Thread: My Guitars

Hey Dom,

Nice looking workshop and some nice looking guitars being built. I notice you're using external molds for your acoustics. Do you make them up yourself and what are they made of? Looks like youre using ply.

Cheers Martin

I can see the yellowing around the rosette. Dont know how you'd get rid of same apart from trying to sand it out.

If you could live with a darker garnet shellac finish it might reduce the impact of the stain. How about getting some scrap spruce and staining it with superglue and then doing a french polish job on same with garnet shellac. Just an idea.

I've used either epoxy or Titebond on my rosettes and haven't had too many issues. My main issue with doing rosettes is minimising tear out while routing the channels.

Ive just noticed you've peaked your side reinforcement ribs on the steel string. Is this an asthetic thing or is there another reason for the peaking?

The bracing on the steel string looks very neat.

One more question. You've put in a brace along the aft side of the bridge plate. Very interesting.....where did this idea come from?

Apologies for all the questions but guitar guts intrigue me.

The staining is a pity and if you don't conceal it you will regret it forever. I would consider staning the rest of the top yellow to even it out, and finishing with a orange/brown tinted finish. or you could try to "sunburst" the rosette a bit with some yellow tint and feather it outwards. What to stain with? Try a bit of cadmium yellow artists oilpaint. test first on scrap, of course!

Yeah shellac would look good but it takes a bit of work.

Its looking really nice Dom! Lovely neat work!
That yellow stains a bugger! It happened to me once on a tele body made of kauri pine- plastic bindings glued on with superglue, arrgh! I couldn't find any way to get it out. So I guess you will have to stain it, nice gold colour as Matthew suggests maybe....unless you feel like doing some crazy inlay, like a snake or vine going around the rosette. Or how about some freaky abalone insects coming out of the soundhole!
Jack

Thanks for the suggestions and feedback everyone.
Martin, Yes I made the molds along the lines suggested in Kinkead’s book. I used to make surfboards and know that an accurate template is everything. I first made an outside template out of thin MDF as it’s easier to shape and get perfect. Then transferred this into stacks of ¾ ply on the router using a pattern follower bit. Then cut up a bunch of pine 2x1 on the drop saw to exactly 100mm. Then glue and nail in the slats around the outline with a little overhang making sure everything is square. Then you just have to smooth up the overhang and you have a perfect mold that is also light. It’s a cool idea and uses less ply which expensive.
Thanks for all your suggestions about the stain. I have thought about darker stains to hide it but I think I can live with it like I said as a reminder. The first surfboard I made was horrible. It was crooked and had a dirty glass job because I did it outside under the trees but it surfed well and I liked keeping it around because it was my first one. You got to have no regrets and move on. In my mind now it is a sweet sounding but slightly doggy looking thing. It may yet disappoint me on the sweet sound part. I’ll keep you posted.
The idea behind the super glue is good. Put the rosette/purfling in the groove nice and tight. Then flood with super glue which wicks into the whole thing. Works great for fret board dots. Wipe excess glue. Done. Check out the vids on the Taylor web site. They are quite good.
So here’s the theme for the sound hole design.
The freaky abalone insects that were living in the sound hole crawled out, on the rosette that left a yellow stain then crawled off before I could capture the scene as an inlay. Next time I will be quicker.
With the bracing I have recognized from reading heaps that a lot of things work and I just let rip and used my instinct to tweak ideas I have read about. I suppose the side ribs reinforcement peak is aesthetic. The shape of the bracing is from one of the red books as is the idea for the small brace behind the bridge plate. I also had in the back of my mind the statement from Bill Campiano that he no longer believes in tuning plates and simply goes for as light as possible without compromising strength.
Martin, like you and probably most acoustic builders, I am fascinated by the way a guitar works and how all the bits interact and want to get it sussed. Got to start somewhere so you have a base to work from. And I think finding out what the boundaries are in design terms is important in building knowledge. Happy to talk about ideas.
Cheers Dominic

Originally Posted by zenobia

The idea behind the super glue is good. Put the rosette/purfling in the groove nice and tight. Then flood with super glue which wicks into the whole thing.

but you'd probably find thin epoxy or even hide glue (!!) will do the same thing. And no staining.

Matthew, the idea behind using superglue is the low viscosity of the stuff allows you to install the inlay first and then apply the glue. Superglue doesnt contain water either so swelling of the inlay isnt an issue. Epoxy is a pain to work with and clean up afterwards and hide glue contains water which can cause the inlay to swell. Ditto for Titebond AR glue.

OK I see ... so what's the protection against staining?

Originally Posted by contrebasse

OK I see ... so what's the protection against staining?

The way to prevent the staining is to lightly seal the channel with shellac or lacquer before you put the inlay in. If only I had known this before. But you can bet I won't forget it ever again.Dom

I was just going to suggest same Dom. Making mistakes is allowable when building guitars..if you learn from your mistake then keep on building. If you make the same mistake more than three times then it's time to get out of guitar building.

Jack is on the track. I think his idea of MOP or similar inlaid into the stained areas in the form of a pattern would improve the guitar overall. Let's face it, the stains should be gone, and this idea would make for a rather unique one of design.

Check out the work on a few Greek bousouki's and get inspired by the work on them.

Originally Posted by zenobia

The way to prevent the staining is to lightly seal the channel with shellac or lacquer before you put the inlay in. If only I had known this before. But you can bet I won't forget it ever again.Dom

A coat of sanding sealer/shellac is a good idea prior to routing out inlay or binding/purfling channels. It reduces tear out as well as staining.