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.