Share:
Notifications
Clear all

Renaissance guitar

62 Posts
11 Users
333 Reactions
2,825 Views
Boo
 Boo
(@boo)
Illustrious Member
Luthier
Rep Points: 35184
Joined: 6 years ago
Posts: 3872
 

@koendb Proper good stuff mate. The real deal. Keep going man. 👍

Make guitars, not war 🌍✌️🎸


   
tv1, Robin, Russ and 2 people reacted
ReplyQuote
Koendb
(@koendb)
Famed Member
Luthier
Rep Points: 11634
Joined: 4 years ago
Posts: 778
Topic starter  

Today I finished the little bridge, lots of knife carving 😊

The little flowers are 7x7mm , just to give an idea how small and finicky this bridge is 

I m sorry but the photos are not in chronological order. I will fix that tomorrow 😁

4090EB68 28B2 4AE2 B6B6 0EBE3DE868DC
A7B93CED D67B 4724 8AAE 265070F65A52

 

89A34E0B 7BE6 4445 A4F3 C3C0191B616F
83101C32 4E16 433D 938B 6A2D8ADD4E5D
ADC9A832 A462 4067 B817 414A99D5BB6E
AF430431 04D1 4E0A 8AE7 71B4993C6A30
B7EE3FB8 9538 4AAA A6C1 5DD30DDF449C
F4804783 5502 460F AFBC E71853D6FF67

   
tyreman, Peter C-F, tv1 and 6 people reacted
ReplyQuote
Boo
 Boo
(@boo)
Illustrious Member
Luthier
Rep Points: 35184
Joined: 6 years ago
Posts: 3872
 

@koendb Very nice work Koen, you are becoming quite the craftsman. 🙌

Make guitars, not war 🌍✌️🎸


   
tv1, Koendb, Robin and 1 people reacted
ReplyQuote
swepri
(@swepri)
Honorable Member Customer
Luthier
Rep Points: 2556
Joined: 3 years ago
Posts: 216
 

@koendb Very impressive work. 👍 Looking forward to see the end result.


   
tv1, Koendb, Boo and 2 people reacted
ReplyQuote
Koendb
(@koendb)
Famed Member
Luthier
Rep Points: 11634
Joined: 4 years ago
Posts: 778
Topic starter  

Some pictures of the creation process of the bridge.

We start off by shaping the piece of pearwood to the profile of this little part of the plan. Notice the small indent on the left side. We will need to chisel that out

9E62F430 A6D1 405B 8189 C7E75BE26E1C 1 102 o

I have made a little holding jig/shooting board for this bridge as it is tiny.
I made the mistake of placing the fence a bit too far away from the edge, so I needed some spacer to do most of the work.
A piece of leftover spruce bracing material is good enough for the purpose.
I am eyeballing the angle and matching it up to the drawing as close as I can

BED99745 1D4C 4030 9612 8E27A3ADAFD6 1 102 o
E198E793 132F 4932 B96C EA13850B0B17 1 102 o
723DA1F0 7DBE 4F08 85E7 B894BF326190 1 102 o
65BD8A66 062A 489A 8B9F CFA1F326336E 1 102 o

Here I am using a special jig to hold the shaped bridge , using small little angled wedges, so we can precisely drill the string holes.

DF4F8795 B7C4 42B5 8DDF D910EDFD5404 1 102 o
2E5F395C 6904 44FA 8350 12E02F1F4BB2 1 102 o

Then into the patterns makers vice and chisel out the slight indent, slowly creep up to the right angle with a chisel, towards the line of the string holes from one side, then repeating the process from the other side to match up to the depth of the removed portion.

At this stage, we end up with the bridge part in the middle. Now we have to take away the ends and give the bridge its final shape

DB3F0154 FABE 401F 8D39 70E3F99E0C91 1 102 o
552400D7 EF36 47AE 9F80 354B442715E4 1 102 o
C7097772 688D 4D84 843F A1C89AF535A9 1 102 o

We first mark out where the little flower motive will be located, and remove all the material passed that.
We also mark out where the top of the bridge will start to slope downwards , towards the flowers

Then, we carefully slice away , layer by layer, the material with a carving knife and/or a scalpel knife.

