Ta Daaa!!

Here is the completed rim, a nice Ta Daaa picture opportunity. Hubby eventually managed to take a picture I was happy (ish) to post.

The curved sides were reinforced with small mahogany braces, the invaluable clothes peg making another appearance.

The neck block will be visible from the soundhole on the completed instrument so I sign it with a pyrography (wood burning) tool. I've been using this logo for various things since I was a teenager.

Then I moved onto joining the back of the guitar and cutting up some old furniture retrieved from the fire wood pile to make a Go-Bar press. This is basically two flat surfaces that you can brace timbers between to act as clamps. In my case I use a wide fixed desk and the floor beneath it. My, still shiny and new, bandsaw made it possible to cut strips of wood approximately 1/2 inch square.

Here is the back strip being glued in place in the Go-Bar press. As you can see you would need some very long reach clamps to do this any other way. The most important part of this procedure is remembering to shut the office door while it dries...

"No Jessie, that is NOT YOUR STICK!"

◤◡ᴥ◡◥

Sunshine and Inlay Designs

It's always a good moment when the sun comes out and GBG can move the workmate into the garden. Mmmmmm... Jessie's enjoying it too.

I've finished gluing the kerfling and nearly finished the process of chiseling it back to flush with the edge of the rim.

 

I have also finalised the inlay design for the headstock with M (the customer). He initially told me he wanted a fox design so with some trepidation I began researching inlay materials that come in a fox-red colour. I found some very interesting reconstituted rock inlay material from this site: Small Wonder Music After looking through the options M chose the green banded malachite!? I was somewhat surprised but having put together a digital mock-up of the design I think it works very well. 

Groovy!   (⌐■_■)

Jigs and Rims

Some good progress this week in the GBG workshop. I've completed the jig to hold the curved sides whilst construction is underway.

I've also cut the pre-curved sides to length and fitted the end and top blocks to join them together. 

It's beginning to dawn on me that a workshop can never have too many clamps. Some of these were borrowed from hubby's engineering workshop. I will build up my own collection in time. Especially as clamps borrowed from a metal working workshop need considerable cleaning up before they can be used anywhere near wood.

Here is the rim in the jig ready for the kerfling to be fitted. The kerfling gives the top and back something to adhere to that is thicker than the 2mm sides.

There are specialist clamps available for this process but (despite my earlier comments about clamps) the common clothes peg works just as well.

The next tasks are to complete fixing the kerfling (blogger has come up with some very funny alternatives for the word 'kerfling' which apparently doesn't exist) then onto designing the new sound hole rosette. 

Tune in soon for the next thrilling instalment! ;) 

Early Stages and Setbacks

Hello! Well after a hiatus for reasons too boring to blog about I'm back and work is starting to progress.

So far I've removed the original rosette in the Martin soundboard to upgrade it to something rather more special. It was a fiddly process but I have managed to remove the old rings without damaging the surrounding wood... Sigh of relief!!

I've also starting building a jig to support the curved sides of the instrument while I work on them. Unfortunately my toy town bandsaw wasn't really up to the job and, despite my engineer husband, Matt's, best efforts, it has gone to that big workshop in the sky. I now have a shiny new one! :)

I've done all the drilling for the dowels on the jig and should be cutting out the shape in the next few days. Just a few more practice sessions on the new bandsaw first.

A little bit about GBG...

I grew up in South Wales but now live in Hampshire with my husband, Matt, and Labrador Jessie. I teach piano, guitar and theory of music to children and adults. I also sing and play in local folk and acoustic clubs and my debut solo album was released last year. Here is the opening track.

I learned to play the guitar as a teenager in Gamlins Music Centre in Cardiff. My teacher, Rob Crocker, was a luthier and sometimes we'd have the lesson in his workshop. I was always fascinated by the half built guitars hanging around the walls and I thought... "One day, I'll build guitars."

I did think it might not be a realistic dream though. I got married and moved away so I wasn't going to be able to ask Rob to teach me to be a luthier. Then I came across Martin Guitar kits. Buying and completing a kit made the project seem just that little bit more achievable. There was also the added bonus of a kit costing only a fraction of a Martin guitar, which I've always wanted but which was definitely out of my price range.

My first guitar, who is named Martina (Yeah, corny but all my guitars have names, maybe another blog entry will introduce them) took me over a year to complete. I didn't work at it solidly though. This was something I'd always wanted to do and I was determined not to allow it to become a chore. I only worked on the guitar when I wanted too. As such, I really enjoyed the process and now have a lovely handmade guitar that I regularly play at gigs. Don't panic M, I promise I will work more diligently on your guitar!

So my next post will include pictures of the parts awaiting assembly, and the early stages in building my very first commissioned guitar!

Hello and Welcome to Guitar Building Girl

So what's this blog about? I have my first order for a handmade acoustic guitar and I will be blogging the process in this space. I've already built one guitar and I posted the stages on Facebook, see background image. This should have a wider potential audience though.

Why 'Guitar Building Girl'? OK maybe at thirty... (cough) 'girl' is stretching it a bit. 'Guitar Girl' was quickly dismissed as a blog title when the Google search for it came back. Strategically placed guitars in girly pics was not the kind of blog I had in mind! The point is I don't know any other female luthiers. Maybe if there are any out there, and they find this blog, they'll stop and say Hi!

So, I'll start with a pic of my workspace (complete with furry mascot, Jessie). Construction of the guitar ordered by M will begin shortly.

Do leave me a message, This process will be a lot more fun if I know people are interested. My next post will be a little bit about me and my other projects.

TTFN