Finished! A Guitar Bouzouki - (no basses were harmed in the...)

[Andyjr1515]

And to the back.  Again, the braces are shaped to the radius dish - this one being more curved at 15 feet radius - and then pressed into the back in the radius dish while gluing:

 

Then, after initial shaping of the brace ends, a cross-grain backer is glued over the back join line:

 

If you remember, the back had the splits in the grain.  Well, so far - and this is the time it will expose itself - there has been no tendency for the splits to lengthen.  And that is a very good sign.  It indicates that the splits were in the bulk timber before cutting and not a spreading stress crack.  I'm happy with that

 

[HazBeen]

Fantastic

[Andyjr1515]

Both sets of braces are still in the 'rough carve' state but functionally are all now in place.  The reinforcement strips that will go round the soundhole are just that - they won't affect the shape or the tone:

And - although this is still a huge amount of tasks away - at least it's starting to look like an acoustic body:

 

[Andyjr1515]

Modest progress this week but next week should be back and steaming

There is a fair bit done in terms of neck planning - although nothing to physically show yet - but I have now finally finished all the Go-bar deck stuff with the installation of the soundhole reinforcement.

I've gone for a maple triangular strip with the curves filled in with mahogany:

When this is all rounded off, there should be a light/dark/light pattern from the players point of view, coordinating with the rosette.  Leastways, that's the plan.

So the Go-bar deck can now be disassembled and put back in the corner but the radius dishes have one last use - sanding the over-size linings ready for the top and (eventually) back to be glued to.

 

I'm really pleased with the tap-tune result for the top, so last thing to be done on the top itself before gluing the top onto the sides is just to finish sand all of the braces from their present rough-carved state

  

[Si600]

54 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said:

So the Go-bar deck can now be disassembled and put back in the corner but the radius dishes have one last use - sanding the over-size linings ready for the top and (eventually) back to be glued to.

Sorry, what? It's lined as well? Contrasting silk or a more gentlemanly fine worsted wool?

[Andyjr1515]

OK - back in the cellar!

I was going to start on the neck, but decided there were still some necessary things to do with the body before doing that.

The reason is that, with an acoustic instrument, the neck angle is pretty much fixed at the initial build - and it has to be right.  And to do it you need the actual neck.  But you also need the mortised body.  And so you need (at least) the top on.

So back out came the 25 foot radius dish - and this time with some emery cloth double-side-taped to it.  This meant that I could sand the slightly proud linings (yes, @Si600  - being made out of fine worsted wool they would be proud ) to a gapless fit with the spherical top: 

Then a double check inside and out that there is a good, tight and glue-able fit:

Then likewise with the back - MUCH easier to do this before the top is glued on:

Note above the notches in the linings where the main X-brace and cross-brace will tie into the side/top joint.

And finally, after double and triple checking, the top is glued, using as many spindle clamps as I possess and clamping cauls to spread the load:

 

For reasons I will explain later,  I will be breaking convention and NOT glue the back on at the moment.  Breaking this convention is something I tried on Matt's Dreadnought build last time and it gives distinct advantages.  So the back won't be glued for a while yet 

 

 

 

[Pea Turgh]

This is next-level stuff - love the craftsmanship that goes in to these, Andy!

You going to borrow it back for the SW bash?

[Andyjr1515]

50 minutes ago, Pea Turgh said:

This is next-level stuff - love the craftsmanship that goes in to these, Andy!

You going to borrow it back for the SW bash?

Unfortunately not. 

But all being well, I'll have my own Dreadnought acoustic back by then (that Matt Marriott STILL has, even though I built him his own!  ) 

[Maude]

I really like that natural stripe in the side wood, it really goes well with the darker wood in the soundhole rosette. 

Lovely 👍

[Andyjr1515]

6 minutes ago, Maude said:

I really like that natural stripe in the side wood, it really goes well with the darker wood in the soundhole rosette. 

Lovely 👍

Thanks!

Once the finish has been put on, the bottom half of the sides from the middle stripe to the back will tone nicely with the back (it's cut from the same piece of timber as the back) and - as you say - it will be the same colour both of the rosette and of the headstock plate which have both used offcut from the same part of the timber.

Edited July 20, 2020 by Andyjr1515

[Andyjr1515]

This is how the figuring of the back will wrap round to the sides @Maude.  The lighter wood will come out more yellow and the darker areas will darken more:

The top glue job looks OK:

Now - the traditional way of doing this is to glue the back on, do the corner bindings top and back and then do everything else (like bridge clamping, fitting pickups, etc, etc) reaching blind through the soundhole.

For Matt's Dreadnought, I proved to myself that you can do the top binding, rout the neck mortice slot, trial fit the neck, fit the internal pickup transducers and everything and THEN glue the back on.  And that is a lot, lot easier.  So that's also what I will do here.

