duh Travel Guitar

[duh Padma]

So sweet young thing with BIG brown eyes comes bouncing in wanting
a travel guitar.

Here be the proposed sketch.

Carved arch top of lutz
Cedar neck body and back.
Paduk headstock, fret board and banding.
Gold hardware.
Short neck at 23.12 inch string length.





Carved top and back although at first glance it will look like a bent top since there will be no re-curve, or very little. Me after that very round voluptuous full feeling to the instrument by rounding over the ribs and banding. See drawing.




Carved arch top of lutz but looks like it might just be cedar now cuz for some strange reason me jointed two cedar plates up instead of a lutz and a cedar. Oh well


So here it is. Cedar. Two necks from this stick




Me tailpipe and a BBQ starter upper bending away.












In the next three pics you can see the hight of the ribs varies around the perimeter
from as narrow as 7/8 to as wide as 1 1/2 inches. This widening and narrowing of
perimeter produces some real tricky compound curves with the shape of the perimeter,
especially in the cutaway area. Cutting the banding channel gonna be a real trip for
sure...probably do a hand cut. We see...not there yet.

I install the corner and cutaway blocks into the ribs now as I find it easier to have them
structurally in place as opposed to the hassle of planting binding, which if its gonna
get knocked is gonna fall off. Making the corner blocks
in this fashion ends that problem and gives some repair man a headache tryin to figure out
how to get it appart...but then thats their problem. Yes, Padauk banding.


Yes, that is a "twist you see in the body. Is intentional cuz when held the fretboard will be
slightly "tilted" towards the player thus alleviating the "over extended guitar players buzzards
neck" that pickers get from constantly sticken their head out to see the fret board.









Got the plates jointed...should be carving them by tomorrow...maybe. I have
learned that life often has other plans for the Padma.


blessings
duh
Padma

[Lillian]

You've been busy Padma. I'm looking forward to watching this unfold.

[kiwigeo]

Waiting for that beard to get caught in the bender.......be careful mate!!

[duh Padma]

You shoulda seen me baby ass chin after loosing half of me beard in the chuck of a right angled drill once upon a time. In a twinkle of an eye, me beard was gone, me didn't feel a thing and the chuck was full of this fuzzie wuzzie stuff...took a few seconds to dawn on me bray matter what just went down...Was worried that it might not grow back. But it did. Yay!

Then there was the time me took it into me head to take up fire spinning... thats a long story, but me thinks you getts the idea.


blessings

[Allen]

That's are really interesting design Padma. The sides are at lest partially part of the neck, or have they been laminated on? It's kinda hard to tell at this end.

[Kamusur]

Great idea to twist the body not our necks Pad.

Steve

[duh Padma]

That's are really interesting design Padma. The sides are at lest partially part of the neck, or have they been laminated on? It's kinda hard to tell at this end.

Wishbone construction...neck and ribs all one piece of wood. Well up to the hook on the cuttaway.

and at this moment me even thinking of doing the cuttaway as a bolt on plant Hmmm maybe the next one. Ya duh next one. For me lady friends birthday in June.

Thanks Allen

blessings

[Puff]

Our design concepts are on similiar wavelengths Padma. Love the mass in the tailpiece area. With the cedar neck a bit of extra mass in the headstock too?

[Allen]

Now I'm scratching my head, and wondering where most of my hair has gone....oh yah, I was scratching me head and thinking about how you are going to carve those plates with all those different elevations around the perimeter to contend with. I'm going to stay tuned for that one.

[duh Padma]

Now I'm scratching my head, and wondering where most of my hair has gone....oh yah, I was scratching me head and thinking about how you are going to carve those plates with all those different elevations around the perimeter to contend with. I'm going to stay tuned for that one.

Well Allen,

save your hair, and stop that scratching. The answer is simple...me gonna use carving chisels...me like Henry Taylor chisels from England...but any good set of gouges will do the job.

Ok enough joking.

Me lay the plate flat on the ribs.
Scribe a parallel line onto the edge of the ban sawed plate blank.
Then go at it with chisels. Simple eh!

Once the perimeter seats on to the rims edge, me then sculpt the top and the scoop out the back, just like any other arch top instrument.

