Guitar Building Blog

Binding in progress

2011-07-18T21:23:00.003+02:00

New Routing Jig

2011-07-15T21:35:00.001+02:00

Tried my new routing jig for the fist time today

2011-07-03T20:45:00.002+02:00

New Arrival

2011-06-13T20:33:00.000+02:00

Madagascar Rosewood just arrived

Bracing

2011-05-29T18:18:00.002+02:00

Gluing the braces clamped in the radius dish

Funny picture

Almost done, I store the soundboard clamped in the dish

2011-05-15T22:26:00.001+02:00

Joining the soundboard plates

Routing the rosette

Done

Rough sawn bracing

Preparing the sides

2011-04-25T20:01:00.006+02:00

Sanding the sides with radius dishes

I clamp the kerfed lining with office clamps (strong and clean)

Done

Bending the sides

2011-04-10T21:10:00.000+02:00

Bending the Pau Ferro sides at 150 degrees Celcius went OK, allmost no spring back. But I have to handle them with care as I sanded them a bit to thin (+- 2 millimeter)
It will work out fine but next time I'll go for a bit thicker I'm thinking of 2.4 millimeter.

Big machines

2011-04-09T17:26:00.002+02:00

Sanding and planing the Pau ferro by hand was causing me respiration problems and other allergic reactions.
Luckily I could use Marco's super sanding machine this weekend to sand the back and sides down to the right thickness. You still have to wear a dust mask but it works so much cleaner.

The next OM

2011-03-27T21:28:00.000+02:00

Will be a
14 fret OM (no cutaway)
Pau Ferro back and sides
Madagascar Rosewood fingerboard and headplate
Madagascar rose wood purfling
European spruce sound board
Here are the first pictures:

The molds are ready:

Thickenin the sides is the first job, using a low angle block plane and scrapers.

The next project

2011-02-15T22:22:00.003+01:00

I'm contemplating on the next project.
It will be an OM again, probably no cutaway.
Here's what I selected up till now.

Pau Ferro (Caesalpinia ferrea) back and sides, Madagascar rosewood(Dalbergia baronni) fingerboard and headplate, european spruce top and mahogany for the neck. Spruce top bracing and cedar back bracing
And madacasacr rosewood purfling.

Building an OM; Part 30

2011-02-10T20:58:00.000+01:00

Milan made a label for the guitar......

Building an OM; The final

2011-01-24T20:19:00.000+01:00

The final...................

Building an OM; part 43

2011-01-22T10:55:00.000+01:00

Time to work the bone, I try to locate the exact location on the saddle for the correct intonation.

Using a needle and a stroboscope tuner on my Ipod.

Building an OM; Part 42

2011-01-09T21:47:00.001+01:00

Nut shaping is serious business

Strings attached..............

Getting close.............

Building an OM; Part 41

2011-01-03T18:15:00.001+01:00

Locating the exact bridge position using two pieces of rope and a scale.

To secure the exact position I drill two 1,4 mm holes and insert the drills.

After scribing the bridge outlines with a axacto knife I level the laquer with a chissel

And glue the bridge using some extra long klemsias

Building an OM; Part 40

2010-12-19T09:43:00.000+01:00

About eight coats of nitro cellulose now

A little spraying, a lot of waiting and watching..............

Building an OM; Part 39

2010-11-27T20:10:00.001+01:00

I want to prevent laquer on the spot where the bridge will be glued, so I have to locate the exact bridge location.

Two pieces of rope act like strings.

Take a look at the first coats of nitro cellulose. I expirimented with some blonde shellac to pop the grain but that did'nt add much to the grain and made the maple more yellow/brownish. So I decided to go for pure nitro

I think I like it.

Building an OM; Part 38

2010-11-17T22:02:00.000+01:00

Finished the bridge today.

Made a piece of bone to the right size.

Sanded the pau ferro up to 2000 grid.

And tappered the bridge pin holes to fit the ebony pins

Building an OM; Part 37

2010-11-14T20:09:00.001+01:00

Sanding the underside of the bridge to match the radius of the soundboard.

The trussrod cover is ready.

Taped the bridge to its position to see how it looks.

Building an OM; Part 36

2010-11-13T21:23:00.002+01:00

Started on a trussrod cover today, with an inlay of mother of pearl

I Wanted to make an inlay of the name Milan, thats the name of the future owner of this guitar.

