It's been a while...

The parlor guitar is still in progress. More soon...

More on the parlor guitar and other stuff...

Firstly where I am at with the parlor guitar. A vid:

As you can see I've been busy. Firstly, yes both the top and back plates are flat, not domed as on most modern guitars. I did this because it simplifies things and the plan I am referring to of a 1930s Stella has a flat soundboard. I know that doming the soundboard has a number of advantages such as "improving" the sound as well as allowing better for wood movement due to humidity changes. But I like being different and I wanted to prove that a flat soundboard will work for this kind of instrument. I have decided that I will fit this guitar with silk-and-steel strings which will give a mellower sound. The lower string tension will also allow for the whole instrument to be more lightly built.

I made the neck out of a plank of Mahogany that I bought many years ago. Mahogany is a lovely wood to deal with. It's a pleasure to work and is very stable. Unfortunately most of the Mahogany that is available comes from unsustainable sources. So I won't be buying any more Mahogany unless the seller can prove that it comes from an ethical source. There are Mahogany plantations in India I have been told so there are ethical sources. As a rule, if you see timber for sale, the more expensive it is the more likely it comes from an ethical source. An unfortunate reality. I do have a stock of Meranti and various Australian timbers that I will use up but I'm going to try in future to be more careful about where I source materials.

Anyway, after that digression let me talk about he neck. I've decided this guitar will have a 24 inch scale-length. It will be quite wide at the nut as I like a wide neck. I cut the plank of Mahogany into three pieces, The plank had been machine-planed by the supplier which made things easier. I glued the three pieces together to make a quarter-sawn block. I should mention that for all operations on this guitar I will be using Titebond. I've tried other adhesives but I always come back to trusty old Titebond. I marked out the neck and cut the shape using a bandsaw. I cut the "side-on" shape first. I didn't do a scarf joint for the headstock as many others do as I hate doing scarf joints. You may chose to do a scarf joint and enjoy the challenge but I find it easier to cut the neck from three-piece blank. You create more waste this way but it's just the way I chose to do things.

I cut a groove down the middle of the neck blank with my rebate plane. Cutting the groove was a cinch as the Mahogany is quite soft and doesn't tear-out like some timbers. Doing this operation made me realize why Mahogany was the wood of choice for instrument makers for such a long time. It's easy to work, doesn't tear out and holds fine detail. I then set about figuring out how to do the truss rod. Given the fact that this is a short-scale instrument and will have low-tension strings it may not need a truss rod. More thought and research on this issue will ensue.

I decided that this neck will have a butt joint where it meets the body. I have mostly done my necks this way. I drill two holes in the neck block to take bolts which will thread into inserts screwed into the neck heel. Lately I've been experimenting with a different method which involves screwing on the neck before attaching the back. I realize that this is an unconventional way of doing things and I wouldn't use this method if I was building a guitar with a normal scale length and steel strings. I like to experiment as you can see.

More soon...

My Building Philosophy

I thought I would restate the entry in my previous blog regarding how I approach the building process and how it is reflected in my finished instruments. My aim is not to produce “perfect” instruments with flawless varnishes and CNC-perfect joints. Indeed, go into any high street music store and there will be plenty of those types of instruments, mass-produced and, in my opinion, bland and characterless. Of course, they have the “name” and all that goes with that and if you want to buy an instrument like that, that’s fine. I aim to offer something different. I like my instruments to show the hand of the maker. I find that, in my experience, perfection is elusive and a pretty exhausting goal to try and aim for. You could say, I aim for my instruments to have soul. I aim to for my instruments to have the feeling of an antique where patina can give the owner a sense their item has had a long, rich life. I want my instruments to have a sound of times long passed, of those crackly old vinyl records we loved when we were young. You may wonder “is this just an excuse for sloppy workmanship?” I should point out that the surface of Stradavari violins, if observed closely, show tool marks. Clearly, he wasn’t a mediocre craftsperson. It’s just that he only had access to hand tools: hand planes, chisels, hand saws and knives. Back then there were no computers or modern conveniences like sandpaper. Indeed, I find that I prefer to do as much as I can with only hand tools, of which I have a large collection gathered from many sources over decades. Of course some jobs are more easily done with machine tools, and I have some of those too. I like the best of both worlds. So I hope that goes some way to explaining why I do what I do, and how I prefer to my work process to be. I rarely deliver an instrument on time. I believe, please indulge me, that the more time I spend on an instrument the better it will be. I’d like to point out, though, that I could be making a lot more money in another vocation, given the the time it has taken to develop my craft. I’m not expecting to get rich doing this and that fact doesn’t really bother me. I do try to keep my prices as low as I can, but the reality is that my instruments are only going to get more expensive if I am to maintain this in the long term. I do, however, get a great feeling when a player tells me how much they love playing one of my instruments and I believe that this result cannot come from cutting costs or keeping to strict deadlines. I want my instruments to send out good vibes to this sometimes bleak world.