Before proceeding with the the internal Eiffel Tower construction I thought it might be wise to give the upper bout contours it's rigidity back I had robbed them for cutting the soundholes so near to the borders. I prepared some kind of partial second soundboard pieces to be glued to the bowl walls below the rosewood "soundboard-pickguard":
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Dry run:
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I didn't want to make them too obvious so I painted them in a colour similar to the shade inside the charango:
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I did not use all colours, just brown and red for "grounding". When nearly dry I wiped this layer halfway off and then went on with black (steady hand needed when not protecting the instrument - no excessive coffee drinking allowed):
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Then I brushed some shellac on and rubbed it out a bit, trying to not get it too shiny. I also streamlined the anchorages for the transverse bar a bit more:
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Finally I glued in the transverse bar, put in two more small triangular supporting blocks and glued in two sturdy laminated spruce-rosewood sandwich bars between neck and carbon fibre transverse bar:
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The two bars run in a slight angle from the neck to the transverse bar. If assuming that the whole neck pivots around an imaginary axis near the bottom/heel, those bars will be loaded in direction of at least nearly their long axis:
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That's how far I got until last Sunday. Now there's more Friendly Plastic use planned...
Markus
To be stupid is like to be dead. Oneself will not be aware of it.
It's only the others who suffer.
The rosewood part of the soundboard (I'll call it "golpeador" as one normally does for this part of the charango, even if in my fragile version it's not really a pickguard anymore, which is what the word "golpeador" means) first time already had broken when french polishing, much before I first strung up the thing. It was always a bit difficult applying enough pressure but not yet destroying the golpeador. So I thought I would do the french polishing this time before gluing the golpeador on:
The Friendly Plastic sanding blocks are taking a bath in order to separate them from the sanding paper an reuse them for a caul for french polishing the golpeador (adding more Friendly Plastic, of course).
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To my surprise Friendly Plastic was not as friendly as I hoped, it shrinks too much for what I wanted it to use. So I had to cut the caul in two pieces and "glue" them together with more Friendly Plastic. It doesn't look very nice but I hope it will do it's job before I'll melt it again for using it again. The golpeador is now ready for being french polished again.
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You may think now it would have been much easier and more logical to simply make another, stronger golpeador. That's right, but I really don't want to trash it because in the end, all this wood is a gift from Julio and Edgard, and rosewood, when bought as quartered tonewood veneer costs in Perú just about the same as, or even more than in Europe or Australia, only that the average peruvian income is not the same. So I really would hate to throw it away, even if Julio certainly would do it. Kinda sentimental stupidity from my side...
In the beginning I thought that a thin golpeador could probably act as a passive vibrating element, influencing sound in some way (having not much of an idea in which way this would/could/will be). Maybe this is true, or not. But anyway, I don't believe it will do a big thing. Maybe I'll see and hear what it's effect could be when making the next charangos which certainly will have a STURDY golpeador!
Markus
To be stupid is like to be dead. Oneself will not be aware of it.
It's only the others who suffer.
Well, some months ago the golpeador got french polished and the box closed again, the binding slapped back in place, not really breaking news...
I wished to bring down the saddle hight which with 10 mm was "a bit" (way!) too high for a charango (about 6 to max. 8 mm would be normal). Before the first bridge wreckage the action was just about perfect (about 2.2 mm at the 12th fret, no noise at one note below "nominal pitch" - as you already know the bridge had failed with the strings tuned "right").
So I decided to lower the fretboard at the 12th fret by 1 millimetre, leaving it at the original height at the nut. During the whole process I did not removed the frets (with the exception of the two frets where the location pin holes got re-used when gluing the fingerboard back to the neck). Six pictures say more than tons of my blahblah, so here we go:
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Scribe the line to which I then planed back the fingerboard:
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Planing the fingerboard with the frets in place:
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This was about ten days ago.
The first time I had glued on the fingerboard I had used Titebond and I had to learn that it is relatively easy to de-glue, but cleaning it up well is a mess and very tedious, especially if you don't want to scrape back any wood at all. Well, who would want to think of ripping off the fingerboard even before the instrument is finished!
