Back to the shop! While the finish is curing, I fabricate the bridge. The bridge is made out of ebony.

After the bridge is finished and shined up I locate the position on the sound board. I use 2 sided tape to secure it and then put tape all around it to protect the top.

Then I remove the bridge and then use a razor blade to scrape away the finish in the area the the bridge will be glued. This ensures a proper wood on wood glue joint.

I use this little contraption to glue the bridge to the top. There are 2 bolts that go through to 2 end string holes. The ends push the wings of the bridge down as well.

After the glues is set up I drill the rest of the string holes and then ream them to the taper of the bridge pins.

Once that is done I put the strings on and tune it to pitch. I use a guitar string to locate the actual intonation lenght of each string.

With that done, each string is the perfect length from nut to saddle. By setting the guitar up this way, I am able to put a capo on any fret and not have to re-tune the guitar.

Thanks for looking!

I now have finished the application of finish. 12 sessions of french polish. I will let the finish cure for a week before I polish with rottenstone...another very old school method. Here is a picture of the headstock.
The top and the sides. It's hard to see in the photo, but this top has very nice figure in it!

This is a picture to show you the back and how the end graft brings it all together at the bottom.

I am very pleased with this guitar so far!

While I am letting the finish cure I will install the frets, make the bridge and glue it on. Then the nut and saddle.

Thanks for looking in!

Cheers

Now all of the parts are prepped and ready to finish. In this photo, I am glueing the fretboard extension to the top. Just a dab of glue, so that if, in the future the guitar needs a repair of some sort, the neck is easily removed.

Here are the ingredients for a shellac Fench Polish. The shellac flake comes from the shellac beatle, and has been used as a finish on wood for centuries. It is also the finish that I have had the best results. I have tried many different methods with varying results. I don't have a spray booth so nitro-cellulose is out of the question, so an old school hand applied finish it is.

The shellac is mixed with alcohol. To apply the finish, I use some balled up wool wrapped in cotton. It is a 2 part application. First I pour shellac onto the wool...

...and then I pour alcohol into the wool. Then I wrap the wool pad with the cotton and then begin to rub the surface of the guitar.

Here is a picture of the first few swipes onto the guitar top.

The first few sessions act as a sealer coat. Then I build up the finish. It will take 10 to 12 sessions to completely finish the guitar.

Each session lasts approximately and hour to an hour and a half. It is a time consuming affair, but with 2500 songs in the I-pod it is time well spent. It is one of my favorite parts of the guitar building journey. You get to see the raw wood come to life literally at your fingertips...it's very cool.

Cheers!

It's been a couple days! So the next step is to prepare the fretboard for slotting. Here you can see I am using a fret scale ruler. I am using a 25.5 inch scale length. I have always been a Fender Strat fan. Fender Strats all have a 25.5 inch scale length, and now so do all Gilmore Guitars.
After the slots are marked I draw the taper of the fretboard and then mark the lines with masking tape so they are easier to follow with band saw

Slots cut, mother of pearl fret markers installed and ebony shined up and ready to glue to the neck.

Before the fretboard is glued to the neck, the truss rod must be installed.

Here the fretboard is being glued onto the neck.

Now it's time to carve the neck. I would like to tell you that my necks are all indentical. But I do them by hand with hand tools. They are pretty close but not all identical. I just keep taking away wood until they feel good in my hands. Here is a picture of the tools that I use for carving necks.

Neck carved and on the body. Here's one from the back...

And here's one from the front.

I have all of the gaps filled on the entire guitar now. Next....French Polish.

Cheers!

Here are a couple pictures of the box. It is bound and awaiting the prep for the finish. The prep includes sanding to 220 grit. Tehn going over the entire box with a fine toothed comb to fill little gaps in the binding.

And here is a shot of the back.

I have done some fretboard work. My next post will cover that process.

Cheers!

Hello!
Now that the back is on, it's time to finish the box. The next step is to install an ebony wedge at the butt. The wedge is a decorative feature that ties the to sides together. Once the wedge is done, it is time to rout the binding channel. As I mentioned earlier the binding will also be ebony. I will not be using a decorative prufling, just a single ebony binding strip. I am a fan of simple understatement in my guitars. In this photo, I am routing the channel with a dremel tool.

Binding channels routed...next... glue in the binding. I use tape for this step, and a long clamp that brings the binding connection at the ends tight.

While the binding glue is drying, I move on to the headstock. I have to glue wings onto the headstock so that it is wide enough for the headstock pattern.

Then Icut out the headstock pattern. Then I drill the holes for the tuners.I have the box sanded through several grits of sandpaper. I will go through 220 grit. The next step will be prepping the fretboard and shaping the neck.

Until next time

Cheers!

Welcome back! In this post I will show the preparation for installing the back. In this picture you can see the sides are glued to the top. The blue tape shows the profile of the sides. I will use a small block plane to remove the material above the blue tape.
Next I glue the kerfing into the sides. The kerfing gives me some glueing area along the edges to glue the back on. You'd be surprised what you can use as a clamp. Here I am using wooden clothespins with elastic wrapped around them to create enough clamping pressure.
The guitar is now ready for the back. The kerfing is installed. In the background you can see a vaporisor. THe humidity in the shop has been down below 30%. With this vaporisor I can get the humidity up to 40% within an hour, and keep it there. $15 at Canadian Tire and I have a humidity controlled shop...very cool!

Again, I use a lot of old school methods in building. Here you can see the rope method of gluing the back onto the rest of the guitar. This method give even clamping pressure all the way around.

This is where I am at today. As you can probably tell, I have condensed many steps into a few short posts. I started this blog well into the process. Progress from here on will be in real time. The next step...binding channels.

Stay Tuned!

ps

I have adjusted some of the admin features here, and you can comment on the blog without having to join or sign up to anything. Hopefully it is a bit easier for you to comment or ask questions.