Stringing the Guitar

Well, I have not finished several things including the final clear coat finish, but I couldn't wait to try it out.  So I went ahead and put the strings on it temporarily.  I mentioned in the last post that I used wood glue on the bridge.  I found out that was not the best choice.  As I tightened the strings almost all the way to where I wanted, there was a loud pop.  I wasn't sure what it was at first, but it turned out to be the bridge-to-body glue bond breaking.  It didn't move a whole lot because the pins were still sticking through the body holding the strings.
So I cleaned the wood glue off and used Gorilla Glue on the retry.  That worked much better.

So after all that, here's how it looks.

I am pretty happy with the way it looks and sounds (mostly).  The finish has some issues and I found that at least one of the frets is too high.  The action is too high as well, but I think I can trim down the saddle to fix that.  I'm going to play with it a little bit and then remove the strings to apply the finish.  All in all, it is close to finally being done and it is not so bad.

Nut and Bridge

Installing the nut was simple.  I bought a man-made ivory nut and installed it with just a little glue.

The bridge was a little more complicated.  I bought this part instead of making it.  It is made of ebony wood and I was able to buy matching pins for it.  I also bought the saddle that installs in the bridge.  I had to file that down to size and shape.

The distance from the nut to the bridge saddle is critical.  In my case, it was to be 25.55 inches according to the book I'm using.  It also has to be perfectly centered, parallel to the nut and perpendicular to the strings.  I glued it on the body with some wood glue.

I still have to drill holes for the pins.  Holes are in the bridge, but not the soundboard.

Staining the Neck

I used the same type of spray stain on the mahogany of the neck as on the rest of the guitar.  This time it was a color called Red Mahogany.  I put on three coats and here's a close up of part of it after staining:

Neck Fret Dots and Filler

Installing the fret dots was pretty straightforward.  Still, I managed to screw up the easy.  Some of my dots are out of line because of poor planning and a wandering bit on my drill press.  In the end, I decided to just go with what I had and not try to fix it because shifting a hole on the fretboard would be even more obvious than a shifted dot.
Here's the front and side views showing the larger dots on the front and the smaller dots on the side.

Before staining the mahogany on the neck, I had to use wood filler as I did on the walnut.  I used a mahogany-colored filler this time.  Here's the neck with the filler applied followed by a picture of the neck after removing the filler.

Head Inlay

I decided to inlay a "W" on the head.  I bought an inlay blank 1"x2" and traced the pattern I wanted.  Then I cut it out using a special blade I bought for my coping saw that is omni-directional.  It was pretty easy to do.

I used an X-acto knife to trace the pattern onto the head and then decided it would be easiest to use the same knife to clean out the space for the inlay.  Most people use a router to route out the space, but this seemed risky to me.  It maybe took a while longer, but it was relatively painless.

Here's the inlay sitting in place before gluing:

To glue it in place, I mixed regular wood glue with dust from the walnut wood, hoping the fill the gaps so that the stain would look good.  I can see the glue in the gaps now so I'm not sure it worked too well.

I used the same wood filler as I did on the walnut back and sides of the body and then stained it with the same stain.  Before staining, I taped off the inlay and the rest of the neck.  Here's the taped step and the stained finish.

Staining the Body

I decided some time ago to have a sunburst finish on the front of the guitar.  I looked up some videos on YouTube about how to apply the finish and it looked pretty easy with the spray finish I chose.  The back and sides I wanted to darken up somewhat, but not change drastically.

I stained the walnut back and sides first.  As with the wood filler, I taped over the inlay on the spine and tail because I did not want them to be stained.  I taped over the binding as well.

The color I used on the walnut was called tobacco brown.  Here's what the back looked like after staining:

You can still see the wood grain but it is a bit darker.  I'm not completely in love with it, but not too bad.

The fun part was staining the front.  I started by staining the entire front with a color called vintage amber.  I taped over the sides and the neck opening before spraying.  I also stuffed some paper in the sound hole to keep from spraying the inside.

Next, I sprayed a red mahogany around the edges.  This is done by spraying to the opposite edge of the face so that you only really hit the edge.  That leaves a gradually thicker spray as you move to the edge.

I sprayed the red in a wider band than the brown I put on top of it.  That leaves a brown-red-yellow sunburst effect.  With the red and brown I covered the rosette as well.

Once the stain was dry, I removed the tape and cleaned off any stain that was on the binding.  For effect, I propped up the neck on the body for this picture:

Some thoughts about this step...

I didn't mention it before, but I used a sanding sealer between the filler and the stain.  Then for some reason, the front looked fine after staining, but the back and sides had some strange spots.  I couldn't make them better by spraying more so I eventually sanded off all the brown and started over.  Various parts of the body, notably around the edges of the front, seemed to have the grain raised up after spraying.  I'm not sure if they got too wet with stain or if I just didn't sand them well enough.  Hopefully, I can fix this after the clear coats.  I'm not overly happy with the vintage amber on the rosette.  I don't know if it would have been better unstained or not because I am also not thrilled with the look of the unstained inlay on the spine and tail.

Wood Grain Filler on Body

Before applying a finish to the body of the guitar, I needed to fill the pores of the walnut with a wood filler.  Walnut is very porous and if you look closely you can see lots of holes in the surface.  The wood filler fills those holes without changing the appearance of the wood too much.  I used a medium brown tinted filler.

I taped off the inlay on the spine and on the tail to protect them from the filler and painted the filler first on the back and then later on the sides.  Here's the before and after on the back.  The blue stripe is the tape over the inlay before the filler was applied.  The second picture was after the back had been scraped and sanded, leaving it much as before, but with the filler in all the holes.

