New build - inspired by Bailey's Guitar course

AustrianJohn

I‘ve built a bunch of guitars from kits and renovated a few old ones, but I decided it was time to have a go at building a guitar from blocks of wood. I had no previous experience designing guitars or working with woodworking power tools, so I started with the Bailey Guitars on-line Design and Build courses. Check it out at guitarmaking.co.uk

The design course was very clear and I soon had my plan drawn up. My first thought was to follow the course exactly and build a standard Bailey Bandsman, but after trying several styles I decided to enlarge the body slightly and go for a single cut design.

I had also thought about putting a top on the guitar and had bought a two piece Black Limba top. But the Ash body that arrived from Bailey’s was lovely, so I’ll use the top in a later project.



More to follow as I progress...

ArchtopDave

Enjoy it. I've built 3 guitars on Courses in Mark's Workshop. He's a real nice guy and very knowledgeable.

TTony

watching for updates

Roland

The bandsaw and bench in the picture suggest that tooling will not constrain you

AustrianJohn

Roland said:

The bandsaw and bench in the picture suggest that tooling will not constrain you

The bandsaw (and router) were virgins when that photo was taken. I also have two benches like that in my workshop - which I thought would mean I had twice as much space. Actually it means I have twice as much sh*t lying around getting in the way.

TTony

AustrianJohn said:
Actually it means I have twice as much sh*t lying around getting in the way.

Have a wisdom.

AustrianJohn

Before starting on the guitar itself there were lots of templates and jigs to build.







This gave me the chance to make a few mistakes on replaceable MDF rather than lumps of mahogany or ash.



The most important tool in my workshop is my iPad, where Mark can show me what to do while I'm doing it.

TTony

AustrianJohn said:

Before starting on the guitar itself there were lots of templates and jigs to build.

This gave me the chance to make a few mistakes on replaceable MDF rather than lumps of mahogany or ash.

Been there once or twice.

Or too many times to count

WezV

if the plate fits too tightly they can be a bugger to get out - you need a finger groove like that to make it easier to remove

AustrianJohn

Next job was to start cutting real wood. I routed out the truss rod slot, cut the neck angle roughly with the bandsaw, and tidied up the surface with the router using the Bailey headstock angle jig. The outline of the neck was marked (top and side), and then cut with the bandsaw - resulting in something that looked remarkably like a guitar neck.



I then started work on the body template, only to realise that my design was a single cut rather than the double cut design that was the subject of the on-line course - and I wasn't sure how to connect the neck to the body. I decided to play it safe and go with a double cut design, which soon resulted in this...



It only looked like 5 minutes work to finish the job :-) but I'd had enough scary moments with my router and bandsaw, so I decided to leave the rest of the build for another day.

TTony

You're not hanging around ...

It generally takes 6 (very) full days of working in the Bailey workshop to produce a guitar, and that's with Mark there to advise & guide, so there's very little wasted time in those full days.  If you carry on at this rate, you'll be finished more quickly than that ...

AustrianJohn

Starting work on the cavities and drilling the control holes.



This was after the first, shallow rout of the pickup cavities, which looks good and lulled me into a false sense of security.



Routing deeper (after the neck pocket had been routed) didn't go quite as well :-(





The control cavaity, and the cover I rescued from scrap, have worked out ok.



Final job of the day was rounding off the edges with a special router bit. Although it was a success, I realised I should have waited as I plan to have both elbow and belly carves. On top of that, I feel that every moment with the router in my hands is one moment closer to a destroyed guitar - and I could have achieved the result with half an hour's sanding.

TTony

Re the neck p'up cavity.

It looks like the template moved?  How are you fixing the template to the body?

AustrianJohn

TTony said:

Re the neck p'up cavity.

It looks like the template moved?  How are you fixing the template to the body?

No, template didn't move - just my own hamfistedness.

I mostly fix templates using masking tape on both surfaces superglued together (as seen on Crimson Guitar videos).

The pickup cavities are now bigger than the very thin pickup surrounds I had planned to use, so instead I'll make my own pickup rings from wood - and pretend that was what I had planned to do all along.

TTony

AustrianJohn said:

I mostly fix templates using masking tape on both surfaces superglued together (as seen on Crimson Guitar videos).

I've seen that technique - though never used it.  Double-sided sticky tape has already been reliable for me.  As long as you don't leave something stuck in place for too long (ie days) it generally comes off OK.  The exhibition floor tape is supposed to be good too

AustrianJohn

Good news, bad news day. First, the good news. The Saburrtooth carving wheel I had ordered arrived, and I carefully set about carving the horns.



I then spent a few hours sanding to get the shape and finish right, before covering the body in brown stained pore filler.



Another two hours of sanding and the body looked more or less exactly the same as it had done before I applied the grain filler. I hope that when I put on the Tru Oil the coloured grain will be more obvious.



Now the bad news. If you are squeamish, look away now. I tried to be clever and save some time by profiling the side of the neck with the router, using the finderboard as a template. It didn't work out as planned. Another set of materials for the neck is now on order.

WezV

I suggest you take a step back, practice on some scrap, and figure out how to hold things better before continuing.

Is it fair to say every mistake so far is because a template has slipped?   Are you using the correct bearing topped router bits? is the router gripping them adequately?

TTony

AustrianJohn said:

Now the bad news. If you are squeamish, look away now. I tried to be clever and save some time by profiling the side of the neck with the router, using the finderboard as a template. It didn't work out as planned. Another set of materials for the neck is now on order.

You're following the Bailey course?

So FOLLOW it!  

If there is a "clever way of saving time", Mark would have put it in the course already.  He's made enough guitars over enough years to have found the shortcuts.

This time you've just wasted some wood and some time.  But even trying that approach suggests that you've not really considered the capabilities and limits of the tools you're using - the router in this case.  The router is a reasonably dangerous piece of kit, in that it can do a lot of damage very quickly.  This time the damage is only to the wood, but if you misuse it again the consequences could be more serious.  And painful.

Be careful with the tools!!

Sporky

TTony said:

I've seen that technique - though never used it.  Double-sided sticky tape has already been reliable for me.  As long as you don't leave something stuck in place for too long (ie days) it generally comes off OK.  The exhibition floor tape is supposed to be good too

This stuff is excellent - really strong hold, comes away completely cleanly:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00OOULCWM/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=27WH20KJ6EISH&coliid=I1RTI0ZU8AJ3J7

AustrianJohn

TTony said:

You're following the Bailey course?

So FOLLOW it! 

You are - of course - 100% right. I'll keep my enthusiasm under control in future.

axisus

Ouch!!!!! that fretboard shot!!!! I'd have had a cardiac arrest if that happened to me!

Respect for posting the picture, I wouldn't have!