Lewes Luthier: Week 1 . . . Day 3

Back Again . . .

We all fronted up bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning even before Richard arrived at the scheduled starting time of 9:00am. Somehow I always seem to be the last one there despite having arrived at 8:50am. The three us are getting on very well despite our obvious differences in age and geographic origin . . . we were in earnest conversation when Richard walked into the room.

We all continued our conversation for a while and I ‘introduced’ my iPod gadget (iTrip) which enabled us to listen to everyone’s Apple device across the workshop sound system . . . I am sure we are going to hear some eclectic things over the next few weeks.

A Beautiful Thing . . .

Phil had brought his Nick Benjamin guitar into the workshop as Nick is one of the craftspeople in the Star Brewery building in which we are located – he also shares some equipment (the sander and other things) with Richard and I get the impression the two of them work very closely together on various projects and with certain customers.

Anyway, Richard gave us an impromptu concert and chatted about the various qualities of the guitar. But this raises an interesting point . . . Phil had previously stated his preferences to not have any decorative lines against the binding of his guitar because his Benjamin did not have any – until he looked at it carefully! I don’t think any of us will look at any guitar in the same way again!

Nice guitar - and nice playing!

On With the Day . . .

Patrick’s first task involved doing some intricate work with the various back braces that he has manufactured . . . and he seemed to be sitting and carefully chiselling for most of the day.

On the other hand, Phil embarked on what he said was the ‘most boring task he had ever done’ – which was building up mosaic of various woods ready for cutting and veneering to make up his rosette. Sometimes I detected steam coming out of his ears while he was muttering something like ‘I wish I had chosen the herringbone rosette”!

Back to the Back – Again . . .

My first task involved ‘thicknessing’ (that is, thinning) the back of my guitar. Like nearly everything involved in building a guitar, this is VERY nerve wracking and I took it very carefully. The objective was to get it down to 2.6mm in very careful and small steps using the sander/thicknesser and measuring nearly every pass with the caliper.

Everything went according to plan and I was very pleased with the result . . . and then it was time to use the orbital sander to get the right finish for this stage of production. In fact I am simply thrilled with the quality of my back – it is far from a ‘traditional’ book matched pair and has some very interesting features – more later in this blog.

Getting the required thickness

Another pass . . .

Back to the Front . . . Again

My first task involved inserting and gluing my second rosette into the routed groove. In retrospect, this is not a task for first thing in the morning as it is too stressful. I managed to get glue everywhere and (incorrectly) used a damp rag to clean it up . . . which ran the risk of the black dies in the veneers bleeding into the Spruce.

I quickly glued the remainder and clamped it inot place - but it will take some hours before I can see the result. Luckily no ‘bleeding’ happened!

Clamped rosette

The Back Strip . . . or Centre Graft

An interim task for me while the sander/thicknesser was in use was to prepare a strip of spruce which will eventually run along the inside join of the back. For this we used the piece that was cut off the top of the spruce top once the guitar shape was marked out, so it is an efficient use of the wood. It seems like a lot of work for a small piece – but of course it will be visible through the sound hole so it needs to be just so.

For this I got out the shooting board and planed then sanded one edge and then cut it to exactly 16mm on the band saw. Then I thicknessed it to 2.5mm using the huge machine and put it to one side for more work later.

Centre graft to rough size

More on the Front . . .

It was now time to display my second rosette to the world . . . we all share each other’s pleasure (or heartache) when such events occur and this one was not different. I very carefully removed the baking paper to reveal a perfect second rosette . . . it was a moment of great relief as the quality rosette is one of the most important criteria by which the average punter will judge a guitar because it is on display the entire time.

So out of the press it came – and I am very pleased to say that it looks just perfect and there was no bleeding of dies into the spruce!! Well actually, it looks very rough as the rosettes themselves are sitting proud of the top and each ring is quite uneven – but it will look great once they are sanded down.

The tension in the room is palpable!

All good!

My next task involved sanding the proud rosettes and to top back to a nice clean surface – yet another nerve wracking task as there is always a risk that sander/thicknesser will catch on one of the rings and pull it out! So away I went with great care and only adjusting the machine with the smallest of increments.

Once the rosettes were down to the level of the top is became a much quicker and easier task to clean up the top – first with the sander/thicknesser and then with the orbital sander using a 150 grit pad.

Carefully does it

Looking good

How good is that!

Today’s Chat . . .

Nick Benjamin came to Richard’s workshop to ask Phil a few questions about his guitar – and it turned out he arrived right on coffee time (perhaps he already knew that?). It was most interesting hearing Nick and Richard talking about the niche guitar making industry and the various options and choices available to a maker. In essence it involves the extent to which one specialises in one thing (like Nick who just builds acoustic guitars) or a mixed business (like Richard who builds acoustic guitars, mandolins and other instruments, teaches and does some repairs).

