Holding the guitar I completed by following the videocassettes.
Note classy T-shirt.
Holding the guitar I completed by following the videocassettes.
Note classy T-shirt.
Following this package of five video tapes I have successfully built my first acoustic guitar, an auditorium style similar to Martin's 000 size. It has East Indian rosewood back and sides; Sitka spruce top and bracing; mahogany neck, kerfed linings and back center seam reinforcement strip; ebony fretboard and bridge; ablam fret position markers and abalone side dots; bubinga bindings, headstock overlay, heel cap, and end graft; herringbone purfling and rosette.
Playing my new baby.
My experience to this point has been limited. I've built two kit instruments - a mountain dulcimer and a flat-top mandolin. I also participated in an online bass building course held by the Musical Instrument Makers Forum and completed my course instrument, a 5-string fretted electric bass guitar. I have read several books, some more than once. I have also been an active member of the Forum, and have read extensively through active and archived discussions there.
I did vary a few minor procedures here and there on which I will elaborate later, but for the most part I stuck with the methods Frank used and they worked very well. More than once I did have to refer elsewhere for information that was omitted from the videos. I have learned quite a lot in the past four months from this video set and my experiences building my new guitar. I hope to give the reader insight into what to expect if you decide to purchase this set of tapes.
This video set consists of five tapes, approximately 9 hours total. I will go through each here with notes, comments, and photographs.
Tape 1
Tape 1 begins with an overview of the tools needed. Frank briefly describes the tools he uses to build a guitar and gives all contact information for suppliers at the end of this section. The tools description was quite short and could have been a little more detailed, but Frank does tell the viewer to do some research and to call him if there are any questions. All of his contact information is shown at the end of every tape. One very important tool that was omitted here but does show up later is cam clamps. I mention this mainly because you will need a lot of cam clamps to build using Frank's method. I had several on hand but had to make enough to bring me up to 17 long (7-1/2") and 14 short (4-1/2"), and I still could have used more.
Next he goes into making the form and side spreader assembly.
Form before final smoothing of the inside surface.
He says to start with a half-body pattern but doesn't elaborate on how the pattern is made. I made mine from a set of plans but I suppose you could draw it freehand if you wanted your own shape.
Half body pattern made of 1/2" birch plywood.
The guitar style he makes in the video is similar to the Martin 000 size. This did make things easier for me to some extent as I had already decided to build that style and had purchased plans. I don't think it would be difficult to adapt the procedures to just about any size acoustic. He also shows his spreader and explains how to make one for your form.
Finished form with the spreader installed.
The next step is bending the sides. Two things here were left out that I felt were important. First, the thickness of the sides (or top and back, for that matter) was never mentioned. I referred to reference books on hand and the MIMForum for this information. He also started with his sides already profiled with the body thickness taper cut close to the final dimensions. The sides I had, and the ones that I have seen listed in catalogs, are square, i.e. the same width from end to end. He mentioned that his sides had the profile cut but never mentioned how they got that way. Again I referred to other sources on this, and cut the profile after bending the sides.
Frank uses an electric bending iron in the video though he does mention using a hot pipe heated by a propane torch and shows one that he still uses occasionally.
Bending the sides.
I used the spray bottle you can see in the picture to keep the side wet while bending.
One side after bending and cooling overnight.
Next he placed the sides in the form to mark them and cut them to length which was pretty easy to follow. I would like to mention here that he uses a Japanese pull saw (also called a dozuki saw) extensively during the videos. I followed his lead and the recommendations of others and purchased one for myself. I will add my recommendation as it is a very useful tool to have for a wide variety of cuts including cutting the sides to length.
He then shows making the rear (tail) block.
Rear block before sanding the radius.
The radius is marked by holding it against the edge of the form at the bottom where the two sides meet. It is sanded to match the inside of the form.
Frank mentions that the front (head) block and rear (tail) blocks can be purchased pre-made (which he does for the front block) but he would show how to make the rear block. At one point he states "after the rear block has been dimensioned..." and never gives any dimensions. It was easy enough to estimate the approximate dimensions from watching the video, however.
