Post by CTGull on Apr 5, 2017 14:04:13 GMT -5
I didn't do the build on this, although I would like to build a kit guitar in the near future. This is technically a rescue and repair, much like most of my guitars. I found it on CraigsList for $20, listed as a "project acoustic guitar", saying it was unfinished. I inquired. He built it in a class at a local Woodcraft in 2009 and it's sat in the case since, unfinished. He said there were 8 or 10 two hour classes (costing about $600), way too little time to do all the steps carefully. It must have been very overwhelming and not a good experience. I found the company that makes the guitar kits, the instruction manual to build the guitar, and how-to videos. Lots of steps! I haven't had time to read and watch all of it. www.usguitarkits.com/guitar-building-how-to-instructional-videos
Unlike the other kit guitars I've seen this one has most of the guitar body prebuilt. The back, sides, neck & end blocks are installed in the right positions. Otherwise you need an expensive form to clamp it all to, to keep the proper orientations, otherwise in the end the neck angle could be way off and the guitar is junk. There's still plenty of chiseling and cutting to get the top and bindings to fit, and taper the braces. And there's a lot of work to do to the neck.
It has a solid spruce top, laminated flame maple back and sides, nato or mahogany neck, rosewood bridge and fingerboard, fancy purflings in the center of the back and end pin area, small abalone fret location markers and a large rectangular abalone marker for the 12th fret. The neck is completely bolted on, 2 into the heel and 1 into a block glued under the fretboard, all with threaded inserts.
But there's still PLENTY of work to do! I don't want to repeat the instruction manual. Go to the link above and download it if you're curious.
When he opened the case my first reaction was it's rougher than I expected, but I didn't know what to expect. The back of the neck looks to be hand scraped, probably an attempt to thin it without enough time. There's glue here and there from the body binding. There's probably more than a few hours left to do in careful scraping and sanding to prepare it for the final finish. I was originally thinking French polish but I think Tru-Oil will be much easier. I'm told I should use lacquer but all I have is a dusty, dirty, humid garage. A bad environment for spraying lacquer. And my wife would have a bird from the smell!!
The first thing I noticed is the action is REAL HIGH! There's an obvious bend in the fretboard where the neck meets the body due to the neck angle being off. There's a 1/8" thick tapered darker piece of wood glued to the heel, that isn't shown in the instructions I found for the kit. Was it added because the neck was tipped a little too far back? I'm estimating I will have to sand most or all of it off to adjust the neck angle. That'll be the first thing I do, a neck reset.
I took lots of pictures, outside and inside (I'll add some to this thread hopefully later today), and checked & recorded lots of dimensions. To take pictures of the inside I had to remove the strings. Removing the high E bridge pin was tough. When it finally came out I found blue tape on the pin and in the hole. He must have reamed the hole too deep, probably using a cordless drill. An easy to make rookie mistake. I can plug and redrill the hole or possibly replace the bridge. The bridge plate (inside) is a little chipped up from drilling the holes thru, I may make a thin maple plate to go over it, it will last much longer in the end. There are deep countersinks on all 6 pin holes, a couple other holes are reamed a little too deep and the heads of the pins sit in the countersinks, making pin removal very difficult, they must be pressed out from the inside. The bridge is kind of thick (body & wings), another possibility is to remove it and thin it from the top about 1/16", which would remove most or all of the countersinks, or I could just orbital sand it in place as I've done many times, but that won't thin the wings but I could hand sand them thinner (a pain!). I have to do something, the bridge is kind of ugly. But I need to check that the bridge is in the right place (which I can't do when the action is so high), so I need to do a partial neck reset, to get it close, so I can verify the intonation is correct. Then I will know if I have to remove the bridge or not.
How far do I want to go with this thing?? Keep It Simple Stupid!! Which is usually followed by "It sounded like a good idea in my head!".
So the plan of attack is:
1. Set neck relief flat. Check frets for high/low spots with straight edge and fret rocker. Level & recrown if needed.
2. Get the saddle out of the bridge, there isn't much sticking out, it looks like it's jammed in the corners, it may get destroyed.
