Newbie with a project

[nnickusa]

Hi to all the members here. I hope I'm not posting in the wrong place, and I very much think that I am not in the same league as the rest of you...But, I am in the process of making an acoustic guitar, as my beloved wife gave me a book, which included plans for an OM guitar, and either a pile of kindling or the basic timbers for said guitar..

As this is my first visit here, I won't ask the questions I need answered just yet, rather, hoping it's not bad form, I'll post a link to the thread I started on another forum I visit, whish will show you where I am with the project, and hopefully get your collective opinion on what I'm doing....

I will say that I have never done anything like this before, though I am very conversant with woodworking, and have substituted many of the tools and techn iques to suit my tool kit.....

BTW, the top is Bunya, the back and sides Qld Maple with rosewood bindings, etc..

I hope you all enjoy this little visit into my current obsession...

Best regards to all,
Nick from Brunswick Heads(Byron Bay)

http://www.ibanezcollectors.com/forum/i ... 830.0.html

[kiwigeo]

Welcome to the forum Nick. Looks like you're making good progress on the guitar. I'cm a bit puzzled as to what your plans are for the MOP...you mention using it for bindings in your last post on the Ibanez forum??

Cheers Martin

[nnickusa]

Hi Martin, and thanks for the welcome...and the complement.

I've just been reading thru a few of the threads here, and I'm a little embarassed to bring my project to your attention, given the quality of the work you all do....

No, I meant that the MOP is to be the purfling for the soundboard. You can see the channel left in the last photo of the top on my link.

That stuff is the devil's own playmate to cut, especially since my eyesight at 300 mm is a but sussed these days...

Tomorrow, the restaurant is shut so I have more time to devote to tryinmg to figure this part out...

Cheers,
Nick

[J.F. Custom]

Since when did Brunswick Heads become Byron Bay ??

Everything is 'proximity to Byron' now... I'll have to advertise my house - "Only 1642km's from Byron's doorstep..."

Welcome to this corner of the world Nick and good luck with your build.

(poor bastard doesn't know what he's begun )

[woodrat]

Hi Nick, Welcome to the forum. I checked out the link and your project looks great. Your woodworking chops sure are very good:)

Take Care

John

[nnickusa]

Thanks for the welcome, and Brunswick Heads is most definitely NOT Byron Bay, but is also not too well known---and we like it like that.

In my 8 years here, I've been to Byron Bay 20 times, and once in the past 5. It's a dump, but the council here thinks its paradise...beh...

Bruns is really a nice town, and I love living here, but am getting ready to leave for Melbourne in a year or two...Pretty boring for a New York City boy...The wife's from Sydney and ready to leave after 14 years too....

And thanks, for the compliment Joihn....I like what you all have here, and hope to stick around for awhile...Not that I'm obsessed, but I've bought a B&S set of Tassie Blackwood, along with a nicely figured neck blank, and a reclaimed cedar top set for the next project

Cheers,
Nick

[Clancy]

Not that I'm obsessed, but I've bought a.....

Another one well & truly hooked

Welcome to the madness Nick.

[Nick]

From one Nick to another, welcome to the forum & as Jeremy said.....you poor bastard this 'hobby' can get quite addictive with time seeming to become inconsequential when you are in the middle of something & it can be more expensive to feed this habit than a coccaine habit if it truly bites you . WAS (or Wood Aquisition Syndrome) is inccurable once you have it & you may find yourself with enough stacks of thin strips of very pretty woods to put the local timber yard to shame.
This is a good place to air any questions you have and there is a vast pool of knowledge to drink from here! Just remember, there are no stupid questions only stupid answers (and you'll get a few of those here too! Probably mostly from me ) and any questions you may have, somebody else may come along wanting the answer to the same question so it all adds to the forum's depth of knowledge & remember that the search button is a useful place to start looking for answers.

[kiwigeo]

No, I meant that the MOP is to be the purfling for the soundboard. You can see the channel left in the last photo of the top on my link.

That stuff is the devil's own playmate to cut, especially since my eyesight at 300 mm is a but sussed these days...

Ok Im with you now Nick. I did an abalone inlay around the soundholes of a couple of my steel strings. I did a full mock up setout of the inlay on a plastic cutting board first. I routed the cutting board with the channel and then shaped each piece of abalone to fit in the channel. The abalone segments were rough cut using a jewellers saw and then sanded to final shape on a bench mounted disc/belt sander for the outside radius and a homemade sanding wheel in my drill press for the inside radius. Once I was happy with the set out I used the channel routed in the cutting board to set up the circle cutting jig on the router.