After that comes gluing the front and rear blocks to the sides. He shows a very nice technique for making and fitting the end graft, or end piece as he calls it. The end result is a tapered piece in which the grain forms a `V' pattern. You can see it in the pictures of my guitar. It's a very nice technique and fairly easy to do. I will definitely use it again.
End graft before and after installing the binding.
End graft in completed, unfinished guitar.
Next we go on to sanding the rib assembly to make the front and rear blocks even with the sides, then installing the kerfed linings and sanding again to trim the linings flush with the sides and impart a radius to the side/linings.
Rib assembly clamped into the form before sanding and installing kerfed lining.
These three pictures show the process of gluing the kerfed linings in place.
Frank uses metal stationery clips and spring clamps to clamp his linings. As you can see I use clothes pins which I modified by gluing a piece of 1/4" dowel into one side to aid their clamping strength. The third picture shows all the linings installed as well as the side supports. I used one more side support than Frank did, he uses 3 per side and I used 4.
Frank uses a 16 foot radiused dish sanding board to sand the back and a flat board for the front. He doesn't go into how to make or where to purchase the radiused sanding board. I referred to information I had previously acquired from the MIMForum to make the dished board.
Radiused dish.
I made the 16' radius dish sanding board with 60 grit sandpaper by purchased a wide (37") sanding belt, cutting out a 2' circle, and attaching it to the MDF sanding board with contact cement.
Tape 1 finishes with jointing, and gluing the two halves of the back together and then gluing on the center seam reinforcement strip.
Back with the center seam stip glued and clamped in place.
I really like his technique for gluing up the plates, it works much better than others I've used and is surprisingly simple. He also shows and explains the construction and use of a shooting board for jointing the edges of the plates, another useful technique.
Shooting board with the rosewood sides.
As you can see I attached sandpaper to my 4' level to joint the edges.
Back joined together with the center seam
reinforcement strip glued in place.
The rest of the tape deals with the top and back.
Radiused braces laying across the center seam strip.
Back braces in place.
If you look closely you can see my signature on the center seam strip. There is a section on signing it there and also one later on signing the inside of the top.
Back with the braces carved and sanded.
First on the tape is rounding and sanding the back center seam strip and then making, radiusing, fitting, gluing, and shaping the back braces. He does a good job explaining this process. I used mahogany for the center seam strip as I had some cross-grained mahogany on hand; Frank uses spruce. I also inlaid a decorative strip on the outside center seam which he leaves plain. Frank uses cam clamps when gluing the braces. He mentions the go-bar system briefly but doesn't elaborate. I found his method worked quite well, as long as you have enough clamps.
Next he moves on to the top. He starts with the top already joined but says that he used the same method that he used to join the back.
Two halves of the top glued up and clamped.
The first work Frank did on the top was marking the outline and the soundhole, and then inlaying the rosette and cutting out the soundhole.
Outline and cut out with about 1/4" to 3/8" extra.
Soundhole and brace locations also marked.
Frank uses a fly-cutter on his drill press to cut the rosette channels as well as cutting out the soundhole. He mentions other methods for doing this but says he likes this method. I used my dremel tool with a circle cutter attachment to do this job.
Rosette cutter setup.
As you can see it is the standard (older model) Dremel base and attachment except for the plexiglass base plate and a maple spacer and UHMW polyethylene "slick strip" on the bottom of the plastic pivot block. It worked well except for one glitch about an inch long. Here I used a pre-made 3-piece herringbone rosette, where Frank simply inlaid several black and white strips for about a 3/16" thick rosette.
Inlaid rosette.
You can see my "glitch" in the upper left quadrant. I tried to fill it but it only made it show more. I call it a "birthmark," one of several.
Frank's explanations here were quite good. After sanding the rosette he turns the top over and marks the body outline again along with the top brace location. Here he uses a full size posterboard body template with the soundhole cut out and a slice cut where each brace is located. I varied the procedure in that I marked the body outline, soundhole and brace locations only on the one side, then drilled a small hole in the center of the soundhole and used that hole as a pivot point for my dremel circle cuttern on the reverse(top) side. Then I just had to set the depth of cut and diameter before routing the three channels for the rosette and cutting out the soundhole. It wasn't that big a difference from Frank's procedure but it saved me from having to mark the body outline and soundhole twice.
