so, anyone interested in how a guitar is made?

martinedwards

heres a lefty fanned fret acoustic steel string guitar I'm working on at the minute.

I already have someone lined up as a "first refusal" for it, and as this person already has two of my mandolins, they have a fair idea of what to expect......

medium sixed cutaway with fan frets and a slender neck. minimal bling as the person concerned is shy and retiring......

as if!!!!

so, back and top joined



and sides bent

[/QUOTE]

back braced.......



subtle double line rosette



linings glued in

martinedwards

NEARLY ready to join back to rim



making a lefty with a cutaway is REALLY disorientating.

everything is just.... WRONG!!!!

and it's not just me, I remember talking to George Lowden and he had a guitar that was SUPPOSED to be lefty, but had ended up righty, because after making two tops and two sets of sides, it was SILL Righty!!

so, to make sure that the back goes on the BACK.....

I'm afraid I scribbled a bit on the tail block where no one will see!



and then glued the back on



cut the soundhole...



and started some bracing

martinedwards

added a maple bridge plate



glued up a neck, two mahogany planks, one of walnut



and then started to try and wrap my head round a lefty fan where the fan goes the WRONG WAY!!!!!!



top glued onto rim



and trimmed .

martinedwards

neck planed, shaped and the ears glued onto the headstock



fretboard slotted



and glued to neck



maple binding bent and glued on

martinedwards

neck work.....





and how it'll look all joined up.....







still feels really weird cause it's all back to front.......

rcaz

Deadly stuff. Could you explain a little how you do the fanned frets? Do you have a point somewhere off below the neck that all the lines drawn by the frets would converge at?

martinedwards

Yup, technically, if you were to take a straight on photo of the guitar and extrapolate (good word, huh?) the frets, then there would be a point somewhere where that lines would meet.

the rake of the frets depends on the player's requirements.

Some people say that the fan means that they have longer scale bass strings and shorter trebles which allows a heavier gauge of the thinner strings..... for me it's purely comfort.

let me explain. pertend that you have yur favourite guitar across your lap. mime playing a E shaped barre chord around the 9th fret. the index finger is vertical, right?

now slide down to F. your arm naturally pivots around your elbow so by the time your hand hits F your index finger is now sloped. the fan "legalises" this and just makes it so much more comfortable to play, especially over long periods.

and on a bass?

WOW it makes a difference! I have a 5 string bass with fanned frets and I could play it all night with no left hand cramps.

as to HOW to do the fan, it's really simple.

2 scale lengths from the interweb.....

decide which fret will be perpendicular. I usually go for #9.

on the bass side of the fretboard, mark out the spacing for the longer scale length.

then draw a 90 degree line from point 9 across the fretboard.

then starting there, go out either side with the shorter scale length, making sure that #9 on the short side matches #9 on the long side.

everything else falls easily into place. ANY string, ANYWHERE across the fretboard will be in proportion and so will work. even pairs of strings like a bouzouki or 12 string guitar are fine.

the tricky bit is placing the bridge, but that just involves making sure youre awake and concentrating. I have a handy wee technique for that, I'll post later, honest!!

mind you, after making (i think!) five right handed fanned fret instruments making a lefty REALLY messes with your head!!!

martinedwards

so, more pics.......

neck fretted and fitted to body







LOTS of sanding to do, so kids.....

you get on with your work, if you need me, I'll be behind this cloud of sawdust!!

martinedwards

lots of sanding done and first coats of finish applied.....

martinedwards

tuners on.... nut cut.... at an angle... flipping fiddly!!!!





slot cut in bridge blank, then to place it and get the end angles right, I use my handy dandy bridge placer jig, a piezo disc and an onboard preamp/tuner that I have laying around.... fretted note and harmonic at the 12th fret match, right?



bridge cut out....stained and polished....

martinedwards

didn't take a good pic of the bridge placement jig, so here it is in action on another build.

yes, that is an acoustic explorer.

bouzouki!!!

all the jig is is a temporary tailpiece held in place with a clamp. the two wider strings run through it and over the bridge to the nut & tuners. simply move the bridge around until the fretted note at the 12th fret is the same as the harmonic at the 12th. job done!! once it's glued in place, then there is fine tuning to do by shaping the saddle.....

martinedwards

so, back to the guitar, and bridge glued in place



strings on!!!

still a load of set up and intonation to fine tune, but it's looking (and sounding) like a guitar.

the only problem is playing the durned thing.

I can bang out chords and even play a few blues runs on an upside down lefty, but the fanned frets make it even MORE wrong to play upside down!!

Ah well, such is life!

Denalihighway

beautiful work dude

wild turkey

Very nice, Great work!
Me want one of them explorers!

martinedwards

wild turkey wrote: »

Very nice, Great work!
Me want one of them explorers!

there's only one.......



and it's now in England....

Rented Mule

Outstanding !!

I am living in the States and just discovered a luthier shoppe that has a dozen or so classes and seminars. They range everywhere from 'basic guitar maintenance' to 'Guitar Design & Theory' and 'Acoustic Guitar Building'. They even offer courses in building your own amps. I'm going to see if I can work my way up the ladder and see how many classes I can take.

Rockn

Nice work! Thanks for sharing.

Trevor Kent

Gorgeous work.

Do you build to order?

martinedwards

I have done, but circumstances are complicated at the moment so I'm not taking any orders for the forseeable.

I build for fun, and usually flog the results on ebay. That way I cover my costs and the punter gets a unique instrument for the cost of a low end Yamaha. I'm happy, they're happy.

there have been commissions where the client has gone from "I'm getting a guitar hand made for £300... YAY!!!" to "I'm getting a super custom hand made every bit as good as a £5,ooo custom Lowden for £300" in the ensuing 3 months....... then when they get a guitar that is tonally better than the £300 investment, they have been grumpy that it ISN'T a £5,000 guitar.......

frankly, I don't need the hassle!!

Trevor Kent

Pity,

Id be interested in talking to you if you do ever want to take an order.

And im not unrelaistic with my expectations.

Where do you source your woods?

Tallon

Wow! Amazing

martinedwards

Trevor Kent wrote: »

Pity,

Id be interested in talking to you if you do ever want to take an order.

And im not unrelaistic with my expectations.

maybe sometime.... I have health issues that mean I might be leaving work soon, and my workshop is in work..... I'd need to build a "Man Cave" at home and equip it with a load of tools. someday it might happen, but it'll be a while......

Where do you source your woods

anywhere and everywhere. most of the wood in this guitar came from Madinter in Spain.

the neck used to be a church pew

I have mandolins that I'm making at the minute that the maple back & sides came from a timber yard in belfast. the necks came from a big oval table I got for free off freecycle........

on anther forum I am known as a master dumpster diver because NO WOOD is beyond salvaging!!!

nialldabass

martinedwards wrote: »

there's only one.......



Oh! theres more than one lol


Nice work man, veery nice work

martinedwards

is that a mandobird?

cool!!

I prefer strat shapes......

ash body, maple neck, rosewood fretboard (like all strats should have!!) bass pickup, and the bridge cut down freom a squier strat

nialldabass

Well mines really a tenor uke built for my 5 year old who loves the explorer shape, she's maybe picked it up 3 times, but dont worry I give it plenty of my time
Poplar body, maple neck and an oak finger board, cut down tele bridge a pbass pup, lol what do they say about great minds or is that empty ones lol