It's very tiny business

Routed the name in a piece of macassar ebony (a.k.a. Coromandel)

Glued in the m.o.p. and filled the cavities with CA and sanding dust.

After a first sanding this is the result, not bad

Building and OM; Part 35

2010-11-07T21:36:00.001+01:00

Made the bridge this weekend

It's still a chubby little fellow, but that will change when it's thicknessed and finished

Building an OM: Part 34

2010-11-02T22:22:00.001+01:00

This is how I have to work most of the time, under supervision of Bas.

Sanding the fretboard to fine tune the neck angle, action shot!

Tried to route a saddle slot using the dremel router base. That was no success the base is far to unstable for this task with a wobbly slot as a result.

Luckily I used a piece of beech scrap. Next time I will use the Stewmac routerbase again.

Building an OM; Part 33

2010-10-25T20:52:00.001+02:00

After sanding my fingers to the bone to get the neck in shape.

I finally glued the fretboard tonque to the body.

Building an OM; Part 32

2010-10-17T21:12:00.003+02:00

Drilled the tuner holes: put them in just to see..........

Glued the fretboard to the neck. The trussrod channel is taped to prevent glue getting in.

The usual clamping picture.

Shaping the neck with a spoke shave

Take a look at the flames

Buiding an OM; Part 31

2010-10-10T21:56:00.001+02:00

Did the fretboardbinding today.

The rounded binding was made on a bending iron

Here's the overview, the thicknes of the binding will be sanded back to 1.4 mm later

Here's the Big Picture

Building an OM; Part 30

2010-10-05T22:11:00.001+02:00

Made the inlay of my logo on the headstock.
Same procedure as the snowflakes on the fretboard below.

Building an OM; Part 29

2010-10-03T17:56:00.001+02:00

Next is the Pau Ferro fretboard thats allready slotted to accept the frets.

I temporarily glue the Mother of pearle snowflake shaped "dots" with hideglue on the fretboard.

And scribe the outlines on the fretboard using a raiserblade knife.

Remove the snowflakes and start routing between the scribed lines...

the first one fits.......

Glue the flakes and fill the edges with epoxy mixed with sanding dust from the fretboard.
The HVA coffee sticks come in handy here ...

Sanded the epoxy using a radius block........

And sawn the fretboard to shape.

Building an OM; Part 28

2010-09-29T23:25:00.001+02:00

Glued the maple headstock veneer. and sanded it flush to the headstock.

Building an OM; Part 27

2010-09-26T17:39:00.000+02:00

Roughly shaped the heel..........

And did some work on the headstock.

My new stationary band sander was a great help shaping the "volute".

Building an OM; Part 26

2010-09-19T21:20:00.001+02:00

This sunday afternoon was about fine tuning (and patience).
Adjusting the neck angle by sliding sanding paper through
the gap between the body and the neck.

Building an OM; Part 25

2010-09-12T21:57:00.005+02:00

Made the tenon and mortise today using the jig a got from John Simpson.

It's a real nice jig, simple and efficient. Measure the neck angle using your body, fretboard and bridge (or a piece of scrap with the same height)

Insert your neck adjust it to the right dimensions

and rout the tenon..........

The Simpson set also includes a mortise jig

Here's a look on the result (needs some fine tuning)

There is a video on the details of his cool jig.

Building an OM; Part 24

2010-09-05T20:23:00.001+02:00

OK, we fooled around long enough, back to work.

The neck was shaped on the bandsaw and I drilled holes for the neck joint.

I will use Williams Cumpiano hardware based neck joint (click here for detailed information).

The neck and headstock are roughly in shape.

At the left the waiting (curly maple) headplate and (Pau Ferro) fingerboard.

No Guitar Building this week

2010-08-23T15:22:00.000+02:00

We went to Curacao to dive the Caribbean.

Live Sucks Bigtime ;-)

Building an OM; Part 23

2010-08-02T22:23:00.002+02:00

Smallthingsday. I have sawn a logo for the headstock with a jewelers saw.

My headband magnifier is no luxery ;-).

I glued a on paper print of the logo to the Mother Of Pearl so I could trace the outlines.

Next is fine tuning the logo with files

This should give an idea how it looks in the curlymaple headplate

Building an OM; Part 22

2010-08-01T20:37:00.001+02:00

Routed the channel for the trussrod.

