bridge making

I made two bridges. One bridge is made from Brazilian RW, and the other is Ebony. Brazilian bridge is 29-grams and Ebony is 39-grams. I like lighter weight bridge for better sound response. I have been exclusively using Brazilian RW for my bridge. This time, I will use Ebony bridge for color matching. I will have a guitar show in June. Please visit the Winters guitar festival in June 23 and 24. I have an exhibitor booth to show my guitars. I will show this SSJ and Juzz Nylon model in the show.

https://wintersguitarfest.com/

 Next week, I will start polishing for the SSJ. This guitar will be ready to play in two weeks.

Final coats apply

     Final coats apply work is done. I sprayed 8-layers of Water based acrylic finish using the Terget EM6000. This is my trusted finish material. Water based acrylic finish is a tricky material. Some brand requires very precise spraying technique. Too much spray makes a non-clear white layer issue, and too little makes dry and rough surface.  Some brand makes blueish and not clear coating color. However, EM600 has a lot of forgiveness. Also, EM6000 makes crystal clear coating. I have never failed finishing work using the EM6000. This time, I have gotten a pretty good satisfaction for my finishing quality.
     It requires two weeks to cure the finish. White waiting the finishing cure, I will make the bridge. I will use the Brazilian rose wood for the bridge.

Epoxy filler

All wood working processes have been done. Now, the SSJ project is moving to the finishing work. I completed Epoxy filler apply to top, sides, and back. After cure those portions, I will apply Epoxy filler to the neck. Honduran Rosewood shows very nice color with Epoxy filler coating. I really like the color contrast between Rosewood brown and Ebony black with White borders. I will have two Epoxy filling sessions for this SSJ project, and then move to spraying sessions.

Truss rod amd fingerboard install

I installed two graphite rods and steel truss rod. In the center of the neck head, I also installed an Ebony rod in between two graphite rods. This makes an optimum flexibility at the neck top. Neck top needs a little flexibility to make the best action setting. After install the graphite rods and steel truss rod, I also install wood covers for preventing a rattling issue due to the truss rod resonation. Also, wood covers enable for the final sanding to make a final neck flatness sanding. After complete all processes, I installed a fingerboard. Now, remaining works for this guitar are final neck shaping and final sanding before the finishing work.

 

Neck shape and Joint

This week, I completed neck rough shape and neck joint. Neck rough shape is required before the neck joint, because the neck heal section is very hard to work once the neck joint is completed. The mortise cut was completed last week. So, I needed fairly simple precise fitting work to obtain neck angle adjustment. Also, the precise fitting work is for the clean joint between the neck and the body. Neck fitting is a relatively time consuming work. However, if the mortise cut has been precisely done, this process is quite straightforward. In my case, I spend about one hour for the fitting work. Foe me, it was quite first. I have been using Epoxy for the neck gluing work.

Mortise cut for the neck joint

     Backside purfling install and binding install are completed. Now, the body contraction work is complete. Binding install for the back-side is more challenging than the top side, because the back side has a tapering from neck to tail. Neck side body thickness is approximately 95mm and tail side body thickness is approximately 120mm. This tapered back shape requires very tricky clamping work for the binding install. Three bottom pictures show my tricky clamping work for the binding install for the cut-a-way portion. I have been using many long clamps and a specially designed fixture for clamping at the curved side.
     I also completed the mortise cut work for the neck and body. Now, neck and body are connected. Next week, I will complete the neck shaping. After the neck shaping, I will move to sanding and finishing work.

Purfling and binding install

I have been working on purfling and binding install process. This is an extremely time consuming and detailed work. Also, I am using Ebony for the binding in this project. Ebony is one of the difficult materials for the binding work, because the Ebony is very brittle. Usually, I will loose approximately 30% of binding materials due to the braking problem. This is inevitable problem, because some portions of the Ebony are very dry and  brittle. Those portions are no suitable for the bending work. However, the Ebony binding is very beautiful for lighter colored body material. I completed top side installation work including the beveled armrest portion. I will work the back-side portion next week. I might be able to complete the body making work next week.