Wednesday, August 15th, 2007: WELL, IT IS FINISHED!!!! That is, except for the actual "finishing"!!!! Yesterday, after I had fretted the fingerboard, I clipped and filed the ends of the frets flush to the sides of the fingerboard, then beveled the ends of the frets. (I will leave the leveling and dressing of the frets until later, after the finishing and all.) Below you see I have bolted the neck onto the soundbox, and I'm checking to see if the neck is centered with the nifty centerfinder I got from Tracy at Luthier Suppliers (it can also locate your bridge position):
I also spent the evening yesterday carving the neck. I always enjoy this part. I'm still pretty amazed that I can start with a straight wood board and end up with a neck!!! I use a combination of tools to accomplish this task --- some chisels, my micro-drawknives, and a couple of microplanes. I finish it up with scrapers and sandpaper. SO.....that's it for this website account for a while....hope you've enjoyed reading it, as much as I've enjoyed building this guitar! Check back in later September or so -- I'll probably have the finishing done by then, and we'll see how this thing ends up!!!! |
Today I worked on making the heelcap. I didn't have any bloodwood other than my binding, so I ended up taking my binding, scraping off the white/black purfling that was glued to the edge of it, and gluing together five little strips of the binding. When that was dry, I sanded it smooth and cut it into a heelcap. I think it turned out pretty nicely:
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Well, it's off to Santa Rosa tomorrow, for the Healdsburg Guitar Festival!!! I finished this thing just in time! I'm not taking this guitar there, but I needed to finish building it before I left. After I get back from the festival, I need to devote my remaining one week of summer vacation to getting ready for the new school year, so I won't be able to get to the "finishing" (the Tru-Oil finish) until after school begins. 
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