I will use the Stewmac two way adjustable hotrod.

The access to the alen nut was made with the smallest Dremel sanding tube.

Building an OM; Part 21

2010-07-25T21:07:00.000+02:00

Glued the headstock and the heelblock.

And did some artistic scetching of the contours today.

Next is routing the trussroad channel......

Building an OM; Part 20

2010-07-18T20:29:00.002+02:00

Started to work on the neck this weekend.

I swill use a nice piece of quartersawn flamed maple.

It was about 2.5 centimeter to thick, so it had to be worked on.

Luckily the to-be-owner helped a hand with planing it to the right dimensions.

Here's the roughly shaped headstock joint.

Building an OM;Part 19

2010-07-11T10:51:00.001+02:00

To hot to work in the lowlands this weekend +30 celcius (+86F).

So a picture from the archives. Milan's grandmother is taking a peek through the soundhole.

While the sun shines through the top you can see the contours of the bracing..

Building an OM; Part 18

2010-07-04T21:33:00.001+02:00

Well the body is done, OK some more hours of sanding perhaps

And it's looking good!!!!

Building an OM; Part 17

2010-06-27T20:20:00.002+02:00

Bended the binding together with some scrap maple that was left from the sides.

In order to hold it stable in the bending machine.

Here's a look at the result on the soundboard-side
Unfortunatly the binding for the cutaway side of the back snapped in two pieces.
So I have to bend a new one.

Builing an OM; Part 16

2010-06-23T23:24:00.001+02:00

I pre-bended the purfling in the mold.

To prevent breaking I warmed it very carefully with a paint stripper.

A hairdryer should be sufficient but that was not available

Here's the result some funny spaghetti:

As the channels are not absolutely perfect I decided not to glue the purfling and binding together as usually is done, but the purfling first. So it progresses very slowly but so far so good. Next is the purfling for the back and after that bending the binding.

Building an OM; Part 15

2010-06-20T17:18:00.001+02:00

This weekend I routed the purfling channels.

And made the endgraft channel. using an exactolade b and chissels.

The wedge clamps itself .

So after sawing the ends..........

It looks quite nice

Building an OM; Part 14

2010-06-13T20:31:00.004+02:00

Prepared an end graft out of flamed maple
The flames on both pieces are at a small angle.

Bas the shop dog was supervising the cutting of the end graft

I routed the binding channels with the Stewmac Dremel Binding Jig.

As this OM has an arched top, the jig doesn't stay perpendicular to the

sides and the channels don't come out as perfect as you want.

So it took me a lot of cleaning up, but it looks OK now.

Maybe I can ask for a true channel jig for fathers-day (hint)

Building an OM; Part 13

2010-05-30T17:34:00.004+02:00

Finally, after two weeks of tapping, listening and shaving, I decided the tone bars are now how they should be, and I glued the back to the rims.

BTW Have you met our new family dog?
His name is Bas 5 months old and he is from Romania, and he understands Dutch quite well. Bas! do you want a koekje?

Building an OM; part 12

2010-05-09T21:09:00.001+02:00

Worked on bracing the back today. I have a hard time working as clean as possible on the white maple. But I feel it's looking quite neatly.

I need some more contemplation (notice the beer glass) on tuning the soundboard before closing the box............

Building an OM; Part 11

2010-05-02T17:20:00.001+02:00

Routed the channel and glued the backstrip bwb/maple/bwb today.

The Selmer is finished

2010-04-02T18:30:00.001+02:00

Building an OM; Part 10

2010-03-31T22:28:00.000+02:00

Trimmed the sides of the top to the final shape.

Next is tap tuning the soundbord by trimming the tonebars

Building an OM; Part 9

2010-03-30T21:41:00.001+02:00

Gluing and clamping the top:

Building an OM; Part 8

2010-03-28T21:18:00.002+02:00

Trimming the bracing:

Finally I can use the little block plane I purchased because it was so cute ;-)

Selmer Project: polishing

2010-03-21T14:49:00.002+01:00

Here's a look after the first polishing, session.
Took advantage of the first spring sunshine to show the east indian rose wood

Closeup of the e.i.r. side with the maple binding.

Building an OM; Part 7

2010-03-21T13:37:00.001+01:00

Glued the braces to the top this weekend.

Using my radius "disks" (they are square ;-) ) as a mini go-bar configuration.

