KB Pine/Blackwood OOO

[Stephen Kinnaird]

So here we go again, trying to report on a little guitar that we're doing w/ (almost) all Ozzie timbers. Our own illustrious Bob sent me a King Billy Pine top to test drive and report back on.
The back and sides came from Tim Spittle...as did the Tiger Myrtle used for rosette, bridge and headplate. My contribution is the mahog and Koa lam for neck, as well as Sitka brace material.

Here goes:
1st, a view of the top, and our bracing solution. This is the floppiest top to come through our shop, which doesn't disqualify it, but presents more of a challenge in bracing. Based upon Bob's success with a double "X" we followed suit, and here's the result:

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Let me show the rosette, which is from a nice piece of Tiger Myrtle Timmy supplied. Bordered by pale red ab, which is a nice color match, but I began to regret the choice when putting it all around the top as purfling:

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More soon, and thanks for watching,

Steve

[Lillian]

Let me show the rosette, which is from a nice piece of Tiger Myrtle Timmy supplied. Bordered by pale red ab, which is a nice color match, but I began to regret the choice when putting it all around the top as purfling:

Steve

Why the regret Steve? Cost, bling or both?


I love what you're showing so far. I think its going to be stunning under finish.

[Craig]

I agree with Lillian . Looks great to me. The colour of the Ab. seems to suit . In my opinion a more colouful Ab. ( Paua etc ) would be all too much next to the Tiger Myrtle.

Is that the Zipflex product Steve ?

[Bob Connor]

Real luthiers don't use zipfllex Craig.

Looks like the real deal to me and I reckon Steve is alluding to the fact that matching up one inch pieces of shell around a guitar is a very time consuming job.

[Craig]

Real luthiers don't use zipfllex Craig.

Of course they don't . My humble apologies Steve ,,,,,,,,It's all Horst's fault

[Stephen Kinnaird]

Yes, allow me to explain myself:
Bob is right, that's solid shell. I like the color just fine, and really don't begrudge the labor of installation. It's just SO hard to make the joints invisible on pale-colored pearl. Everything shows. Also, the color matching becomes hyper crytical, and that's what takes as much time as anything else.
When leveled, I've found the colors shifting, and at times surprisingly.

I'll snap a pic in a bit, and show you what I mean.

Thanks for the kind words all,

Steve

[Stephen Kinnaird]

A bit more--

Here we are gluing back braces on, using a 15' radius dish:

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Gluing in the linings:

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Closing the box with a modest assortment of clamps:

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Cheers,

Steve

[Stephen Kinnaird]

Someone once said there are some great woods down under.
So, so true.
Here's the back of this guitar:

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Had to turn it sideways to get the site to accept it...interesting. Anyway, you will recognize the Tasmanian Blackwood back (thank you Tim) but might enjoy knowing that the binding/back strip is also Blackwood--just its sapwood (thank you Bob).


View of the body w/ the back bindings being installed. You can get the idea of the composition here.

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And this last shot is of the butt wedge, and the single black line of purfling:

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Cheers all,

Steve

[Kim]

Three words Steve,

Crisp, Clean & Classy

Cheers

Kim

[PHANTOM]

Another great looking guitar as always mate. I always look forward to seeing what you are up to and it never disappoints.

[Stephen Kinnaird]

Kim, thanks, gracias and obrigado mate!
Phantom, you too! Kind words are a real treat from the Southern Hemisphere.

Ok, a couple more shots of this guitar.
First up is a rather evocative shot--I particularly like the light in this photo--gluing on the top bindings with a view of the teflon strip sandwiched where the pearl will go:

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And here's one that you might get a kick out of. This is our brace-deflection-testing-jig.
It's pretty straight-forward. Brace is cut to a given dimension (all of them are), put in the little trough, "one pipe wrench" of weight is applied, and the dial gauge measures the deflection.
This is handy if you want to pair siff brace material with floppier tops. And this KBP top got the stiffest braces in our shop.

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Thanks again,

Steve

[Stephen Kinnaird]

Continuing on!

Here's a few shots of neck construction. The usual practice depicted here, a gob-o-clamps.
Alternated to more evenly distribute clamping forces:

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The neck will be mahogany with a center lam of Koa. (Plus some black veneers.)
This particular piece of Koa has some sapwood, so the thought was that it might better match the sapwood bindings.

