Lyn #15 - Solid-body Nylon Acoustic

[robin]

Thanks Wazza, still a work in progress, but nearing the finish line.

Thanks for the tips on Brasso. I will make sure to take it a bit easier than I have previously. I have also tried Silvo, which is a much finer cutter, maybe I should give it another go.

The finish on the Swampy is stunning mate, I might have to invest in some Nu Finish. lol.

cheers
rob

[wazkelly]

HI Robin, I got desperate as the Meguiars was not quite doing it and Brasso was taking too much off. Saw the orange bottle in the garage and thought, lets have a go on the back and see what happens. Not much cutting action but does wonders with swirls, cloudy patches and minor marks. Doesn't take as much effort to buff up manually either.

[robin]

Me again.

Hopefully this will be the second last update for Lyn #15. I’m hoping to have her finished later this week.

I had forgotten how stressful it is to get it “just right” with an acoustic guitar bridge. Very little margin for error. I researched several web sites for accurate compensation but it was hard to get a definitive answer for a classical guitar. Seeing as the exact measurements varied so much from site to site I figured that it might not be so critical with nylon strings. So I ended up going with a combination of a few different theories. I think I’ll stick to electric guitars in future.

Measuring up for bridge placement:

That’s not a guitar string in this pic, it is some fishing line that I use to align the bridge with the neck. Once the neck is screwed in place I run the fishing line through one of the E string holes in the bridge, up over the nut, around the machine heads and back to the other E string hole in the bridge. Once the line is pulled tight it is easy to “site” where the strings will align on the neck.


One thing I noticed is that the square ends of the bridge looked a little out of place and just a tad too close to the squiggly “f” hole so I have reshaped the bridge so it looks like it belongs there.

Too late to change it now as I have scraped off the Min Wax finish ready to glue on the bridge.


It’s glued on now so I will leave it for 24 hours for maximum strength and start the final assembly tomorrow.

Wish me luck.
rob

[wokkaboy]

good stuff Westie07, glad you are on the home stretch, looks awesome and good luck, you won't need it ! haha

[Simon Barden]

Best of luck, old chap. Hoping it works.

Nylon string guitar bridges aren't compensated. The strings are so much softer than steel ones that the dead length at each end is very small and doesn't vary hugely with string thickness (and classical guitar string sets have less variation in string size than steel strings). Likewise the silk (or whatever's been used) cores of the wound strings are soft and also have a very small dead length at each end of a size comparable to the nylon strings.

With a couple of clamps to hold it in position, you could have done an empirical test for bridge placement to check how much extra length over nominal scale length you needed (if any).

[Fretworn]

Can't wait to hear how this baby sounds.

[robin]

Well it took nearly 150 hours but Lyn #15 is finally finished.

My first 100% scratch build. Another labour of love for me, and another guitar that carries my beloved Lyn’s name.

Although I am fairly happy with her, she has a slight fret buzz on the 11^th and 12^th frets, which I think is a result of the action being just a tad too low. The bridge/saddle sits quite high so I may have to shim the neck a fraction to change the neck angle. Having said that she plays beautifully in the lower frets, so I might just leave that for a few weeks.

The Fishman pre-amp works well, with the bonus of an in-built mic and blend knob which I didn’t realize it had lol. Because the guitar is chambered and not a proper acoustic the tone from the mic is fairly hash, but I can see a possible use for the mic in certain situations.

This is the first guitar that I have ever made that needed no intonation adjustments. I think that is more to do with nylon strings than my ability to get it right the first time. As Simon said, nylon strings are obviously very forgiving.

Anyway enough waffle, here she is.

Front:

[robin]

The Back

[robin]

The Neck




The Headstock

[chrissyinbkk]

Absolutely stunning