Bedemir & Galahad - 2 Larkins

[MisterE]

Ik loop weer wat achter.
Maandag kreeg ik dit van Chris:

Good evening MondayTwin,

I got the frets into both necks today. Normally I just show a simple pic of the neck unfretted and then fretted but I thought I could do it in a bit more detail and show some of the tools involved.

I buy my fretwire in industrial rolls from Dunlop in California. The rolls come in a standard radius which is too flat for the necks I make so I have a special tool that can adjust this by passing a length of fretwire through it. This tool is adjustable so I can alter the radius to suit. For the 16” radius on these fingerboards I make the fretwire radius about 12”.

Fretwire before and after.

As you know the fretslots were cut some time ago on the radial arm saw. To make it easier for the frets to go in I ‘lip’ the top of the fretslot (about 0.3mm deep) with a triangular file about 70% of the width but not the ends of the slot where I want the fret to seat strongly.

For the bass it is then just a question of cutting a piece of fretwire to the correct length and hammering it in (gently - honestly!) with a ‘dead’ hammer. This a hammer that has lead shot inside the hollow head so that as the head hits the fret the lead follows on a microsecond later and prevents the hammer from bouncing.

I forgot to show the fretslot depth tool that I use to make sure that there is sufficient depth in the slot to allow the fret to fully seat so here it is. It’s adjustable for different fret types.

When all the frets are in I use drops of thick superglue to seal the fret ends. This will be invisible when the neck is lacquered.

Then I file the fret ends level with the fingerboard….

….and then fit the side dots (no picture, sorry!) and the job is done.

[MisterE]

The guitar neck requires some different treatment as it has binding and the frets have to be undercut so that the tang (the bit that goes into the fretslot) does not touch the binding but the fret crown can overlap the binding. There is a special too for this too.

Fret undercut to fit

Apart from this, which takes time to get right, the fretting process is the same and the sun came out when I had finished!

Just time to cut out two shamrocks for the headstock inlays.

And then rout the headstock on the guitar for the inlay.

Dat was alles voor de maandag.

[MisterE]

Dinsdag:

Good evening TuesdayTwin,

I think I had a good day and I hope you do too.

First job was to fit the headstock inlays and drill the tuner holes. It’s easy to drill the bass neck because I can hold it with one hand and use the other hand to work the drill press. Not so with the guitar which had a body attached so I could have made some sort of stand to support it but instead I used a Lovely Assistant!

When the neck is completed is when I stamp the serial number on the back of the headstocks. So here they are.

With a bit of sanding the neck of the bass could be glued into the body. But I didn’t do that. I had more ambitious plans - carve the guitar top.

How do you do this then on a through neck? The answer is with difficulty!

First I used a small router to set the height of the faux binding. This is the level I have to carve down to.

Then using a larger router and a guide roller I cut a series of ‘terraces’ which removes a lot of wood.

Because of the size of the router this cannot work on the two horns so I set to work with chisels and a mallet to remove wood and roughly shape the horns.

When this is done I took the guitar outside and did a rough levelling of the ‘terraces’ with a grinder. Messy job!

[MisterE]

Then back inside and use scrapers to refine the carving and make the re-curve. Then hand sanding with 120 grit abrasive. I forgot to take a picture of the gauge I use to compare the shape of the carving at different parts of the top - it needs to be symmetrical if it is to look good. You can see the gauge under my phone!

So now the basic shape of the carve is done but the top is only sanded roughly. I won’t do any finishing sanding until I have finished working on the control pocket and a few other bits. But even roughly sanded it looks OK.

You can see where I have made indents for the control knobs. I am actually thinking of slightly refining the neck shape at the body end - it doesn’t feel quite right to me.

Just one more pic of my carving tools which I inherited from a skilled German carver.

’til tomorrow,

ChrisSatisfiedWithTheDay.

[MisterE]

Berichtje van Chris gisteravond laat:

Hello WideAwakeTwin,

First job was to shape the bass heel. Chisel, scrape and sand, and sand, and sand…..

The dark line around the joint is not a bad joint! It is caused by some pencil graphite that I used to mark the jointing area when I was making the neck joint. I forgot to clean it off and the glue seems to have drawn it out of the wood. Hopefully the cherry colour will cover this. It’s a mistake!

For the bass backplate I used the piece of Irish fiddleback sycamore that you admired when I had the inlay pieces stuck on it.

Same machine screws for this.

[MisterE]

Next was to sand the top of the guitar to within an inch of it’s life going through all the abrasive grits. I don’t think I have ever sanded a guitar top so much but I want to get every bit of quilt to shine!

I can do no more!

Time for backplates. Remember this?

It’s the piece of the through neck that I removed from the top so there was space for the quilty bit. I saved it for the next stage.

OOOh look, it matches the back! And with a bit of work the plates line up!

The plates will be held on with machine screws into brass sockets- a classy job!

En gelijk heeft hij!

And I made the hole in the trem plate for the sure claw adjuster.

I didn’t make the control cover for the guitar today as I had to add a piece of mahogany to one edge so as to match the stripes in the back and the glue won’t be set until tomorrow.

