Thinking of building an acoustic... Any advice?

Misterg · August 2023

Hi folks - long time no post.

Image: /plugins/EmojiExtender/emoji/fb/1.gif

While I've had a long-standing hankering to build a steel strung acoustic, this has now escalated to a burning desire.

I'm thinking of an OM size, according to the Grellier plans.

Nothing fancy* - spruce top, rosewood sides & back, ebony fingerboard & mahogany neck.

(* I'm toying with the idea of adding a Florentine cut-away, but the jury is out at the moment)

I think I understand the build process, but am still exploring. At the moment, I'd intend to make an outside mould, but not sure if I need to make radius bowls, or if I can manage without by pre-shaping the braces (space is a problem). I'm quite drawn to the 'masses of elastic bands' school of clamping.

I have hand tools and a router, etc. but no thickness sander or planer. I would probably order the back / sides & soundboard already thickness sanded from Keystone.

For bending the sides, I'm very tempted to try steaming them, otherwise it would be a hot pipe. I perceive this as the trickiest part...

It's the body / thin wood stuff that bothers me most - How worried do I need to be about humidity? Mostly the dusty work would be done in an un-heated shed, but stuff that only generated shavings could conceivably be done in the house, with the wood kept in the house in the meantime.

So, any words of advice?

Cheers,

Andy

Previous efforts #1 #2 #3

WezV · August 2023

Keep the project in the house when not working on it.

You can get away without a radius Dish the way you suggest, worth at least making some radius calls for shaping the braes and clamping up. The top can even be flat without too many issues.

I would read some stew-mac kit instructions as they have some clever ways to assemble an acoustic with the minimum of extra jigs and molds.

markblack · August 2023

I'm sure you've seen it, but this popped up on my yt feed today. Just incase you haven't.

Misterg · August 2023

Thank you both - I'll have a look at the Stew-Mac plans.

@markblack - I have that video on my 'watch later' list, but haven't seen it yet. I've been almost every other guitar build video on Youtube though - there are some gems and some horrors.

Incidentally - does anyone know what happened to Susan Gardener? I was really enjoying her guitar build a few years ago, then it all just stopped. I hope she's OK.

SteveF · August 2023

Watching this thread with interest.

FYI, all your links in the original post need a colon after the https for them to work.

Misterg · August 2023

SteveF said:

Watching this thread with interest. FYI, all your links in the original post need a colon after the https for them to work.

Thank you! - I've edited the original post. Hopefully they'll work now. (I think my mistake was pasting in the url without clearing the 'http:\\' that appears in the box.)

ETA - links to the previous builds on my website without the photobucket mangled photos:

#1, #2, #3

SteveF · August 2023

Working now

Saved those plans for future reference!

Misterg · August 2023

A trip to the print shop this morning to get the pdf file printed at A0. The dimensions came out spot-on, which will be handy for making templates, etc.

More significantly, I appear to have ordered some wood!

WezV said:

... worth at least making some radius calls for shaping the braces and clamping up....

Hi Wez - Do you mean a length of wood with the appropriate radius machined into one face something like this?

Image: https://misterg.org.uk/photo/images/2023/08/21/Caul.png

Or have I misunderstood?

Thanks.

WezV · August 2023

yes, that's the one. they can be used for sanding braces to shape, and clamping in place

Misterg · August 2023

Blimey! That was quick.

I have wood:

Image: https://www.misterg.org.uk/photo/images/2023/08/23/IMG_5767.jpg

Image: https://www.misterg.org.uk/photo/images/2023/08/23/IMG_5773.jpg

The sides look absolutely gorgeous. The back has got a few worm holes near the edge which will need trimming off - possibly going beyond the patch of confused grain on the piece on the RHS of the photo

Image: https://www.misterg.org.uk/photo/images/2023/08/23/IMG_5769.jpg

There are still a few saw marks on one of the back pieces that haven't sanded out - I haven't checked the thicknesses yet, but is that to be expected?

Next question is how best to store this until I'm ready to do something with it?

For the moment, I've just stacked it all back together on the backer boards used for posting, wrapped it loosely and put it in a spare bedroom. Does it need to be 'sticked' ?

Anyway, I'd best get on with my mould!.

Thanks,

Andy

ArchtopDave · August 2023

Not advice as such, but I posted a Thread on here a few years back showing the Acoustic Build that I made under the guidance of Mark Bailey on one of his Build Your Own Guitar Courses.

Here's the link if it is of interest OM Acoustic Build (Mark Bailey Course)

Misterg · August 2023

That looks fantastic - I'll have a proper read later.

Thanks

WezV · August 2023

Misterg said:

There are still a few saw marks on one of the back pieces that haven't sanded out - I haven't checked the thicknesses yet, but is that to be expected?

Next question is how best to store this until I'm ready to do something with it?

For the moment, I've just stacked it all back together on the backer boards used for posting, wrapped it loosely and put it in a spare bedroom. Does it need to be 'sticked' ?

it's not unusual to see some saw marks. If you paid for them to be thickness sanded i would expect them to be gone to the point they will easily sand of scrape out easily.

Most acoustic wood is not sold in final dimensions and will need some additional thickening even when apparently sold as thicknessed. it should be thicknessed to the point you can finish off with cabinet scrapers.

As an example,Thicknessed sides might come at 2.2-2.5mm, but you may need to take it down closer to 1.6-2mm before bending depending on the wood. If you are building with a particularly curvy shape, cutaway or difficult wood then it will need to be closer to the lower end of that.

Air flow is key for storage, hence it best being stickered.

Misterg · August 2023

Thanks @WezV ;

I had a proper look at the back plates today. These are the marks, held so that the light catches them (normally you need to look for them). I'm pretty sure that they're <0.1mm deep, so should sand / scrape out. The back plates are currently at 2.6 mm. The plan says 2.5mm finished, so not unduly worried, but there's not *that* much to spare..

I'll get some sticks ripped up for storage / conditioning the wood to the house.

Getting there with the mould. I'd forgotten how much I hated MDF.

Image: https://www.misterg.org.uk/photo/images/2023/08/24/IMG_5783.jpg

It's all glued up; I just need to drill some bolt holes to keep the sides together and fit some alignment dowels. It'll probably be a few weeks before I pluck up the courage to try and do anything else with it.

Misterg · September 2023

I'm still at the planning stage with this, and thinking about the neck joint:

I see that a dovetail joint would be a technical challenge, but I can't really see any advantage to the end result (YMMV), so I'm going to avoid it.

I have no qualms about a bolt-on neck (I noticed the current thread on this...).

I was originally thinking in terms of a mortice and tenon joint secured with bolts throught the head block into metal dowel(s) / threaded inserts in the neck heel. in this general manner:

(Picture from here )

Image: https://static.wixstatic.com/media/28db1d_3e3dfab531e64905817c8f466ffbeb78~mv2_d_1650_1275_s_2.jpg

I have since found out that a number of builders use a 'flush' neck joint where the end of the neck is flat and bolts onto the body of the guitar without any other locating features. It is bolted on in a similar manner to the mortice and tenon joint.

Obviously, this means that there is no need to cut/rout a slot in the guitar body - the only 'fitting' that needs to be done is to establish the correct neck angle (in both planes).

It almost seems too easy - is there any downside of this?

(In both cases, I would intend to glue the fingerboard overhang onto the top.)

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Thinking of building an acoustic... Any advice?

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