Slope-shouldered Dread Sibling Bridges

I know I’m nearing completion when it’s time to make guitar bridges. Number 28 (Tasmanian blackwood sides & back) is close now. I am sanding out its finish, which means that the bridge will probably go on in the next week or so. I roughed out four bridges for upcoming guitars: African blackwood (a nearly black rosewood), granadillo (the golden brown bridge pictured below), and two East Indian rosewood (the brown purple blanks which will be used on the slope-shouldered dread siblings.)

Four blanks of wood ready to be cut into guitar bridges. — Once the blanks are square and trimmed to dimension, I read the grain to choose the saddle and pin hole locations.

Cutting the pin holes into a guitar bridge using a drill press — I cut the pin holes and slot the saddle using a jig that mounts to the drill press table.

Four guitar bridges that are still square but drilled and slotted — Once the holes and slot are cut, then it’s time to cut the blanks to the final length.

Three shaped guitar bridges — For these bridges, they get a simple scoop wing, which I shape using a small drum sander.

Slope-shouldered Dread No. 28 Build Gallery, part 5

I’ve put just about as much finish as I want to on these bodies. Meanwhile, I’ve pushed the neck blank toward being a neck, complete with frets, color and finish. I still need to apply some final finish top coats to both the body and the neck, then, while the finish has a chance to cure up, I’ll make the bridge, saddle, and nut. Because of the adjustable neck joint I use, once everything is cured, the guitar will go together pretty quickly. So far I’m happy with the looks, feel and sound of everything, so stringing this one up will be fun!

A guitar neck being roughly carved. — To make the neck profile, I start by gouging and rasping the neck to the curve I want near the first and tenth frets (or so).

I check the profile using templates cut from mat board.

Once the curves are close at those two points, then it’s time to connect them using a spokeshave.

A nearly carved neck next to a card scraper and templates — After the spokeshave, I switch to a card scraper, rasps and files to finish the profile.

After marking the peghead shape, I cut the waste away with a saw then use a file to get close to the final shape.

A guitar neck with a flattened fingerboard — Once I’m happy with the neck side profile, I prep the fingerboard surface, leaving some relief for string vibration.

Getting closer to the final peghead shape.

Using a drill guide template to drill the tuner locations on a guitar peghead — I use a homemade guide to accurately drill the tuner post locations.

Dye applied to a mahogany guitar neck. — Once the final sanding is completed, I use water-based dye to raise the grain.

A guitar neck finally sanded after raising the grain — More sanding! So much sanding!

Applying pore filler to a guitar neck. — Mahogany necks have plenty of pores that need to be filled, so here I’ve smeared Timber Mate pore filler over the entire neck.

A pore-filled guitar neck, ready for finishing. — Yep, you have to sand the pore filler back to wood.

Applying pore filler to a guitar headstock — The headstock face is pore filled, also.

Sanding the pore filler on a guitar headstock. — Sanding back to wood on the headstock face. Almost there!

A guitar neck that has had finish applied — I’ve applied the color, sealer shellac and the bodying coats.

A guitar headstock that has had finish applied — The next task is to flat-sand the neck so I can apply final top coats of finish.

Cleaning the purfling on a guitar top after coloring — The sunburst color is sealed in place with shellac, and I can remove the resist and start cleaning up the bindings.

Scraping the liquid frisket from the rosette.

A sunburst colored guitar soundboard with freshly scraped bindings — The carefully scraped top looks pretty crisp!

Uncovering masked binding on a guitar body — Removing the masking tape from the back and finding more cleanup work to do.

Easing the corners on guitar binding — Now I can round the bindings over so that the body has eased corners.

Two guitars hanging in a shop — Step back and admire the cleaned edges on two sunburst bodies.

Sanding a guitar finish flat — Once the guitar is sealed with shellac, I add body coats of a water-borne acrylic lacquer for toughness.

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Twin Bursts

In honor of 2-22-2022, here is a snapshot of the slope-shouldered dread twins showing off their in-process sunburst finishes. Especially in the brighter lower parts of the guitars, you can see how deep and transparent the dyed color is.

Two guitar bodies being finished, hanging in a workshop. — The slope-shouldered siblings have been wood dyed, sealed with blonde shellac and now are receiving some darker shellac to deepen the edges. The foreground guitar is Tasmanian blackwood, the other is mahogany.

Slope-shouldered Dread No. 28 Build Gallery, part 4

It’s time to get the bodies finished so I can allow the finish to cure while I finish the necks. Once the bodies are sanded, the pores in the the wood need to filled, then it’s time to get out the wood dye. This acacia body is getting a classic burst (which will look amazing over the curly wood).

A guitar body with sanding tools. — Final sanding of the body. You have to find and fix any problems at this point.

A guitar body on a workbench — When final-sanded, this acacia almost has a waxy finish to the surface already

A slope dreadnought guitar body on a workbench — Applying the shellac seal coat gives you the first look at how awesome the wood really is!

A guitar body hung in a workshop. — Once the body is sanded, it’s sealed with shellac before the pore filler is applied.

A pine board with a variety of dyes applied to it. — I made a sample board of the dye colorants I expected to use in this burst.

A guitar body being dyed with golden tones — The figure pops under the first body color, which is used to raise the grain as well as form the center of the burst.

A guitar body with a new burst finish — The direct-to-wood dye has been applied, and another shellac seal coat is applied. Wow!

