Meet Stella

[ozziebluesman]

Here is my latest project, a small acoustic about the size of the old 50s Stella guitars. I like the size of these instruments as they so damn comfortable to play. The top is sita left a little thicker at 3mm with very light, red spruce bracing. Well I should say light for me. The bracing is parabolic and 6mm x 12mm and the top taps nice and strong but I reckon I may have to play this one in for a while for her to really open up. Time will tell.

I must fess up at this stage and tell you this is neck number two. I have made some mistakes on a few of my builds but always managed to fix the issues. This one was my own stupid fault and due to rushing and not using a neck profile template like I have done in all my other builds. It was one of those gut wrenching moments striking steel with the wood rasp on the back of the neck. Anyway, I gathered together the bigger pieces of the neck, strung them together and hung them in sight in the woodwork shop so as I don't do it again. One thing I did learn was how to massacre a neck to save a very nice fingerboard.

So here are a few picture of Stella almost ready for the finish stage:

Cheers
Alan

[Allen]

Is this your first slot head Alan?

Looks like you got a bit more work on that neck. You nervous mate?

[ozziebluesman]

G'day Allen,

I have built a few slotted headstock before but this is my first bound fingerboard. Everything went ok so far. I have neck profile templates now so no more trying to wing it and cause grief. This is the guitar I am going to do my first herringbone purfling on the top so I was not sure how deep to inlay them. I will bend the herringbone as advised by you and the others. I haven't used curly maple binding before either so that will be fun as well. It has turned into a nice little guitar. I am going to keep this one so I have something to show prospective buyers.

Thanks for your comments mate.

Cheers

Alan

[Allen]

Curly binding can be tricky, but on the much gentler curves of a guitar it shouldn't be too much trouble. Either in the bender or by hand works. Most times I do it by hand as I can get a sense of how fragile it is and can judge how quick or slow I need to go.

[ozziebluesman]

I have a build on go for my son and its at the French Polish stage. The binding on that one I used your method with the hot hide glue and installed three binding at the same time. I asked my son to call around for the afternoon as I thought it may need more hands but it worked a treat. I will try this method again but I reckon I will pre bend carefully on the pipe.

Cheers

Al

[56nortondomy]

I used curly maple bindings on the classical i just finished. I bent them with a silicon heat blanket, no problems at all.
Wayne