For Sale: Claro Walnut/Port Orford Cedar OM

The lighting in my workshop is a stand-out feature I notice and appreciate every day. Banks of LED strip lights supplement the natural light illuminating the workshop through several large windows, making woodworking a much more pleasant pursuit and reducing my propensity to screw things up from time to time.

One downside is that photographing my work is frustrating to say the least, with reflections on glossy finished instruments very hard to eliminate entirely. A pair of LED movie lights is on my wish list therefore, and I'm confident that with the flexibility they'll provide in terms of placement and the ability to dial in colour temperature, I'll be able to avoid these lighting issues to a large extent.

In the meantime, here are some shots of a recently completed guitar, complete with unwanted reflections and questionable colours. Even with my high quality Canon camera, whose colour rendition reviewers often applaud, I struggle to accurately capture the colour of the various woods I use; the redwood-topped guitar I featured in a recent post is a case in point. Aside from acquiring the movie lights I mentioned above, more practice is obviously required!

The individual growth rings on this Port Orford cedar top are so closely spaced that they're almost impossible to distinguish; several centuries of growth must surely have contributed to its creation and, as its construction proceeded, I've frequently reminded myself that I have an obligation to put precious material such as this to good use. Having successfully completed this guitar, I have no doubt that it will outlive me, and my hope is that it will provide decades of pleasure for its eventual owner/s.

Contact me for pricing and details.

Cheers, Pete

For Sale: Claro Walnut/Redwood OM

It's taken such a long time to complete this guitar that it features a body shape I've long since modified. The shape of the heel is very traditional, and the fretboard end is also from a bygone era where my guitar building exploits are concerned. After some initial indecision, I've decided to reduce the price a little.

I'm loving the oil finished neck, which feels super smooth and will be very easy to maintain as the years inevitably take their toll.

Contact me for pricing and details.

Cheers, Pete.

For Sale: Manchinga/Engelmann Spruce OM

With this - the first of a batch of five guitars - now strung up, I can begin to relax a little and allow myself a moment to enjoy the sense of achievement at having completed an instrument; for various reasons, it's been a while!

There's always a sense of nervous anticipation when I first install strings on a new guitar, but even after hearing the first notes ring out I know better than to pass judgement immediately; it would seem too much like anticipating a toddler's potential as an Olympic sprinter after witnessing their first steps! Instead, I let it sit undisturbed for a week tuned to concert pitch, knowing even then that only the passage of time will reveal its true character. After this initial settling in period, I fine-tune the action, saddle height and intonation - it's only then that I can derive some sense of its sonic potential. I certainly have expectations where tone is concerned, but they're somewhat nebulous and hard to describe. In terms of aesthetics, I'm very pleased with this instrument, but I'm anything but an accomplished player, so I look forward to receiving feedback from someone more proficient than I am where ergonomics and tone are concerned.

While the woodworking and finishing aspects of my guitars seem to improve incrementally with each instrument, and are relatively easy to assess, the complex and all-important tonal characteristics are more difficult to evaluate. Describing what I'm  hearing is difficult enough, and formulating an approach that will render sonic improvements from one guitar to the next is very challenging. I've generated Chladni patterns on my unattached soundboards in the past, hoping for some "light bulb" moments to reveal themselves, but as interesting as they are, manipulating those patterns or translating my findings into tangible gains is a puzzle I'm solving all too slowly. For the time being, the best I can hope for is that I'll come to judge in some subjective sense that I've made improvements over earlier instruments and have been able to establish a new benchmark from which I can implement refinements on future instruments.

Contact me for pricing and details.

Cheers, Pete

Rosewood/Engelmann Spruce 00 - More Photos

Here are some more photos of this 00 model guitar in East Indian rosewood and Engelmann spruce. 

I expect to be in a position to pore-fill and apply lacquer top coats within the next couple of weeks. I'm very happy with the guitar up to this point, and I'm confident that finishing will present few challenges other than it being the usual long, drawn-out process!

Cheers, Pete

A New Model

With a lower bout width of 14.5", a 12th fret body join, and a 24.9" scale length, what else could I call this new model but a "00"?

