The Luthier Community

Wow, Eben, that would be a musical sound clip that's for sure

Grant, I really like how this guitar is looking. I might have to order some wood off you before to long. Also, I've been thinking about the x-braced back. My idea only had an x brace on the bottom and a traditional brace on top. But I do like your idea better.

Dennis, REMEMBER "Normal is just a setting on a wash machine"

Eben,

Can you fart in time and sing at the same time. This would bring musical artistry to a whole new level.....

Tom

I saw the Monkeypod dred, in progress, in person. It's really pretty! You might look at unfinished Monkeypod and think it is going to be another Mahogany clone, but it is darker, richer. Should make a really nice guitar!

Dennis

Well, it seems like eons since i have built on anything...Guess maybe that's because it HAS been a while

Been looking around and I really don't have all that many guitars around any more that are ready to go, and most of what I do have are quite old. And we have another show next weekend and all of the guitars that I have on hand have already been there....twice. And since I have gotten some advance publicity http://www.lakecountryjournal.com/emag/ ... eflip.html I better get something new to take along. (Note: if you go to this link, click the pages icon in the upper left and scroll down to page 34 and click on it)

So the one I have the closest to being finished is this monkeypod dread. Box is all closed and the neck is mostly shaped with the fingerboard and peghead overlay all glued on. Just needs binding, fretting, neck carving, finishing and stringing up.

So first I did the end graft, simple ebony with b/w lines that will match the binding that I plan to use



You can see I have the binding channels routed and ready to go. I also have a bunch of dred bent binding in ebony with b/w purflings

Here is the first one going on the back


And here is the whole thing all done


I used a w/b purfling on the top and no purfling on the back, but when I scraped the bindings down, there were a few places where the white purfling line on the top "got lost"


So I painted on some warm water to get the glue softened (I used Elmer's Carpenter's Glue) and scraped out those sections with a real skinny chisel. Cleaned out the groove and glued in new strips. I cut the ends of the bad sections as a ramp so the new pieces would scarf on rather than being a butt joint which would show.

And here is the result...

...good as new.

Then I radiused and fretted the fingerboard.

This is a nicely quartersawn cocobolo fingerboard. I get the board dead flat and then I hammer in the frets. After the third fret is in, I check everything as I go with a short straightedge across the last three frets, and hammer down any that the straightedge rocks on. So when I get done there is almost no leveling to do.

Then I routed the peghead for my logo and glued it in


And sanded everything level


I am going to French polish the body and use Tru-Oil on the neck

Dennis brought me the booze last week and my shellac came today

Mixed up a small batch of the amber and the platina tonight to a one pound cut, so I should be set to go this weekend

Here is a shot of the front...


...and the back


These look blotchy because I have a partly sanded coat of shellac on to protect the wood. I will sand everything down to bare wood before I start to finish.

Here is the neck with the first coat of Tru-Oil


Notice that I have the back sanded down.

So that's where I am for today. I need to make the bridge and get the finishing going tomorrow. Hope I can remember Mitch's instructions

G

Looking real nice Grant!
Good to see you back working again instead of just goofing off and idling about.

Joe

Well, today I played with shellac. I have mixed up an 8 oz jar of three of the four kinds that I bought to a 1 pound cut. That's one ounce of shellad into 8 oz of the 190 proof booze. And, no, i didn't drink any

Lots of difference in the three kinds. From left to right, the Kusmi # 1 buttonlac, the garnet, and the platina


Actually, the platina is even clearer than the photo shows...should make an almost water clear finish.

So I started out on the guitar back using the garnet. Here it is after a bunch of coats

Worked up a shine pretty fast, about an hours worth of polishing, being not sure of what I was doing and learning as I went. Tried to remember what Mitch had shown us as best I could. I tried the pumice for filling the pores, but all I accomplished is wearing through the cloth on the pad. Oh well, guess I will settle for a more "organic" look and have pores.

Here it is without the sun reflecting


So then i did the sides, one at a time, and here is the result


This is just the garnet. I will just let this set until tomorrow or so and then do a bunch of coats of the button lac to give it a hard finish. Then I will do the top (after I mask out for the bridge) with the platina and finish it off with some coats of the button lac.

So far, I am happy with the process. I have tried the French polish before from just reading about it and have given up way long ago. Had it not been for Mitch's demonstration and explanation at the Stringfest, there would be no way I would have even thought about trying this. He took all the mystery out of the process and gave me the confidence I needed to try it. Thanks, Mitch!!! Next year he will be showing us more, so put it on your calander as a "must attend"

Will post more as it happens. Thanks for looking.

G

Wow, Grant, this is looking great. Have you had any problems keeping an even color with the darker colored shellac? It was a big problem for me with my first build. It wanted to go splotchy, and I found it very hard to stay even. Some of that, I might attribute to the pore filling process, which seemed to have burned through the spit coats in some places.

Grant,

Looks like you paid attention to Mitch's demonstration! Great color and polish already.

Did you first put down the mineral oil before any shellac? If so, did you use the mineral oil with the pumice? Would rottenstone be better, partly because of its dark color not filling the pores with light-colored material?

Jim