Frank doesn't say anything about making the top or back bracing templates, which he just pulled out and used. I made mine from a copy of the plans I was using. Some information on making the templates would have been useful.
Next he goes into detail on cutting the top braces and putting a 28 foot radius on the bottom of each except for the top bar brace (upper transverse brace). He also describes how he makes his radiused sanding blocks.
He is very specific on the thickness of the X-braces. Frank uses .270" but he stresses that the most important thing is that they are the same thickness where they are joined using the lap joint. One strange thing here was the fuzzy math he used when laying out the lap joint for the X-braces. He states that you need to measure the height then divide by two and mark the depth of the notch for the lap joint. The height he measures is .760" and then he says half of that is .355" but it should be .380". The strange thing is he later shows measuring the height and then measuring to his halfway mark and it measured at .355" on his digital caliper. It wasn't a big problem, just one of those things that makes you say, "Huh?"
X-braces already lap-jointed together and in position.
The rest of the tape covers gluing the X-braces and making, gluing, and shaping the rest of the top braces. Shaping also carries over to the next tape. This was my favorite part of the process: cutting gluing and shaping the braces. There's just something about using a sharp plane and chisel and watching the curls/chips pile up that makes it so much fun! Those of you who've experienced this can understand what I'm talking about.
X-braces glued and clamped into position.
Top after shaping one of the X-braces.
Here is one place that you will need a lot of cam clamps, especially if you do as Frank does and glue and clamp several braces one after the other, leaving them all to dry at the same time.
Tape 3
Tape 3 continues with shaping the top braces. The tone bars are scalloped like the X-braces, and the side bars and the upper transverse brace (which Frank calls the top bar brace) are shaped and sanded. After that comes cutting and installing the soundhole braces and the upper transverse graft.
Frank goes into some detail on the bridge plate, first marking the location of the bridge on the underside in order to mark the location of the bridge plate. Then he demonstrates making and chamfering the edges of the plate, and making and radiusing the clamping block to prevent flattening out the top by clamping with a flat block. At this point the top bracing is complete and Frank shows signing the underside of the top.
Top with all braces installed and shaped, and the bridge plate installed.
From there we go to preparing to glue the top and back onto the rib assembly. He shows how to mark the braces and cut to length so that they end just before the sides, then marking and routing pockets in the kerfed lining for most of the braces. Some of the braces are feathered out to end before the lining. Then he does the same with the back braces and makes sure both sit flat against the sides before gluing them on, back first then top.
Back glued and clamped to the sides.
The back shifted when I glued it on.
Somehow I didn't get this exactly straight as you can see in the pictures of the back. Fortunately it's only a cosmetic problem.
Top glued and clamped.
You can get an idea of how many clamps are needed for this method in these pictures.
After the glue is dry Frank removes the two screws holding the head and tail blocks to the form and slides the body first toward the front for trimming the overhang on the top, then towards the back to trim the back overhang. He uses a router with a flush-trim bit to do this. He explains carefully how to prevent tearout by watching the direction you push the router to trim the overhang, sometimes using a "climb-cut," going with the spin instead of against it. Before starting he marks around the edges with arrows to show the direction you should move the router. This procedure worked very well for me.
This tape ends with setting up the router and cutting the ledge for the binding and purfling in the top. He uses a very nice trim router that comes with a tilting base and edge guide. I routed my binding ledge with a dremel tool and, after having problems with my home-made edge guide base I purchased a base/edge guide, which worked much better.
Tape 4
Tape 4 begins with routing the binding ledge in the back. The tilting base on Frank's router helped to compensate for the curvature of the back. I had problems getting the channel even all the way around with my dremel and base. I'll have to look into getting a trim router like the one Frank uses before I rout my next acoustic.
The body assembled and the binding ledges routed.
Unfortunately I neglected to shoot pictures of the body until after I had cut the binding channels and fixed a problem caused by my home-made router base with edge guide. The edge guide came loose and my dremel dug into the back about 1/8" farther than the deepest binding channel. Fortunately, I still had all the cutoff pieces from cutting out the back. I was able to find the piece that came from where the gouge was and patch it with a piece with matching grain so you can just barely see it even if you look closely. I was surprised and quite pleased about how well the patch came out.