It's a relief to see the body emerging from its unavoidable ugly phase. The bindings have been levelled and the Engelmann spruce soundboard and East Indian rosewood back and sides have been cleaned up a little for this initial photo shoot.

With plans for an oil-finished neck, I've been able to install frets much sooner than would otherwise be the case; the headstock face and heel cap will be lacquered as usual.

Cheers

Pete

 

SOLD! An Enjoyable Distraction

I had some spare time recently as I waiting for the lacquer I'd sprayed on my current batch of acoustic guitars to cure in readiness for polishing, and as I'm becoming a big fan of headless guitars, I put the guitar pictured together while I had the opportunity to do so.

I've had the maple neck blank and the Queensland maple drop-top cap in my tonewood stash for what must be a decade, so it seemed like a convenient time to put them to good use at last. The mahogany body is comprised of three pieces sourced from the stock of material I'd normally reserve for head blocks on my acoustic guitars.

• Body: chambered mahogany
• Cap: Queensland maple (Flindersia brayleyana)
• Neck: bigleaf maple, with double-action truss rod and carbon fibre reinforcement
• Fingerboard: ebony
• Bridge: Nova Guitar Parts
• Pickups: Kiesel Beryllium humbuckers
• Finish: Osmo Polyx oil

The guitar came together relatively quickly compared to my usual acoustic guitars. I learned a lot through this process, so I'm looking forward to put the lessons learned to good use on similar electric projects in the near future.

Cheers

Pete

Dry Sanding With Super Assilex and Super Buflex Abrasive Sheets

I put this East Indian rosewood/European spruce guitar to one side as I proceeded with my usual process of wet sanding and buffing four other guitar bodies, the motivation being that I wanted to compare wet sanding with the dry sanding alternative.

There was an unavoidable delay as I waited for delivery of the Eagle Abrasives' Super Assilex and Super Buflex papers from Stewart MacDonald in the U.S., but as this particular guitar has been in the works for a number of years I figured that in the overall scheme of things another few weeks' wait was immaterial. This product is usually sold in packs of 25 sheets and is costly in such quantities, so the fact that StewMac sells individual sheets was very appealing given that I'd need a range of grits. Note that the grading system used by the manufacturer identifies the papers' grit with an K prefix, which apparently corresponds to the more familiar P designation.

As the last sprayed coats of lacquer had laid down fairly smoothly, I chose to begin sanding with 800-grit abrasive sheet. Apart from the lack of the usual wet mess, and the ability to dispense with the assortment of towels and rags I usually employ to clear the sanding sludge, I was immediately impressed by the fact that this product quickly levelled the lacquer and clogged to a much lesser extent than the cheaper sandpapers I'd used in the past. When it eventually did show signs of loading with finish, it was easy to prolong its life by quickly wiping it across a scrap of towelling. In so doing, it struck me that the cheaper papers offer a false economy: they tend to clog quickly even when used wet, and I'd bin a significant quantity of it in the course of sanding a single guitar. In contrast, the Super Assilex and Super Buflex sheets were very resilient and relatively long-lived.

I proceeded through 800, 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500 and 3000 grits, alternating the sanding direction between grits as I have in the past in order to more readily identify scratches remaining from the previous grit. With no need to constantly squeegee or wipe away wet slurry, it was pleasing to be able to monitor sanding progress with such ease. With a dry work environment an additional bonus, as I sanded the headstock later I appreciated the absence of water that can seep into tuner holes and potentially cause finish problems.

Having finalised sanding with the finest grit, Menzerna fine compound on my buffing wheels brought the lacquer to a mirror-like shine with much less effort than is usually the case. I buffed the headstock by hand to minimise the likelihood that I'd burn through the edges. Using Meguiars' Ultimate Compound I was able to bring the finish on the headstock to an impressive gloss with very little effort.

Other than the initial expense, I can't see any downside to this paper, and I'm unlikely to ever take the messy wet sanding route again.