This time I didn't want to take a chance and the fingerboard went back on to the neck with hot hide glue, using the same steel location pins and holes as I did the first time. To prevent the neck from back bowing I wetted the outsides of the neck with the steamer, in order the gluing surface and the outer surfaces would expand by about the same amount.
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The next step was to smooth the bowl shape with scrapers and shape the neck...
Markus
To be stupid is like to be dead. Oneself will not be aware of it.
It's only the others who suffer.
Thanks Martin.
That little spokeshave is really useful for this purpose (= small enough for charango and uke necks). I should have bought a couple of them, they are not pricey at all and now I want at least one more to round its sole for reaching in the heel zone instead of using the scraper in alternating directions.
Markus
To be stupid is like to be dead. Oneself will not be aware of it.
It's only the others who suffer.
A week ago I did the pore filling (shellac and pumice). It went really well, I could do the bowl and the neck in about one hour
But then I realised that the bowl's curvature was less then smooth and even.
The problems were located mostly (and appeared most disturbing) in the huge endgrain areas where the different hardness of the growth rings started to get uneven as soon as I touched them with sandpaper (which I only had used at the very end to smooth out some ridges I had left when scraping).
So I started to scrape the bowl again, trying to eliminate the "hills" the harder growth rings had formed, followed by very slight cross grain sanding:
Then, the second pore filling was much harder to achieve. The not scraped / sanded areas had darkened meanwhile, the pumice did not get coloured that easy as before and especially the smaller pores did not fill until I switched to a finer pumice.
But finally I got there where I at least wanted to get, and I celebrated the end of pore filling today with a glass of fine wine
Doing the rest of the FP will take a while and stringing up the little bugger is scheduled to happen next year!
Markus
To be stupid is like to be dead. Oneself will not be aware of it.
It's only the others who suffer.
Great work Markus, your fine little Charango is looking great and you deserve a glass or two of fine wine...besides, I don't think there is a single method of pore filling that does not benefit from a tipple at the end of the process and then a bit of a break to settle before work begins on the finish..
Looking forward to the sound clip too Markus...
Here's and idea....you could do Bob Dylan and Jacques Levy's "Romance in Durango"..... on ur Charango
Here's the chords, nice and easy and good for Uke also
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Here's all the lyrics: (Quite short for Dylan )
Hot chili peppers in the blistering sun
Dust on my face and my cape
Me and Magdalena on the run
I think this time we shall escape
Sold my guitar to the baker’s son
For a few crumbs and a place to hide
But I can get another one
And I’ll play for Magdalena as we ride
No Ilores, mi querida
Dios nos vigila
Soon the horse will take us to Durango
Agarrame, mi vida
Soon the desert will be gone
Soon you will be dancing the fandango
Past the Aztec ruins and the ghosts of our people
Hoofbeats like castanets on stone
At night I dream of bells in the village steeple
Then I see the bloody face of Ramon
Was it me that shot him down in the cantina
Was it my hand that held the gun?
Come, let us fly, my Magdalena
The dogs are barking and what’s done is done
No Ilores, mi querida
Dios nos vigila
Soon the horse will take us to Durango
Agarrame, mi vida
Soon the desert will be gone
Soon you will be dancing the fandango
At the corrida we’ll sit in the shade
And watch the young torero stand alone
We’ll drink tequila where our grandfathers stayed
When they rode with Villa into Torreón
Then the padre will recite the prayers of old
In the little church this side of town
I will wear new boots and an earring of gold
You’ll shine with diamonds in your wedding gown
The way is long but the end is near
Already the fiesta has begun
The face of God will appear
With His serpent eyes of obsidian
No Ilores, mi querida
Dio nos vigila
Soon the horse will take us to Durango
Agarrame, mi vida
Soon the desert will be gone
Soon you will be dancing the fandango
Was that the thunder that I heard?
My head is vibrating, I feel a sharp pain
Come sit by me, don’t say a word
Oh, can it be that I am slain?
Quick, Magdalena, take my gun
Look up in the hills, that flash of light
Aim well my little one
We may not make it through the night
No Ilores, mi querida
Dios nos vigila
Soon the horse will take us to Durango
Agarrame, mi vida
Soon the desert will be gone
Soon you will be dancing the fandango
