GUITAR BUILDING COURSE - October/November 2024
I checked off a bucket list activity by registering for a 5-week acoustic-guitar building course at Blackwood Guitars in Mallorytown. It was a fun, and very intensive session, but I ended up with a very nice guitar by the end of the course. Here is a summary of what we accomplished during the course. I did not get pictures of every step, but you will get the idea of the steps involved. The pictures have captions, so you can hover over them or click on them for additional details.
My 5-Week Odyssey
First step was to decide on the model of guitar we wanted to build and choose the wood we wanted for our guitars. I chose the Celt model and after pouring over many possible wood combinations settled on Rosewood for the back and sides and Sitka Spruce for the top.
The wood selection completed, it was time to start trimming the wood and getting it sanded down to the appropriate thickness of no less than 2 mm. The sides of the guitar were make with Rosewood on the outside laminated to Cherry on the inside. This increases strength and improves the sound. After the pieces for the side are the appropriate size it is time to bend them to the shape of the guitar using heat and steam. The Cherry and Rosewood are bent separately and then glued together. While that is ongoing, it is time to make end blocks for both the back and front of the guitar. Binding strips are also bent in the same way to go around the top and bottom of the sides to provide more gluing surface for the back and top.
To make the back you must book-match and joint the sides of the two pieces that will become the back of the guitar. Here a plane is used to get the pieces to fit perfectly. Shortly after that, the Spruce for the top gets the same treatment. After the top and bottom are joined, it is time to sand them to final thickness. The back is reduced to a thickness of about 2.7 mm and then a centre seam brace is glued and held in place with go bars. Now the back can be cut to rough size and the braces can be made from Poplar and glued on the back.
When the back braces are glued, it is time to get out a plane and chisel and shape them to final form.
Because a guitar is not flat on the back but "radiused" it needs to be sanded to create the appropriate 15 foot radius. Here is instructor Ted Brown showing us how it is done. Next the back has to be glued to the side, but before you can do that you need to notch slots in the sides to accept the braces.
Now it is time to work on the top that will attach to the back and sides of the guitar. Creating a rosette and sound hole are the first steps. Rosette was made with walnut. After the walnut and purling are glued in place, the thickness sander is used to get a clean finish. Finally, the sound hole is cut out.
Next step is to create the braces for the top. This is an important step and the blueprint for the guitar gives dimensions and locations of the braces.
Installing and carving the braces on a form with a 50 foot radius. Carving the braces takes time and care, but when all is done you get to sign and date the inside of the guitar!
The neck started life as a solid 2x6 of walnut. After cutting to rough shape it was laminated with some Maple for strength and to give it an interesting design. A slot is also routed to accommodate the truss rod. I was able to get help from my son Keith to create a unique G for the headstock. A nice personal touch.
Finally, it is time to attach the top to the back and sides of the guitar. This is called closing the box. At this stage you get to tap the back of the guitar and announce that the "tap tone is amazing".
The guitar is then routed around the edge of the top, bottom, and sides to make way for the binding and purfling. That is glued in place and held with stretchy tape. At the same time, an end graft is fitted. For this, I selected a piece of Birdseye Maple.
Time to start the finishing part of the guitar. We used French polish (shellac) to get a nice sheen without adding much "thickness" to the guitar. Cutting the sound port was a little nerve-racking, but it turned out pretty nice.
The next major (and complicated) step is fitting the the neck to the body of the guitar. A mortise and tenon are cut using a router and jig and a great deal of fine-tuning is done to get the neck to fit exactly right. Fretboard is attached to the neck before final fitting. At this stage, you also cut the slots for the frets, but I forgot to take pictures. My fretboard is made of Imbuya with Ebony bindings.
Getting near the end now and it was pretty exciting. Bridge was made from Rosewood, routed to accept the saddle, and glued to top of guitar. Somehow, I managed to not take pictures of slotting the nut, filing the saddle, or creating a radius on the fretboard. The bridge and nut are both made of bone and require some careful feting. The neck is shaped using a plane and finished with a profiled camber jig. At this stage, the neck is ready for the frets to be installed, trimmed, and filed and the tuners to be fitted.
A bit of final polishing, strings added, and the guitar is finished. Didn't go quite that quick, but you get the idea. A fine conclusion to a fun 5 weeks! Thanks to Ted for his guidance, and to my Blackwood buddies, Tim, Wally, and François, who were great guys and fun to get to know. We all helped each other!
