Acoustic Build in 10 days - Gav

[Gavin1393]

Pictured below the spray machine!

[keloooe]

Do me a favour and install the Fishman Ellipse Matrix Blend haha!!!

[Gavin1393]

There is a Fishman going in but not telling you which one just yet!

[keloooe]

YAY!!!!!! I'm a massive Fishman fan.... Gav, I'm stealing that acoustic now!!!!

[Gavin1393]

Quote from keloooe on June 10, 2013, 08:02
YAY!!!!!! I'm a massive Fishman fan.... Gav, I'm stealing that acoustic now!!!!

In that case I'm putting an LR Baggs into this one.

[keloooe]

Awwwwwwwww...... Damn it!!!
Ya better install the frets in a fashion that nobody can remove them Gav, or else DB will remove them for you!

[Gavin1393]

The next phase in the process is to take the sound board and cut the channels for the Mother of Pearl(MOP) Rosette inlay. This is best accomplished with another 'jig'. That's one thing about acoustic guitar building is that you have a lot of jigs to build before you can build your first guitar! I will be introducing you to a number of other 'jigs' as the guitar develops.

A drill is used to drill an exact hole in the centre of where the sound hole will eventually go. This hole is then used as the centre for the dremel and the circle cutter.
Bearing in mind that the soundboard is 3mm thick and that the MOP is 1,3mm thick I need to position the 3/32 router drill bit so that the channel is 1.3mm deep. If you forget to check your depth you might end up with a very large soundhole!

Once the channels have been completed, you can now cut the soundhole. I set the depth to 2mm and then turn the soundboard over and cut again. It gives a better result.

[dvous]

Gavin, as an acoustic player, I'm fascinated about the process you are portraying. I know that I could never achieve what you are doing because my woodworking skills are truly rudimentary, so I'll get a vicarious pleasure out of seeing this guitar come together. Hence I cant wait till your next post and pix.

I have a friend who is building semi-acoustic hollow body electrics. He has gone to the extent of building a CNC machine to deal with repetitous tasks, and to save time, so he can concentrate on the tweaking stuff that can only be done by hand. Do you use any CNC or automated processes in your workshop?

[Gavin1393]

I do use templates, thicknesses and the like, but no CNC at this stage. I would use a CNC for the rosette or for shaping the neck, but that takes away from the craft.

I have very little woodworking skills (according to my high school teacher). And in fact when I raised this point at the time of booking my 2 week trip to Mount Tamborine to build my first guitar, I was told that woodworking skills were an advantage but not a pre-requisite. I can confirm that this is true!

I'm looking forward to taking you and other forum members on this journey of discovery. For me, it is a spiritual and uplifting experience and those two weeks changed my life and introduced me to the Art of Lutherie!

Picture of the Motley Crew from the course!

[Gavin1393]

Next trick is to insert the Mother of Pearl into the Rosette. Glue it up liberally with Titebond so that it covers all the possible gaps!.
This rosette shown here also has some purfling bent into a circle to really make the white MOP stand out!