nice birch plywood for the routing templates. There is one template for the neck and one for the body. On the fixture I glued a strip of wood that matches the neck's truss rod channel, and it lines the neck up porperly in relation to the tenon template (not pictured).

Here it is, with the body mortise template and a guitar about to be routed:

Front:

Back:

I made the template from prefectly square pieces of plywood, and routed the slots on the router table, registering the work piece from both sides against the fence to make sure that the slots were symmetical and centered. The jig itself was build around the templates, so there is no play between the parts. Routing is done with a rub collar in a laminate trimmer and a downcut carbide bit.

obmit · Post by **obmit** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 1:45 pm

What to do

Building my Kasha tenor.

Should I use a rosette or should i not? I wont be able to hide the rosette join!

Cheers

Tim

jb2060 · Post by **jb2060** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 8:30 pm

Rod True wrote:
Jason, that is one amazing looking axe you got there. Tell us more about the polishing procedure please. Is that one of those hand drill buffers from Stew Mac? I need to get me a couple of those. Buffing by hand really sucks.

Hi Rod,

Thanks - Yes it is a Stewmac buffer and I use the stewmac swirl remover for the mildest of cut. I used to buff by hand but it took a great deal of effort to get a really good shine. It is also important to wet and dry at 1200 and 1500 to get a better quality finish.

jb2060 · Post by **jb2060** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 8:33 pm

Hesh1956 wrote:Jason the Santana concert was recent and recorded at the Filmore but I don't know if it's on YouTube.

Thanks Hesh, I found a couple of clips on youtube with him playing the guitar you mentioned - it must have been from that Filmore concert - very nice!

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