Blackwood King Billy O Model

Rick Turner · Post by **Rick Turner** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 12:03 am

Yes, a spruce top with an induced arch is "built under stress". Violin makers and repairers often spring in the bass bar "under stress". And once an instrument has strings on it, it's definitely under stress. Building them under stress is one way of countering string tension by "pre-loading" the structure of the instrument in a direction opposite what will be applied by string pull.

And when customers call repeatedly to ask if their guitar is done yet, the guitar is built under stress...

Stephen Kinnaird · Post by **Stephen Kinnaird** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 3:47 am

Rick Turner wrote:Yes,
And when customers call repeatedly to ask if their guitar is done yet, the guitar is built under stress...

LOL!! Rick, ALL my guitars are built under stress.
And not a little tension.

Steve

Rick Turner · Post by **Rick Turner** » Sat Mar 14, 2009 3:54 am

I've got a guy who ordered a ukulele two weeks ago who is already calling wondering if there is a problem!

Yeah, buddy, with the fact that you don't have anything better to do than call three times and email wondering how we're doing on your uke!

And the box is assembled, the fingerboard is on the neck, and it goes into the finish room next week. This is practically record time for us...

The moral of the story is that if you build them quicker, your customers will still call and want them even faster. Slow down...

Cam · Post by **Cam** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 9:05 pm

wow bob, this is a real nice one. I love the figuring of the Blackwood and the fretboard just tops it off.

Nice work!

Kim · Post by **Kim** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 11:38 pm

Thanks for resurrecting this thread, I must have missed it back then.

What a honey of a guitar Bob, great bit of blackwood and beautifully stitched together, but why come no sound??

Cheers

Kim

Dennis Leahy · Post by **Dennis Leahy** » Fri May 01, 2009 1:25 am

bob wrote:Dennis wrote:
Very cool experiment with the sides, and yes, I would think very heavy
Dennis it doesn't make this guitar feel heavy but our instruments are usually fairly light. So a bit of extra beef isn't going to concern me if I can reproduce the response on another one. BTW there's some Blackwood out of the same billet in your "care parcel"

I too forgot to go back into this thread. Interesting to me for several reasons:

1.) I need to actually pack up the "care parcel" that is going to you, Bob. I think I have waited long enough, and the wood is seasoned well.

Hot damn, it is exciting to know that some of this Tasmanian Blackwood is coming my way!

2.) I bought some veneer to make a laminated guitar - the sides and back will be 3-ply Walnut/black dyed Anigre/Walnut (the black dyed stuff I have just happens to be Anigre, it wasn't done on purpose), and I'm counting on getting stiff sides and a relatively stiff reflective back. Black inner core will look better with a soundport, methinks. Your experiments with double sides are encouraging, Bob, but your key may be the .160" overall thickness providing a stiffness and density that is far greater than what I will achieve with 3 veneer layers.

Dennis

Rod True · Post by **Rod True** » Fri May 01, 2009 5:42 am

bob wrote:...When I was in the States last year Bob Cefalu and I were contemplating the possibilty of glueing the sides together flat and then putting them in the side bender. The heat would allow the glue to slip a bit while bending.

We couldn't see why it wouldn't work

It's certainly something I'm going to try with some spare sides.

The only thing I would worry about with this Bob is what that much heat will do to the holding quality of the glue. I would think you'll be boiling the glue and how with the sides hold up after that?

pat foster · Post by **pat foster** » Sun May 03, 2009 11:50 pm

Dang, that sure is pretty, Bob! Love that fretboard, too.

Pat

hilo_kawika · Post by **hilo_kawika** » Mon May 04, 2009 4:21 am

Very lovely instrument Bob. I bet it sounds as great as it looks.

Laminating sides. I think I mentioned this in another thread but I laminated the sides of several dozen ukuleles I've built. Laminating sides was very common in the 1920's in the Lyon & Healy factory for special models.

If you're going to try to bend and glue at the same time, probably a thermosetting glue such as hide glue would be a good choice rather than "yellow glue".

When sides are laminated, the air resonance of the instrument goes up. This can be a good thing or a bad one depending on the actual frequency of the resonance relative to the lowest open string. I liked to have the air resonance a semitone lower than the lowest open string if I could get it. That way you have the lower register working but the air resonance frequency doesn't coincide with an actual open or fretted string - which usually makes for a dead sounding, "thunky" note.

aloha,

Dave Hurd
http://www.ukuleles.com

Bob Connor · Post by **Bob Connor** » Mon May 04, 2009 7:55 am

There'e plenty of glueing area there Rod and I'd only have the sides heated for about 4 minutes. I don't know what efffect that'll have on Titebond but I can see Daves rationale for using something like HHG.

To be honest it's only a theory, but one worth pursuing with a couple of spare sides to see what happens.

Yes Dennis - we'll have to get the great wood exchange moving.

Rod True · Post by **Rod True** » Mon May 04, 2009 3:08 pm

bob wrote:There'e plenty of glueing area there Rod and I'd only have the sides heated for about 4 minutes. I don't know what efffect that'll have on Titebond but I can see Daves rationale for using something like HHG.

To be honest it's only a theory, but one worth pursuing with a couple of spare sides to see what happens.

Yes Dennis - we'll have to get the great wood exchange moving.

Oh, definitely worth pursuing Bob! Just the thinking in my head about the glue that had me questioning.

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Blackwood King Billy O Model

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