perjantai 25. toukokuuta 2012

Comfort point of view

Guitars have long been made exactly the same way. The shapes and sizes are time proven standards. Every now and then somebody has tried to re-think the construction of the guitar, sometimes with great success, sometimes with epic failures. I'm a tradition oriented guy, and try to construct my guitars with the classic shapes in mind. But. During this learning process I've stumbled through since 2008, I've encountered some interesting deviations of the tradition, ones that do little to the overall appearance, but enhance the playability and comfort of the guitar from the player's point of view.

The one's I've tried and liked so far are:
1. Soundport that directs part of the sound from the soundbox toward the players ears. Soundports divide people and real luthiers, but based on my short experience, I'm definitely for them.
2. The Manzer wedge shapes the sides of the guitar so that the treble side is deeper than the bass side, making the guitar sit easier on the lap of the player and slanting the top a bit more towards the player. This eases the probable right hand shoulder problems with bigger bodied guitars.
3. armrest/Ryan style bevel takes the sharp corner off from where the right hand curves over the side to the top. I've done two external armrests, and this is the first time I'm trying the integrated Ryan style bevel (go google for Ryan bevel and Ryan acoustic flutes to get the original idea). Below are a few pics of the "guts" that I think go into it.

I started be laminating scraps of cedar and redwood into a thick enough chunk. Then traced the inline of the side and band sawed to a rough shape
Further shaping was done with belt/disc sander. In finnish the pros call it "jeputtaminen". Something learned from my guitar building friend Miika
The about 45° is the backing surface for the bevel veneer.
Clamp well!
And here we are. The side is trimmed down a bit, and the top gets a little asymmetric. But playing comfort is increased in hours!
Just a little trick to trace down the Manzer Wedge outline. Kerfing is like a flexible ruler. Just don't glue it here!
Under the hood the bevel looks like this
Preparing for the back kerfing.
Proud apprentice peeking through
The subtle wedgines is roughly 15mm

maanantai 21. toukokuuta 2012

Sunny sides

The Cocobolo sides were glued to the heel and end blocks today
I'm alreary excited about the look of these sides. If the insides look this good unfinished, think how good the outsides'll look once finished!

The end block is finnish birch plywood, the heel block is a sapele laminate with three different grain direction to prevent splitting.

keskiviikko 16. toukokuuta 2012

Jouni's guitar advancing

Now that Jyrki got his guitar and I got a while to rest, the time came to come back to working with Jouni's guitar. Finally bent the other side, shaped the top bracing and glued the maple bridge plate. I do like this hobby!


Journey continues

A friend brought in an old finnish made guitar from somewhere of the beginning of the 1900s. The "check in condition" was pretty severe. Total of seven top cracks, two of them over the entire face of the top. All of the bracing loose (none lost, thou), the bridge popped out, neck angle lost, neck warped and one tuner knob missing.
On the other hand, it's a nice ladder braced all solid wood parlor guitar with 3-piece, beautifully aged spruce top, figured birch back and sides, birch neck, ebony bridge and rosewood (or stained mahogany) fretboard. Worth trying to save.



For the starters I carefully removed the already loose top. The back is still holding to the sides well.
The neck block was giving in to the pull of the strings, so I glued some support there. Here all the braces have been re-glued.
Three out of four top braces could be saved. The bridge brace had split and the string ball ends had dug themselves into the wood. So I took an equal thick cedar top off cut and inserted a piece of rosewood to the spot where the strings go through the top. Will take the next hundred years with no problem!
I added a very slim brace to support the lower bout area, where most of the glued cracks were.

torstai 3. toukokuuta 2012

I got this new device called TC Helicon Voicelive Play GTX (Such a hefty name they gave to it). Anyway, it has an option for a footswitch. Helicon themselves are selling one for 40-50€. After some research I decided it was too much for a box of metal, eight wires, one stereo jack, two diodes and three momentary switches. So I decided to make one on my own. Out of scrap wood, of course.

The components for the thing cost 2,40€ at SP-Elektroniikka. Unfortunately, they only had plastic push button switches. Might have to ebay something sturdier some day.

The schematics is easy enough for anybody with a soldering iron. Here is more information of making the thing.

I made the "pedal" by gluing three 10mm pieces of redwood together, then routing a cavity in the middle, slanting the box with belt sander and gluing on the cocobolo "top". After the electronics were soldered in place, I sealed everything with a cedrela odorata baseplate.

And here is how it looks like.
Hi-tech and lo-tech side by side. The top is cocobolo, body is figured redwood and baseplate is cedar. 

Sorry about the plastic knobs. They hurt my eyes, but do the job exceptionally

Recessed jack and an oops-hole.