When that is done, we mark out the wings and remove the back portion of the flowers and saw off the top of the flower sections, to their final height

CBEC2975 D35D 4382 A167 576347D0DA7E 1 102 o
A8CC247F 355C 470E 99C6 229185052488 1 102 o
B467A523 C3DC 44C0 8F01 3C8EF1A7C2FE 1 102 o

Rounding out the flowers with a chisel, drawing cut lines for the flowers and making little cuts with a carving knife to separate the flower leaves and the heart of the flower.

With a leathercarving gouge, we make little indents into the flower leaves, to give them more depth , dimension and reality.

 I only dent with it, then accentuate that dent by pushing it towards the heart of the flower, cutting away a very, very small amount of material.

403CD279 1ED1 46D5 9C98 F4EFCFF621A9 1 102 o
84EDA8A6 54E4 4B2A B082 522BDD093B0A 1 105 c
9E54E8A5 0880 48B7 884B 2ECC4E6B0949 1 102 o
C7228897 B10E 4301 B8D8 0FE3E3077F7E 1 102 o

Next, we shape the wings by cutting away material from the back and front of the wings. This is a very tedious process, because as you cut away more and more material, the more fragile it becomes and you can easily snap off the wings on the section that is in the palm of your hand, while working on the other side. This is also done with a carving knife. But it ends up looking like it does now...

EBD3FD02 DE1C 4AAB BAEC 9B23D66ACAFF 1 102 o

The only thing left is to tidy things up with a sanding  block, and maybe a toothpick or some sanding wire, or fine needle files.


   
tyreman, Peter C-F, Boo and 5 people reacted
ReplyQuote
Russ
 Russ
(@russ)
Illustrious Member Customer
Luthier
Rep Points: 29245
Joined: 5 years ago
Posts: 2547
 

Impressive carving skills @koendb. Especially on the wee flower ends.

🙂🎸🎶🙏

🗝️ "Life's what you make it"🗝️


   
Boo, tv1, swepri and 2 people reacted
ReplyQuote
Rocknroller912
(@rocknroller912)
Illustrious Member Customer
Luthier
Rep Points: 8404
Joined: 4 years ago
Posts: 1158
 

@koendb 

Fantastic work, it’s great to see someone using hand tools and not doing everything by machine. 

Some people call me a tool, others are less complimentary. Tools being useful things.


   
Boo, tv1, Koendb and 3 people reacted
ReplyQuote
AnisahSheikh
(@anisahsheikh)
Active Member Customer
Rookie
Rep Points: 11
Joined: 2 years ago
Posts: 3
 

I am still a newbie learning to make guitars


   
tv1 and Russ reacted
ReplyQuote
Rocknroller912
(@rocknroller912)
Illustrious Member Customer
Luthier
Rep Points: 8404
Joined: 4 years ago
Posts: 1158
 

@anisahsheikh 

Even experienced makers still find there are new things to learn

Some people call me a tool, others are less complimentary. Tools being useful things.


   
Boo, Koendb, Robin and 2 people reacted
ReplyQuote
tv1
 tv1
(@tv101)
Illustrious Member Customer Registered
Luthier
Rep Points: 28066
Joined: 5 years ago
Posts: 3037
 

Wow, wow and some more wow Koen.

Great skills, and a beautiful instrument that you're building.

Online guitar making courses – guitarmaking.co.uk


   
Boo, Koendb, Russ and 1 people reacted
ReplyQuote
Koendb
(@koendb)
Famed Member
Luthier
Rep Points: 11634
Joined: 4 years ago
Posts: 778
Topic starter  

After some cleaning up on the heel and end blocks and adding an inwards curve ( approx 3 mm max depth ) towards the waist from the upper and lower bouts, to clear some space for the players hand and strings to vibrate, I carefully marked out some points on the bottom of the top to be able to place it in exactly the same place when we glue it up to the body.
Since we don't have an access to the back of the top, once it is glued to the body, because the rosette prevents us to use clamps to hold the bridge in place, we will need to place the bridge before the top is glued on. The scale length is 54 cm ( well , it is 53,8 cm really, or 21 3/16" )

So I marked out the front and back edge with  masking tape, put the bridge on to verify it s position, measure and measure some more
Then I took the top off, and used a simple holding jig and a few lightweight clamps to hold the top to the jig and use isinglass glue to glue the bridge on.

