Guitar Resto-Mod underway

[nuhobby]

Hi,
I had posted a couple of teasers on other threads lately. Here is a fuller story of what's going on.

I have a little parlor guitar that plays nice but tinny-- it's a plywood body. I thought I'd make a real wooden body. I bought some curved side pieces from a kit-maker, and I've been working it gradually over the last few weeks....

The SS bandsaw gave me 6 very thin walnut planks to build a back:

Joined_back.jpg (153.35 KiB) Viewed 2213 times

Rosette Glue.jpg (129.94 KiB) Viewed 2213 times

New Top Braces.jpg (199.66 KiB) Viewed 2213 times

Nothing like a Horizontal Boring machine for a job like this! I used a backer board to help run the drill-bit partly in wood and partly in the air:

Drill Truss Clearance.jpg (141.99 KiB) Viewed 2213 times

Some SS screw clamps and cam clamps, and everything else I have!

Body Glue Up.jpg (134.21 KiB) Viewed 2213 times

Pulling the nice fingerboard/neck / bridge pieces from the old guitar:

Sacrificed Parlor Guitar.jpg (195.71 KiB) Viewed 2213 times

SS horizontal boring started this process, a compound dovetail adapter:

Neck Adapter Dovetail.jpg (116.98 KiB) Viewed 2213 times

This is an aspirational picture to keep me going... getting closer to actually building this together!

Neck Goal.jpg (168.32 KiB) Viewed 2213 times

Happy woodworking!

Chris

[BuckeyeDennis]

That's some impressive woodworking you've got going there, Chris. I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

[nuhobby]

Thank you, Sir!

A bit more work so far this week:

The "dovetail block," which was very tightly matched to the guitar body mortise, had to be attached to the re-used prior neck of the old guitar. I used very strong epoxy here, did a lot of careful sawing and chiseling, and glued it up as straight as possible:

Dovetail Block attached to Neck.jpg (165.33 KiB) Viewed 2114 times

Later I did partially string-up the guitar, and that dovetail joint is a rock (neck to body joint supported the string tension without any glue). Future work will be to refine further the block, which is only partially rasped to shape here:

Neck Joint Rasped Rough.jpg (135.67 KiB) Viewed 2114 times

Another detail was to start some body trimming steps. The end block joint was very ugly (I had used a J-B Weld epoxy variant there, since I had trouble with spring-back on the bent woods), so it's being filled in with a V-shaped insert of scrap walnut, etc.:

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Heel Joint Wedged.jpg (175.4 KiB) Viewed 2114 times

Heel Joint Decor Visual.jpg (204.21 KiB) Viewed 2114 times

Happy woodworking,

Chris

[miken]

Very impressive. Keep the pics coming.
Mike -

[nuhobby]

Thanks!

More work lately...

The neck-to-body fit was pretty good, so I did further shaping with a drum-sander on the Shopsmith:

Shaped Neck Block.jpg (140.78 KiB) Viewed 1990 times

Like probably more than a few Shopsmith guys, I really don't like handheld routers. I've been trying to use a manual knife-edge "purfling cutter" (see separate forum thread), which was a noble idea but has been fraught with mistakes. Anyway, I'm doing the back of the guitar before trying the top / face, and I think it'll be OK once I apply my hard-knocks lessons:

Purfling Concave Cut.jpg (123.87 KiB) Viewed 1990 times

Purfling Gluing.jpg (214.11 KiB) Viewed 1990 times

Have a great Sunday!
Chris

[nuhobby]

Well, 2 days ago I was feeling pretty bad, did the self-test, and learned I have Covid-19! I had to cancel a planned trip and isolate at home. Fortunately I'm not feeling too terrible, and I was able to do some more sequestered woodworking:

I got in additional trim-strips for the top, and began leveling them:

Leveling trims.jpg (102.42 KiB) Viewed 1878 times

For the bridge position, I had checked and re-checked where it belonged, and I finally glued it down:

Gluing bridge.jpg (133.95 KiB) Viewed 1878 times

Then it was time to commit the neck-joint, the dovetail joint which I had fined-tuned:

Gluing Neck.jpg (162.47 KiB) Viewed 1878 times

The guitar is playable now! My favorite view is looking inside at the walnut back and the bracing for it:

Looking Inside.jpg (147.03 KiB) Viewed 1878 times

Recalling the original guitar, the resto-mod is definitely improved! It does sound richer. It is also working with a better action, and less buzzing of the strings. The original guitar had a shim under the bridge-insert which is no longer needed. The whole thing is a worthy upgrade... I just need to finish the surfaces. The spruce top and the walnut back were joyful to work with. The mahogany sides fought me all the way with their reversing grains, and they will have a good deal of filler applied before it's all sealed up:

Leftover Shim.jpg (127.34 KiB) Viewed 1878 times

Happy woodworking,
Chris

[HopefulSSer]

Remind me please what this started life as? Beautiful job!

[miken]

Great job Chris

[nuhobby]

Remind me please what this started life as? Beautiful job!

Thanks so much!
Here is what the guitar started as:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LDITT2GHuk

I liked a lot about that guitar, particularly the string spacing, scale length, and 12-fret neck style. I just thought I could get a bit more of a solid-wood vibe from it. I have increased the body size a tad, but it's still a small guitar, something it took me quite a few years to realize was what I was after!

Chris

[HopefulSSer]

Nice! I hope we get to hear sound samples of the reborn instrument!