Because of the big weekend, I didn't get to spend any time working on the guitars except for Sunday night and a little on Monday after work. I wanted to get the kerfing installed in the SJ so that was my first task. I cleaned the sides from the side brace installation and then took the kerfing out of the bender where it has been sitting for a week. I was really surprised that it held it's shape. My experience with kerfed linings is that they are very bendy and I never would have thought that they would hold the shape of the sides. I just thought that pre-bending would stretch and shape the fibers so they wouldn't break when bending around the waist. Anyways, I carefully cut the linings to length and glued them up and clamped them. I picked up some binder clips to do this one with because I wasn't happy with clothespins. They just don't have much strength and I figured binder clips would hold a lot better. The linings are now all installed and look great.
After that was done, I decided it was time to locate and glue up the bridge on the OOO. First though, I needed to make a nut for the neck. I made one earlier but it was a bit too short so I got a larger blank to make a new nut. Once it was cut and rough shaped I tacked it in place with some superglue. This was needed because the bridge location is based off of the nut edge. I spent quite a bit of time making sure that I had the bridge located and pinned in place. I then etched the lacquer with a razor blade so I could scrape the little bit of overlap. Once that was done, I glued it up and let it sit over night. On Monday I took the clamps off, cleaned the neck joint and glued it up. I am getting pretty excited to get this one strung up so I can see how it will sound. I have some fairly high expectations so I hope it lives up to them!
These are the bindings out of the bender. I was thinking that the paper was holding them in place but...
This is how they held their shape after I took the paper off. I was surprised.
One side glued and clamped in place. The other piece is holding purely by friction and pressure against the neck and tail blocks. It isn't glued up yet.
The top kerfing all glued and clamped. I did the back later in the day.
This is the little holder I made for sanding the neck break angle on the nut. These little things are hard to hold onto for shaping.
The angle sanded .
The nut set in the neck. I had to adjust the fingerboard just a touch to get the distance to the first fret perfect.
And here you can see it is perfect to the thousandth of an inch.
The bridge glued and clamped up.
The next day I glued the neck to the body. All that is left are the tuners, fret leveling and shaping, the saddle, and then string it up! I can hardly wait!
1 comment:
Congratulations to your daughter (and you for making it)
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