Guitar Novices's 2012 Challenge Build Thread -- COMPLETED

[Guitar novice]

I'm in

Good luck all. May our wood be straight and errors be few.

Cheers

[crazydave911]

You'll be fine mate

Welcome and good luck!

Dave

[RogerC]

Right back atcha!

Good luck!

[Guitar novice]

Thanks guys

My backup plan was to use prev year challenges as a guide but it seems tdpri thought of that already.

A lot of entires this year. Plenty to compare notes to.

[RogerC]

I kinda had the same idea, but oh well. Onward and upward!

[Guitar novice]

Away we go.

First the wood shot.

I got this timber from a local timber guy. It's Queensland Maple. Thin pieces are not great quality and they will form the back of the guitar. The thicker pieces will be the front.

The neck has some nice figuring but not what the US guys are used to. I fall into the disqualified beginner category. I'm new but previously had a crack at cutting a body. First thing I notice of this timber is that it is really light compared to the American Oak.



Cheers

[Guitar novice]

Closer shot of Front body


Closer shot of neck - got 2 blanks for just in case


Fingerboards - got them for a luthier down south. They are ebony and rosewood. I think I will choose the shorter one for this project

[Guitar novice]

The Plan

Plan A was to do a Tele thin line using some ron kirn templates.

Plan B
My niece who is 6 years of age is starting to play guitar. When she heard that I was going to make a guitar and suggested that I make her one at some stage her eyes lit up. The rest is history. Plan B was formed. Her first lesson is in 6 weeks time so i'm going to need to get to it.

3/4 size guitar using the design that JKingma had used (I think its a terry downs derivative). 2 Piece neck. Pickups will likely be a Squire CVC cannibalisation. I have ordered pickup wire and other gear to wind my own so will try to diy if I get time.

It's not an ambitious build but it's all new so I thought I wouldn't overreach this time.

Cheers

[paulmarr]

Aussie Aussie Aussie - you have my attention!

[Guitar novice]

Progress last few days.

With the help of some new tools...





Ive started on templates.

First went to office works and printed to scale the design. I then sprayed some adhesive on some thin mdf and laid the template down. I sprayed the adhesive on top of the paper as I heard that helps with reducing ripping when you work the edges.

Next band saw a rough outline. I found it tricky to get round the curves so I was wondering if a smaller width blade would be better. Ive bought a couple of spare blades in case that was needed.

Finally I took it to the spindle sander. Ive heard people rave about the ROSS. I can't get that ridgid Ross here but the sander is amazing. Gotta be up there in the tools to get.

[Guitar novice]

The last photo shows that I need to sand more to the line. I'm still deciding if I use the spindle sander, hand sanding or rout the edges like Colt does.

Hmmm... In the meantime I need to glue up the blanks so I can finalise the templates tomorrow.

Cheers

[Guitar novice]

Originally Posted by paulmarr

Aussie Aussie Aussie - you have my attention!

Cheers Paul. Lets see what a mess I can make

[jkingma]

Originally Posted by Guitar novice

3/4 size guitar using the design that JKingma had used (I think its a terry downs derivative).

You are correct.

Good luck with your build... I can't wait to see it.

----------------------------------

Originally Posted by Guitar novice

It's not an ambitious build but it's all new so I thought I wouldn't overreach this time.

Oh and BTW... just because its a smaller guitar does not mean its not an ambitious build. Its just as much work as any other build.

[RogerC]

I like the plan...a lot. Regardless if you win anything, I'm sure you'll feel like you won the world when you hand that guitar to your niece

[Guitar novice]

I just sent her pictures of the templates. She's so excited it's infectious.

Apparently she's talking about starting a band. Never touched an instrument. Gotta lovev6 year olds.

[Guitar novice]

More progress tonight.

I have jointed up the blanks using router. Will upload pictures tomorrow as I'm stuffed now.

Cheers

[dilbone]

I'll be watching this one for sure...I've toyed with the idea of building my 10 year old girl a guitar...she would love it but I'm not sure how serious she would ever be about learning to play.

[Guitar novice]

I'm in same boat dilbone. Chances are my niece won't keep the interest in guitars. But. If she does and remembers the first guitar she got was handmade by me then that's just priceless.

Cheers

[Guitar novice]

Update.

I've finished the thin templates. The sander left a few grooves so I tidied it up with some hand sanding. Hopefully later tday I will transfer to a 3/4 inch template. No photos of the hand sanding.

I have joined the two body blanks. My method is basically get my stew Mac fret level bar and tape it to top of blank. Then on router table I trim the edges. I read somewhere n here is a trick. One side you rout with top facing up. The otherside you rout with top facing down. The idea is if the router bit is slightly off angle the 2 pieces will still join.

Another trick I learned is that the tape is quite sticky but if you apply uneven pressure then the face won't be straight. I had to redo one side using more even pressure.

Photos...

[Guitar novice]

You will notice in the last photo that the first join I did between front and back blank was not perfect. The bottom piece on left side shows a small gap. When gluing the 2nd blanks I used more glue and cranked the clamps more. It came out much better.

The issues after joining was that the 2 sides were not level. Only slightly out so hit it with a palm sander.