The Luthier Community

Thanks Mike!

Yeah, I struggle along in my rather primitive under-tooled shop, but that router setup definitely let's me feel like I'm playing with the "big boys", ha...…….

I know, I know, I'm slow...….. well life, wet and cold weather have been keeping me away from the shop but I do have a neck underway for this one...….
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I'm using some slightly off grain mahogany so I rip it down the middle, flip one piece and glue it back up so I've got a piece where the grain may be off quarter but it's symmetrical so any tendency to warp should be offset.
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Gluing up the scarfed neck....
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And the heel stack...
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And the roughed out neck with rosewood headplate, trussrod slot, and mortise and tenon neck join.
And yeah I got a little lax on my documentation of those steps.....
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But yeah, it's starting to look like a guitar........

Looking good Joe. Good to see you making some progress. I was just thinking I hadn't seen anything from you lately. Your truss rod slot seems to end a ways from the nut. I always thought they had to be almost right up to the nut area. Hmmm. Now you got me thinking.

John

Joe,
Good to see you back at the bench. I have been watching this build closely as I am planning a ladder braced mahogany guitar this size as soon as I can get back in the shop. So this is a learning experience.

I don't see a bridgeplate on this one, although I think I see a different texture on the top plate, between the lower horizontal brace and the half-brace. Perhaps that's it, but it seems too far back from the sound hole.

Otherwise, I'm guessing this will have a floating bridge with a tailpiece. Maybe?

Keep up the good work.

Tom

Now heck John, don't try to get me thinking...…… it just confuses me, especially when I think I've got it figured out!

In truth, I don't know...…. that's the way I've always done it. With the length of the 12 fret truss rods from stewmac and placed where the adjusting end is at the end of the neck for easy soundhole access that's just where they come out. Now I reckon you could just reach further up in the neck to reach the truss adjusting nut and that would place the other end closer to the nut, hmmmm….. damnit, see now you've got me started...……

Hey Tom, these ladder braced guitars have traditionally used spruce for the bridge plate, which I guess being as they are larger, traditionally going all the way across from rim to rim, kind of evens out the weight compared to a smaller hardwood bridge plate. At least that's the way I interpret it...…. Now the position comes about from two things, the 12 fret neck join moves the bridge further back into a sweeter spot compared to a 14 fret join, and on these 12's I'm building a low tuned, B to b, and using a longer scale, 26 1/2", to achieve the proper tension with the low tuning, which also moves the bridge further back into the most active part of the soundboard...….. at least that's the way I perceive what's going on..,,,,

And I haven't yet decided if this is going to be a floating bridge/tailpiece setup or a pinned bridge. When I use a pinned bridge on these ladder braced, spruce bridge plate guitars, I glue on a small, thin hardwood cap where the bridge pins come thru to protect the spruce bridge plate from wear. Normally I go a ahead and glue it in place before I close the box, which frees me later on to go with whatever bridge style I decide on as the guitar comes together. Having that small hardwood cap on there doesn't seem to be a problem even if I decide to go with the floating bridge. This time I just forgot to add it and so if I go with a pin bridge I'll have to glue one in place.

Thanks for watching and questioning my friends!

ps.... the spruce bridge plate grain runs opposite of the soundboard grain...…..

Wow, you're really moving along on this one, Joe.

I just noticed (I'm a little slow) that you are not installing carbon fiber in the neck. Man, if a 12-string (even low-tuned has to be more pounds of string pull than a 6-string at standard tuning) neck can withstand the pull, why in the hell am I putting in CF rods (messy epoxy, CF dust, and almost always takes a second epoxy session to fill the shallows once the epoxy cures.)

Can't wait to hear her growl!

Beautiful work, lovely combinations! I have a Martin 00 in Indian/Sitka which uses tortoise shell bindings. It's a lovely little thing and I predict you'll like the look as much as I do.

Steve

I don’t think you ‘need’ to go right to the nut with the rod - Granted, it might ask for more force to achieve what one’s after, but it doesn’t strike me as a big deal - JM2¢W