Isinglass glue is pretty expensive and is made from fish blatter. It was the superglue of old times. It needs to be heated, just like hide glue, but it is much stronger then hide glue and you use it whenever you want to make sure it does not come off.

I also lightly heated up the top in the area between the two pieces of masking tape , where the bridge will be placed.

B587C53F 0E8F 4B19 BEE3 D51BBC24519D 1 105 c
F8D34054 5A32 4ACA 9D44 291433991F02 1 105 c
73B65DAB 052E 45AB 9432 8D0D65781DBA 1 105 c

 

After putting the end graft in ( ebony ) and adding a label on the inside ( unlike these days, the label was orientated in such a way the player just had to tilt the instrument towards him/her to be able to read the label ), I closed the lid and glued the top on the body, using hide glue. The advantage of hide glue , is that you can reactivate it with heat, so you work in small portions, heating up an area of the top, then clamp the top to the body , using masking tape. The top lip in front has a function, it allows you to control the angle of the neck. If you take a straight edge from the front of the bridge and lay it on the top, the clearance at the nut should be 2 mm. If you need to correct this, you can do so by pushing or pulling the neck and make a mark at the edge of the lip  and make sure the lip and line match up when glueing that lip, measure again, reheat and retry if needed.

18B30281 BFDE 4A4C B8A4 6E4C17997DCE 1 105 c
06F4122C 7AEE 4BB0 8E31 92141DA6E399 1 105 c
0A07E8D3 22FA 4D24 88B6 1D9E6C3E2AE2 1 105 c
9F8BECC9 969C 4B1A 82F1 16E949FC7119 1 105 c

The label is kinda hard to see underneath that rosette, but with enough light, it is possible to take a picture 🙂

2FD5EE9A 5A44 4E7C 8762 D7B88CAB18B8 1 105 c

 


   
tv1, tyreman, Peter C-F and 6 people reacted
ReplyQuote
Russ
 Russ
(@russ)
Illustrious Member Customer
Luthier
Rep Points: 29245
Joined: 5 years ago
Posts: 2547
 

Coming along very nicely @koendb

🙏🙂🎶🎸

🗝️ "Life's what you make it"🗝️


   
tv1, Boo, swepri and 3 people reacted
ReplyQuote
Koendb
(@koendb)
Famed Member
Luthier
Rep Points: 11634
Joined: 4 years ago
Posts: 778
Topic starter  

Last week, I trimmed the edges of the top and back, with a chisel

IMG 1064
IMG 1066
IMG 1058
IMG 1057
IMG 1054
IMG 1065

I am really pleased  with how that end graft turned out. 

IMG 1068

And this week, I made the little ebony pins that will become the extensions of the fretboard.
I also glued the ebony fretboard on and starting to turn the tuning pegs on the lathe

IMG 1078
IMG 1080
IMG 1083
IMG 1082
12C59D74 BB29 4113 9DB1 88EDF8465F95 1 105 c
D2891E22 9E1C 467A B366 1B2AF34D872C 1 105 c
F7C6D90B 8462 45F1 964C 147039881633 1 105 c
2CD88346 875C 4460 B080 E9AD25FE7B01 1 105 c

   
tv1, tyreman, Peter C-F and 6 people reacted
ReplyQuote
tyreman
(@tyreman)
Reputable Member
Technician
Rep Points: 516
Joined: 3 years ago
Posts: 101
 

any updates? amazing job so far, impressive craftsmanship shown here 👍 


   
tv1, Russ, swepri and 2 people reacted
ReplyQuote
Koendb
(@koendb)
Famed Member
Luthier
Rep Points: 11634
Joined: 4 years ago
Posts: 778
Topic starter  

@tyreman I start working again on the renaissance guitar in september. If I find the time, I will start sanding for finishing before that.

