Well, things have slowed down a bit this week but the new information is still coming in over-sized helpings. My group has switched back to electric guitar mode under the expert direction of Mr. Brian Boedigheimer. Brian Will be teaching us the process of planning and constructing solid body electric guitars, as well as finishing techniques, and more basic guitar repairs.
Our Mondays and Tuesdays are focused on our electric builds and we are starting from the beginning with planning and blue printing our designs. Students have the option to copy existing guitars, use elements of their favorites, or completely design a fresh new look for their builds. I have chosen to Use all my favorite design elements from the Fender Company and mix and match them to create my own design. You may recognize parts of the popular Fender models in my build.
The first step of this process for me was to come up with the body shape using many pictures of my favorite existing guitars and many hours at the drawing board. I have actually been planning this guitar for almost a year. Once the shape looked pleasing to me, i took the small drawing to an overhead projector and blew it up to full size onto a piece of thin poster board. The shape is then cut out and used as a tracing template for drawing the blue print, and later for making a plywood template for the body. I also had a paper template of the pick guard I intended on using taped to this body template to help ensure proper placement.
The blue print is started by laying out the neck proportions; length, width, and taper. This will provide the scale for the drawing since everything is based off of the scale length. Scale length is another option that must be carefully considered to give the desired feel for playing the finished guitar. There are about 4-5 standard scale lengths used for electric guitars; 25.5 is standard for most Fender, 24.625 for Gibson etc. I chose to use the comfortable very short 24.0 scale length used on the Fender Jaguar.
Once those decisions are made the face view drawing of the guitar can begin The finished blueprint will include a face view, and side view including all pertinent measures and placements of hardware, controls, cavities etc.
Its hard to see in the florescent lighting but the drawing is coming along nicely. A drafting kit is used to facilitate smooth clean lines.
Our Wednesdays and Thursdays are spent learning wood finishing techniques. Our instructor is a master finisher, and he will be introducing us to each step of the process, and checking our work along the way.
The most important part of the finishing process is also the least fun. SANDING..... And sanding and sanding.... The wood must be prepped properly to accept the finish. This means that all machine marks, deep scratches and imperfections must be removed. Many wood workers either rush or skip through theses steps, and some spend far too long sanding. Either way the evidence shows in the finished product. Our first bit of practice was on some mahogany veneer pieces that had already been sealed, stained, and clear coated. It was our job to apply a hand rubbed satin finish to one and a hand rubbed high gloss to the other.
The satin look is achieved with sandpaper and very fine steel wool. The sand paper smooths the clear coat but leaves small scratches which then must be removed with the steel wool leaving a soft smooth "satin" look and feel. This look and feel ca also be achieved using satin sprays which are common in mass produced wood work and guitars for their cost effectiveness.
The high gloss finish is a bit harder to get by hand, and requires more steps, and quite a bit of elbow grease. The finished board is wet sanded with 2 stages of fine grit sand paper and then hand buffed with 2 stages of buffing compound on soft cloth. Each stage of rubbing must eliminate any scratches left from the previous step. The 6x12 inch board took a few hours to polish to a mirror shine.
Hopefully my guitars will shine like that!!!
Friday is repairs class, which is set up to teach us more valuable shop repair methods. Our time must be accounted for and tracked on a time sheet just like in most real work settings. This week in repairs we learned the process of determining neck angles and routing neck pockets for bolt on guitar necks. A process that will be essential in building our electric guitars and helpful in the shop should we ever have to replace a neck or repair a neck and body joint.
A drawing was made taking into account all the important measurements for neck angle; neck height, bridge height, pocket depth, and neck length. Using these measurement I calculated the neck angle and used that number to create a shim and a template for the neck pocket. The template and shim are attached to the
"body" (in this case a poplar block I had prepared in the first semester power tools class) and the neck pocket is routed using a plunge router and a flush trim bit.
The finished product is a nice clean pocket that fits the neck tightly and provides the correct neck angle for the guitar.
Next week is a much needed Spring Break, interestingly enough i have never wanted a Spring Break less!!! I just want to keep working on guitar stuff!!! I will use the break to finish my blue print and be ahead of the game when we get back to class. Until then thanks for reading and be sure to check back in a few weeks!
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