Body making complete

SSJ body making is completed. SSJ body has the completed beveled armrest. This armrest is made by 1.5mm Maccaser Ebony. For the beveled armrest, other makers usually use a very thin (0.6mm) veneer for easy bending and gluing. However, the armrest portion is part of a binding. Binding has two functions. One is for protecting the guitar edge, the other is for tightening the guitar edge as the rim of a drum. Therefore, I have been using fairly thick veneer material (1.5mm), even thought the bending and gluing processes are very difficult. After install the thick beveled armrest, the body showed substantially long tap torn. This is a very good sign for creating nice sound from this body construction.

Binding install

I have been working on the binding install for both nylon and SSJ model. Nylon model was completed the binding install. SSJ needs to install bindings at beveled armrest and cut-a-way portions. So, the body making is pretty much done. I selected highly flamed Hawaiian Koa binding for the nylon model. Hawaiian koa is a non traditional material for Classical guitars (nylon). However, this nylon model is designed for mostly Jazz and contemporary musicians. I selected a non traditional binding material. I also selected Madagascar rose wood for SSJ model. I have been using Ebony for my steel strings models; however, Ebony is quite brittle, and I usually loose 30% of binding materials. To avoid loosing binding materials, I switched to Mad RW. Mad RW is so much easier to bend. I never broken the binding material during the bending process. Hawaiian Koa is a wonderful material for bending process. However, I am not able to use the scraper for the leveling process after the installation. I have to use sanding paper for the leveling. This is a time consuming process. So, each material has advantage and disadvantage.

Purfling for Body

Now, the project is moving to details for body making. I finished purfling install. I also completed rough neck making including truss rod channels and head shape.So, I put together to show completed guitar shapes for both SSJ and Nylon models. Both bodies have finished all channel making for binding also. Binging installing at the cut-a-way portion is also completed. After install the binding, body making is over.

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.