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Interior
of Brazilian rosewood laminated sides.
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Exterior
of Brazilian rosewood laminated sides.
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.Gluing
of the neck block and end block.
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Gluing
of the linings.
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Single
lining on the back, double linings on
the top.
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Back
in go-deck with Alaska yellow cedar braces.
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Back
being glued onto the sides.
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Interior
of body.
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The
assembled body without the top.
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German
spruce top with lots of character.
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Necks
are fairly complicated. Following are
most of the steps. Here the scarf joint
has been made, and the neck blank has
had a stiffener of rock maple inlaid.
The surface for the head veneers has been
planed.
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This
is the veneer 'sandwich' that will be
glued to the head. B/W/B/W veneers are
glued under the Brazilian Rosewood head
plate.
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This
is the head after laminating the veneers,
rough-cutting the slots and profiles,
and then routing on a special fixture.
The corners between the sides and the
top profile still need to be rounded.
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Corners
rounded, and the string slots have been
laid out. I make four saw cuts to the
layout lines before chiseling out the
ramps.
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Here
the string ramps have been chiseled out.
You can see the veneer lines showing in
the ramps. The roller holes have also
been drilled.
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This
is the pattern for the relief that I will
rout and chisel. The half-pattern will
be flipped, marked out, and then I will
score a line freehand on those layout
lines before routing.
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The
relief area has been routed up close to
the layout lines, and then finished off
with various chisels and gouges.
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Here
the handwork of chiseling to the lines
is done. Now this area will be stippled
with a small sharpened reamer. It takes
several hundred hammer strikes to texture
this area. Just call me Geppetto.
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Here
is the finished stippled head. Next I
will fill some of the deeper pores in
the Brazilian rosewood, and detail sand
the entire head.
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Here
is the head contrasted with one that has
been polished already. By leaving the
textured area unfinished I get a nice
contrast.
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The
mother of pearl has been inlaid, and the
inside diameter has been cut in the ebony
ring to the exact dimension of the outside
diameter of the concentril lines ring.
The ebony ring is ready to be glued.
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Detail
shot of the ebony/mother of pearl ring.
Note the outside diameter of the ring
is not to final dimension.
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The
ebony ring has been glued to the inside
ring of concentric lines. The masking
tape serves to shim up the ebony ring,
so that when gluing to the lines, the
lines will be proud of the ring, and leave
some to level.
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This
shot shows the gluing set-up, except for
the important fact that it's actually
glued up face down. This allows the rings
to end up above the face of the mop ring,
giving me some material to level with
the ebony.
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Here
is the rosette being clamped into the
soundboard. I rout the channel, aiming
to end up with a few thousands smaller
than the rosette.
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The
inlaid rosette, less than .005" proud
of the spruce. I don't want to do any
more leveling than I have to.
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Detail
of the inlaid rosette.
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Cross-grain bridge patch is on, and here
the wide braces are being glued. They
start out thick and are then planed to
a specific profile.
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The
completed braced top. The more I work
with this top the more I like it-it has
a very complex tap tone.
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View
of the braced top. Here you can see how
low profile all the bracing is. There
is very little mass. All bracing is Port
Orford cedar.
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Here
is the completed body ready for the top..
You can see the mortices for the large
cross braces in the linings. The port
holes are done, the label is in, and it's
now time to glue on the top.
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The
top is on. Now I will flood the rosette
with superglue, scrape the back and sides,
and move on to routing for purflings and
bindings.
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The
back has been scraped now, and the colors
are really starting to come out. I still
haven't decided whether or not to use
a back strip.
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Here
the back strip and end graft are in, and
I'm planing the strip down so there will
be little to scrape.
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The
ends of the strips have been cut off at
the exact thickness of the purflings.
Now the miters need to be cut.
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Here
the first back binding and purfling are
in. You can see the miters on the ends
of the two strips.
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Fitting
the second back purfling. Bindings and
purflings are one height.
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The
body with bindings done. Now on to attaching
the neck.
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Detail
shot of the bindings coming together at
the end of the guitar.
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This
is my setup for gluing on the neck. Once
on the neck angle is set.
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Detail
shot of the end-of-the-fingerboard treatment.
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Fingerboard
on the guitar. This treatment opens up
the soundhole a bit.
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The
guitar is ready for finishing now. First
I will do some pore filling, and then
move on to French Polishing. These days
I am using a technique and recipe I got
from my good friend Marcus Dominelli.
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Using
thin superglue I will coat all of the
maple bindings and the back and bottom
strip before pore filling. Then an egg
wash and on to polishing.
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Here
is the guitar reclining, resting up for
the ordeal of the finish process. After
finishing and doing the set-up, the instrument
will begin its life, so it's good for
it to get a little rest whenever possible.
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The
first coats of shellac are on the guitar
now, and the German spruce is already
taking on a nice color.
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The
bottom of the sides showing the bookmatch
of the Brazilian rosewood. I'm always
surprised to see how light the bindings
look-they are actually a warmer color
than in these photos.
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Here
is the side showing the first coats of
shellac and the oval-shaped sound port.
Again the bindings look lighter than they
are.
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I
have been excited about this top since
I first planed it to thickness-it has
all of the qualities of excellent spruce.
Now as I see the color deepen with the
shellac I like it even more. It will have
an almost vintage look to it when finished,
and the knot shadows and color differences
add all the more character to an already
exquisite top.
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This
is a fairly accurate representation of
the color of the Brazilian, and you can
see the figure in the maple backstrip.
It took quite a bit of work to fill the
pores of this Brazilian, but it will be
worth it. The thicker back and sides,
and doubled linings on the top, will make
for a very powerful, yet articulate sounding
instrument.
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Just
about finished with the French polishing
now; all I need to do is rub out the entire
guitar and then move on to fretwork and
then the bridge.
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This
shot shows the elipse-shaped sound port.
There is another on the upper bout treble
side.
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Shot
of the finished top with a view of the
label: 'Brazilian Special'.
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Brazilian
rosewood head veneer that has been carved
and stippled.
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View
of the back and upper sides.
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Detail
shot of the heel cap and mitered purflings.
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This
guitar is now available. Please follow
this
link to see the finished instrument.
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