Build Log

It's October and this build is finally done. Here are some photos of the completed build.

The wood contrast and black binding all came out nicely. And the overall shape is ergonomic and looks proportional.

Here is some detail in the horn. The 12th fret crescent inlay adds some symmetry to the upper horn.

Some more detail of the body.

The headstock inlays look even better in person. Hard to capture the color of the abalone in the saturn inlay.

I decided to go the extra mile with this build and bind the fretboard and headstock.

This guitar is only a few solid working days away from finishing. I've completed the binding. I'd like to get the frets in and the last of the inlays done, and then some minor scraping and sanding.

There comes a time in the build where the individual design elements start to emerge into a larger story. I felt this today, after completing the fretboard inlays.

This week felt like a trudge, I didn't make as much progress as I would have wished. I broke some .023" CNC cutters - the bits are so small that if you sneeze near them they'll break. They smell fear. I had to wait for some replacements. Those came, along with some plastic binding and the Schaller hardware I ordered for this build. This guitar will be well appointed. After my bits arrived, I was unblocked and finished the fretboard inlays.

There was a detour in the build this week as I finally got around to designing a label for the inside of the "F hole". I decided to block print them to add a certain ancient mystique. I designed the label and cut the blocks on the cnc. I found wood and Delrin to both make adequate printing blocks, delrin being much more stable and less prone to chipping on the fine details.

Here are some finished labels.

And what it will look like inside the F-hole. Learning a new technique is just as satisfying as the final product.

Before gluing the top I had to cut the control cavity and the neck bolt plate on the back of the body.

Here I round the edge of the back on the router table.

Finally I'm ready to glue the top. I had some trouble with alignment and had to re-start this process once. No biggie, but cost me an hour or so of work.

Another shot of the glue-up. I need more clamps.

After gluing the top I decided on a binding layout and routed the channels for it. I'll be trying out some wood binding for this - likely ebony with a b/w/b violin-style purfling.

I have this beautiful quartersawn ribbon Sapele, and it's the most dimensionally stable, easy to tool, fragrant, and lovely wood to work with. I had this in the CNC, milling the neck for my new build when I noticed the workholding slip. Determined to rescue, I hit the emergency stop button and took the piece out.

Normally the neck comes off the machine in a much closer to finished state. I took a moment to collect myself, and broke out my humble collection of chisels, rasps, and card scraper. I got to work squaring the neck pocket and fitting the heel.

A well fitted neck joint is something to be proud of. Here is an entertaining test, to hold the body of the guitar up just by the friction of the joint.

I still need to mill the bottom of the body, but so far this joint is coming out exactly as I'd hoped. It will feel amazing to play, and I was grateful for the opportunity to get some hands-on woodworking today.

My musical taste has taken many turns over the years, but some influences have stuck with me. Bluegrass music, jazz, and jam bands have always been there. This design drew inspiration from some incredible American luthiers that I've admired along the way, but I've added my own flavor.

Here are the top and body as they come right off the CNC machine. The top is flame maple from a billet I found locally in Seattle. The body is Jatoba. It feels very robust even though it's fully chambered. Much work remains before finishing. I'm debating what binding I would like to use, and I'm leaning towards an ebony wood binding. I've used plastic in the past, but this build is calling for wood.

I felt compelled to keep Saturn design element. My previous headstock design was symmetrical, with 3 and 3 tuners. This one has 6 inline, and left a little more room for an eye-catching motif. Here is a render.

I got started on the milling of the neck today. I start with the top, which includes the headstock angle, truss rod channels, and some registration holes for 2-sided machining. Here is the angled headstock. This neck is made from beautiful stock of ribbon Sapele.