The last update for now

Now that I got the Kerfling I began the soundboard. The soundboard joint confused the shit out of me. The two halves of the soundboards, all the books make it sound like some complicated joint, but its actually just 2 perfectly flat halves of wood butted together without a drop of light shining through. So after I figured that out, I tried to find the best method to do this. You know what worked best? A 2x4 with sandpaper wrapped around it. I went back and forth with it a few times and I had all I needed. I glued it all together. Now there was a big problem at this point though. The wood near the seam had split. So this guitar I am naming, THE GLUE MONSTER, because anything that didnt come out perfect (any splits or anywhere where the joint is perfectly flush) gets covered in titebond so it looks like its fine. I dont think this guitar will last very long but for $100, it doesnt have to, I am learning so much from this experience (I have a martin dreadnought kit coming in a few weeks because I have a problem with building new instruments.) Anyways, I put the soundboard together, glued and clamped, and began cutting and shaping the braces. The braces were a full days work. Cutting, chiseling, and sanding/dremeling. I paid alot of attention to the braces and their strength. I would rather loose sound quality and have stronger braces at the soundboard seam, just because of the split wood. These braces are going to be the biggest factor in holding this guitar together. Cutting the sound hole out before gluing the braces on was vital. But the jigsaw just did more damage to the splitting in the wood. Every step closer to putting hte braces on, the more I realized the importance of their strength. Lets hope it holds up! So after lots of sanding and adjusting I took a 2x2 and turned it into nice rounded braces. My next step is cutting the shape out of the guitar and bracing the backboard. After that I glue the soundboard and backboard to the sides and have a completed body. That should be done the first week in August and hopefully I will post the progress on that up as I get there!

Next step in the process

Well what comes next you might be asking yourself. Why the kerfling of course. Kerfling is very self explanatory. Its the lining in the guitar that helps support the shape as well as gives the soundboard and back of the of guitar extra surface area to glue and attach to the sides. Its wood with slits cut in it in order to allow for flexibility. It takes about 240 clothes pins to attach it. YOu put the glue on and use the clothes pins as clamps to hold it in place while the glue dries. Soon after you have what appears to be a guitar body starting to form.

Its been a long time and I intend to get this blog up to speed...

So Since I last spoke to the one or two of you who read this blog, I have been working very hard. Ive only had a few days off and those few days have been devoted to the guitar kit. This may be a few shorts posts, or one long post, but i will catch you up to where I am. Last you saw I had just received the kit. My first step was to create the mortise tenon neck joint as well as shape the end block so that I could glue the sides together. It was tough. Make sure that when you make your neck joint, you do it slowly and carefully. Its a very important joint that has to be straight and perfect. Mine came out mediocre, I am going to shape it up a bit once the neck is ready to be attached. I say that only because I am not sure how level my joint will be compared to the body. The tail block was simple, 3 cuts and some sanding. The final step was gluing the sides to the tail block and neck joint. Now in normal circumstances you would have a mold or shape that the sides would fit in and it would create a perfectly symmetrical shape. I did not have that mold, so I guessed on shape and size and symmetry. I cut the excess wood from my sides and glued up. Now my sides were not perfectly matched at the tail joint (it was crooked, but thats what you get when your a newbie in the guitar building world and you dont have the proper tools for the job.) Heres comes the next post.