Building Again

Talk about musical instrument construction, setup and repair.

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Hesh1956
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Building Again

Post by Hesh1956 » Thu Apr 02, 2009 11:27 pm

Well I have been back to guitar building, finally... and wanted to show my ANZLF friends some progress pics. :)

This is my first stint at building two guitars at once and so far so good. I certainly see the time savings in not having to do all the set-up for each operation twice. More importantly though I see the real benefit as having the opportunity to refine the process in as much as it's not over after one go at it. It seems that guitar building is simply 300 (pulled that number out of my arse...) separate operations and since we can have months in between the next time we build we never have an opportunity to really refine anything.

The down side of multiple builds is of course the stuff that we don't enjoy will last twice as long..... :(

Anyway I am building an OM with Tiger Myrtle from Bob Connor (thanks again Bob - I love this wood) and a dread*ought with Sapele back and sides. Since some guy bought my only dread*ought last week I am thinking that I had better have one of these beasts in stock at all times.

Both will have black tops. :D

Here is a shot of one of the Sapele sides in the bender. This Sapele seems to be a bit more difficult to bend and the first side had an unacceptable amount of spring back which I fixed on the pipe. The second side I cooked hotter, used more water, and left in the stinkin bender longer so we shall see if this helps:

Image

Here is a shot of the first Sapele side - very pretty wood indeed:

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This is going to be the back on the OM and again I LOVE Tiger Myrtle!!! It is very deceptive wood in that it taps like wet cardboard but it bends, planes, and sands like a dream and not to mention that on a guitar it sounds fantastic:

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And here is the Sapele back now joined and ready to be sanded with the ROS and 120 next:

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I need to stop at a hardware store and buy more turnbuckles so I can get the OM bent and in the mold too. Building more than one guitar at a time is uncovering some additional things that I need to duplicate in the shop.

Thanks for looking! :)

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Bob Connor
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Post by Bob Connor » Thu Apr 02, 2009 11:37 pm

Good to see you back in the saddle Hesh.

That Sapele looks sweet.

I agree that Myrtle is a joy to work with.

I've been wondering how a Myrtle top would go? I know Jeffrey Yong tells us that Monkey Pod doesn't have much of a tap tone either so it may be worth an experiment considering the accolades his MP topped guitar got.
Bob, Geelong
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Post by Paul B » Fri Apr 03, 2009 12:49 am

Looking good Hesh, I think I've got two sets of sapele that came off the same board as that stuff. You got it from Don Williams, right?

Interested to see what you do with it, and how it looks under finish.

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Post by Robbie O'Brien » Fri Apr 03, 2009 2:07 am

Looking good Hesh. THat Australian Tiger Myrtle is some beautiful wood. I had a student build with it last year and the ebony bindings he used really dressed it up!
www.obrienguitars.com

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Stephen Kinnaird
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Post by Stephen Kinnaird » Fri Apr 03, 2009 4:32 am

Twice the fun, eh Hesh?
Good to see ya at it again.
And I'm glad you are building a
DREADNOUGHT.

You should practice typing that several times a day until you can do it smoothly. :lol:

Steve
There are some great woods, down under!

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Ron Wisdom
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Post by Ron Wisdom » Fri Apr 03, 2009 5:43 am

What Steve K. said. :D

Ron

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Allen
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Post by Allen » Fri Apr 03, 2009 6:36 am

DREADNOUGHT DREADNOUGHT DREADNOUGHT

Yep, it's not that hard to say 3 times quickly. :lol:

Everything is looking sweet there Hesh.

On Myrtle tops. I've got a couple of soprano ukes with the box's closed now. Myrtle tops that are very stiff, both with and across the grain, and tap as good as anything I've hear. Not the Tiger Myrtle though.

Bob Connor mentioned to me that when it gets the fungus in it, that it does sound like cardboard compared to a piece that doesn't.
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DarwinStrings
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Post by DarwinStrings » Fri Apr 03, 2009 10:10 am

Hesh...WOW!!!....that side bender, what can I say (was it made in the Ferrari workshop?), I guess you will get and nice laugh when you see my first side bender. I have only used a pipe up until my last two which I have made benders for, will post them in a thread for your entertainment. Looking forward to watching your builds.

Jim

'Jesus mate, that neck is as bent as a hippy in the sixties' (a mate of mine)

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kiwigeo
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Post by kiwigeo » Fri Apr 03, 2009 10:10 am

Typical Heshie....a nice pic of a sander sitting on a top...but WHERES THE DUST!!!!!!

Lets see some dirt son.......and shavings...and general grime. I wanna see dirty coffee cups and half empty vodka bottles....

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sebastiaan56
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Post by sebastiaan56 » Fri Apr 03, 2009 10:16 am

Hesh,

I think the picture of Miles may not be straight.

Nice bob (cant really call it zoot or spittle can I?), its gonna make some nice guitars
make mine fifths........

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Lillian
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Post by Lillian » Sun Apr 05, 2009 2:15 am

Looking good Hesh. Glad to see you back in your shop.

Have you used Oregon Myrtle? I know it isn't nearly as pretty as the Tiger Myrtle, but I was curious if they were similar otherwise. I have a set in the pile from Rich that I'm thinking may be my next build.

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Kim
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Post by Kim » Sun Apr 05, 2009 5:45 am

Looking good Hesh, it's good to see you back at it.

Sorry to be so late in on this, I see you started this thread on the 2nd of April, given that it's the 5th today I guess you would be all done by now measuring from ur past builds. :D

Cheers

Kim

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DarwinStrings
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Post by DarwinStrings » Tue Apr 07, 2009 2:59 pm

I keep coming back here to look at that bender of your's Hesh. I have always done it by hand on a pipe but this forum has made me make a few changes.

From this
Image


To this
Image

I don't have one of those blamkets so I just used a hot air gun and it worked fine, the blower does 600 celcius which would be ignition temp for some woods. It was faster than bending by hand.

The next step I suppose for me is to use yours as a model, I assume you use a blanket Hesh, is that correct?

Jim

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Allen
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Post by Allen » Tue Apr 07, 2009 4:54 pm

I've got the home made version to Hesh's. It's so much faster, and produces sides with little to no ripples that it's not much fun to have to go back and bend by hand. The blanket for mine came from MEI. They are in our approved vendors section. At the time about $110 AU landed on my door.
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Hesh1956
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Post by Hesh1956 » Tue Apr 07, 2009 8:27 pm

Thanks folks! :)

Jim my friend knowing how to bend on a pipe is an important skill to have and even though I use my Fox style bender most of the time I still use the pipe at times to touch-up difficult sides that have too much spring-back or for bending other things.

The Fox or Doolin style benders do make things way easier though. If I were to do it all over again I would check out the Doolin style bender and not because there is anything wrong with the Fox style - the Doolin style is just simpler and takes up a bit less space and requires less wood and hardware to build.

Maybe someone can post a picture of the Doolin style?

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Lillian
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WaddyT
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Post by WaddyT » Tue Apr 07, 2009 11:37 pm

Jim, I was curious as to how you used the heat gun to accomplish the bend. did you heat the slat, starting at the waist, and heat each bout as you bent it?
Waddy

Build Albums 12 done - 1 in process

Clip for #1 Barrios' "Una Limosna por el Amor de Dios" - Not me playing

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