Sometimes the rise from the narrowest part to the highest part is more than the thickness of the plate. This necessitates an edumicated guess as to weather the plate can be flex down on to the rim.

In this case, me may just have to go with a thicker back plate than the one me prepared simply because well, me broke it out, thicknessed and jointed it before me actually ran the ribs profile. Dumb.

Now if this running babble ain't clear...or you just can't stop that ichin 'n' sctachin'
then go here...

http://luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopi ... &sk=t&sd=a

Its a link to me NO NOthing Build. About some wears on pg. 2 of the thread you will find pics and babble on how me fit a carved plate to an non flat perimeter rim.

Of course you could always wait till me gets around to carving this one. Hopefully my attention will not float of to something else which is why me now got 8 builds on the go, 3 repair jobs and 4 canvasses on the easels.

Ya, me bit of a butterfly when it come to me art and me building.

Me got enough going to keep me going for at least a year, and this year ain't hardly even started.

Is just another one of them "Oh wells"


blessings
duh Padma

[duh Padma]

.








Up till now its been pretty straight forward basic structural building, you know, framing the wishbone box and carving the top of the top plate....
But now, oh yes now it begins...
the carving and voicing of the plate to ring forth the clear sparkle of starlight in young bouncy things eyes, with the full, open and resonate dark warmth and friendly softness of the infinite feminine being she emanates.

Ummm for those of you who do not understand this languageing of describing sound...go have a chat with your local shaman, curandero or hoofers of the techno trance collective consciousness persuasion.

Bottom line is...me, duh Padma, while carving this plate, gotta get out of the way while holding sweet young things vibration in my heart and let spirit guide the cutting edge of the blade in me hands . This is done by watching the breath and only putting the plane, blade, scraper to the wood on the annihilation of breath. Ya, is a slow process by them followers of the error in time, chronometer driven robots, however once the state of no mind in communion with the wood is attained too, the carving goes fast an easy.

Flip it over, scribble some mystical mumbojumbo numbers of cosmic import and start drilling



So now its ready to start hogging out the back.





blessings
duh Padma

[matthew]

.
Flip it over, scribble some mystical mumbojumbo numbers of cosmic import

I'm with you there. Very important.

But how thick are those ribs! They look 1/4 inch! Aren't you making life hard fer yourself?

[Puff]

Am picking there needs to be some meat there for the "rounding".

[duh Padma]

But how thick are those ribs! They look 1/4 inch! Aren't you making life hard fer yourself?

Yo, Matthew, good observation! Yes they are thick and Puff got it right with "Am picking there needs to be some meat there for the "rounding."

Puff gets a gold star on his post for paying attention. And you Matthew a silver one for excellent observations. Now Matthew if you were to go to the beginning of this thread and eyeball the second image posted of the instruments cross section drawing, you will see in pictographic imagery and in me poor scribing of the Queens English why Puff be babbling about "rounding off" and the down the rabbit hole reasoning for such thick ribs will unveil it mysteries unto thee. Oh and Matthew, thank you for calling them ribs by their proper name.

Sarcastic sob me can be. Non the less you sure gotts me attention on that old French bathtub you restoring. Dude me wouldn't have a clue were to start on a project like that.


blessings
duh Padma

[matthew]

So are you going to thin them evenly on the INSIDE after you round 'em off on the OUTSIDE? or leave them thick? I would think such thick ribs would rather choke everything up.

But i have been wrong once or twice before.

[Puff]

Scooping them out on the inside would compromise their structural integrity with a large and possibly irresistible temptation to split.

[duh Padma]

Well come to the Mat and Puff discussion hour.

Ummm ... sorry Matthew, but Puff wins round two.

Scooping out the ribs on the inside will actually weaken the rims. Look at it like an arch. The apex of an arch is very strong indeed, but side pressure will cause it to fail just like our profit based monetary system is about to fail, but me digress.

