Sound Holes Written in .... Spruce.

I often say to myself, "it ain't gonna get done just by me lookin' at it all day", so I went ahead and decided I was happy with the position of the sound holes and cut 'em out.

After carefully and gently clamping the top down, I started by drilling a few pilot holes, and then I used a small keyhole saw to cut them. No high-tech stuff here, just old-fashioned hand/eye coordination. I used a template to make sure the holes were symmetrically placed, that's about as technical as I got. I used an x-acto blade to refine the cut, and sanded them smooth. They just need a little more cleaning up and they'll be good to go. Since I'm going for the look of an old radio design I have decided not to put binding on the inside edges of the holes.

Voila, I now have enough room at the back end to place the buttons - no more pesky stuff in the way of strumming problem.

Button Problem Solved.

Well, I played with a whole bunch of ideas for new sound holes, most of them involving completely new designs. In the end, all I did was make them a little smaller, flip them end for end, and move them forward. The first pic is my original design; the problem with the sound holes is they don't allow for the best placement of the vol/tone buttons. I cut two sound hole shapes out of card stock to play with placement and size. After making the changes to the size and position of the holes, there is now plenty of room for the buttons, and I think I have managed to maintain the cathedral radio influence I was going for.

Pesky buttons.

I designed this guitar with the sound/tone buttons for both pickups all in a curved line along one edge, like this (let's call this image A):

















But I am starting to wonder if it isn't too crowded looking down there. So, I took some pictures of different arrangements.

There's this one (B):
















And (C):
















Then (D):
[I have no idea why this and the next pic turned sideways]







And finally (E):

Shaping the neck.

I put the oak face on the head stock before doing the cut out work, as I wanted to be certain of exactly where the forward-most surface of the head would be as I shape the neck.
The shaping is the part I've been dreading most, and I still have more work to do, so the nail-biting isn't over yet. I actually got a fair bit done on the basic shaping today. I have the taper toward the head end cut, which I did with the use of a simple jig I made in about two minutes. It's just a piece of wood that I attached the neck onto, face down (through a couple tiny holes in spots that would either be lost to trimming or easily filled and hidden). The neck was fixed at the correct angle along the length of the board so that when it was put through the table saw it cut the taper (second picture). The fence has been moved in the photo, but all I did was set it up at the correct width on either side, one at a time, and carefully pushed it until it reached the desired stopping point. The excess was trimmed away carefully and gradually with the saw blade set very low, nibbling into the curved sides toward the head stock. I stopped the long cuts short of the head because the cut needs to curve outward there.
The curve at the heel was rough cut on the table saw as well. This will also need to be refined with other cutting tools, but it's better than having to start going it with all that wood down there.
The thickness of the head has been trimmed down on the table saw as well (no pics of that here, but I have some I can post later).
The final picture shows the profile of the rough neck and the oak head stock face before I glued it on.
Next post I will talk about the angle of the neck, and the particulars of the neck block I ended up making (out of oak).

Carving the spruce top.

I never ended up getting spruce billet for the top. Instead, I decided to just go with some lumber and re-saw it so it was quartersawn*. I had to laminate a lot of strips together to get the width (narrow boards), but I read somewhere that this may not affect the tone as much as some might believe - I guess we won't know 'til it's done. I'm not interested in getting the perfectly clear look with no "imperfections" that many luthiers favour. I much prefer the "real wood" look that comes from grain streaks and knot shadows.
At any rate, the top picture is carving in progress. Notice the cool little brass plane. This has a rounded bottom to allow for scooping out contours like those around the edges, and inside.
Further along, you can see in the second picture how I've refined the curves and made it a more gradual incline toward the centre.
The inside is currently being refined to match the outer contours I have settled on.
*For those who are wondering what "quartersawn" is - this effectively refers to the direction the grain is going. In a softwood guitar top, you want the grain to be oriented up and down (as you look at the end of the wood), rather than side to side. This makes for a stronger and more stable top than if cut the other way. This is why you almost always see a tight, narrow grain running end to end on a guitar top. Almost all lumber is cut flatsawn, which is simply cutting the log into slabs. The slabs from near the centre may be effectively quartersawn on the outer extremes because of how the grain is running, but most of it runs laterally, or close to it.

Spruce Top, Under Way

I've only just gotten the spruce ready to be shaped for the top. Nothing to show yet, really. As it progresses I'll get pics and talk about it. I'll start off by saying there are a number more seams than I had hoped, but I read somewhere that somebody made a guitar with 10 seams in the front and he claims it didn't affect the sound. Let's just put that to the test.

Up To The Neck

Remember when I said in my introduction that I was going to jump right in up to the neck with this project? Well, I'm up to the neck now... the guitar neck, that is.

It's only rough cut for now, although I have to say I'm pleased with the job my table saw did on it. The upper face (where the fingerboard will be glued) is quite flat and even, only needing a little work to get it perfect. The pencil line down the middle is where I will be routing for the truss rod - after I cut the head stock and glue up the scarf joint.

The neck itself is hard maple, but the added pieces at the top end are oak. Remember when I said I sometimes change my plans in mid stride? Well, that's what happened here. After it's fully cut and shaped there will not be much oak left on the outer edges, just enough to give it a bit of a wood grain/colour flair on the outer contour of the head.

Bottom pic is just lookin' down the surface of the fingerboard face after I ran it through the table saw.