You can see that the appearance did not change much, but you can really tell a difference when you run you hand across the back.  It is much, much smoother now.

I did the same process on the sides.  Here's a picture with the filler applied.

The front is curly maple and it does not need a wood filler.  It is not a porous wood and so I could skip it.

Fretboard

I chose to purchase the fretboard already made instead of trying to make it myself.  The location of the fret slots and the curve of the board face made me think I would probably not get it right.  So I bought the board and I bought about 6 ft of fret wire.  I cut each piece to the approximate length and tapped it into the slots with a hammer.  I realized after I started that I was supposed to glue them in.  But the ones I had done already were in pretty tight and I could not easily get them out so I left them.  The ones below where the neck ends seemed to be the ones that required glue to keep them in place.

Here's the fretboard being glued to the neck.

Once the glue dried, I had to trim the combined piece to size.  The top of the neck had already been trimmed to size as had the bottom.  So I just had to draw a line down the back of the fretboard and trim it off.  I made a sled for my table saw and clamped the neck piece to that so I could cut the angle correctly and not worry about having the piece move around making the cut not straight.  Here's how it looked after trimming to size.

And here it is after starting the frets and then after putting all the frets in place.

And finally, with this much of it done, I wanted to see how it was looking as a complete guitar.  So with the pieces together just enough to lean against the wall, here's an idea of how it will look in the end.

Gluing the Bindings

I first tried using the same wood glue I've used elsewhere on the bindings.  It did not stick very well to the plastic.  So I switched to Gorilla Glue and it worked much better.  The only problem was the squeeze-out.  Here are the pictures from gluing.

And here is how the front and back look after the glue dried.  There is clean-up to be done on the glue squeeze-out.

Tail Inlay

I clamped a thin, flat piece of wood to the tail end of the guitar to serve as a router base and then clamped a straight-edge to that for a router guide.  I routed the channel for the inlay on the tail just as I did for the back spine.  Here's how it looks after gluing.  I'll trim it to length as I install the binding.

Routing a Channel for the Binding

I decided to go with some plastic binding thinking it would be more sturdy.  And to save some work, I decided to not use any purfling.  To cut the channel for the binding, I made a jig that included my router.  The reason for this is because if you just run the router around the edges using the front or back as the router base you will end up with a channel that is not straight.  The panels are not at 90 degree angles with the sides.  So the jig uses the sides as the router guide.

I got the idea for the router jig at this web page:
http://gicl.cs.drexel.edu/people/sevy/luthierie/guitarmaking_guide/binding/binding.html

I started with the piece of wood I used when routing the groove for the rosette.  It was already drilled through for the router base.  I mounted that piece vertically on another piece of wood that I could clamp to the workbench.

Around and in front of the router bit opening is a thin piece of wood that the front or back panel will ride on during routing.  Then coming straight out from there is a piece of wood that the guitar side will sit on as the guitar is rotated through the cut.

I adjusted the cut to where it needed to be and secured the side guide as shown above.  Then I routed a piece of scrap wood and tested the fit with a piece of the binding.

With much hesitation, I ran the guitar through the jig, front and back.  Some spots needed to be hit twice if I did not have the guitar firmly against the jig.  Here's the same piece of the binding sitting in the groove I routed in the back of the guitar.

Finally, here's a bigger piece of the binding being held in place.  I'll glue it soon.  Before that I must complete the routing on the tail end that will have some of the same inlay as the back.

Trimming the Panels

After gluing the back panel on, I cut both the front and back panels to size using a flush trim router bit.

Gluing the Back Panel

To glue the back panel in place, the book I am following recommended using a thick rubber strip that is long enough to wrap around the body of the guitar to provide uniform pressure all the way around.  Since I don't have such a strip and could not find one, I did it with clamps.  I practiced with a dry fit to see if the clamps would work and it seemed like it was okay.  So I spread glue on all the kerfing and clamped it in place.  I just did this a few minutes ago and so I hope I don't have any surprises when it is dry.

A couple of my clamps don't have soft rubber pads and so I put some scrap would in to protect the back panel.

Back Spine Inlay

Before gluing the back onto the rest of the body, I added an inlay on the seam in the back panel.  I purchased the inlay and slotted a 5/16" wide grove for it using a router.  This should have been done before I braced the back panel, but I did not think of it.  It was a bit harder with the curve in the panel, but not too bad.

I'll put a matching strip of inlay on the bottom, or tail, once the panels are trimmed to size.

Adding the Kerf Strip for the Back Panel

Before the back panel can be glued on, the sides need to be lined with kerf strips.  The strips were cut like the ones for the front and glued on lined up with the open edge.

Once all the edges are lined, everything needs to be sanded flat so the back panel will fit correctly.

Shaping the Sides

After both sides have been attached to the front panel, they must be cut down to the proper width and shaped to accept the back panel, which is not perfectly flat.  The head and tail blocks set the side widths and each end.  And instead of sloping straight from one to the other, the back panel will have a curve to it.  Here's what the sides look like after I shaved them down with a planer.

Bracing the Back Panel

I finished the back panel some time ago.  Now is the time to add the braces, which will give the panel stability as well as hold it in a slight curve much like the front soundboard.

The braces are made from the same wood as the front braces.  But the pattern is much different.  Basically, the stripe down the middle is about 3/32" thick to reinforce the seam in the middle.  And the other braces all run perpendicular to the seam with a curve carved in the bottom to hold the panel in shape.

Gluing Second Side to Soundboard

I added the second side just like the first.  Here are the pictures:

You can see in the pictures that the sides extend higher than the head block and tail block.  In the next steps, I'll be trimming the sides and shaping them to receive the back panel.