Neck Making 2

Neck material I picked has perfect quarter sawn grain. I wanted to maximize usage of this super rare material. V-joint is the best method to minimize waste from neck making. The most wasteful method is one piece neck for heck head, body, and heal. Probably, 50% of material will be disposed if I use the one piece neck. Also, one piece neck requires a large log to yield one piece neck. However, a large Mahogany log is not able to remove moisture properly due to the size (simply too large to remove water inside). So, I selected the V-joint technique. V-joint technique is a classic technique and you may find this joint for Lute's neck. Martin's old guitars have been using real V-joint, and latest D-28 and above models have V-joint like Volute. However, those volutes are only cosmetically added and there is no functionality. You may see my head joint below. After joint the neck head, the V-section is able to make Martin like volute. However, this volute is functionally make sense. V-joint requires a lot of time to align; however, this join saves a lot of material, and also is able to make a beautiful volute.

Neck making

This weekend was pretty busy for my Windsurfing. So, I only did a little bit of neck making. I will use V-joint for those guitars. SSJ uses Ebony centered Spanish ceder neck with solid head. Nylon uses Spanish ceder laminate neck with slotted head. I changed head stock design for the nylon model. I will use a Jazz guitar inspired original shape, because this nylon model is designed for Jazz and contemporary music players. I also completed the nylon body assemble. Nylon model showed extremely long sustain from a tap tone. This is the longest sustain time I have ever obtained. This guitar might be a monster sounded one or too much bussy one. At this moment, I have no idea. However, there is no reason to get too much buss. So, I am quite confident to get the sound I have designed.

Closing box for SSJ

The box for the SSJ model is closed. The SSJ showed very nice tap tone with approximately one second of time constant. I am very happy with this result. Guatemalan RW has lighter weight than Indian or Brazilian RW. Also, I made very thin back thickness with lattice bracing. I am very excited to listen the voice of this combination.

Nylon model is also close the box. Sorry, the body is under clumped at this moment. So, I do not have a photo for the completed nylon model. In the cross sections of the lattice bracing, I applied carbon fiber filaments with Epoxy resin. This makes very strong lattice structure with minimum increase of mass. I am also very excited about testing this nylon model using the space age technology.

SSJ top scalloping and Assemble

     Final scalloping and body back assembly are completed. I did symmetrical scalloping for lower side of X-bracing. Original design created by Taku Sakashita is asymmetrical scalloping. His design has deeper scalloping for bass side, and small and shallow scalloping for treble side. I changed to symmetrically deep scalloping for both sides. I want to make more over tones for bass tone. Therefore, I on-purposely increased the flexibility around bridge plate.
     Body assembly for the back is also completed. Lattice braced backs installation is quite easy, because there is no crossing braces for the lining. Also, the lattice braced back showed amazingly beautiful doming with super light weight. I am very excited to get good results at this moment.

Body assembly and neck blanks making

Body assembly made a lot of progresses. Sold linings and a beveled armrest are installed. I have been using special attachments for clamping the beveled armrest. After I invented this method, I am able to glue seamlessly for the very herd part for gluing. Neck blanks are also made for both nylon and SSJ models. Neck for the SSJ has Ebony and two Spanish ceder sandwich contraction. Although not showing, nylon model does not have Ebony center section, because the Ebony makes heavy neck for the nylon model. For the steel strings models, center section has a 1/4" channel for the truss rod. Therefore, Ebony center section does not increase weight significantly. Center Ebony is mostly for making a cosmetic differentiation. This time, both models have slotted head design. I re-designed new head shape. I completely re-designed the bracing pattern for the nylon model. SSJ 6-stribngs model is also first time built. So, I completely rewed the guitar design for both models.