The back patch.
After the binding ledges are cut and cleaned up comes installing the binding/purfling. First Frank installs the back binding and some black/white strips above and also below the binding strip. Frank uses celluloid bindings so he glues them in place with a clear cement similar to Duco cement. Since I used wood binding and purfling I used wood glue for mine. While the glue is drying the binding is held in place by masking tape. It worked very well. I was glad I used wood binding because it made it easier to sand out any unevenness in the binding without it showing up too much.
Two strips of herringbone purfling joined at the bottom of the guitar.
After the glue dries, the tape is removed and the binding is cleaned up. Frank uses a sanding block to true the neck fit area, making sure that the surface is flat where the neck contacts the body. Next he cuts out the top where the truss rod fits in as well as the mortise in the headblock. He explains drilling the headblock to allow installing a screw through the headblock and into a threaded insert in the neck tenon. He uses, as did I, a pre-made neck and headstock from Martin. Frank spoke as if he installed the threaded insert in his neck heel, but it wasn't shown.
Neck, headblock, fretboard and trussrod purchased from Martin Guitars.
Next the neck is fit to the body, ensuring that there is a good fit between the heel and the body. The back of the heel is carved slightly to fit the curvature of the body. It came out pretty clean.
The neck fitted to the body after the binding is installed.
Detail picture of neck-body joint.
Now we prepare the neck to attach to the body. First the trussrod is glued in place using CA glue, then the wood shim on top of the trussrod to fill the space and make sure the surface is flat for gluing on the fretboard.
Trussrod glued in place and ready for fretboard.
Neck patch
I decided to add two CF bars in the headstock to reinforce the short grain in that area. Unfortunately, my router slipped and went through the side and I had to patch the hole as you can see here.
Then he drills and installs the fretboard side dots. Next, Frank glues on the headstock overlay. He shows gluing and clamping but doesn't show trimming the overhang. When he glues on the fretboard, the headstock overlay is already trimmed and inlaid with his logo.
He glues on the fretboard and demonstrates the staple technique to keep it from sliding around when clamping. The staple technique involves shooting a couple of staples into one of the pieces being glued together, in this case, into the neck as it's difficult to imbed a staple into the back of the ebony fretboard. The staples are placed so they the won't interfere with any carving to be done later. You then clip the staples off at an angle leaving about 1/16" pointed stub sticking out. You can pull one of the staple legs out as only one point is needed in each location. Then locate the fretboard in position and press the two together imbedding the staple stubs into the back of the fretboard. It may be necessary to tap above the stubs with a hammer to imbed them into the ebony. Then pull the pieces apart, spread glue over the surfaces and press them back together using the stubs as locator pins. The staple stubs hold the fretboard in position and prevent it from sliding around when clamping it to the neck. This method works well in many gluing applications.
After that is cleaning the glue squeeze-out from the edges of the neck. He also checks the fit of the neck on the body with the fretboard attached. Then he marks the headstock and drills for the tuning machines. He starts by using a template, but then shows in detail how to measure the tuner positions and drill them using a drill press. I did this a little differently. I have a drilling jig, and drilled the holes with a hand drill. It worked fine, almost: I found later that the hole for the low E string was too far from the edge. I had to plug the hole and redrill to move the hole out about 3/32" farther out. After that he glues on the heel cap and does a final neck fitting before gluing the neck to the body. He doesn't show applying the glue but does show where to apply glue. He recommends leaving this to dry overnight to make sure it sets up completely.
Neck glued and clamped and waiting to dry
Guitar with the neck attached.
