Learn to build a guitar

The main cross braces of the soundboard have a curve sanded  along their length, so when they are glued on, you will have to use a flexible gluing caul on the opposite side of the board. If you make a soundboard with flat braces, when you string it up, the top will look like it is concave. I use a 5m radius  ’railway’ curve. It is used in a drawing office where the draftsman has to draw railway lines. You can make your own curve template using a length of string with a pencil at the end of it. Draw the arc onto a piece of wood and bandsaw along the curve and sand up on the disc sander.

Trace the curve onto the blank bracewood, take to the disc sander and sand down to the lines. Alternatively, put two blank braces in the vice and use a small palm plane to take away the excess wood. Work slowly, as the wood comes off fast. Finish sand by hand. The half lap join at the center of the braces is done before the braces are glued down.Take one brace and place it onto the soundboard in its intended position, draw a short line either side of the brace at the top centerline. Take it away and add the other brace and draw the short lines either side of the brace at the centerline. You are now able to mark the direction of the brace across the other brace, and do the half lap cutouts.Be careful to mark the section to be removed with an ‘x’, and check 2 or 3 times before you make any sawcuts. A small paring chisel will remove the wood between the sawcuts. Place the joined braces in place on the soundboard to make sure there is 100% contact at the join area. Only glue down one brace at a time, but have the 2nd one in place to make sure everything is in alignment. It’s good that the bridge plate helps you keep things where they should be. Leave to dry several hours.

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This is the first time that I am building a guitar with the truss rod adjustable from within the soundhole. It is a little tricky, so watch your step. While you learn to build a guitar, it is one of those variables that keep cropping up. There are pluses for both styles of truss rod insertion. The advantage of having the adjustment at the soundhole end of the neck, is that the neck/head area will be stronger.Unfortunately, a small section of the soundboard has to be removed to accomodate the truss rod.

                                    I am mentioning this now, because we will need a hole through the first cross brace that we will glue on. This cross brace is 1/2″ x 1/2″, and depending on the size of the truss rod adjusting nut, this will determine the size of the hole.It should be in the middle of the brace, and when the brace is glued on, the hole should line up with the soundboard centerline.

                                    I use a curved template to mark a 15ft radius on the gluing side of the brace. Go to the disc sander and fashion this curve. Place a thin flexible gluing caul under the soundboard, and clamp the brace down. Look at the photo to see this in action.Use at least 5 clamps to secure the brace. Leave to dry at least 2 hours if you live in a warm climate. While this is drying, you can be cutting the other main ‘x’ braces to length, and mark and sand the curve to the underside. If you have one of the 20ft dishes that the luthier supply places sell, then you would use the dish to fashion your bracing curve. I use a single 15ft template to draw my curve. I use the measurements at the end of the braces to help with the curve drawing. The longest brace will subtend the biggest vertical distance (about 3/16″) at its end. When drawing the curves on the back braces, you will see these vertical end measurements of the 4 braces will vary according to their length.

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Now that the two soundboard halves are joined, run the board through the drum thickness sander, but only take off enough to flatten out the board. If one half was sitting up a tad, then work to sand that half down to the level of the other. I use 120 grade sandpaper on the drum, then switch to 240 grade. The soundboard is thicker than it needs to be still, as the next step is to mark out the soundboard rings, carefully scribe the circles, either  with a handheld circle cutter, or a dremel tool with a circle cutter attachment. The handheld cutter does a great job, but a little skill is required to pear out the narrow wood channel. The dremel tool practically lets you do it with your eyes closed. The adjustments on the dremel let you very accurately set the radii for the soundhole rings.Cut the ring depth to the same size as the pearl or abalone you are inlaying, or half the depth of the soundboard, if you are using  purfling.

I inlay the soundhole pieces bit by bit. If I am using abalone for the center ring, surrounded by a plastic border, then I anchor one end at the centerline starting point, and allow the two plastic border pieces to flow ahead, and the abalone is squeezed between them. I used to glue it all in with Franklin Titebond glue, but I would rather use superglue, as I can quickly do a short length at a time. The white glue doesn’t hold things down too well, whereas the superglue anchors everything almost immediately, and as well it disguises the abalone edge joins really well. As you learn to build a guitar, you will try all these things out for yourself. The other benefit of using quick drying glues, is that the entire soundring area can be sanded level twenty minutes later. The nice thing about using a drum sander when you do this, is that any black decoration in the ring is nicely smoothed, and no residue is left in the surrounding white spruce. If you sand by hand, it is difficult to stop the residue being ground into the spruce, and hand sanding tends to wear away too much of the softer spruce, leaving the harder abalone sitting proud.

Use the 240 grit paper on the drum to final thickness the soundboard. I leave my soundboards 2mm thick. This thickness will make a responsive top. The handheld cutter is now used to cut out the soundhole, with a radius of 50mm. Hand sand the soundhole edge to make it smooth with a rolled over edge.

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Technorati Tags: acoustic, build, clamps, custom, guitar, learn, soundboard, spruce, wood