Anyone old enough to remember this project? It is actually over a year since I did any work on this guitar, having stopped to think about how to shape the sides to take the pliaged soundboard. The shape for the sides given on the plans left just too big a gap where the pliage is and it really wasn't going to happen even with some pretty big clamps. What I eventually decided to do was to shape the front of the rim to the same spherical form as the back of the other guitars I've made ie R4800, and this has seemed to work pretty well. I did have to sand a bit of angle on to the outside of the rim but it certainly made clamping the pliage area much easier and the resulting shape looks very good.
I did have to glue a little fillet on to the neck block afterwards as this angle had skewed a little probably caused by being left sitting around for year before gluing the soundboard. Anyway it's now very close to square to the centreline and well with tweeking distance when I come to fit the neck.
The other thing I had to do was cut the sound hole so it was time for another little vacuum jig. I laser cut 4mm acrylic and then drilled a 3mm hole in the edge into which I superglued the business end of a 3mm copper pop rivet and then I filed the head off to leave a short stub of copper tube just long enough to push a bit of 4mm pneumatic tubing onto. Soft sealing foam was then run around the underside to for the vacuum area and a hole drilled through to meet up with the one from the side to give an air path. The additional bits of foam in the corners are just to spread the load and to prevent too much distortion of the soundboard whilst the hole is being machined. The centre piece that had been cut out of the template was used to mark the exact position and then the squeeky pants moment! It all went fine and, whilst possibly not absolutely in the centre, by the time the hole was rounded off slightly it is impossible to tell.
The tiny sound hole 54mm x 70mm has also meant that I had to sort my labelling out as it really has to be on the back before the back is glued on. I have also left my message for future generations!! Now for the neck!!
Cheers
Darren
Thanks guys!
I have often thought that the tiny sound hole on the petite bouche was a bit of a 'FU!' to Mario Maccaferri who had fallen out with, and ended his association with, the Selmer Company by this time, given the huge D sound hole of his original grande bouche models.
I have been having slight palpitations thinking about the neck angle and bridge height on this guitar but I read last night, in the F. Charles bible of all things Selmer/Maccaferri, that the guitars were supplied with 7 different heights of bridge to allow for playing preferences and variations in the neck. I've calmed down considerably now, although I don't fancy making a full set of 7! Not sure how these were originally made so I might just buy a pre-made one so that I can work out how it might be machined.
Wow - thats really nice.
I am always in awe of people who make acoustics. To my mind, that's *proper* woodworking skill. The accuracy and tiny tolerances that you have to work to ... that's a different skill set.
(As I've often heard Mark say - anyone can make an electric guitar!!)
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Hi TV, Thanks for the appreciation and I can confirm that they sure as hell have a lot more bits!!!
Just to show that I can still make dust by hand without the aid of anything CNC I decided to carve the neck of the petite bouche manually! I even dispensed with the profile templates and just hacked away until it felt and looked right. I still have a bit of shaping to complete but I think this is best left until the fretboard is attached. The question is whether I cut the fret slots by hand or spend a couple of days putting together my little fret slot cutting circular saw?
Cheers
Darren
I have been looking at the shape of the floating bridge for my Maccaferri and it really lends itself to being made in two halves (split lengthways viewed from the front) and then bonded together. I am pretty confident that the bond would end up being stronger than the wood so is there any significant reason not to do this? Apart from anything else I have loads of bits of Rio Rosewood just the right size and I can’t think of any easy way to machine the void on the underside if I try to make them in one piece. Thoughts anyone?
@darrenking Most modern bridges I have seen that are of this style are not hollowed out like the one in the drawing. You could just skip it and leave it solid. If you make it from two separate pieces it should also work fine - only one way to find out!!
Measure twice, cut once...
The first stage of machining has been completed and the two halves glued together. It takes about 15 minutes to machine each half and the finished pieces have 15mm extensions on either end which provides the location hole for the registration pins. I stuck self adhesive veneer tape on the inner surface of the hollowed out section to aid removal of glue squeeze out. I have made a few out of Rio rosewood and one out of bubinga and I will probably make a few different heights. The next stage is hold them down at either end and machine the diagonal radiused scoops on either side. I think the programming for this should be fairly straight forward so hopefully by the weekend I should have some finished examples.
Brilliant !
The next stage is hold them down at either end and machine the diagonal radiused scoops on either side. I think the programming for this should be fairly straight forward so hopefully by the weekend I should have some finished examples.
Can't wait to see 'em!
Measure twice, cut once...
I have ended up shaping the first bridge by hand (small plane and then curved scraper) and, having studied the shape the cnc machining may be more complex than I at first imaged given that it seems to have a twist from one side of the bridge to the other. There will therefore be a thought time-out before I tackle this process. In the meantime I have the same number of bridges as almost finished guitars so I can just press on with routing out for, and fitting, the binding and then getting it ready for its first coat of lacquer. Roll on the weekend!
Very Impressed Darren........ although it all seems more daunting when you're just about to start out.
Cheers,
Russ
🗝️ "Life's what you make it"🗝️
Thank you Russ, in retrospect it probably was a little ambitious for my third build but I've learnt a hell of a lot from it (so far)!
Guitar making is a bit like a cold swimming pool. The though of getting in is much worse than it actually is once you get going and very soon you'll be wondering why you were so hesitant in the first place. You'll make some mistakes, but there are very few that are so serious that they can't be rectified, and you have access here to a huge database of experience relating to exactly those kinds of happenings!
Darren
Just watched the Bagpress Masterclass Launch video from Mark's series - so came back for another read of this.
Still in awe of the quality of the work! Now I just need to head off to make some Lutes for a couple of years
😉
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Here's a problem that I've been fretting over (boom, boom, see what I did there?)
Has anyone ever resorted to simply gluing in frets? I ask because the neck of my Petite Bouche doesn't have a truss rod, only three carbon fibre reinforcements, and I have found that hammering in 20+ tightly fitting frets tangs can actually exert enough force to cause the neck to bend. Without any mechanical means of straightening the neck, can I rely on the string tension to pull it back or should I file the teeth on the fret tangs down a bit to make them a looser fit and then glue them in thus exerting less bending force on the neck as a whole? Any thoughts?
I have found that hammering in 20+ tightly fitting frets tangs can actually exert enough force to cause the neck to bend
Hmmmmmm.
@darrenking, as an alternative to hammering, I've got a cheapy drill press, with a fret press caul cunningly attached to it. That means I can put enough pressure on the fret to push it into the fret slot without the sudden BANG pressure of a hammer.
Obvs, I still support the neck underneath too.
Perhaps your fret slots aren't cut correctly - you might need a decent fret slot cutting jig
🤣
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@tv101 Very droll!
It's not so much the banging, its the driving all those little wedges in with no way of countering the force they collectively apply. I might try squishing the tang a little with a pair of parallel closing pliers to see if that helps a bit.