Father and Son Lutherie: March 2021

I haven't always wanted a Mahogany guitar. I've played a dreadnought for a bunch of years, but have wanted a smaller guitar. I built a OM style guitar (see previous post), but due to the top thickness and the wood choices (rosewood), it has a pretty bright tone. I had already purchased an 0-15M plan from the Guild of American Luthiers. After some research (on the computer because this was during the Covid Crisis), I realized that I missed the bass from my dreadnought.

I always steered towards rosewood because it added some shimmer to the highs and some great overtones. However, without the large body to boost the bass I was a bit surprised by the lack of bass. Selecting a Mahogany guitar, specifically a Mahogany topped guitar, perhaps I could get some of that bass back.

Earlier this year, I purchased some mahogany tops from the estate of master builder Marco Greco of Guild fame. They looked great. I selected two and decided to make a set of twins. One died in the womb, but may be born again a bit later.

First step with any new guitar style is to make a new mold. Here I'm reusing my spreaders from my OM mold.

Time to make some braces. I'm starting wit some hunks of Engleman spruce. Here I've split it in half. I'm going to continue to split it until I get to reasonable sized pieces. Splitting the spruce ensures more stability in the braces and reduces the chance of hidden weak spots.

Here I am starting to collect all of the materials I'll need for this project. I have two mahogany back and side sets, two tops from Carlo Greco, I've just finished cutting the kerfed lining, There are red hot rod truss rods from stewmac, Indian rosewood fretboards, and some brazilian rosewood bridge blanks at the top.

Preparing the edges to join the back

The two edges get glue....

Then they are placed in the joining jig.

The outside edges of the back are cut at an angle so that they can be wedged into the jig. This causes the joint to be held together. Weights are placed on top of the center seam to ensure it doesn't bridge in the center.


Joined, cleaned up, and approximate dimensions chalked on.

Here I am splitting spruce for the braces. Once I get pieces close to the dimensions I need, I plane them to get to final dimensions.

Messy work....

Gets messier.

Fun and pretty though.

Here are the brace blanks taken to final dimensions.

Bigger mess....

Took a break to make a bridge out of Brazilian Rosewood. I'll cover my process later. Made some extras to sell in the process.

Here is a chunk of Honduran Mahogany. It is about 30x4x3. I can get two one piece necks and end blocks.

The lines are hard to see in the picture, but look below and you can see the chunks.

Cut into sections.

Here I am taking the bent sides (I'll cover my process later) and gluing in the end blocks using the form.

Here I have planed the sides down to the blocks.

These are the end blocks and the Brazilian Rosewood headstock overlays. I try to make more than what I need to help with later builds.

Gluing the lining in (I'll cover the process of creating linings later)

Glued in. Looks a bit rough.

Here I am using a radius dish to shape the bottom of the brace so the back will have a curve instead of being flat (structurally stronger).

Here I have marked the brace positions and laid tape down to prevent movement and to help glue squeeze out.

Here I am using my Go-Bar deck to clamp the braces to the back.

Glue has dried....

so now to hand carve the braces to final dimensions.

Here I am gluing the back to the sides. It has to be done near perfectly because this guitar won't have binding to hide the mistakes

Gluing on the top lining.

These clamps are much more powerful, so I use a strip of yoga mat to pad the sides from damage.

Getting ready to chalk the sides, then shape them in the radius dish.

But I notice this especially bad section of lining....

yuck

Time to remove it and do it over.

Here is the decorative end graft made again of Brazilian Rosewood.

Starting to layout the braces for the top. Most important is joining the x-braces.

The X-braces need to be radiused together to ensure a good fit.

Braced and carved.

Closing the box.

Trying to figure out the headstock shape. Was considering a National style shape to mimic the enye in Canon City.

Here I am sanding a radius into the fretboard. It will still be pretty flat at 20".

Used Stewmacs fret calculator to determine the placement of each fret. I then cut each fret slot with a specialized miterbox.

Here I am planing off the edge of the fretboard for a smoother feel.

Some slots didn't cut to the proper depth, so they needed to be recut.

I like medium/medium fretwire. I'm not a crazy bender and I have a heavy touch, so these work best for me.

At this point I was hand bending the fretwire.

using a hooked scalpel to clean out the slots.

Covered the truss rod with tape to keep it from getting glue in it.

The neck is given a slight upbow with the rod underneath the heel so that when the fretted board is added, it will be straight (the frets cause a counter acting back bow on the neck). Here I'm using "Moving bands" which are long rubber bands to clamp the fretboard. The wrapping helps keep the fret board centered.

Back after some stain. The top is natually a darker color, so staining to match and to taste.

side stain.

working on the headstock with a Japanese rasp.

Carving the neck shape.

heel cap guidelines.

This Dragon rasp is great for curved surfaces and curved corners.

Making a guide line at the headstock to shape to.

I didn't know it at the time, but actually turned out to be a thick neck.

Headplate gluing.

Gluing on the neck using a dovetail joint.

Here I am preparing the headstock for the simple two circle logo representing Father and Son.

This was one of my attempts to cut perfect circles of various sizes for inlay dots using Fossilized Mammoth tusk. Here, I glued the ivory to a washer and sanded it flush carefully to make sure the sides stayed square.