I’m hopeful of getting a wash coat of lacquer on both instruments tomorrow except for the quilted bits. I’ll explain why tomorrow. I’m frightened of doing anything wrong as I’m so close to finishing.

Apologies for this being a bit late but we had visitors who came as I was writing this email and they stayed until ten minutes ago.

Cheers,

ChrisScaredOfTheGuitar!

[Noid]

Schitterend topic om door te lezen. Bedankt dat je dit met ons deelt. Inderdaad opmerkelijk hoe communicatief hij is en je bij iedere stap in het bouwproces betrekt, de dilema's die hij daarbij tegenkomt en de oplossingen die hij hiervoor bedenkt (bijvoorbeeld die tremolo). Ook al bouw je hem niet zelf, toch krijg je al een band met het instrument tijdens de bouw. Mooi om te zien hoe de combinatie jaren van ervaring, goed gereedschap en creativiteit, gecombineerd met plezier in zijn werk en de passie om kwalitatief hoogstaande gitaren te maken tot zulke mooie dingen leidt. Zulk vakmanschap dwingt respect af, inspireert en motiveert.

[Malle Eppie]

Schitterend topic om door te lezen. Bedankt dat je dit met ons deelt. Inderdaad opmerkelijk hoe communicatief hij is en je bij iedere stap in het bouwproces betrekt, de dilema's die hij daarbij tegenkomt en de oplossingen die hij hiervoor bedenkt (bijvoorbeeld die tremolo). Ook al bouw je hem niet zelf, toch krijg je al een band met het instrument tijdens de bouw. Mooi om te zien hoe de combinatie jaren van ervaring, goed gereedschap en creativiteit, gecombineerd met plezier in zijn werk en de passie om kwalitatief hoogstaande gitaren te maken tot zulke mooie dingen leidt. Zulk vakmanschap dwingt respect af, inspireert en motiveert.

+ 1! Helemaal mee eens!

[MisterE]

Bedankt voor de mooie reacties.
Ik ken Chris al heel lang en had hem eigenlijk uit het oog verloren.
Toen ik hem drie jaar terug vroeg om een zevensnarige gitaar te bouwen had ik hem gevraagd of hij foto's van het proces wilde maken. Hij doet dit op aanvraag tegen een kleine vergoeding.
Ik vond het zo mooi dat ik dit wilde delen.

Het vervolg:

Good evening CuriousTwin,

Tomorrow morning I’m going to spray all the parts of the bass and guitar that are not quilted maple or fingerboards. But why? This is my thinking. The way to get the black cherry finish is to first stain the quilt black and then partially sand it off and then stain it cherry and then lacquer over it.. The problem with this is that if any of the black or cherry stain gets on to anything that isn’t quilt then it is very hard to remove it because the stain soaks into the wood - don’t ask me how I know this! My solution is to spray all the non quilt with 4 coats of clear lacquer which will seal it and then any spilled stain will not go into the wood. Oooh that was clever Chris! It also means I can protect the edge of the faux binding. That’s very clever too Chris. But this is a pain to do because I will have to re-sand the quilt again after the spraying to remove and glue from the masking tape - but you are worth it.

So here are some shots of the masking which I think are self explanatory.

I also had to make the cover for the control compartment on the guitar. Since I had not used this shape of control pocket before I had no template for the cover. Here is how I made one. First I made a paper master.

I stuck this onto some wood and adjusted this to make an exact fitting template. The numbers on the paper are the type of lacquer I use and I had to order this for next week!

Using the wooden template I made the actual cover from another piece of the stripy through neck with the addition of a small piece of mahogany on the top edge.

And the covers need to be sprayed too so they are attached to sticks so I can move them around to get the lacquer on them.

So that was another good day. White tonight!

ChrisMaskingMeister.

[MisterE]

Volgende dag:

Good early evening DiningTwin,

On Saturday I sprayed the clear lacquer onto the non quilted bits of the instruments. Today I took off the masking and found that some of the lacquer has crept under it so I had to carefully scrape this off back to the wood which took a lot of time for both instruments. I did this in the conservatory as I could sit down!

Then both instruments needed to be washed and fine sanded to remove any glue from the masking tape. At this stage I was wondering why I had decided to do the masking! Time for some colour so I rubbed on the first coat of black onto the bass. The masking worked as the colour stuck to the quilt and not the lacquered bits.

When the black was dry I sanded most of it off.

Time for red. The first coat looked good and the quilt stood out.

I was doing a parallel piece of quilt as a trial and did a second coat which looked good so once the first coat of red was dry on the bass I added a second.

I like it. Tomorrow I will do the same to the guitar and should be able to get some clear lacquer on both of them which is when the grain should show properly. I will try a third coat of red on the trial piece to see how it looks.

Speaking of lacquer, tell me exactly what you want me to do on the top and backs of both instruments. Bedimir Conspec says silk for top and cherry back, bass Conspec says gloss but that was for cherry burst and now it has a black cherry colour. Gloss on the Bedimir top would emphasise the lovely carving I think, with cherry silk on the back. But you are the customer and the customer is always right.

ChrisBullshittingSalesman.