Finished! A Guitar Bouzouki - yes, quite!

Andyjr1515

PeteC said:

Lovely work indeed - I like that approach to the frets and binding Andy - great to see how you did that. 

Thanks!

Andyjr1515

There are relatively few steps left before I can start the finishing process...but most of these final steps will tend to take a proportionately longer time because there will be lots and lots of accurate measuring involved, trial and error assembly and disassembly, etc..

And the first one of these is fitting the neck.

I'm going to break from convention for the neck fitting.  My preferred method is mortice and tenon with sturdy bolts and threaded inserts, which is also what I will be doing here (I did succeed in one build with a dovetail joint but can't afford the post-trauma psychiatrist bills again!) :

But I have found - on my own OM and a dreadnought I built for a fellow band member - that over time the bolts sometimes slacken.  It's an easy thing to fix - just a quick nip up with an allen key - but I don't want that to happen to an instrument that is a few hundred miles away.  I think that it is that the mahogany simply compresses a teeny bit over time and temperature change and, eventually, this lessens the friction on the machine screw head.

So what I now do is do everything in the conventional way with a bolt-on - up to and including finishing and a fully strung-up test of the action, intonation, etc, and then as a final step, take the neck off, add some wood glue to the joint and re-bolt.

And so what about if in the distant future it ever needed a neck re-set?  Well, see the heel?  I will drill a small hole from here into a small chamber at the joint to allow a luthier to use their steam needle (that's what they use to remove set necks) to be able to insert it to soften the glue.  Normally, a luthier would have to remove the fretboard for access to the joint (that's what they do to fix a Gibson Les Paul and SG set neck), but providing access here, all that needs taking off will be the heel end cap:

And the flaw in the scheme?  Well, as far as I know, no-one else provides this facility and, as a neck reset is only usually needed after around 30 years or so hard playing - and even then rarely needed - then P will have forgotten that this facility exists and almost certainly I won't be around to remind him

Anyway - next task is getting the neck joint accurate and at the correct up/down and side/side angles.

I have found that the best way is to use a carbon stiffening rod - they are dead straight - to line up along the frets and centre-line of the fretboard.  You can see here that the left right angle needs a tweak (a very small tweak in the angle at the heel makes a BIG difference at the bridge):

Just a hour or so of careful scrape, check scrape check gets me here:

I double checked the up down neck angle by running the carbon bar up to the bridge.  The rule of thumb is that a straight edge running up the fretboard should just rest on the top of the bridge and then it is the saddle that raises the strings to achieve the desired action.

And it's OK.

So a couple more jobs before gluing on the fretboard.  One is the fretboard end.  I've put to P something that mirrors the curve of the rosette and bridge.  I'm thinking something like this:


Still a lot to do, but hopefully it IS starting to look like a Guitar Bouzouki...

PeteC

So neat Andy - a real study in care and attention - quite an education!   Will it be a 4-a-side machine head arrangement ? 

Andyjr1515

PeteC said:

So neat Andy - a real study in care and attention - quite an education!   Will it be a 4-a-side machine head arrangement ? 

Thanks, Pete

Yes - if I have my calculations right, this will keep the strings all straight:

paulnb57

Regarding the neck bolts, why not fit each bolt with a spring washer, chances are after tightening the washer will take up any future slack, which likely to be pretty small?

hollywoodrox

You are exceedingly skilled sir well done

Andyjr1515

paulnb57 said:

Regarding the neck bolts, why not fit each bolt with a spring washer, chances are after tightening the washer will take up any future slack, which likely to be pretty small?

Yes - you are right - except I'm pretty sure one of the previous builds where they loosened does have some.  Trouble is that the mahogany, while great for its light weight, is quite soft and I suspect the washer just sank into the wood eventually.  Probably the answer is to go for a harder neck block wood (maybe sapele?) and then, as you say, some meaty spring washers (maybe like the ones that are supplied with CTS pots)

For this one, I will go for the belt and braces with the glue approach, but I will put some spring washers in there as well.

Andyjr1515

hollywoodrox said:

You are exceedingly skilled sir well done

Thanks.  Most of the skills come from reading threads from learned folk on forums like this

Andyjr1515

I know this looks like just a picture with a whole load of clamps - but there's quite a lot going on underneath it all:

On the left hand side is the headstock plate on top of two sheets of ebony veneer sandwiching a sheet of maple veneer, clamped down on a glass plate.  This will mean that the demarcation line between the headstock plate and the headstock will match that of the fretboard to neck

On the right hand side we have the fretboard being glued to the neck, which means the truss rod is fitted and the fretboard end has been shaped.

