Four Part Harmony

Well, as I mentioned the big day finally arrived this weekend. I got the guitar sufficiently put together to actually put on some strings and call it “done”.

First though, I wanted to post these last few pictures that I took as I was finishing up the last steps. As I got closer to the end I seem to have neglected my photo-taking responsibilities, but I did manage to remember to get a couple.

With the finishing process done, and the body and neck all polished to their final state, I took the masking tape off where the bridge was to be glued. I had to drill a couple of precision holes in the face of the guitar with my handheld drill, which gave me a minor case of the nerves. Everything went fine though.

Here’s the bridge clamp I made to glue up the bridge. It’s a pretty simple design I had seen other people use, and it worked out great.

Here’s the bridge clamp in action. Actually locating and setting in the bridge is another one of those precision measurements measured in 1/64ths of inches. It’s also one of the glue joints that is going to have the most direct stress put on it when the strings are up to pitch. I measured and remeasured several different times, and even did a dry run to make sure everything was going to work prior to actually putting the glue on the bridge (I’m becoming such a model woodworker). As careful as I was, though I managed to put a couple of small dings and scratches in the top already. The spruce is just incredibly soft, and the shellac finish is so thin, that there isn’t a lot of protection there.

With the bridge glued on, I set to work on all the final fret work, leveling and re-crowning all the frets to their finished dimensions. I didn’t get any pictures of that work though.

I installed the tuning machines, which really started to make things look finished up. In this picture (which was actually taken after the guitar was finished and strung up) you can also see the nut which was the other piece I carved out of that moose bone. That was the last thing I had to do, and the guitar had sat for a couple of nights with just that one last piece missing. I actually did the rough carving on Saturday after our hike, and did the final shaping that night. I strung the guitar up a couple times as I was fine tuning the size of the nut. Nothing exploded and I took that to be a good sign.

Here’s a back view of the headstock with the tuners installed. I’m really pleased with how the whole neck and headstock turned out

Here’s a shot of the bridge, all glued on with the saddle shaped. I’ve subsequently been taking the height of the saddle down to try and get the action a bit lower. When I first strung it up, the action was so high as to be almost unplayable (to me) in the first position. I’ve been working on it some, and it’s starting to get closer to what I would like. Depending on how well I did my fret and neck work, I may or may not be able to achieve the ideal low action I’m looking for.

And here it is, the finished guitar. I had to take it out while the sun was shining (sort of) to get some pictures.

Here’s the back view. I really like what the shellac and the french polish did to the look of the guitar.

A close-up of the back.

And another view of the front of the guitar.

I’m still working with the set-up, so I don’t know when I’ll actually say that it’s “done”, but I guess I can sit on the porch and play it now, so it must be pretty close to done.

I don’t want to pass judgement on the sound yet, as everything I’ve read says that newly built guitars generally “open up” in sound over the course of the first few weeks and months of playing. It really projects, and has some nice trebles. I worry that it’s a little too boomy in the bass ( a common flaw of dreadnoughts I think), so I’ll just hope that gets tempered somewhat during all of this “opening up” that is going to be happening. Maybe I’ll try to post some sound clips.

Thanks for reading along with me as I did this project. It’s been pretty fun for me. I suppose now I’ve got to go do something productive with my spare time…like paint the house or mow the lawn or something. Actually, I’ve got a couple pieces of mahogany and spruce in the basement that I hope to turn into a little 3/4 size guitar for Anna…so I’m sure I’ll be back down there working again before too long.