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See the third installment of the build gallery

Slope-shouldered Dread No. 28 Build Gallery, part 3

These J45 twins are coming right along, and I’ve installed the sugar maple bindings and done quite a lot of the neck and fretboard work. Once the box was closed, I switched over to doing the major carpentry work on the neck, which is somewhat complicated by using my version of the Mike Doolin adjustable neck joint. For these guitars, I’ve made a small change to my method again so that the fingerboard is supported by a single, contiguous length of mahogany to further improve the playability of the neck.

Using a router to cut a binding channel around the top of a guitar — Cutting the binding channel for the sugar maple binding

Applying glue to a binding channel on a guitar — I’ve glued one side of the binding and am preparing to install the other side’s purfling and binding.

Tape holding the new binding in place on a guitar — The pre-bent binding is first pulled into place with tape around the perimeter.

A guitar body wrapped in black elastic — I follow the tape with an old car tire innertube cut into strips that acts like a big strong rubber band.

The new purfling is scraped flush to the top of a guitar — The new purfling is scraped flush to the top

Two guitar neck blanks on a router table — Once the headstock scarf joint is made and the nut location is set, I rout the truss rod slot.

Using a floating tenon, I can orient the grain of the tenon for strength.

A guitar neck block showing its component parts — Once the fretboard surface is ready, I add the heel block and floating tenon.

A guitar and its neck showing the mating surfaces — I cut a recess in the top of the guitar to allow the neck to fit.

A guitar with the neck roughly attached. — Checking the fit of the neck in the routed body.

The guitar body side of an adjustable neck joint — The body with the fingerboard extension and neck heel recesses routed out.

A guitar body with a neck attached — Whew! The neck drops right in!

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Slope-shouldered Dread No. 28 Build Gallery, part 2

The slope-shouldered siblings are moving along quite speedily, with the box on this Tasmanian blackwood guitar being closed over the last week. The Acacia melanoxylon sides and back have been a joy to work with: it bends easily, sands well, and has a nice, smooth finished surface. The box has a tremendous tap already, and the top frequency came in right at 148Hz before gluing the back on. I’ve moved onto the necks and will return to this body to install bindings once the no 30 box is closed.

Gluing solid laminated linings to guitar ribs. — I often use solid laminated linings that are pre-bent and laminated, then installed in the ribs.

The inside of bent and assembled guitar ribs. — The solid mahogany linings make the rim assembly very stiff and also very stable. The Acacia looks great with a light sanding.

The back plate of a guitar, showing the braces. — Using an X-brace on the back plate makes it easier to tune the plate to a supportive frequency.

A guitar top showing the attached bracing. — With red spruce bracing this stiff, the bracing has to be pretty minimal to allow the top the flexibility it needs.

A guitar rib assembly being radiused. — The completed rim assembly is sanded using radius dishes so that the arched plates meet the sides to form a solid joint.

The top attached to the ribs. — I’ve glued the top in place and checked the top frequency. The ribs are ready to accept the back.

A freshly assembled acoustic guitar body. — The body has been freed from the mold after both plates are glued in place.

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Slope-shouldered Dread No. 30 Build Gallery, part 1

I’m building two J45s this time around, and this is the second. The commissioner is looking for a pretty classic J45 sound–friendly, unpretentious and loose. I have had a really nice set of mahogany on hand for a decade or longer that was looking for the right project. This is the one. It’ll be paired with the slightly more flexible of the two Adirondack spruce tops to make a fantastic slope-shouldered dread.

A raw spruce top for a guitar. — This red spruce top is joined and ready to party.

A plate-joining jig. — I glue top and back plates together in a simple jig that keeps the plate flat and applies closing pressure via wedges.

A raw guitar back of Honduran mahogany — I’ve had this really nice set of mahogany for the back and sides for quite a few years.

Dimensioned spruce brace wood — I cut a fresh batch of spruce bracewood for these guitars and felt like a millionaire, working with all this fine material.

Three fingerboard wood against a mahogany guitar back. — Three good options for fingerboards, left to right: The leftmost piece is actually the mahogany neck blank, then granadillo (a hard, stripey wood), East Indian rosewood and finally katalox (a super hard purple-black wood)

Rosette strips bent into circles. — Bending up the thin wood strips for use in the rosette.

Rosette strips being fit to a rosette channel. — It’s fun to fit the rosette strips to the rosette pocket so that everything fits tightly for a clean result.

A guitar rosette in a raw soundboard. — The rosette features curly maple which will be used for the purfling on this guitar, too.

Back braces being glued in place — I use a go-bar deck to glue in plate braces, so that the plate can be domed for strength.

A guitar back plate's braces being trimmed. — Rough-shaping the back braces with a handplane.

The top and back plates of a guitar, showing the rough bracing. — The red spruce top and back braces are in place and have been roughly shaped.

Slope-shouldered Dread No. 28 Build Gallery, part 1

I’ve just began a new set of triplets, and the first on the list is a transitional J-45-inspired slope-shouldered dreadnought for Devin. It will feature a beautifully figured Tasmanian blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon) back and sides set and a primo red spruce top from Old Standard Wood. After letting the woods adapt to my shop environment (the back and sides came from an Australian tonewood company), I’ve joined the top and back plates and selected a Honduran Mahogany neck blank from my collection of seasoned neck wood. The next jobs will be bending the woods for the rosette, routing and installing the rosette, and then my favorite task: thicknessing the top and back plates and bracing them.