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A Challenge ... with a happy ending.

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tv1
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This is a build rescue story, from a few years ago (so you can read, safe in the knowledge that it has a happy ending!).

A few years ago, I was gifted a guitar.  Actually, it was an unfinished project guitar that had languished on top of someone's wardrobe for a few years.  He'd put it there to keep it out of his sight, to avoid reminding himself of what he'd done!

This was the guitar ...

20150302 104150

... a lovely one-piece Honduran (IIRC) Mahogany body, with a custom built - and beautifully built - neck.

The problem was that the wardrobe owner had set the neck into the body at an angle that created a ~22mm height at the bridge.  Sure, that's not a completely fatal mistake, but aesthetically, it wouldn't have been good.

20150302 104349

He'd also done some nice rounding over of the top of the body, which was a problem ...

20150302 104210

 

The other issue (for me) was that buried deep in the body was a black hole.  You couldn't see the black hole, but that was the only sensible explanation I could think of to explain the weight of the thing.  I don't like heavy guitars!

 

So, what to do ???

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tv1
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I thought up a cunning plan.

@markbailey will be along shortly to explain a much simpler way of fixing this issue, and then I'll kick myself.

It actually took me about a year to fix ... because it spent a good few months on top of my wardrobe when I mucked up part of the fix ... details later

😉

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tv1
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Step1.  Sort out the weight issue.

20150303 130217
20150303 131340

 

Nothing too cunning about that.  But a good place to start. 

Cunningness comes later.

😉

 20150303 131340

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tv1
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Because the strings were going to be so high at the bridge point, the obvious first step in the fix was to make the body thinner, and therefore to make the strings even higher at the bridge.

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That's a brute of a router, with a brute of a 1/2" thicknessing bit in it.  This little set up has got me out of guitar-building jail a few times

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What I've done there is to remove enough of the top of the body to remove the roundover around the edge (I tidied up the area around the neck with a much smaller router, so the top of the body was completely flat).

 

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tv1
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20150303 150549

That's about 6mm-8mm taken off the top, and a nice sharp edge created.

Guess what happens next ...

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tv1
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... back out with the thicknessing jig, and a nice thick piece of birds eye maple.

20150307 120654

This is going to be thicknessed into a wedge shape ...

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... which ended up being 11mm at the neck end, and 19mm at the lower bout end.

 

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tv1
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Next stage, glue the cap to the body, and then start carving the cap ...

20150308 142132

You can see the difference in thickness in the pic above.  The outer ledge is a contact thickness, whereas the inner part is the extra thickness, which will resolve the problem of the strings being too high at the bridge!

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20150314 162008

Here you can see the carve blends in the extra thickness.

I was feeling quite chuffed with myself at this point.

This point was just before the next point.  The next point is where I kicked myself.

 

It's OK to "measure twice, cut once".  I do that.  But "measure twice" doesn't help too much if you've miscalculated the distance that you're measuring ...

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mark bailey
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I was feeling quite chuffed with myself at this point.

Yes - For me that is often the point at which things go pear shaped - I've learned to recognise this as a red flag (usually 10 secs too late)...we wait with baited breath to find out what happened!...

Measure twice, cut once...


   
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Russ
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I'm intrigued. I wait with baited breath for the next installment.

?✌️???

🗝️ "Life's what you make it"🗝️


   
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tv1
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Right then @markbailey @Russ, your breaths can now be unbaited ...

Feeling rather chuffed with myself (did I mention that already) for rescuing this guitar, and also a little impatient to get on and get it all done, I decided to get on with it.

I'd decided to use a single (bridge) pickup.  Next job, rout the pickup cavity through that nice new maple cap, and into the cavity already routed in the body.

Simples.

Quick job, ideally suited to a 30min dash to the workshop after a day's work.

Now, as "any fule kno" (and, as will shortly be amply evidenced, I am certainly a fule), the distance from nut to bridge is twice the distance from nut to 12th fret.  

So, measure, double the measurement, mark scale length, move back a few mm and position the template for routing the pickup cavity.  Actually, measure twice because Mark always says so.

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Can you see what happened there.  Routed through the maple cap and into the cavity below.

Well, about half the cavity ...

 

 

It turns out, that twice 12 1/4" (measurement from nut to 12th fret) is actually 24 1/2" and not 25 1/2".

 

At that point, I calmly put the guitar to one side, smiled to myself, and locked up the workshop whistling a tuneful song.

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tv1
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It was about a year later before I decided to try to fix the result of my inability to do basic maths.  (Despite what my A-level certificates might say).

My mis-rout had actually removed the cap more-or-less where the bridge posts should go.  Filling the hole with a few broken up matchsticks and some glue was probably not going to work.

So, I now need cunning plan #2.

20160317 114118

Cunning plan #2 involves routing out a bigger hole, and then plugging the hole with an offcut from the cap, to give me a strong enough base for the bridge posts.

 20160317 114118

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tv1
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Ahhh, look, *that's* where the pickup cavity was, originally.

And, that's also where it really ought to be.

20160317 123019

 

And now, one nice clean - if rather large - hole in that lively birdseye maple cap

20160317 124114

 

 

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tv1
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(Photo uploads are now erroring, so linking instead)

The next bit took a bit of precision cutting and sanding, and then the assistance of Mr Mallet.

 

Now, lets trying routing out the pickup cavity again ..

 

Bit of staining and oiling ...

 

 

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tv1
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And this is how it looks today ...

 

 

Of course, you can see the outline of the plug close-up, but the pickup and bridge do a pretty good job of hiding the different grain patterns between the plug and the rest of the cap, so the outline doesn't leap out at the eye.

And it's actually a great guitar.  I'm really happy with it.  It must have taken over a year from start to finish, and I worked out some fixes to some problems along the way. 

Amongst the few guitars that I have, it's one of the dozen or so that I'll be keeping.  Longer than the others anyway.

Learnings?

Don't rush it.  It's those "quick jobs" that can take the longest.

 

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Russ
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Jack of all trades........and you mastered it. ✌️???

 

🗝️ "Life's what you make it"🗝️


   
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Boo
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Excellent work and a lot of lessons learned. I will definitely listen to your warnings and hope it sinks in to my brain. 

Make guitars, not war 🌍✌️🎸


   
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mark bailey
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Great story - and the end result is well worth the effort you went through to fix it!

FYI: Image uploads now fixed but we too are looking at using Imgur in the future

Measure twice, cut once...


   
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Clinton
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Great story and awesome problem solving. It is endless learning and The journey achieving a succesful end result in guitar building s the mist satisfying feeling. I think that is why I enjoy it so much. I would have tried Floating roller bridge for an archtop and an end tailpiece or Bigsby. It might have accomadated  the 22mm string bridge height. I commend you for the courage attempting such a daunting task let alone fixing the scale lenght misread.


   
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tv1
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@clinton

Thanks!

It is endless learning and The journey achieving a succesful end result in guitar building s the mist satisfying feeling.

I've got to the stage now that I now have that mythical number of guitars - "enough".  Long thought, amongst guitarists, to be an impossibility, a rumour perpetuated by wives & girlfriends, I have proved that the number really does exist.

So, I don't build them because I want (or need) another one.  I build them for the fun of solving the various challenges that inevitably arise along the way.  Once I've finished it, the fun is mainly over and I start thinking about what to build next ...

It's pretty much a harmless hobby!

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