I might do the top binding soonish, but the focus now will be neck and fretboard

 

 

[Andyjr1515]

And the neck has officially begun

Two pieces of bookmatched maple (look at that grain at the end!) for stability and walnut centre-splice:

 

[Andyjr1515]

Fretboard next.  A lovely piece of macassar ebony from David Dyke:

 

I tend to agonise over buying commercial tools and jigs - because they are specialist they tend to be eye-wateringly expensive.  But, having used a home-made one for a couple of years, I have no regrets whatsoever buying the G&W radius jig last year.  Sanding ebony by hand is a quick way - no, correction, a very slow way - to insanity!  There doesn't seem to be a common consensus for fretboard radius on a Guitar Bouzouki but, looking at photos and reading some of the blurb of some of the 'better' builders, 12" seems to be a reasonable rad:

Here is the blank on the jig:

It then just takes 10 minutes or so of a radius sanding block to take off any router stripes:

And there we have it - all ready for the next steps, cutting the fret slots   :

 

 

 

 

[Jakester]

23 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said:

That last pic looks good enough to eat! (Though it is lunchtime so maybe I’m projecting a tad)

Edited July 22, 2020 by Jakester

[Andyjr1515]

And to the fret slotting.  Another good buy from G&W that has done a decent number of fretboards over the last few years:

The red on the bench isn't blood - it's some red stain from Rog's recent veneer job

The unit is screwed down to the bench and the top dog clamps on my bench are a bit of a godsend to stop movement during the fairly tough and vigorous sawing.  Note also the packing pieces, again to stop the fretboard/template assembly from moving at all.  And don't fret (yes, I know  ) about the 25.000" etch - it's a two way template.  The side I'm using is 25.500"

And this is where the fretboard will join the body - at the 16th fret:

The next task is working out what the next task is

 

[Andyjr1515]

Well, having a hard maple neck will make this sing when it's finished.  But in the meantime it's pushing my bandsaw to the limit!  It's a thick blank and there are a lot of full depth, full length cuts!

First was getting the blank all squared up, the trussrod slot in, the mortice positioned and rough-cut and the headstock angled:

 

And then the side profile cut.  Because the neck is going to be quite a bit deeper than a guitar, there isn't a functional need for a volute, but I've left the provision for one if P wants one or if the aesthetics say there should be one:

From the offcuts, I will be cutting a grain-matched heel extension which will itself eventually have an end cap of wood taken from the back and sides offcut.  There might even be a swift on that eventually.

 

 

[SpondonBassed]

No scarf joint necessary?

It looks like the grain runs in favour of an angled headstock though.

[Andyjr1515]

1 hour ago, SpondonBassed said:

No scarf joint necessary?

It looks like the grain runs in favour of an angled headstock though.

No, not necessary. 

As I say, the bouzouki neck is tangibly deeper than a guitar (or bass) neck and, as such, headstock breaks really aren't a risk.  Also, apart from the helpful grain direction of the maple, the walnut centre splice has a grain direction pretty much parallel with the headstock and so gives much more strength than needed for all normal and even rough handling.   

[SpondonBassed]

4 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said:

the walnut centre splice has a grain direction pretty much parallel with the headstock and so gives much more strength than needed for all normal and even rough handling.

Aha!  Braced but not belted.  Nice one.

[Maude]

It looks like it will be having a volute though @SpondonBassed so anything else on the neck is just gravy, as those loveable Americans would say.

🙂

[SpondonBassed]

Am I that predictable?

[Maude]

 

20 hours ago, SpondonBassed said:

Am I that predictable?

I knew you were going to say that 😁. 

 

I'd like to think of it not as predictable, but rather a willingness to declare your loves to the world.

Edited July 25, 2020 by Maude

[Andyjr1515]

I'm getting better at flattening two surfaces to glue together - and better at matching grain.  The 1" heel extension is on:

The bit that made me smile was that the grain in the walnut splice actually matches the maple!  What's the chances of that  

This heel extension gets the neck to the correct height.  The slightly more scary bit is getting it to the right angle - but there's quite a few things I have to do before I can work out the angle and start cutting mortices and tenons.

Nevertheless, that's a few more of the basic components starting to come together:

The great big lump of brown-tinged ebony is what I'm going to try to carve a bridge from - when I can work out how to do that

Thanks for looking folks.  I know it's not a bass - but it is fun, isn't it 

 

Edited July 25, 2020 by Andyjr1515

[SpondonBassed]

7 minutes ago, Andyjr1515 said:

Thanks for looking folks.  I know it's not a bass - but it is fun, isn't it

For some reason, my supply of reactions has dried up and has not replenished as expected.

I'll share this with you instead:

 

[Andyjr1515]

Ah, @SpondonBassed  - that'll be the Greek Bouzouki.  This one's an Irish Bouzouki.  

 

Clever idea, though