After completed the head joint, I made truss rod channeling, head thickness profiling, and veneer install. Sold neck head thickness must be 14.5mm. Late Taku Sakashita who was my guitar making mentor always told me that the most beautiful neck head thickness is 14.5mm. When I make the sold head neck, I always try to make the 14.5mm thickness. This neck has a Madagascar RW top veneer, and a Katalox back veneer. This neck also has a beautiful volute.
Body is closed and the binding channels cut. Now, I move to the neck making. This guitar has 24.9" scale. I will use the 7-ply (Spanish cedar, black dyed maple, Maple, Ebony, Maple, black dyed maple, and Spanish cedar) laminated neck. I use the V-joint between the neck and the head. I also use the laminated head. Material is the Spanish cedar. Although, I do not show the fitting work for the V-joint, I spend a lot of time for the precise fitting.
Next week, I will continue the neck making work. I will make a finger board with binding.
Finally, I closed the box. I usually assemble the back first, because I am able to clean the excess glue. Excess glue will be visible; therefore, I have to clean-up nicely. Before install the top, I applied three coats of shellac to the top. I have to avoid contamination for the glue line on the top. The top shown below is the final voiced top. Side bars have very deep scalloping for the best vibration. Although, the photo does not show the shellac coating in the back, I applied three coats of shellac to the back, before closing the box. The last photo shows the clumping for the top gluing.
Next week, I move to the neck making.
I did the final voicing for the top using scalloped shaping technique. Voicing work is still on going. I need to add scalloped shapes to the four side bars. I am slowly progressing the scalloped bracing work.
I also completed the back brace and center strip fitting work to the side. I also applied couple of coats of shellac to the side. My guitars always have inside sealing using couple of coats of shellac. After glue the back to the side, I will apply couple of coats of shellac to the back also. I will use the spraying technique for the shellac apply to the back, because the lattice bracing requires messy and time consuming brushing work.
Carbon fiber rods are installed for the body deformation prevention. After complete the body thickness adjustment, I installed two carbon fiber rods from the neck block to the body bottom. Those rods are relatively new technique for the body deformation prevention issue. Steel strings guitars are slowly deforming over 20years from a freshly built. Therefore, almost all guitars require a neck re-setting work after 20 to 30 years from the fresh built. Those carbon rods are able to solve this issue. Those carbon rods bracing are also improves body rigidity particularly around the neck joint. This solid body construction also improves sound quality to generate more over tones.
I also completed solid lining making and install. I have been using solid linings for all of my guitar making projects. Solid linings make very solid joint between the top and the side. The solid joint maximizes the sound board vibration efficiency with minimum energy loss. Conventional kerfed linings are almost a sponge for me. Solid linings require many steps to make and install. However, the solid lining makes extremely crispy sound. This is almost a high definition tone.
Neck block and Cut-a-way block, and Beveled armrest block are installed. Cut-a-way block install is a tricky work. I have a custom designed clumping device. I have been using two shock codes for making decent pressure for the cut-a-way block gluing. Beveled armrest install is also pretty tricky work. I designed custom clumping blocks for this special work. Using this special block, the beveled armrest is nicely and securely installed. Doing work for the sound board side is also completed.
Now, the body assembly is completed. I will install linings and two carbon fiber rods for the body deformation prevention.
I completed a laminate work for the cut-a-way section. I also made a neck block and a tail block. Tail block installation is also completed. I have been using Spanish Cedar for the blocks. I use left over materials from neck making for blocks. So, I can maximize wood usage. Block making requires precise cutting and shaping to seamlessly fit to body shapes.
Next step is solid lining making and installation. I will use Spanish cedar for solid linings.
I have done the side laminate wok. I have been using Yellow cedar for the inner laminate material. After finish the bending work for side materials, I glue side materials using the custom mold. This time, I used the Gorilla glue. I have been using the Epoxy for the side laminate work. However, I discovered that the Epoxy does not show good enough bonding quality between wood material. Epoxy works very goof between Carbon fiber and wood. Tight bond is the best material for me. However, the Tight bond is way too first for the glue setting time. I do not have enough time for the clumping work if I use the Tight bond. Gorilla glue is the the closest glue to the Animal glue according to my guitar making mentor of Late Taku Sakashita. So, I back to Gorilla glue for the side laminate work.
Back making completed. I installed latticed bracing into the Honduran RW back. Lattice bracing enables to use thin materials for the back. This time, I selected the back thickness of 2.2mm. This is my standard thickness for RW materials. This thickness, the standard ladder bracing works. However, the ladder bracing shows a waiving issue, if I use less than 2mm thickness. The other advantage for the lattice bracing is the clacking issue prevention for solid materials. Honduran RW is a very stable material, and it is almost clacking issue free. However, Brazilian RW often causes clacking issue. Lattice bracing is able to minimize this issue. For the lattice bracing install, the vacuum bag clumping technique is the must choice for the perfect gluing.