Check it out on the StewMac web site: Super Assilex and Super Buflex 

Cheers, Pete 

Some Silent Sanding

 Cheers, Pete

Sanding and Buffing Tips

I'm definitely not the most experienced finisher around, and thought it wise recently to undertake something of a personal refresher course by sifting through some relevant forums and Facebook groups with a view to improving the quality of my finishes. Here's a collection of thoughts on wet sanding and buffing that I've compiled:

• Invest in some good quality sandpaper, not cheap hardware store varieties. There are many good choices; 3M's Trizact is a trusted product, as are many of Mirka's papers.
• Depending on the quality of the final finish coat, begin sanding with the finest grade of sandpaper that will accomplish levelling of the surface. Most recently, I've started with P600, but will begin with P800 in future. Grits coarser than P600 are probably best avoided. 
• Keep your work area spotlessly clean to minimise opportunities for dust and other particulate matter to scratch the guitar as sanding and buffing progresses.
• Wrap sandpaper around a foam or cork block.
• Sand in straight lines rather than in a circular motion.
• Having completed sanding with each grit, put rags or paper towels that have been used to wipe away sanding slurry to one side for disposal or cleaning, then grab fresh ones.
• To more easily identify scratches remaining from the previous grit, sand in an opposing direction when progressing to the next grit.
• Before use, soak sandpaper in a container of water to which a few drops of dishwashing liquid have been added.
• Change the water used to wet the sandpaper when progressing to the next grit. Soak the paper before use, as before.
• As you wet sand, check the sandpaper frequently for any build-up of finish that could cause scratches.
• To guard against sanding through the finish, delay sanding of edges until the finer grades of sandpaper are in use.
• Assuming you have access to a buffing arbor, sand through the grades of paper up to at least P1500, although P2000 would perhaps be a better target. Some builders advocate even finer grades of paper, but the Law of Diminishing Returns perhaps applies in this context.
• When buffing, remove polish residue from the guitar surface frequently to allow the buffing wheel to contact the guitar surface rather than the polish residue, which can impede progress. Removal of the greasier buffing compounds can be difficult; a drop or two of swirl remover rubbed over the affected area, then removed with a clean, soft cloth seems to work well.
• Complete the polishing process with a liquid swirl remover, either by hand, or with a drill-mounted foam pad.
• Be patient!   

As I remarked in the first paragraph, I'm no expert, so if you disagree at all, or care to expand the list, please feel free to comment below.

I aim to experiment with dry sanding as an alternative approach shortly. Stay tuned for a blog post on that topic.

Cheers, Pete 

On the Home Stretch

It's a fact of life that events and circumstances can conspire to delay and reshape our plans, and this has certainly been the case where the instrument pictured is concerned.

Given that building guitars is such as passion for me, it's amazing - and even a little embarrassing! - to reflect on the fact that I began this guitar around twelve years ago. With a busy life that revolved around a nine to five job, time to pursue hobbies was in short supply all those years ago, and progress was understandably slow.

In part because of that situation, recalibrating the balance between work and play became a priority for my partner and for me, and we finally made the momentous decision to relocate, with a view to escaping the pace and pressures of city life, reducing our working hours and living expenses in the process.

After the stress and upheaval of an interstate move, we found ourselves renting a tiny cottage in a small village three hours' drive from Melbourne. While we were happy with our decision, and overjoyed to have made the move, other than for a brief period when I had access to a vacant shop a few hundred metres from home I was without a space in which to work, and guitar building was unavoidably put on hold.

We eventually persuaded our landlord to sell us the house, at which point reality set in: after seeking several quotes from local builders, I had to acknowledge that the cost of having a suitable workshop built to my specifications was prohibitive given our severely reduced income. Building with straw bales had captured my imagination several years earlier, however, and, even for someone like me with no prior building experience, building a straw bale workshop seemed achievable and much more affordable given that I'd complete the bulk of the work myself. Fast forward nearly four years, and my workshop was finally completed - previous blog posts show progress.

With that mammoth building project behind me, pent-up enthusiasm and my typical lack of discipline resulted in me commencing a number of new instruments, and it's only now that I begin the homeward run towards stringing this particular guitar up, hopefully within the next few weeks. Assuming, of course, that life events and circumstances allow it!

Cheers, Pete

Level Sanding and Buffing

I'm still chasing rogue sanding scratches and polish residue on this Claro Walnut/Port Orford OM body, but I'm calling it "done" for the time being. I'll return to it shortly with fresh eyes and renewed enthusiasm.