Next we move on to the fretboard. Frank demonstrates applying some tension with the truss rod and truing the surface, then sanding the 16" radius back into the surface of the fretboard. After cleaning the fret slots out he cuts all the frets with about 1/8" overhang on each side. He installs the frets by first applying wood glue to the slot, wiping off the excess, then tapping in with a hammer. He uses a bag of lead shot beneath the neck to absorb the shock when hammering. I used his method and found it works well. Next he trims the ends flush with the edge of the fretboard using a pair of end nippers that have been ground down flat. Afterward he uses a small file on a wood block to file the ends smooth and then uses a 30 degree bevel file to file the bevel into the ends. I made a file like his and it worked much better than previous methods I've used. He levels the frets using sanding blocks with 220 and 320 grit sandpaper on them and polishes using MicroMesh sanding sheets. I was very impressed with how easy it was to achieve excellent results using this method.
Frets installed and ready to trim.
Frets are trimmed and being polished.
All frets have been polished.
Next is fitting the nut. Frank uses Corian to make the nut; I used Tusq on mine. He shows how to mark and trim the headstock overlay to make a tight slot for the nut and then he sands the nut blank until it fits snugly into the slot. I wasn't able to do this on my guitar since I mistakenly glued my headstock overlay too far away from the fingerboard. I ended up having to fill a small gap with a piece of black/white purfling strip.
These two pictures show nut and filler strip.
Next he cuts the slots in the nut, using as a guide block for his razor saw the top half of another nut. He briefly explained how to space the slots properly. I used a template I purchased to mark the slots before cutting. I ended up cutting one or two of the slots too deep. Frank didn't mention how to correct this problem but I've read about filling the slots with CA glue and re-cutting them, so that's what I'll do. Frank does explains very well how deep to cut the slots. It was my mistake, I actually didn't realize they were too deep until I tuned up.
Now we get to the scariest part: locating the bridge and drilling holes in the top. Frank does a good job explaining how to radius the bottom of the bridge and then locate it on the soundboard. He uses a handle that fits the top of the bridge, to hold the bridge while sanding the radius on the bottom, but he doesn't mention it. He just picks it up and starts sanding. I used a left-over piece of binding material in the saddle slot to hold it. It didn't work real well but I got it done. Once I got the bridge positioned and taped into place I drilled the two outer pin holes and bolted it there using hollow bridge bolts. I had problems getting my hand into the sound hole so I asked my wife to reach inside to thread the nuts on, and later to thread the strings through.
Bridge with the two bolts replacing the outside pins.
Next is installing the tuning machines and then stringing it up. There is not much explanation on installing the tuners, but he does show it, and it is a pretty simple procedure.
When Frank begins to string up his guitar, the saddle is in the bridge and already filed to different peaks to adjust the intonation. He doesn't mention anything about intonating the guitar, which I consider a major omission. Fortunately, the intonation on my guitar came out pretty close and will only need minor adjustment. He does go through adjusting the height of the strings at the nut and at the saddle. For the saddle height he sands the bottom of the saddle to adjust height. Frank finishes up by playing a bit and again says to call him if you have any questions, he even says it in a song. His guitar sounds good, as does mine. I'm real pleased with the results of my first attempt at building an acoustic guitar, and it has impressed a few people already.
Before I wrap up this review, I should comment on the overall production of the video. I wouldn't call it a "high-end" production, but it was pretty good. There were a number of out-of-focus areas throughout caused by the cameraman's attempts to get as close up as possible. These were annoying but not fatal. There were some places where he would zoom in closer than necessary for the procedure being shown, and also some erratic camera movements from time to time. I had some problems with one of the tapes not playing properly towards the end. I was using an older VCR and the tape only worked in a newer player. However, all the other tapes played in the old VCR. He also showed students in his on-site workshop working on their guitars and included comments from them which actually came across like an advertisement for his workshops. There was only about 15 minutes of this total in the five tapes so it didn't detract much from the content.
Overall, I think Frank did a good job on the video, with the exception of the few items I mentioned earlier. Used in conjunction with other sources of information, this is a good teaching tool. Frank uses some different procedures than other builders I've read about but they work well, and I sure learned a lot. My guitar is a joy to play and to hear. There are a few cosmetic flaws but nothing serious. I will definitely use the techniques I've learned in the not-too-distant future as acoustic number two is already in the planning stages, and three and four are in the dreaming stage.
And to add one last line, even if it is an over-used cliché: if I can do it, anyone can!
Frank responds:
Front view of completed guitar.