[Trevor Gore]

Welcome Nick!

Now, err, how's your humidity control going?

[auscab]

Hi Nick ,
Welcome to the forum.. I enjoyed having a good look through your thread , your using the same book I used for my first build, finished mine one year back..

Plenty of experts here Nick as well as beginners, and I think the place thrives on the problem solving and pictures that people put up , for a 1st build or a 95th . so fire away.

I like the look of your timbers, and your doing mop purfling.
It’s a great experience , tuning up strings for the first time. On a guitar you made with your own hands.
Good luck with it.

[nnickusa]

Thanks again everyone. Today was a MFer. I rough cut the purflings out of the MOP blanks and then final shaped then with my dremel and a sanding drum on it. Took about 6 hours, thiogh the end got better...As with everything each time you do it it gets a bit easier.

I wanted the MOP because I think it looks a little more elegant than paua....just me. Haven't had time to upload the pix yet, but will do in the morning.

Ummmmm...humidity. To be honest, I hadn't thought too much about that either. All is ib the laps of the gods, I'm afraid.....All good so far, but time will tell....
I do have one question re: finishing. I have a litre of linseed oil(neat) and wonder of that can be used like truoil? I'd be interested to know what the magical extra oils are that create truoil, but I'm sure they wouldn't tell me. Seems a shame to not use that oil..

I own an Italian place, and used it to finish my pizzacaster, and MC Pizza. Pizza paddles that are a bit unusual....pix follow, if I can figure it out....

As to funds, I've had GAS for years, so likely have a few funding options

008 (Small).JPG (64.35 KiB) Viewed 22460 times

mc pizza 002 (Medium).JPG (99.3 KiB) Viewed 22460 times

[seeaxe]

that would be a thinline tele on the left???.................

Welcome Nick, I enjoyed your build pages.

BTW, If you dont want to stress over sanding little bits of MOP you could buy the stuff ready cut from Australian Mother of Pearl in WA.. They do arange of sizes and radii.

Cheers and good luck

Richard

[woodrat]

G'day Nick....Humidity is not something you should leave in the "lap of the Gods"... I think that Trevors question was based on your location and the fact that he could see an open shed door....If the guitar was built in high humidity then the guitar needs to be protected from low humidity. Things to be wary (aware) of are... winter time if you have a wood heater especially... even on the coast they can rob a house of moisture and cause major grief to acoustic guitars. I would be purchasing a device to be able to make sure the guitar does not dry out...that is if it was built in high humidity...perhaps you could cast your mind back to when you braced the top and back and when you closed the box as they are the critical times for the guitar as you lock the plates in a relationship with the atmospheric conditions. That really should have been conducted in an environment where the RH was in the region of 45% and the wood stabilized in those conditions prior to the gluning for at lease a couple of days . I think that Jonathan Kinkaid in the book you have does write a paragraph or two on humidity.
I hope its all ok for you re the humidity

John

[J.F. Custom]

Hey Nick.

Not Linseed Oil in either pure or pure boiled form, IMO. It is too heavy and does not ever dry or set as hard as other oils do. It may seem like it does, but the next hot humid weather and it's sticky again. Save that for your cricket bats...

Tru-Oil is a blend many have had good results with, but not the only option. There are other oils/blends/brands that are better than Linseed and possibly similar to Tru-oil. Tung oil is better and many blends are based on that. It's natural, non-toxic, penetrates well and dries hard. Lemon or Orange oils and other nut oils are often used in blends. A brand called Organoil does a "Hard Burnishing Oil" that to the best of my knowledge is a blend of Tung, Citrus and Eucalyptus - it can be burnished up with plenty of arm work to a semi gloss.

I think it's a bit much to assume humidity is going to be on the mind of someone building their first instrument, from a kit. That's not to suggest it shouldn't be brought to Nick's attention, but perhaps a bit much to expect it has been built in a humidity controlled environment.

That said Nick, it is probably safe to assume due to your location and the wet weather you have been experiencing in weeks past, that the humidity was quite high. You may certainly run into trouble in the long run as a result - particularly if you move to Melbourne where hot dry summers are likely, as well as houses with either fire places or central heating. The low humidity found in these situations will cause your timber to shrink = high risk of it cracking. Too late to change anything now, but John's mention of humidity regulators is worth investigation for you. The simplest go in the case with your guitar and release moisture into the direct atmosphere of the instrument, preventing it getting too dry there.