It's been some time since I last level sanded and buffed a guitar, and I've been reminded once again that a thorough approach to sanding through a sequence of ever-finer sandpaper grits is crucial to attaining the scratch-free finish that I'm looking for. I began levelling the finish with P600 grit wet-or-dry sandpaper, proceeding through P800, P1000, P1500 and P2000 papers, using soapy water as a lubricant, before buffing with Menzerna polishing compound on a buffing wheel. Having done so, I'm close to achieving the desired outcome, but there's considerable work remaining before sanding scratches are reduced to what I consider an acceptable level.

This guitar body is the first of five that I'll be sanding and buffing, and I'm aware that if I'm disciplined enough and pay sufficient attention to detail, I can minimise the level of frustration that I always deal with throughout this time-consuming process.

Cheers, Pete

The Long Wait

As keen as I am to string these guitars up and wave them goodbye, I have no choice but to wait several weeks for the lacquer top-coats to cure before I sand and polish them. I know from experience that to give in to my typical impatience is an exercise in futility, so the long wait begins.

Cheers, Pete

The Finish Line

After what feels an eternity, I managed to begin the arduous process of applying finish to this crop of guitars this morning, with a seal coat of shellac applied ahead of the first coats of lacquer tomorrow.

I have three other guitars under construction, but with the inevitability of cold wet weather ahead I vowed to put them to one side and take advantage of our unseasonably dry autumn with a view to finally completing these instruments, some of which I began years ago.

With fresh ideas in mind, I'm well and truly ready to move on from this collection of instruments, and I've come to the realisation that working on a big batch of guitars like this can detract from my enjoyment of the process. A completed instrument would be nice!

Cheers, Pete

Bridge Day

With a template describing the bridge outline, and an appropriate jig to facilitate routing of the saddle slot, it's a fairly quick and easy job to fabricate these guitar bridges. A rasp, some cabinet scrapers and sandpaper complete the job after the blank has been cut to shape. The underside of the bridge will be shaped to match the dome of the soundboard at a later stage.

The bridges pictured are of Macassar ebony and padauk. Despite its somewhat extravagant colour, I look forward to using the padauk bridges; it's a much low density than the ebony. Unfortunately, padauk is yet another wood species that has recently been added to the CITES list, so these are the last bridges I'll have the opportunity to make from it.

Cheers, Pete

  

What's In a Name?

The back and sides of this guitar are of narra, which is an alternative name for a wood that's most often marketed here in Australia as New Guinea rosewood.

According to Wikipedia, the tree is a species of Pterocarpus native to southeastern Asia, northern Australasia, and the western Pacific Ocean islands, Cambodia, southernmost China, East Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Ryukyu Islands, the Solomon Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam."

The wood is closely related to padauk - it's most definitely not a true rosewood - and as its range extends well beyond New Guinea, I much prefer to choose a less misleading name when discussing this guitar.

Most significantly, it's beautiful, easy to work, smells great and has a good reputation as a tonewood. What's not to like?

Cheers, Pete 

Wow Factor - Australian Blackwood

I couldn't wait to see the grain of this Australian blackwood come to life when epoxy was applied, so I didn't!

This wasn't a particularly expensive set of back and sides, so I'm very pleased that a thin film of epoxy has had such a dramatic effect.

More practically, this not only gives me a head start where pore filling is concerned, but has provided a level of protection to the wood ahead of routing binding channels and installing the ebony bindings.

Cheers

Pete

Winter Is Coming!

As I immersed myself in the task of designing my workshop a few years ago, I looked into the possibility of dedicating a corner of the building to a spray booth. As inviting as the idea was, I was discouraged by the prospective cost of the necessary explosion-proof extraction fan and lights and abandoned the idea. I'm left with Plan B, which is to erect a temporary insect-proof enclosure in a sheltered area of our property which, unfortunately, limits my ability to spray through the winter months when daytime temperatures are typically in single digits and high humidity is problematic.

I came close recently to buying fresh supplies of lacquer and thinners in readiness for spraying this crop of guitar bodies; however, although there are still stretches of fine weather, they are unreliable and increasingly uncommon. As keen as I am to complete some guitars, I've come to accept that I've probably left my run too late.

