Happy Thanksgiving all! Its been a busy few weeks here in Red Wing. Lots happening to all the projects. And Getting sooo close to finishing some of them! Sometimes I wish I could just work on one thing till its done, but our class schedule does not work that way.
Repairs class has shifted focus to mainly working on the the restoration/rebuild of the old Five Star guitar. Still gluing more cracks and getting the body structurally sound. I've made a new bridge for it, out of Indian Rosewood, to replace the old worn down maple one. I done a complete re fret on the neck and begun the task of re setting the dovetail neck joint to the proper angles for good string action and intonation
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Shiny New Frets! Went with modern nickle fret wire to replace the tiny old brass frets. different look but better play-ability.
The old "ebonized" maple bridge. and tail piece. The tail piece will be re used with a new bridge.
The old bridge is falling apart.
The bridge was glued in place however i will leave the new one floating to be adjustable for intonation.
The new Rosewood replacement bridge.
The dovetail heel must be carved away a bit to adjust the necks angle. A few more chisel strokes and sandpaper swipes and she'll be fit and ready to re unite with the body.
The CAD classes are getting more complex as I draft the 3D versions of my spring semester builds. The acoustic build has been blue printed in 2 and 3 dimensions as well as the Telecaster neck through build. The drawings are almost complete and only lacking fingerboards and dimension notations.
View of the 3D acoustic
Inside the box look at the back bracing
Inside the box look at the top bracing
Perspective views of the neck through Tele
Back view of the Tele
The mandolin build is moving forward. The tone bars have been fit shaped and glued in. The top has been glued onto the rib structure. The scroll area of the top has been flushed up to the scroll block of the ribs and the final carving of the scroll has begun. Once the scroll has its final shape all that's left is making the neck. carving the back ( this will be done on the CNC machine to save time ) and the huge task of the binding of the body.
The tone bar braces are fit to the inside arch of the top, and glued in place.
The bars fit the arch of the top with less than a .002 inch tolerance along their length.
The bars are then shaped by hand with planes and scrapers to lighten them and allow them to move better with the top.
The scroll is still a bit rough and will be flushed and smoothed by hand using various sanding sticks, scrapers, files, and other tools.
The lines of the scroll are laid out to give a guide for the carving tools.
The scroll is carved to higher detail using the pencil lines as a guide.
The shape is roughed in and just needs to be scraped and sanded smooth.
That's all for now. Only a few more weeks to finish up these projects for grades at the end of the semester! I can't wait to get the Five Star strung up and playing again! Hopefully she'll be up and running this week! Stay tuned and Happy holidays!
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