I connected the to plates with some threaded rod some pipes and bolts.

For the bars I use 6mm beech.

Building an OM;Part 6

2010-03-18T07:41:00.003+01:00

I've sawn the braces and radiused by sanding them in a radius disk.

Building an OM; part 5

2010-03-14T22:14:00.002+01:00

Routed the rosette and sound hole

Glued the rosette in with hide-glue, and

rough shaped the soundboard

Here's a close-up of the rosette it's a nice combination of a rosewood ring, mother of pearl triangles and abalone snowflake inlays.

Building an OM; part 4

2010-03-07T22:48:00.007+01:00

Did some planing and sanding on the soundboard to get it to 3mm thickness

While the glue of the linings on the rim was drying.
Here's the radiused result.

And here's the jig I used to radius the rim.
A piece of roundwood and a hole in the radiusdisk makes life simple.

Building an OM; part 3

2010-02-28T21:28:00.001+01:00

Glued to two halves together with the tail and neck block.

And added the kerfed lining for the top using funny paperclip kind of things.

They really work better than clothes pins they have a firm grip and stay clean.

So far so good; cleaning up the lining with a plane is a relaxing part of guitar building

OM in progress (part 3)

2010-02-14T14:55:00.003+01:00

While finishing the selmer copy, I sawed some spruce from a billet for the braces of the OM

And worked the edges of the plates of the soundboard before jointing.

Glued with titebond and pressed.

Here's the result, not a mastership joint, but close enough. (click the picture for a bigger view)

Fox Bending and scorching

2010-02-07T16:04:00.004+01:00

I used the foxbender for the first time. After some tests with scrap I had courage enough to try the real thing and Put my sycamore side in the bender.

Probably I was too slow/ put too little water on it/ too much heat? Or all three?

I used this sandwich: Heating blanket on top, stainless slat, moistened brown paper, slightly wet sycamore side, brown paper, slat.

Started bending at 120 but fired up to 150 degrees Celcius. Had some problems with the PID that distracted me and that probably took too long. While bending I added some water to the bouts but the waist was already down.

Now the waist area of the upper side scorched real bad.

It's not usable anymore for a clear finish.

I had more luck, or is it knowledge?, with the cutaway side.

I wrapped the (slightly moistened) side with the moistened brown paper in two sheets of house hold aluminum foil. I waited to put the sandwich in the machine until it was close to 100 degrees C.

Start bending at 120 degrees C. made sure the heat was not higher than 137 degrees as advised by John Mayes on 13Th fret. And was ready with bending in 6 minutes and kept the heat on for five minutes longer.

And that worked like a dream.

I will use the sides for a future black guitar project. I will order for some new sides for this project.
Lessons learned................

Selmer Project: spraying nitro

2010-01-31T16:39:00.002+01:00

Started to finish the body of the Selmer-clone with nitro cellulose

I use nitro form a spray can, works fine for me. I should take some time to make a spray booth, the stuff is getting everywhere.

Don't spray nitro without a respirator (unless you like to get high) and ventilate as much as possible.

Here's a view at the first coats.

Building an OM; part 2

2010-01-24T17:52:00.000+01:00

So you think you have a hard day at the office?

Taking the maple sides down form 5 mm to 2.2 mm using a blockplane is hard work. This peace of European flamed Maple (Acer Pseudoplanatus) is not easy to plane.

Also made a press for the waist today, the mold is ready now.

Building an OM model: Part 1

2010-01-17T16:09:00.002+01:00

While finishing the Selmer (finishing takes a lot of patience) I continued the preparations for building an OM model.

As I don't own a very large bandsaw I traced the patern from the mother-mold on 18mm MDF.

Next I copied the mold with a copybit on my router table six times and glued it together.

Close enough for Jazz ;-)

I also received the electronic parts for my self build fox bender

It's almost ready to make the fist bend.

I used a simple outlet countdown timer and a digital thermostat with a cable-sensor.

Did some test with light bulbs and its looking OK

Selmer Project; ebony and......

2010-01-10T17:11:00.000+01:00

Started with the ebony parts this weekend, here's the moustache.

It is not yet in its final shape as tuning the action will need some adjustments on the bridge but the rough idea is there.

And here's the nut-stop. Both ebony parts are formed using the bandsaw, files, and mostly SCRAPERS. Scrapers rule!