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And once the top surface (fretboard surface) is planed straight, we thickness the back of the shaft using our safety planer:

Neck3 Sm.jpg (58.81 KiB) Viewed 29421 times

Thanks again,

Steve

[Dominic]

Steve, I have a nice KB top waiting to be used. So I am following your build choices with great interest. Its looking really nice so far.
Cheers
Dom

[Steve]

Steve - from the pictures, you laminate after your neck is cut to roughly to the right shape. How do you go about getting the cut surfaces on the neck dead-flat, prior to gluing? These pieces go through the drum sander?
Steve

[Stephen Kinnaird]

Dom, thanks mate! You realize that it's you Aussies that have me inspired, right?

Steve, let me see if I can answer your question:

I do rough out the pieces to approximate shape, and then worry about the faces that glue to each other (the lamination joints). Sometimes the jointer, sometimes the thickness planer. Those joints need to be spot-on. I don't count on the black veneer to hide sloppy joinery, because that will come back to haunt you down the road! I have had wonderful success with my Performax thickness sander with this step, making the edges of the pieces parallel to each other.

Cheers,

Steve

[Steve]

Thanks Steve - that does answer it. I have been pondering the method lately & was wondering how people get it done with a stacked heel. I had been contemplating laminating the flat board, but wasn't confident that I could manage to line up the laminations at the scarf joint. I'm going to give the drum sander a go.
Steve

[Stephen Kinnaird]

Steve, good luck with those neck lams, mate.

Ok, here's a pic showing the neck fitting process.
And no, we don't work on our backs around here, just had to rotate the pic to show it.
New program doesn't like vertical shots for some reason?

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You can see the composition and color palette. Tiger myrtle rosette and headstock overlay.
Any one want to take a guess on the fretboard?

Cheers,

Steve

[Ronald_Handmade]

Native olive perhaps?

[Bob Connor]

Mulga

[DarwinStrings]

You just pop that guitar in the post to me Steve and I will have a guess at the fret board. My apologies in advance for Australia post taking so long to return it to you though.

Jim

[Stephen Kinnaird]

Hey! We're back on our feet again! Thanks to whoever set us straight.
And yes, Bob is right, that is some lovely Mulga from Tim S.
It just fit the color so well, and it's hard as granite.

Steve

[Stephen Kinnaird]

Yours truly working on the bindings.
These Blackwood strips are SO curly that care had to be taken with the scraping process.
Then, at the end, only sanding could level them to the sides...so here's that shot.

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Now, some bridge work. Trying to stay with Aussie timbers, we settled on Tiger Myrtle for the bridge. Perhaps a bit light, but we'll see how it turns out. Here it is in a lineup of this year's bridge collection:

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By itself:

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Weighing in. This is the lightest bridge we've made, at a modest 26 grams. Next lightest bridge--at least in this batch--is the Macassar bridge behind it at 35 grams. I will be interested to see just how quick the attack on this guitar will be, not to mention sustain.

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Cheers,

Steve

[Stephen Kinnaird]

Few more shots, assorted things:

First up, sawing the Tiger myrtle overlay to establish the nut slot.
We place the nut on the peghead plane instead of the fretboard plane, which of course means that the bottom of the nut must be angled to match that angle of the peghead. This is first ground onto the nut at the belt sander, and then this wooden guide holds the thin saw at the vertical (its face is angled to match the vertical plane of the nut). Man I hope that makes sense.
Anyway, here's the shot:

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Here's the finished slot. To really clean the bottom of the slot--where the nut will sit--a piece of self-stick sand paper is carefully fitted to the bottom of the nut blank. Which is then slid sideways, sanding/leveling the floor of the slot. Also shows some of the lovely TM that Tim sent:

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Lastly, carving of the neck is complete, and here is the coat of Danish oil used to darken/tone the mahogany. It kills the pink, and brings an amber hue to the neck which will better match the Blackwood. Also, it really makes the curls of the center Koa lam *pop*.

Thanks for watching,

Steve

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[liam_fnq]

Very nice Stephen. I'm very impressed with the way the fretboard purfs match up with the headstock purfs.

What sort of final finish is going on the neck. Have you had any dramas with adhesion over the danish oil.

[P Bill]

Very fine work Stephen .Very tastey indeed.