I just have too many things on my plate at the moment.


   
tv1, Boo, tyreman and 3 people reacted
ReplyQuote
Koendb
(@koendb)
Famed Member
Luthier
Rep Points: 11634
Joined: 4 years ago
Posts: 778
Topic starter  

Yesterday , I continued my build of the renaissance guitar… Shaping the tuning pegs handles , using a little holding jig and an improvised, temporary fence on the spindle sander. With a violin pegshaper, I brought the pins of the pegs to thickness ( tapered ) and coated them with Aleppo soap. With a reamer, I enlarged the pegholes, making sure the pegs are seated at a precise 90 degrees to the headstock back.

IMG 1815
IMG 1818
IMG 1819
IMG 1825
IMG 1827
IMG 1828
IMG 1829
IMG 1831

 


   
tv1, Boo, Robin and 3 people reacted
ReplyQuote
Russ
 Russ
(@russ)
Illustrious Member Customer
Luthier
Rep Points: 29245
Joined: 5 years ago
Posts: 2547
 

It's looking great @koendb....... I'm a wee bit jealous. 😁 

🙂🎶🎸🙏

🗝️ "Life's what you make it"🗝️


   
tv1, Boo, Robin and 2 people reacted
ReplyQuote
Koendb
(@koendb)
Famed Member
Luthier
Rep Points: 11634
Joined: 4 years ago
Posts: 778
Topic starter  

Yesterday , I finished the tuning pegs by cutting them to length and adding the string hole. This is done with a little jig. Basically a block of wood with a tapered hole to accept the pin and a 1.2mm hole drill guide for the string hole.

C332ED4F 9ED3 4DC4 96CA 85E10B9918C2 1 105 c
C90119F3 B058 4276 A81C 9A8E7371FF92 1 105 c
5E903127 952A 456A B3C0 490375C20634 1 105 c
4EE7D9FD 15C2 4FC6 896E 8EC22842CF54 1 105 c

Then buffed the end of the pin and the head with a paste wax to a shiny finish.

The rest of the day I spent on finishing the body and neck with shellac, while the top is finished with Carnauba paste wax .
The fretboard gets a few drops of oil , which is applied with a 400 grid sandpaper. The resulting ebony dust paste gets pushed in the pores and left to cure after whipping off the excess.

FD585C91 ACCB 4438 BB56 36351278416B 1 105 c
103A473B 0ACB 408D 8D9B B718659B480B 1 105 c
BC584DBF 32BE 4C57 A942 1708D405898C 1 105 c
953AF407 1ED2 4627 9584 2C90C6C3CD05 1 201 a
BFAF2493 9172 4B9E AD0D E3DE68514D08 1 201 a

Next week I ll cut the nut and put on frets and strings and it should be finished!

 

 


   
swepri, Peter C-F, Russ and 3 people reacted
ReplyQuote
Boo
 Boo
(@boo)
Illustrious Member
Luthier
Rep Points: 35184
Joined: 6 years ago
Posts: 3872
 

@koendb It’s stunning work, I’m so impressed. It’s definitely a whole different ball game to making electric guitars. Sure a lot of fundamental skills are the same but the tools and skill set required for making traditional acoustic instruments is off the scale compared to modern, machine assisted electric guitar builds. We are all skilled when we make our creations but using hand tools and manual labour to make these wonderful instruments is so so impressive. It makes me want to learn and create something for myself. It’s not the right time for me though and it looks like I will need a lot more tools and materials I don’t have. Money is a little tight right now and so is my time, but I will take the plunge one day. 

I will definitely be looking back through these processes and anyone else who has produced instruments like this, such as @russ (finally 😉). 

Make guitars, not war 🌍✌️🎸


   
tyreman, swepri, Robin and 2 people reacted
ReplyQuote
tv1
 tv1
(@tv101)
Illustrious Member Customer Registered
Luthier
Rep Points: 28066
Joined: 5 years ago
Posts: 3037
 

That's an incredible piece of workmanship Koen, proper old-school skills, and it looks like a beautiful instrument at the end of it.

You'll have fun playing that in the local bars ...

😉

 

Big, BIG WOW.

Online guitar making courses – guitarmaking.co.uk


   
tyreman, swepri, Robin and 3 people reacted
ReplyQuote
Page 2 / 4
Share: