Tradition and the New Guitars

Whenever I begin a new guitar, I usually have some idea that has been floating around in my head which I want to explore. Sometimes It's construction related, design related, or sometimes it's a sonic investigation. Sometimes it's an idea which is brought to me by a customer. In this case, I wanted to use the Archtop and Flat top projects as an excuse to delve into tradition a bit.

One thing I've always been curious about, is Hide glue. It's a subject of much debate in the guitar nerd community. Some say there are tonal advantages to using it. Hide glue dries really hard and brittle, and the theory is that it transfers vibration through all of the glue joints better than the modern alternatives. I've used hide glue a bit for repairs, but never built a complete instrument using it. For those of you who don't know what hide glue is...it's a glue (shocking! I know) made from animal parts all boiled down to a goo... I just threw up in my mouth a little bit. By the time it gets to me, the glue is in a dry powdery form. I have to add water and heat to reconstitute it. Ethically I'm not sure I can get behind this glue, but I'm drawn to the tradition of it. Hide glue has been used as an adhesive for nearly 5000 years (if you believe Wikipedia!) Certainly some of the finest instruments around have been constructed with hide glue. In my world, the jury is still out, but I like the process of using it. I like that it takes skill and care to get a good glue joint. Skill and care seem to be disappearing from our world.


As I near the end of this build, my thoughts turned to the inevitable question of what finish to apply. The traditional finish for most Archtop guitars and most Flat-tops is Nitrocellulose laquer. I've sprayed my fair share of it over the years. These days I'm using a water based spray-on finish which I really like. It's less toxic than Nitro, it dries really hard and buffs out very nicely. My intent was to use this finish on the Archtop, but I could not stop myself from investigating another traditional technique...French Polish. Basically to French Polish, you apply very thin coats of shellac with a small pad, rubbing vigorously until each new layer blends with the previous one. It's a finish which has been used for years by furniture makers, violin makers and classical guitar builders. French Polishing quite an art! An art I would like to be good at, but after nearly a week of swirling shellac onto the Archtop, I decided that it was not to be. I love traditional ways of working and I enjoy exploring traditional techniques, but as I become more and more professional I'm finding a need to balance tradition with technology. In the end, I felt like French Polish was a lot of work. Shellac, even when applied correctly is a delicate finish. It can be damaged by water, sweat, alcohol etc. So, I decided to spray over the shellac with a few top coats of my tried and true water based finish. I'll let everything cure for about two weeks, and then the Archtop becomes a guitar!


Sanding the archtop between coats of finish

The archtop in the spray booth.

While the finish cures, I've turned my attention back to the flat top. It's pretty close to being done. I just need to do some fine tuning.

One of the last tasks is to inlay my logo on the peghead. I often feel that I need to get my "branding" together and come up with a better logo, but for now, I'm inlaying the letter "C" and some swirly bits. I made a crude jig to speed up the process. I use the plywood template to rout the recess for the scrolls.

I print the letter C out on to a piece of paper and glue it to some mother of pearl.

Next comes the careful work of cutting it out. I use a jewlers saw with a fine blade.

...And done...

The next step is to rout out a recess for the letter to fit into. It takes a steady hand...and a bit of patience. I scribe the outline of the "C" with a xacto knife and then use a white pencil to help me see the line. I do the routing with a Dremel tool and a very small bit.

Here's the finished inlay. The "C" is mother of pearl and the scrolls are thin aluminum which I bend to fit. The only thing left is a bit of sanding and then this guitar is off to the spray booth as well!

The Archtop is Getting Close!

Well, the repairs keep piling up at Guru, but I managed to squeezed out a few moments to work on the Archtop this past week. it's getting really close to being finished! I'm down to a bit of fine tuning. I spent most of the time this week, working on all of the appointments.

First up, was the tailpiece. I've been experimenting with a new design a bit. The Idea is that a pin is dovetailed into the end block and the tailpiece clips onto it. the string tension holds it all in place. I really like the look of it! Here's the dovetail cut into the end of the guitar.

And then the pin slides in. The pin is oversized in this picture. I cut it down a bit...

and the tailpiece fits over it! A lot of work goes into building the tailpiece... Unfortunately I forgot to take any pictures. Here's the final product.

With the tailpiece about finished I turned my attention to the pickup. This guitar is really designed to be an acoustic instrument, but so many people like play amplified these days I thought I would include a pickup. Most electric guitar pickups and made of a coil of wire wrapped around a magnet. As the guitar string vibrates, it influences the magnetic field. This interaction creates a small voltage in the coil of wire. This becomes the guitar's signal which is sent to the amplifier. I've been using an old Singer sowing machine to spin the bobbin around while I guide the wire on to it. The wire is very fine, it's about as thin as a hair. It's pretty delicate work. Here's a freshly wound bobbin. This pickup will need two bobbins.

Each bobbin has a slot cut for a magnet to be inserted. Here's the whole assembly with magnets in a wooden cover which I made.

This is the top view.

Now that the pickup is wound I turned my attention to the finger-rest. It's pretty straight forward, but I did need to spend some time figuring out how to attach the pickup and get everything at the correct height.

Here's the result. it looks good...if I do say so myself!

The last thing to make is the bridge and the guitar will be ready for a final sanding and spraying the finish.
it will be a guitar soon!

The Archtop and Flat-top Get Their Necks.

Hi everybody I just wanted to post a quick update. The two guitars are progressing nicely, and
I'm getting close to having finished instruments!


I used the old inner tube trick to glue the binding onto the peghead of the flat-top neck...

...And the same for the Archtop

Then it was time to get to work carving both necks. This is one of my favorite parts of the guitar building process. For some reason putting a contour on the neck marks the point at which the guitar begins to feel like an instrument and not just a hunk of wood. It might be because the neck is really the main interaction point of the instrument, sure you need the body to amplify the sound, but the shape and feel of the neck really informs your sense of the guitar....at least it does for me. Anyway...it's a dusty job, but I love it!

I start by roughing out the shape with a rasp...

...And then I fine tune things with a cabinet scraper.

After a bit of sanding, I give it a coat of shellac to seal things up.

I go through the same process for the Flat-top neck.

After carving, I usually like to let the necks sit for a day or so, and then re-check them for lumps and bumps I may have missed. Over the next few days I'll refine them a bit more...


Here's a little preview, I'm getting close!

Repairs, Repairs, Repairs!

Well...I took a little bit of time off for the holidays. Consequently, I've spent all of January and most of February digging out from under the mountain of repairs that came in while I was gone! I wish I could say I was making progress, but they just keep coming in. We are running a two-three week back log right now with no let up in sight. For my own sanity I decided it was time to squeeze in some work on my own projects. So I'm back to spending a few hours working on the Archtop and Flattop before the shop opens each morning.

The first order of business was to build a jig to cut the binding channels around the outside of the guitars. I have made a couple different versions of this jig over the years but it was time to make a nice permanent one. Here's a pic of the cradle with adjustable slidey thingys that hold the guitar body.



The other part of the jig is a small router mounted on a sliding mechanism. the router has a bit that cuts the binding channel as you feed the guitar around under it.


Here's a close-up of the business end of things. The white collar rides on the top of the guitar. the grey cutter underneath cuts the channel and the bearing rides on the outside of the guitar. The cutter is slightly larger than the bearing so it cuts a consistent rabbit around the outside of the guitar.



Here's a picture after the binding channel is cut. I cut some thin pieces of wood which will be bent to the shape of the guitar and then glued back into the channel. It may sound like a strange process to cut out wood and then glue it back but, it helps to seal the end grain on the top and back and it looks cool! At any rate, It's called binding



I've recently discovered the magic of bicycle inner tubes...they are awesome for clamping odd shaped things. I've been using them to clamp the binding into the channel while the glue dries.


Another shot.


Here is the semi-finished product, the back of the flattop with the binding installed. I cut the binding very slightly oversized and then scrape it all down flush. I've still got a bit of work to do!


Here's a detail shot.


...And a shot of the end graft.



The back is done. Now, same thing for the top!



And then repeat for the archtop.



A few more hours of scraping and the guitars are starting to look pretty good!



The next step is to rout the mortise for the neck pocket. Once again, I've worked out a new jig...



After some nervous routing and a little bit of preliminary neck fitting, everything seems to line up! Whew!


Stay tuned, I hope to spend some extra time on these instrument over the next week or so. I hope I can get them nearly finished!

Happy New Year

Hello Everybody, Happy New Year!


I wanted to say thanks for all of the support this past year. 2010 has been great for Clay Conner Guitars! I know some of you have been following the progress on Facebook www.facebook.com/clayconnerguitars and here at the Blog, But for those of you who haven’t seen the posts, here are the highlights.

I am now working nearly full time at Guru Guitars www.guruguitarshop.com here in Raleigh NC. We have so much repair work to do, that I have to squeeze in growing my own business whenever there is time. It means that I have put in some long hours, but I’ve learned a lot. My guitar building has been steadily moving forward, and I’m really excited about all of the new instruments I’m turning out! I feel like I’m reaching a new level with my designs and skills. My guitars are getting a lot of attention in our shop.

I’ve been doing a lot of soul searching this year trying to decide which direction to take the business…what kind of business I want to run…what impact I want to make on my community and the planet etc. So far there have been a lot more questions than answers, but the idea of community has been coming back over and over again. So much so, that I’ve begun to think of my clients and everyone who I interact with as a big family. The Conner Guitars family! It’s been nice to think of this business as our business. I would like to start including you all a bit more in the process. So…one of you needs to meet with the accountant next week! Just kidding! All joking aside, I’ve been posting photos of my most recent guitar builds here at the blog. I plan to keep this up for 2011. People seem to be really interested in the process. It’s fun to let people behind the curtain so to speak. I have some ideas about a group project of sorts, but I need to flesh them out a bit before I announce it. Stay tuned!

In my mind, 2011 is all about going to the next level!...and that’s the plan! We’re working on updates to the website. We hope to have some t-shirts for sale fairly soon. We are trying really hard to make it to the Montreal guitar show in 2011. Beyond that…

I can’t wait to see what is coming and to welcome some new members to the Family! Thanks again for all of the love this past year! It keeps us going! I look forward to talking with you soon!


Clay
www.clayconnerguitars.com
www.projectsonthebench.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/clayconnerguitars

More Guitar Building Photos

Picking up where I left off in the last post...The neck building continues. The headstock design I use is a bit wider than the neck blank. So I have to glue some extra wood to make up the difference. Believe it or not, this is pretty common practice. The pieces of wood are often called the 'ears'.



Once the glue dries, it's time to start profiling the neck. I've made some plywood templates to shape the necks. Here's the headstock pattern which I attach to the neck using double stick tape.



First I rough cut the profile on the bandsaw and then head over to the router table to clean everything up. The cutter I use is called a pattern bit. It has a bearing which is the same size as the cutter head. The bearing rides against the plywood template and the cutter will trim the wood exactly to the shape of the template.



Here's a shot of the headstock after routing.



Using the same procedure, I taper the neck.



And here's the final product. The Archtop neck.



I follow the same steps to shape the Flat top neck, here they are side by side.



After the shaping is complete, I glued a vaneer over the top of the headstocks on both necks. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera so I didn't get any pictures of the process. The vaneer is decorative but also helps to strengthen the headstock.

I've been putting graphite spars into my necks to help with the long term stability. Once the neck is tapered, I rout two slots on either side of the truss rod to drop the graphite into.



And then it's time to make the truss rods...I mentioned in an earlier post that the truss rod is a steel bar which is inserted into the neck to counteract the tension exerted by the stings. There are a few different systems to make this happen, the one I use basically works like this: The steel rod is threaded on both ends. One end attaches the an anchor point at the heel end of the neck, and the other end sticks out at the headstock end with a nut and washer on it. I mentioned earlier that the slot I cut into the neck is curved, so I bend the rod to match that curve. I then install the rod into the neck and cover it with a piece of wood called a spline. Once the fingerboard is glued on, the rod is sandwiched into the neck solidly but it is still curved. So here's where the magic happens...Once you string up the guitar and the strings pull the neck forward. You can tighten the nut on the headstock end of the guitar. This forces the rod to try and straighten out, and if everything is installed correctly, pulls the neck back flat against the string tension.



You can buy pre-made truss rods but I've been making my own for a while now. I start with some 3/16" steel rod. After cutting it to length, I thread both ends.



Here's a blurry picture of the threads.



I install the anchor on to one end.


Here's the finished truss rod ready to be installed into the neck.



Here I'm gluing the truss rod in with the spline on the flat-top neck.



I do the same for the Archtop.



Once the glue dries, I trim the spline down flush with the top of the neck. Then I glue in the graphite, and finally, it's time to glue on the fingerboard.



Here is the Archtop neck with the fingerboard glued on.



I couldn't resist setting the neck up on the body to get an idea of how it will look. Looks pretty cool! I'm excited to hear how it will sound!



Happy Thanksgiving everybody! talk to you soon!