Michael Frazier, Oregon Songwriter
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Michael Frazier building a handmade guitar
Day 3 - 10/28 - 4.5 hours- - - - Tom cut the ends of the two sides I had previously profiled so they were square. I then selected the bookmatch for the back pieces and ran them through the jointer at the soundboard edge for consistency. Most of my remaining time was spent sanding the myrtlewood back pieces. They were much thicker than the sides and were taking much longer to reach the desired thickness. Tom bent the KOA sides for his guitar and I observed this process. He sprayed them with water a couple of times to soften them while the bending fixture warmed up. Each side was placed in the bender independently and the fixture was set in position to shape the wood into a side for the guitar.
Day 4 - 10/29 - 6 hours- - - - I spent over an hour working at home sanding the back pieces. Still they were not thin enough. Once at Tom's, I continued sanding on the back pieces. We also discussed other features of the guitar - the purfling and binding.
We bent the myrtlewood sides and that turned out rather well. The first one was perfect though the second was a bit off center and will require some trimming when fitting them together.
Tom also provided me with a piece of Honduran Mohagany for the tail block and asked that I bevel off the square edges that would be inside the guitar. Smoothness was one of the points to this work as was pure wood volume. This piece would be critical in holding the back, sides and soundboard together at the tail of the guitar. The idea was to decrease mass so it would not obstruct the vibration of the tonewoods, create a smooth rounded surface for the sound to move around and keep the functionality for holding the guitar solidly together.
15 hours Total Time
Updated November 11, 2007. Michael Frazier for Root Cellar Productions