Jeremy.

[Kamusur]

Yep, another one bites the dust.

Steve

[Trevor Gore]

Ummmmm...humidity. To be honest, I hadn't thought too much about that either. All is ib the laps of the gods, I'm afraid.....All good so far, but time will tell....

Sorry to be the harbinger of woe on that one, Nick. Trouble is, assembling at the wrong RH is one of the few things that is almost impossible to recover from. On the East Coast, here, we can get some wild swings, but it has been pretty high consistently for the last few weeks. One of those "hair dyer" westerlies with RH < 20% would be a killer. So it would be wise to investigate those guitar case humidifiers and always use one. Most of the recent "build" books at least mention humidity, but perhaps not with the emphasis and dire warnings it deserves. For the next one (there is always a next one...) there's plenty of advice available, some of it hard earned, from the people here on the forum.

[nnickusa]

Point well taken on the humidity. I did take note of the mention in the book, and was careful to do that work in a dry period. Trouble is we have no AC, as we don't really use it. Our house is designed to stay cool in the heat.....I will most definitely invest in a case humidifier, and keep her in there. I'll also locate somewhere/way to addreaa the issue next time(s?) around. I intend to continue making a few of these. It's really enjoyable.

I also bought the MOP cheap, and figured I'd give it a try. I really wanted it to look goood, so I took my time, and fit each piece to the guitar as I went....I'll be finishing it back soon, and hope it comes up well.

I guess, I ought to have looked for you guys first, but actually found the forum when looking for finishing options, not that I'm there yet....

Linseed oil=NO. OK, I did find truoil for about 12 bucks on a gun site. Tung Oil is also available. Is it OK to use the Tung Oil from, say Bunnings, or is there a special formula for that too?

Another option I was contemplating was French Polish, Which is available in a kit from ALS. Has anyone used that with good result?

The Tele is a takeoff from my MIJ 52 RI, The MC Pizza from my 78 Ibanez MC 200....

[Tod Gilding]

Hi Nick,
I have used Tung Oil on a couple guitars and find it a very easy finish,Some of the Tung Oils sold through hardware stores have a lot of additives like poly, better to use a natural one, Howards in Tamworth sell a good one online called Orange Tung Oil, Just Tung oil with orange oil to thin it, that said, I have just finished my current build with french polish and was amazed just how easy it was to get a great finish, I used the advice and formula given in Trevors books,small bucket of shellac flakes from bunny's and a bottle of Metho, fantastic results.

Cheers

[Alastair]

Hi All,

Before I got involved in guitars, I had found this link, which I used to teach myself the art.

One of the best I have found.

http://www.milburnguitars.com/

[kiwigeo]

I have just finished my current build with french polish and was amazed just how easy it was to get a great finish, I used the advice and formula given in Trevors books,small bucket of shellac flakes from bunny's and a bottle of Metho, fantastic results.

Cheers

He he...the first FP job is always a breeze. The next few jobs are where you discover the real nature of French Polishing

[Tod Gilding]

Come On Martin, Spill The Beans. What am I missing with this FP.

I just used a thin mix ( I think it was thinner than normal ) and kept rubbing on coats. Job came up perfect.

[nnickusa]

Trying not to be a pest here, but I've reached a point--humidity issues aside--that scares the bejeezus out of me. I've made jigs for the dovetails joint on this guitar, as that's what the book calls for, and what it's set up for now. My test pieces have a nice tight fit, after fine tuning...and I've got the neck angle sorted by following the book.

Now, how do I convince myself to actually do it? I suppose the worst that can happen is that I start using the new stuff I've bought and have a marshmallow roast in the chiminea tomorrow night, but it is most definitely a daunting prospect......

Well, the morning will see it done.

Another question is, how many of you guys use dovetails and how many other methods for the neck joint?

Thanks in advance, and help me get thru this step. The rest doesn't look so terrifying

[auscab]

Before I did mine, one of the best things I watched was this clip on Youtube, By John Hall. This is part one of a two part clip, and is for after the routing is finished.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3YJh9OT4mw

[kiwigeo]

Before I did mine, one of the best things I watched was this clip on Youtube, By John Hall. This is part one of a two part clip, and is for after the routing is finished.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3YJh9OT4mw

Excellent series of clips in which John explains it all.....thanks Rob.