Well to say I've gotten discouraged while starting to build this guitar is an understatement. Let me start from the beginning:
I have no woodworking experience but have a passion for the guitar. I want to build a guitar because it is wonderful to create something with your own two hands that can become something more than itself. Guitars can be extensions of some peoples emotions and desires. Music is powerful and the instruments that create music are just as awe inspiring.
So,
First mahogany neck blank, marked and cut the 15 degree cut in the wrong direction (towards the longer end of the neck rather than back towards the other end.
2nd neck blank, glued the scarf joint correctly, thicknessed head stack, attached heel block, routed a 0.400 deep truss rod slot, glued Indian Rosewood venner after thicknessing that. Proceeded to cut and carve the headstock. Note that whille doing all this neck work I kept triple and quadruple guessing if all my lines were straight and accurate. The centerline especially.
At this point I cut out the tenon with a dovetail saw that didnt have a a rigid back, more like a flush cutting saw or whatever it can be classified as. The tenon was not cut straight and was not perfectly symmetrical. I did my best to clean and match the two sides with files, rasps, chisels, sandpaper, etc...came close. Now I decided to begin carving the heel, all is going well...until I realized I had carved and thinned the neck blank past my finger board line, coming about a 16th of an inch away from my string lines (I have no clue as to why I drew these in).
So, to solve this, I flattened the sides of the neck that were carved inside the finger board line. I then cut some mahogany from that 1st blank and made wings that I glued on. Not a perfect fit but I figured I could make it work.
The carving process was slow as I had to glue on those "wings" and essentially ramp and carve them so that they would integrate into the heel that I had already began to carve.....what a mess. I also had alot of trouble keeping the two sides of the heel symmetrical. This guitar is becoming and abstract piece of art.
It gets better, remember when I routed that truss rod channel? Well I had yet to recieve the truss rod and when I actually did recieve it, I had realized that my channel was too shallow. No problem, I could just take a few more passes and make it deeper, right? Wrong! Now that the neck had been carved it was not straight along its edge. So I took out my 1/4" chisel and did my best at evenly making the slot deeper...definitely did not do a good job.
I'm learning lots of lessons already....measure twice cut once, don't do any operation unless you know exactly how far you must cut, rout, etc. Be concious of your guidelines.
Now that I was relatively happy with my "neck" blank. I decided to try and joint and join my Sitka Spruce top. After setting up a shooting board and watching countless youtube jointing videos, I gave it a shot.
Several sessions later my top had been reduced to 1/2 the length and I was getting nowhere fast. Each shot I applied too much pressure at the ends and created concavity at the center of the board. To correct this problem, I ordered pre joined and sanded tops and backs from LMI. So with this wood I began to cut my outline out.
At this point I had lost the safety key to my bandsaw and decided to cut the soundboard by hand with a coping saw. About halfway through I learned a serious lesson: I let a good portion of the board hang over the edge as I was cutting and supported the over hang with my free hand...bad choice. The wood snaped along a grain line. Luckily it was not a substantial piece (about 2.5 inches x 4 inches) and because it snaped cleanly, it was an easy glue job. I'm actually quite pleased with how it came out.
After this I waited to recieve some spare band saw keys to proceed with the back, After I cut the back out I wanted to thickness my top and back. I order the wood from LMI to be thicker than I wanted so that I could thickness to a pleasing tap tone. I was aiming to have it as thin as possible itwhere it still shows a strong fundamental but still has nice clear overtones. Did this pretty easily on the Sitka Top and ended around 1/8th inch. I thicknessed with a No. 5 Stanley and then went over it with 80 grit sanding block and an orbital sander.
The back was a painful process...I planed diagonally to the grain, rotated as to plain evenly all around and then attempted to go with the grain. First few passes, okay, then chip out. I kept planing along the grain because I thought I'd smooth away the chips. Apparently this does not work. I was left with a chewed up board. I then sharpened my plane and tried to smooth it out.... I began to get some areas a little cleaner by keeping at a diagonal. I proceeded to a perpindicular motion and then boom...tore the edge of the back. It did not break cleanly, about 1 inch wide piece with no chance of being glued back.
Also during this time I split some of the sitka brace block I got from Allied... this boosted my confidence. For some reason I was very intimidated by splitting wood by hand rather than sawing it...who knows. But it turns out my brace stock had some very nice relatively straight grain.
So now here I am...a top I'm happy with, a neck that's more fit for the furnace than it is for a guitar and a back that is rendered useless.
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Lucas, it looks to me that you are learning a great deal on your first build. I know how it feels to screw up what we think, or want to be a great project. The hardest part of this learning thing is we learn the most from not what we do correctly, but what we do wrong.
ReplyDeleteWhat I see from the "outside looking in" is you are starting from the beginning. What I mean by this is you haven't had any experience and will have to gain that experience through doing. For me, I grew up working with my hands and learning from seeing rite then and there from an experienced family member. It has taken me many years to get where I am with a mentor.
So that being said, my personal sugestion would be as follows.
Keep thinking positively, even when you think the sky is falling. (so to speak) When you make a mess of something stop and think about what you did then think of how to possibly fix it, learn from your mistakes.
If you don't know how to do a task at hand, find a good forum and ask. (like OLF) hint, hint.
Remember to explain what you've done and the outcome, your experience in the area and the tools you have to accomplish this task. If you don't understand the answer you get, please don't be shy get clarification.
The number one tip of the day, think positive.
I realize this was long, but it's only a small tid bit that I'd like to say to you. And this is just MY opinion, everyone has one. Listen to as many people that are willing to help, take it all in consideration and use what works for you.
Keep your chin up. Mike