Selmer Project: finishing sanding finishing sanding

2010-01-03T22:30:00.000+01:00

'm also still working pore filling the Selmer, here's a in between picture of the back.

Fox Bender

2010-01-03T18:17:00.000+01:00

The fox bender for the OM project is almost ready.

Next are the electric gizmo's for the heating blankets.

Selmer Project; the bridge.

2009-12-27T20:40:00.001+01:00

Not very much time to work on the Selmer during Christmas.

But I managed to (very) roughly shape the ebony bridge between diners and drinks.

Selmer Project:The finishing

2009-12-20T17:46:00.002+01:00

Applied three coats of shellac to the top to pervent staining from working the back and the sides. The picture shows the first coat on the right side to show the color of Spruce under shellac.

Next was pore filling the back with Z-poxy redsin. As advised by other guitar building bloggers I applied a window washer to squize the epoxy in. It works real nice

And it's looking good..............

Selmer Project; almost done

2009-12-16T23:26:00.005+01:00

Did some more work on the frets tonight. First I put some masking tape on to protect the fingerboard form scratches and polution. After that the frets are marked with a permanent marker, in that way I can check the progress while......

leveling the frets with a flat file

Checking with a precision straightedge (and re-level over and over)

Recrown the frets that are made flat by the leveling.

And finaly polish them with 000 steelwool.

The fretbender is getting along also. I made some holdown blocks of birch plywood and spruce and added the springs. Next is the guitar mold for the OM.

Selmer Project; the end is near.

2009-12-06T21:47:00.003+01:00

Did a final touchup on the frets with a small file. I will level them when the neck is glued to the body.

This is a kind of a sacred moment, a guitar is born. Soon you can tell if it is a good one.

As the coming time will go slow on the Selmer (good finishing is taking a lot of small steps and time),

I started preperations for THE new Project. I will build a Maple OM model with a cutaway for my son Milan. As this has to be the perfect guitar, I decided to build a Fox Bender. The Fox Bender wil help me to bend perfect sides (I hope). This is the first stadium; the box with the waist press is ready.

Sad News

2009-12-05T18:47:00.005+01:00

To inform all who knew and loved him. Our dear friend and family dog "Olle" died last week.
After a life of health and joy he suddenly went sick and died within a day. Remember Olle: He gave his unconditional love for to us for 14 years.

Selmer Project: Inlay of my Logo part 2

2009-12-02T20:37:00.001+01:00

Here's the result of below inlay experiment, I think its looking very well.

You have to take a real close look to see any filling.

This was a nice intermezzo, next is continue with the fretjob.

Selmer Project; Inlay of my logo

2009-12-01T23:13:00.001+01:00

All my self build guitars carry my logo. On the other guitars I made it form ebony. For the ebony Selmer headstock I choose for mother of pearl. This is my First time working with pearl (apart from the ready made fretboard dots).First I printed my logo on a piece of paper and glued it to the mother of pearl. I followed the contours of the logo with a jewelers saw.

After sawing I smoothened the curves with a small file and sandpaper.

Next I've put some tempera (egg yolk with pigment) on the headstock and traced the contours in it.

No idea why tempera should be used (I learned it from a book) but it worked.

Next is routing the cavity for the pearl inlay using a dremel and the stewmac router base.

2009-12-01T23:10:00.003+01:00

Here the inlay in the cavity, its a bit wide but not bad for a first timer

Glued the mother of pearl logo to the bottom and filled the cavity with epoxy mixed with ebony sanding dust.

Have to let it cure overnight, I will show the results tomorrow.

Selmer Project: Fretting

2009-11-29T22:12:00.001+01:00

Started to hammer in the frets this weekend. The zero fret needs extra special attention. Even as I reduced the barb on the zero fret to nothing, the small piece of ebony in front of the fret broke out. Superglue came to the rescue.

I use a piece of acrylic scrap to hold the fret level file at the right angle to level the ends of the frets.

Next is leveling and crowning the frets

Selmer Project: Shaping the Neck

2009-11-22T19:59:00.004+01:00

Next was shaping the neck using the spokeshave, scrapers, sandpaper, microplane rasps, whatever I can get my hands on. The picture is showing the spokeshave which is very use full getting the neck in the right thickness.

Check the radius now and then with a template.

Shaping the heel with a chisel.

And this is the preliminary result.