Other than that, it's just a picture of a whole load of clamps  

Andyjr1515

Headstock plate ready to glue and fretboard glued:

And does it still line up?

Phew!

The headstock plate will be glued on tomorrow - this is how the veneers worked out:

All being well, I should be able to start the neck carve in the next couple of days

paulnb57

Andy I meant this king of spring washer, sandwiched between two plain ones.....

https://www.ukstainless.co.uk/a2-stainless-steel-spring-washers.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI76Si5biH6wIVDOvtCh16zg3vEAQYBSABEgJ73fD_BwE

Andyjr1515

paulnb57 said:

Andy I meant this king of spring washer, sandwiched between two plain ones.....

https://www.ukstainless.co.uk/a2-stainless-steel-spring-washers.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI76Si5biH6wIVDOvtCh16zg3vEAQYBSABEgJ73fD_BwE

That's great, Paul.  I'll give it a try.

Andyjr1515

The headstock plate is now glued on.  The plate has full area veneer to create the b/w/b demarcation line and, for the fretboard, it is built into the binding.  Pretty good match...

There is a zero fret but there will be a bone faux nut just behind in the normal position that will be cut to act as a guide for the string spacings

To get all the the tuners fitting OK, I had to get the neck off, and the various files and planes out.  So while it was there I just took the corners off the neck profile too using a spokeshave and a micro-plane blade.  You can see the paper template that P gave to me (I sent him a profile gauge and some instructions to take the profiles of his best playing bouzouki).  Over the weekend, I will cut some plasticard profile templates from these and start the main carve  :

So next job is the nut guide,  and then I can pop a couple of strings on the top and bottom pegs to work out where the bridge and saddle slot needs to sit:

But before I can do that I have to cut the saddle slot and drill at least two string hole positions on the bridge

What could possibly go wrong 

Andyjr1515

The fitting of the bridge is perhaps the most critical part of an acoustic build.  It simply has to be right.  And there are big, big, problems if is isn't.

First step was cutting the angled saddle slot.  In the end, I had to make another jig - to be able to accurately use a router:

Next was recognising that the top is spheroidal - and therefore the bottom of the bridge has to be shaped accordingly. I will use the old 'engineers blue' trick:

First I put some masking tape on the top and put some school chalk evenly all over it:

Rubbing the bridge a small amount on the chalk reveals the high spots:

Sand the chalk marks off and repeat...and keep sanding the areas where there is chalk and repeat and repeat.  This is starting to get there:

As long as you only sand where the chalk is, you are always lowering the high spots.  Eventually, there is chalk on every bit - and then you know it's a perfect fit.

Next is position the bridge - scale-length-wise and double checking with the string lining up:

Then cut round the bridge through the masking tape:

Wood components have a tendency to float on the layer of glue while they are being clamped, and so need position positioning.  So I now drill through a couple of the string holes and will use some bolts to position and help clamp during gluing:

But, the main ooomph is a long reach clamp with yet another home-made jig - this one is to act as a clamping caul for the bridge body, and then the two captive screws clamp down on the bridge wings:

And there it will sit until morning

Andyjr1515

And it really is starting to look like a guitar bouzouki now

A few more jobs to do with the back off - installing the Pure Mini transducers and cutting the top of the end graft to size being the main ones - and then I can glue the back on and sort the back binding.

Then I can start the final sanding and finish coats of the body while working separately on the neck carve  

paulnb57

Fabulous!

Andyjr1515

paulnb57 said:

Fabulous!

Thanks, Paul.


And the back's on!


And the peg tapers are cut and the label is in:


So tomorrow I should be able to do the back binding and then I can start on the final sanding and the finishing processes while I also complete the neck carve. 

JCA2550

Really looking forward to following this build, can't wait to see the finished result 

Andyjr1515

Bit more progress on this.

I did the binding at the back the same way as for the top so won't repeat myself.  I did a quick mock-up before putting the first 'reveal coat' of finish on the body wood:



So I can now finish off the neck carve while doing the final sanding and the finish processes on the body.

I generally apply a 'reveal coat' first - sometimes Danish Oil and sometimes Tru-oil - to act as a combined sealer, filler and revealer of raised binding, dinks, glue smears, etc..  It also reveals closer to the final colour - particularly of the back and sides:



I've also tidied up the purfling outside the rosette.  Tomorrow, I should be able to final-sand the top and put the first finish coat on
 

YellowLedBetterMan

And here I was thinking a bouzouki was just another term for a rocket propelled grenade launcher.