Some photos…

Now I hopefully have the WordPress app working properly!

All finished!

Well, it’s taken two years but it’s finally done! Last steps were adding a pickguard made from a lovely piece of Queensland walnut, rubbing some lemon oil into the fretboard and adjusting the saddle.

It sounds terrific; really nice playing either chords or tunes.

Now, what to build next?

Getting closer to completion!

Today I finished reaming the bridge pin holes and used a small file to do the notches for the strings.

I also shaped the back of the nut and put in some rough slots for the strings.

I then bolted the neck on and strung it up! Not to full tension yet; I’ll give it a couple of days under reduced tension then take it up to full tension and leave it another couple of days before doing the final set-up. Very exciting!

Bridge glued on

Ah, nothing quite like a long weekend to get some work done on the zouk!

I glued the bridge on yesterday. I used Ken Cierpilowski’s bridge clamp on my first guitar and it worked really well but the zouk bridge is smaller so I couldn’t use it this time. So I made my own using Ken’s design and it seemed to work fine

After unclamping I drilled out the remaining peg holes. When I glued on the maple bridge plate, I used a clamping caul made from plywood. Using the outside peg holes that I already had drilled for the bridge clamp, I bolted the caul under the bridge plate to prevent chip-out.

I’m using a tapered reamer to finish the peg holes.

Here are photos of the bridge being glued and after drilling out the peg holes with the caul.

Finishing…er…finished!

Well I’ve finished the finishing!

6 coats of Tru-Oil on the neck and 12 coats of Hard Shellac on the body (the Shellac was cut 50/50 with meths).

Note to self for next time: brushes from the mega hardware stores aren’t good enough for applying finish! I’ll use proper brushes next time. It looks pretty good but under proper light you can see some blemishes. Ah well!

Ready to glue the bridge on.

Finishing underway

I filled in the ends of the fret slots with Stew Mac black super glue and filled a couple of small gaps in the heel cap joint.

Today I applied two coats of dewaxed white shellac. I’m going to use Hard Shellac on the body and Tru-Oil on the neck.

Getting ready for finishing!

Productive day today. I sanded the body ready for finishing and masked off the fretboard and bridge areas.

I also drilled the holes ready for the small tuner screws. I won’t do the final sanding on the neck until I’ve filled the fret slot ends with black super glue.

I also roughed out the nut and saddle. Busy day!

Neck shaping and adjustment

I shaped the neck then got to work getting the neck angle right.

The neck angle was sitting too low so I brought it up a bit then discovered it was slightly off centre. The CentreLine Finder made adjustment easy. The pencil in the photo is the centre line so you can see it’s slightly off centre. Other photo is after adjustment: all good!

Beveling the bridge pin holes

I also beveled the top of the bridge pin holes using the drill press.

I had drilled the bridge pin holes using a 4mm bit and I reamed out one so I could work out how much beveling the finished holes would need.

I then beveled all the bridge pin holes so I don’t need to try do it once the bridge is glued on as that’s when I want to ream the holes.

Finished the bridge

Bridge is all done. I used an orbital sander to bring the thickness down to 11mm then cut it out on the bandsaw.

I used a 16′ radius sanding block to put the radius on the top of the bridge in the centre.

I then cut the excess wood from the wings on the bandsaw. Orbital sander again to shape the back, sanded up to 2000 grit and all done!