We also chatted about the various books and materials available to guitar makers – they both agreed that “Guitarmaking: Tradition and Technology - A Complete Reference for the Design and Construction of the Steel-string Folk Guitar and the Classical Guitar” is one of the best available.

The Sound Hole . . .

Sticking with the top, my next task was to cut out the sound hole – a very simple task one would have thought. But no, there is a real trick to this job so as to avoid ripping the edge of the hole - which would be disastrous . First, the router needs to be set up so that it cuts most of the way through leaving the wood connected by a wafer thin section of spruce. And so it did – again with great care.

Getting the piece of wood out involved thicknessing it from the back – it was quite interesting watching it come down to a paper thin connection and then finally popping out.

Sound hole about to pop

Thicknessing the Top . . .

This was really a continuation of the sound hole task – but it involved very carefully reducing the thickness of the spruce top evenly across the entire surface. It occurs in stages – first 2.7mm across the entire surface, then 2.6mm and then even a little less and doing the ‘tonal tap’ test and flexing the top all stages.

I finally got it down to the required thickness and then I cleaned it up with the orbital sander and made numerous adjustments across various parts of the top. This takes great care and patience . . . two of my greatest attributes!!

Coming out beautifully

More sanding and careful thicknessing

How about that!

Back to the Back . . .

This was one of the most interesting events of the entire day - draw line down the join on the inside of the back. Simple . . . nope! I took a look and could not find the join, so I sat by the window for better light . . . still no visible join. I even went outside into the sunshine and it still was elusive.

There was nothing else but to ask the ‘maestro’ to find the join for me – and it took him about 15 minutes of forensic analysis of the wood’s grains and structure to finally determine it position. So we can conclude that I will definitely have an invisible join!

Nope - I cannot see it either!

The purpose of finding the join was so I could stick the strip of spruce that I previously prepared along the join. After receiving the instructions on how to do that – 20mm from the bottom and using the marks on the template to cut it to length – I cleverly snapped it!! Mind you, it is a very delicate cross-grain thin piece of wood, but I did it anyway.

I set out to make another one but when Richard saw me doing it he smiled and said the glue will sort everything out and it will not be seen in any case! So that saved me another job.

Uh oh . . my first error!

Neck Block . . .

I also started my ‘finger board block’ – a bit that goes under the finger board inside the guitar and forms part of the structure that attaches the neck to the guitar body. I needed to plane the block at 3 degrees from the datum surface – and it needed to be perfectly flat and true all the way along as it is a going to be a bonded surface. Sounds easy . . . but it also takes skill and the right technique, which are two things I am find I am lacking when it comes to using these planes! And it was one of those jobs where you get one part perfect and then discover that another section needs adjustment – which means the first part has to be done again! I got there – eventually.

Looks easy enough

Gobar Box . . .

My next task was to put my now beautifully prepared and thicknessed back into the beautifully named Gobar Box and stick the gutter graft on. The Gobar Box has a slightly concave surface (15’ radius I am told) and it puts a nice curve on the back of the guitar.

So I inserted the back in the Gobar Box and carefully squeezed some glue on the back strip, spread it out nicely with the glue spreader and put it in place. Working quickly, I then inserted the ‘spreaders’ (the bits of wood that create the pressure) and then cleaned up the small amount of excess glue with the special glue removing ruler. So that was a task with a sense of achievement!

Centre graft being held in the Gobar Box

Braces . . .

My last task for the day was to thickness the various pieces of wood that will be used for bracing the top and the bottom of the guitar. This a somewhat tedious task but it requires great accuracy using the huge machine . . . I needed to get them down to various 6, 7 and 8mm depth. Finishing time came around while I was in the sanding room and I have a few to complete in the morning.

Ready for thicknessing

The Others . . .

Patrick is getting the reputation as the quiet achiever – he always seems to beavering away and not saying very much . . . well, a lot less than Phil and me! From what I could see Patrick spent a lot of time preparing his already thickened braces, putting them in place and then planing them down to size using some beautiful little luthier’s thumb planes – they are about 20mm long!

His special Mother of Pearl 'bling' inlay arrived during the morning - which caused another ripple of excitement around the workshop. So he then routed his rosette (sounds almost crude!) and slowly got all the materials in place and clamped. There are a million permeations and combinations for the various colours, sizes and texture of materials for rosettes and in the end it comes down to personal choice and preference.

The bad news is that I will be doing this exacting task tomorrow!

Beautifully braced back . . .

Getting the last bits of glue out

Starting to prepare the neck

Braced back in the Gobar Box

Well in that case I will raise you £5 right now!

Beautifully 'bling'

Scalloping the back braces . . . something else to look forward to!

Phil seemed to spend most of his day on his sides – not literally! He needed to bend the other side (one was done yesterday) and then make all sorts of minute adjustments using the bending iron. It looked a little frustrating at times because when one part is put into the right shape something else seems to move.

Phil also cut out his back today – and made a ‘signature insertion’ across the line! It is not a problem though as this wood will be removed for the binding.