Selmer Project: Attaching the fingerboard

2009-11-15T19:08:00.004+01:00

After sanding and scraping and checking with a straightedge to make sure the neck is 100% straight. I glued the fingerboard on the neck using radiusblocks. That way the most pressure will be on the edges of the fingerboard, this wil make sure the transition between neck and fretboard will be as tight as possible.

Here's the result, next is shaping the neck and heel.

Selmer Project: Fine tuning the neck

2009-11-08T21:58:00.003+01:00

Today I fine tuned the tenon mortise connection for a perfect fit by adjusting the heel with a chissel.

This is a nice trick, I picked up from a internet forum, to adjust the fitting between the heel and body. Put a piece of sanding paper between the two, push the neck in the mortise and pull out the paper. Repeat until you have a perfect (as possible) fit.

This was my goal: The center line of the body and neck are aligned perfectly. And when the pitch of the neck is checked with a straightedge it will be about 5mm above the soundboard where the bridge will be.

Selmer Project: Attaching the neck

2009-11-07T17:05:00.003+01:00

After taking care of the right angle and measuring everything 10 times I routed the dovetail to the heel using the stewmac template and routerbit.

Here's the dovetail.

I used carbon-paper tho see where the tenon and mortise needed some re-work.

It starts to look like a guitar.

Selmer Project Restarted

2009-11-04T21:37:00.005+01:00

After allmost 6 weeks I Picked-up the Selmer Project again.

Next was transfering the right angle to the neckheel. Fist measure the right angle using a T bevel.

Transfered the right angle and sawed it using my japanese pull saw.

Worked out quit nice but it needs some fine tuning using a blockplane.

The workshop is almost ready

2009-10-13T22:38:00.004+02:00

The skylights in my workshop are installed this week.

The first time there is real daylight at the attick in 85 years, it looks great!

I think we need 3 weeks more working on the house before I can pickup guitarbuilding again.

No guitar building at the moment

2009-09-06T21:21:00.004+02:00

We are renovating the dormers of our house.
Will take a few weeks before I can pick up guitar building again.

We will also make two skylights in my attic-workshop ;-) .

Selmer Project, more neck adventures

2009-08-16T16:52:00.006+02:00

Here's the progress on the mahogany neck. As always something goes wrong, this time while drilling the tuner holes. Concentrating on getting all in a 90 degree angle, I forgot about the tapered shape of the headstock. Resulting in off center bushing holes

;-(

Luckily my colleague Henk the wiki" K. borrowed me his 10-mm plug cutter. So I could repair the damage. I remembered to put some MDF in the slots to prevent wear-out from drilling.

So Im back in business and almost back to where I started in May. But in a much better shape.

Here are my first attempts to get the back of the headstock and neck in shape.

The Next Neck

2009-08-09T21:04:00.002+02:00

The walnut neck was not to my satisfaction. The measurements are not 100 0/0 and the headstock looked a bit strange. So I started again with mahogany (as I'm out of walnut). The making of the neck was shown in below posts, so I made a quick(time) overview.

Selmer Project: The dovetail

2009-06-28T15:57:00.012+02:00

Did some work on the dovetail body-neck joint today.
First I made an improvised jig from a workmate and a drawer to secure the guitar body.

I made a L shape jig from the StewMac dove tail routing template and a piece of plywood and attached it to the body using glue clamps.

The Mortise is routed using this bit with a ball bearing

Here' s the result, a fine looking mortise.

Next is the neck tenon................

Holiday in Tuscany

2009-05-20T17:34:00.003+02:00

Hi I'me on Holiday in Tuscany
Back in 2 or 3 weeks
I hope to bring back some spruce from the Swiss/Italian alps.

Selmer Project: The neck (continued)

2009-05-10T17:12:00.001+02:00

Next part of the job is to rout a dovetail connection
between neck and body.
So I need a jig to clamp the neck to get
the right neck angle.
Luckily Stewmac delivered an instruction
on the jig making together with the acrylic templates I bought,
here's the result.

Selmer Project: The headstock part 3

2009-05-03T16:18:00.011+02:00

Made a template to rout the back of the headstock to the apropiate shape.
I attached the template to the headstock using double sided tape.

