Sound Hole

Now my side project with "Junior" is finished I thought it is time again to spend some time on my Stick Dulcimer build. Next up was the sound hole and rosette. It will be a pretty simple design with only a thin maple rosette around the sound hole. This is how it is done. Since the sound hole is tiny compared with the sound hole in a guitar top, I could not use my dremmel with sound hole attachment for this purpose. Instead I bought two fostner drill bits:

As you can see one is slightly bigger then the other (35 and 29 mm to be precise). I start of with the 35 mm bit to cut a rebate into the top.

Then I change to the 29 mm bit and drill all the way through to form the sound hole.

What you end up with is a sound hole with a rebate around it. This rebate no can be filled with anything you like. Some put a piece of perfling into it but a wooden rosette is also possible. I have choosen the last option and used a scrap piece of maple to cut it out of. I first drilled all the way through it using the 29 mm bit.

The I drew a line around it with a diameter of 35 mm using a little mold I drilled out of some scrap wood with the 35 mm bit. With a fret saw I sawed it out roughly (a bit to wide) and sanded it back so it fitted the rebate around the sound hole.

This ring is then glued into the rebate. As a "clamp" I used our fruit bowl which already heavy all on its own but was loaded with fruit also so I thought it would work nice. And it did.

The end result looks very nice.

Next up will be shaving and sanding the top and back to the proper thickness.

New patient

After I finished Junior I got a new patient in. And it is a special one...... a Lute Guitar also known as a Guitar Lute, a Lutar or a Wandervogellaute. It is an instrument which has the body, same scale lengths and thin neck of a lute but is strung up as a guitar. The peg head is not that from a lute nor it is a traditional guitar head stock. It looks more like a violin or viola peghead. 

The issue this instrument has is that it once was used as a stair. The back did not take that very well.. It was mended but not really need. I am taking a look at it to see if I can get it any better.

Also the carved rosette has a nasty crack. Will have to see if I can do anything about that also. First I am reading in in to the world of lute building. After this project I hope I can call myself a real Luthier since lute building is where the name originates from....

Junior's final chapter

I finished work on Junior. After gluing on the back I had to get rid of the ugly spot on the top where the paper pickguard was attached. Removing it also damaged the finish a little. Since the top looks not to be a solid top but laminated with a veneer on top, I do not dare to sand it because I risk to go through the veneer. The rosette looks to be a sticker rather then an inlay so I do not sand the top. So I decided to make a wooden pickguard to cover up the the nasty spot. I took a piece of flamed maple (left over from one of the side of my first guitar) and draw and cut out the rough shape of the pickguard.

After that I sanded the edges and service smooth and beveled the edges on the belt sander. With double sided tape I attached it to the guitar. I finished it with oil. The end result (strung up and also the re-glued back):

It feels good to give a guitar that would be thrown away a new live by restoring it. I hope it has some more happy years ahead.

 

Junior Continued

I moved on restoring Junior. I glued in the braces one by one.

When I glued in all the braces I used a plane to shape them to a triangle shape. After that the ends of the braces where shaped with a chisel.

The end result:

Then the back was rejoined we the body using the spool clamps.

In the front the plane I used. It is an almost 40 year old plane I got from my father. But it still works great and I am very happy with it. I left the clamps on overnight. This morning I removed the clamps. Junior can be stringed and played again!

Now I have to decide what cosmetic changes I want to do. At least I will add a new pickguard. I am thinking of sanding the finish off and refinish the whole guitar. The rosette is a sticker rosette. I am afraid that when I sand the guitar I will sand it of. But we'll see.

Junior and Spool Clamps

I met up with my best friend during the holidays and he showed me a guitar which has a little story to it. About 20 years ago when I first got interested in guitars I was looking for a cheap guitar to start off with. Someone in my church had a parlor sized classic acoustic which I liked but was not willing to sell it. I told him if he did I wanted to buy it from him. About half a year after that I noticed he did sold it to my best friend (who did not know I wanted it too). I was mad about it but I let it go. And now some 20 years later it shows up again when I visited my friend. The guitar it self had been at his brothers house for years and sure had its share of life. It needs a good overhaul before it is playable again. So my friend asked me to repair it for him so his son can beat it up again :-). But to be able to do it I need spool clamps which I do not have yet. But I already wanted to make me some so I spend three evenings putting them together from a wooden dowel, 8 mm threaded metal rods, locking nuts, wing nuts and washers. I also used some radiator foil for the padding. I am not sure if it is going to hold otherwise I have to replace it with some cork or rubber. First I had to saw the dowel to 25 mm blocks and cut the threaded rod to 200 mm lengths. After that I drilled 8 mm holes in the blocks.

After that a locking nut is bolted on the threaded rod, washer on top, then a block and a piece of padding (the foil). Then at the other end of the rod the reversed happens so: padding, block washer and finishes of with a wing nut. The assembled clamp looks like this:

And that process was repeated 23 times to end up with 24 clamps:

This type of clamp is used to glue tops and backs to the sides of a guitar. I need it to do some repairs on Junior. This is the model name of the guitar I am restoring so I keep calling it Junior. So back to the guitar. It came into my hands all bruised and battered. This is how it looks like:

The white spot on the top is glue residue from a paper pickguard. It came loose already so I removed it and I will make a wooden one and glue that on later. The back of the guitar was almost off (only holding at the heel block:)

I decided to remove the back all together to get a better picture of the internals of the guitar to see if that needs any repairs:

At the heel the fret board gives a bit way from the neck. I will take a good picture of that later. There is a crack  in one of the sides which I noticed when I removed the back:

 Also the top is loose for about a length of 100 mm at the lower bout (treble side):

I started of with the crack. I used a small screw driver to force the crack open to be able to get glue into the crack:

With the glue in I clamped it up:

I also put glue in the gap between the top and the sides with the help of the little screw drivers. I then clamped it up with the spool clamps I just made:

The back has no bracing what so ever. I think for the over all stiffness of the guitar it would be a good thing to have some bracing in so I will add three braces to the back before gluing it back onto the guitar. I cut them to length and I will glue them on later and then shape them.