I'm impatient and more than a little frustrated, but I'm sure I'll find plenty to occupy me through our winter months. Obviously, I'm looking forward to spring when I'll finally be able to string up some guitars!

Cheers

Pete

The Other End of the Workshop

It's only natural - and advantageous - that guitar builders develop some skills where playing the guitar is concerned. Frankly, I'd love to be more adept as a player and be able to better assess the acoustic instruments I create in terms of their playability and tone. Unfortunately, after 50 years of sporadic playing I have limited abilities and don't practice nearly often enough to improve in anything other than small increments. Some ongoing hand problems I've learned to live with also contribute to my limitations as a player.

Nevertheless, I still enjoy an hour or two of mindless noodling from time to time, and with that in mind I've set up a desk in a spare corner of the workshop where I can plug in an electric guitar, with visions of recording some original music on the rare occasions that inspiration pays me a visit.

Having concluded that I have no aspirations to gig anywhere even if I thought I was a decent enough player, it seemed wasteful and self-indulgent to have collected an assortment of effect pedals and an amplifier that together represent a significant financial outlay. With my pedals and amplifier currently for sale, my new approach to playing my electric guitar is to make use of a couple of Neural DSP's plug-ins and either a pair of headphones or some studio monitors. Along with my laptop and an audio interface, I can dial in a greater variety of tones than I previously could with my amp and pedals and, as a result, I have hopes that I'll be motivated to devote more time to playing and practice once our cold, wet, winter weather closes in and I'm less inclined to attend to outside jobs around our little property.

• Audio interface: PreSonus Studio 26c 
• Studio monitors: KRK Classic 5
• Headphones: PreSonus HD9 Professional Monitoring Headphones
• Plug-ins: Neural DSP's Archetype: Cory Wong and Archetype: Rabea
• Guitar: Ibanez Q54

Cheers

Pete

A Finishing Problem Solved

I had the use of an unoccupied shop here in town for a few months in 2016 and was able to work on some instruments there until the owner asked that I vacate so he could begin renovations. I had recently sprayed lacquer on three guitar bodies and their necks at the time, and they hung inside a cupboard with a computer fan porting the fumes to the exterior of the building for a few weeks while I got on with other things. When it finally came time to pack up and move out, I placed the guitar bodies and necks in some cheap new cases, comfortable in the knowledge that they’d be protected throughout the move and beyond.

From that point on, construction of my workshop became a priority that occupied me for more than three years. When the dust had settled and I was ready to complete those guitars, I found that dye from the lining of the guitar cases had penetrated the lacquer on the soundboards to an unknown degree, although I figured it was likely that the staining extended to a significant depth. I pondered how best to remedy the situation for some time, often practicing avoidance behaviour for months at a time as I moved ahead with new instruments.

Scraping and sanding the lacquer off the soundboards and respraying was one option, but I worried that merging new lacquer into old may have given less than optimal results; I’d used a pre-catalysed lacquer that supposedly doesn’t melt into previous coats as effectively as nitrocellulose.

The alternative was to use a chemical stripper over the entire body which would essentially take me back to square one in the finishing process. The degree to which I’d be successful in neutralising the stripper before I applied new sealer and top coats gave me cause for concern though.

After weighing up the advice kindly offered by a couple of Facebook friends, I decided to strip the finish from the bodies entirely. While acetone softened the finish to the extent that it was at least sticky and could be removed with difficulty using steel wool or a single edged razor, it was a painfully slow process, and I concluded that removing all of the lacquer in this way was far too onerous a task. I opted for regular paint stripper which proved very effective in softening the lacquer, allowing it to be easily scraped off. I was careful to remove all traces of the stripper using generous quantities of denatured alcohol, and I'm ready - once again - to pore fill in readiness for spraying.

As I began work on these guitars up to twelve years ago, you'll no doubt appreciate how keen I am to complete them and resume work on other instruments I've commenced more recently.

Cheers

Pete

Manchinga/Engelmann Spruce OM Update

With the top now attached, I now have four guitar bodies ready for binding - something to look forward to (said nobody, ever!)

Cheers, Pete