After routing the headstock I started the first carving of the neck. Just to look how it will end up.
I will finish the neck carving when the heel is in the right angle. I will (hopefully) make a jig for routing the dovetail to the neck and body this week

Drilled the holes in the ebony fingerboard that I bought (pre-slotted and radiused) from holszfaszination to receive the mother of pearl dots. I choose to put the dots in the modern style on position 5,7,9,12. in stead of the historical right positions on 5,7,10 and 12. The last might be to confusing for me.

Here's a overview of all parts.

Selmer Project: The Headstock part 2

2009-04-26T21:08:00.005+02:00

Ramping the slots according to the Michael Collins Book did not satisfy me
It looks a bit dull.

So I decided to remove the ebony that was left in the ramps. And this is how it shows now. The slots are now wider than the original but the tuners still fit. It will take some sanding to make all smooth.

Could not resist to fit the hardware, and it does!!!

Selmer Project: The Headstock part 1

2009-04-19T17:09:00.014+02:00

I drilled the tuner holes, and after that it was time for the slots.

First I drilled four holes each at the end of the slots.

Connecting the holes with the jig-saw.

And shaping up with rasps and files.

Next jobs are ramping the slots and shaping the back of the headstock

Selmer Project: The Neck Part 6

2009-04-13T22:25:00.002+02:00

The weather was to good for working inside this weekend.
So I sticked to measuring the headstock (3 times over) in the evening and improvising a jig to drill the the tuner holes.

Selmer Project: The Neck Part 5

2009-03-29T13:16:00.002+02:00

Here's this weeks result, with the tuners on it. Next is slotting the headstock.

Traced the linings on the ebony before band sawing the headstock to shape.

Gluing the (roughly in shape) heel to the neckshaft

Here's the ebony head cap that is glued to the head stock.

A close up of the carbon fiber neck rods that are also reinforcing the headstock

Routing channels for the carbon fiber neck rods with my Dremel. It's hard for such a small machine but it works. I use carbon fiber instead of the classical aluminum rods that where in the original Selmer petit Bouches. The carbon fiber rods came from StewMac not cheap, but very steady and they add no weight at all.

Selmer Project: The Neck Part 4

2009-03-23T21:04:00.004+01:00

Here's the final picture of the jointed headsock.

Selmer Project: The Neck Part 3

2009-03-22T22:01:00.006+01:00

After getting the headstock as perfect as I could get it,

I glued the headstock to the neck shaft today.

Selmer Project: The Neck part 2

2009-03-15T20:34:00.000+01:00

Worked on the neck this weekend, the Selmer method for a neck is not the easiest but I figured I should at least try. First I made a jig to route the mortise into the neckshaft.

Here's the mortise in the neck shaft

Three on a row, the jig the mortise and the tennon

It will take some time to get this 110% right.

Selmer Project: The Neck

2009-03-08T21:16:00.000+01:00

Started building the neck.
First rough sawn the parts for the neck out of walnut.
Corrected the tapper on the, pre-radiused and pre-slotted, ebony fingerboard.

Selmer Project: Binding the leftovers

2009-02-08T16:44:00.013+01:00

Added the conecting binding to the tail and cutaway. (Could not resist to put some hardware in place)
Next is filling the irregularities and sanding the body to perfect shape.

Selmer Project: Bending the Binding

2009-02-01T20:38:00.014+01:00

Did some binding bending (on the bending iron) and gluing this Sunday.
Here's the first result for the top. The back lower bout binding broke while gluing so I have to rebend a new piece of flamed maple and purfling.

Selmer Project; Gluing the purfling

2009-01-18T21:03:00.007+01:00

After finishing the channels.

Started to glue the purfling.

Here's all purfling taped down to dry

Here's a preview on the rough result.

Selmer Project. The binding channels

2009-01-10T20:14:00.001+01:00

Next is routing the channels for the binding and purfling that will protect the sides of the guitar.
Here's a little image to explaine

This is me (photo by Milan) while using the StewMac Precision Router Base and edge guide for routing the channels. Its a nice tool that gives more " feel" than the full size router I used on my first acoustic.

Here's the result, on a not to clear picture.

Selmer Project (the binding)

2009-01-04T16:58:00.001+01:00

Next is to glue the (flamed maple) binding and the (wbw) purfling together.
I used a piece of scrapwood to press the two together.

Next day,when the glue dried, it was time to bend the binding\purfling in to the shape of the body using the electrical heated side bender.

Here are the first two pieces of binding (for the non cutaway part of the body) taped on the template of the top to get it in the correct shape.