Another myth is the thickness of the ribs. Simply put...it really don't matter much more than a flea on a dogs arse, although the dog may think so. Luthiers make the ribs thin simply cuz it makes them real easy to bend and secondly because it cuts down on the weight of the instrument. However in reality (whatever reality is) the ribs themselves contribute diddly squat to the sonics while serving in their main function of...spreading the plates to increase the air volume(sorta like a Moses act) The bigger the air volume..the fuller deeper and louder the sound gonna be. Look at the thick rim on a banjo...and them suckers are loud...even if you lose the skin in favour of a spruce plate they still sound good...just different.

Is true, ribs contribute little if any to the sonics. Me no lead you down the rabbit hole on this one.

=====================================================================


Ok today me make the cradle for the top plate and start hogging out the back. But first me gotta straighten out....me still kinda bent out of shape from the epic birthday journey to fantasia, but this too will pass just as our current age of rape, plunder and laying waist to the planet is soon gonna be a footnote on some future historic storage device.


thus spaketh
duh Padma,
blessings.

[Puff]

One could also contemplate the open back banjo. Thick pot, the universe for its back/resonator/reflector and still loud.

[matthew]

One could also contemplate the open back banjo. Thick pot, the universe for its back/resonator/reflector and still loud.

doesn't exactly blend in with the rest of the section though

[Puff]

Dare to be different mate
Never went much on Michael Jackson's voice but inspired by the talent.

[duh Padma]

.

Made a cradle for the plate out of 2 x fir
and started to hog it out. The process of hoggin it out and rough planing to shape was no more than about 10 min.






Then went to the round bottom plane...took it down to rough shape







Then me checked the tap tone...well me was so delighted with its tone quality me just couldn't help me self, went tribal and started a tappin and a dancing all around me work bench.











Ya me may be crazed in the head, but me ain't stupid. So like when was the list time you
let it all hang out and danced for joy? Hmmm?


Me will now do the final tap carve and voicing of her top. This final step is were me pay real close attention.


blessings
duh Padma

[DarwinStrings]

Well come to the Mat and Puff discussion hour.

Is true, ribs contribute little if any to the sonics. Me no lead you down the rabbit hole on this one.

Thanks for the welcome and maybe you did not lead me down the rabbet hole although I did stick my head down it for a curious look. I reckon the ribs do contribute to the way the rest of the bits work together and I choose heavy side over thin ones to give the top more to swing off. That has always been a guess for me based on the old seventies heavy speaker boxes compared to the light weight cheap plastic types nowadays. The man on this website has told me that my guess is a good one in his own mathemagical way......http://www.goreguitars.com.au/main/page ... sides.html

Jim

Life is good when you are amongst the wood

[duh Padma]

Yo Jim,

Thank you so very much for posting the HEAVY SIDES link.

Me been getting tired of waving this idea around the building sites without some data or research to back up me beliefs on thick ribs. Seems they are stuck on "oh no that would add too much weight and ever body knows lighter is better...Ya right.

The dead in the mold die hard luthiers just don't buy it and yet can't believe the volume and sonics me getting out of the small bodies me build...go figure eh. Well whats the saying ...."all change is heresy"

I have built as thick as 5/16 and then laminated another 5/16 on the inside plus 1/8 linings plus 1/4 inch curfed linings, then taken the recurve down to .115 on cedar tops and backs. Often times the tail piece is a solid block from side to side. Then use supper light strings like starting at a 9 gauge for the high E and boy do that top and back pump air.

But ya know Jim...me really don't have a clue what me doing ...me just do what seems logical to me way of thinking.


Blessings
duh Padma

[Puff]

Awe hell Jim - more US patents coming up - thick sides, straight string pull - hardly ground-breaking stuff from that dude though he seems to think it is Wonder if he has heard of Google or just thinks no-one else has.

[Bob Connor]

I agree on the stiffer/thicker sides Padma.

About a year ago I bent some sides which I cooked a little too long and scorched them.

So I bent another set and glued the scorched set to them, resulting in a side thickness of .180". The resulting instrument was one of the best sounding instruments we've built, so much so that I only build with laminated sides now. Each piece of the laminate I now use is around .050-.060" but I reckon it's the stiffness that gives better support to the top and back plates and also they don't vibrate so they're not robbing so much energy from the top.

There's also a side benefit they are very resistant to cracking and don't need side re-inforcements in the form of tape or wood on the inside of the instrument.

Regards