3. Make new saddle, assuming I will be taking 1/16" off the top of the bridge. Leave a little high.
4. Use Dremel to remove some of the material under the heel (less to sand).
5. Sand a .06" wedge from the neck heel.
6. Restring, set neck relief, and check action.
7. Check nut action.
8. Recheck frets for high/low spots. Level and recrown if needed.
9. Pull sand neck heel to get action close. Be sure heel profile matches body and the center of the neck projects to the center of the bridge.
10. Make a new maple bridge plate & epoxy it to the existing one (plugging the bottom of the pin holes). Clamp while epoxy sets.
11. Add epoxy to the loose holes and fill gaps in existing bridge plate.
12. Sand the top of bridge thinner (orbital sander).
13. Sand the bridge wings thinner (by hand with custom sanding block).
14. Round over the front side of the bridge.
15. Drill & ream pin holes. Clamp backing plate to new bridge plate to keep from blowing it out when drilling.
16. Ramp bridge (cut angled slots from the pin holes to near the saddle slot, to increase string break angle).
17. Pull sand neck heel to get final action. Be sure heel profile matches body and the center of the neck projects to the center of the bridge.
That just gets it playable, then I need to figure out what to do to scrape and sand the neck and body, then finish. Of course, I can do some of that while I'm working on the bridge and neck.
Unlike the other kit guitars I've seen this one has most of the guitar body prebuilt. The back, sides, neck & end blocks are installed in the right positions. Otherwise you need an expensive form to clamp it all to, to keep the proper orientations, otherwise in the end the neck angle could be way off and the guitar is junk. There's still plenty of chiseling and cutting to get the top and bindings to fit, and taper the braces. And there's a lot of work to do to the neck.
It has a solid spruce top, laminated flame maple back and sides, nato or mahogany neck, rosewood bridge and fingerboard, fancy purflings in the center of the back and end pin area, small abalone fret location markers and a large rectangular abalone marker for the 12th fret. The neck is completely bolted on, 2 into the heel and 1 into a block glued under the fretboard, all with threaded inserts.
But there's still PLENTY of work to do! I don't want to repeat the instruction manual. Go to the link above and download it if you're curious.
When he opened the case my first reaction was it's rougher than I expected, but I didn't know what to expect. The back of the neck looks to be hand scraped, probably an attempt to thin it without enough time. There's glue here and there from the body binding. There's probably more than a few hours left to do in careful scraping and sanding to prepare it for the final finish. I was originally thinking French polish but I think Tru-Oil will be much easier. I'm told I should use lacquer but all I have is a dusty, dirty, humid garage. A bad environment for spraying lacquer. And my wife would have a bird from the smell!!
The first thing I noticed is the action is REAL HIGH! There's an obvious bend in the fretboard where the neck meets the body due to the neck angle being off. There's a 1/8" thick tapered darker piece of wood glued to the heel, that isn't shown in the instructions I found for the kit. Was it added because the neck was tipped a little too far back? I'm estimating I will have to sand most or all of it off to adjust the neck angle. That'll be the first thing I do, a neck reset.
I took lots of pictures, outside and inside (I'll add some to this thread hopefully later today), and checked & recorded lots of dimensions. To take pictures of the inside I had to remove the strings. Removing the high E bridge pin was tough. When it finally came out I found blue tape on the pin and in the hole. He must have reamed the hole too deep, probably using a cordless drill. An easy to make rookie mistake. I can plug and redrill the hole or possibly replace the bridge. The bridge plate (inside) is a little chipped up from drilling the holes thru, I may make a thin maple plate to go over it, it will last much longer in the end. There are deep countersinks on all 6 pin holes, a couple other holes are reamed a little too deep and the heads of the pins sit in the countersinks, making pin removal very difficult, they must be pressed out from the inside. The bridge is kind of thick (body & wings), another possibility is to remove it and thin it from the top about 1/16", which would remove most or all of the countersinks, or I could just orbital sand it in place as I've done many times, but that won't thin the wings but I could hand sand them thinner (a pain!). I have to do something, the bridge is kind of ugly. But I need to check that the bridge is in the right place (which I can't do when the action is so high), so I need to do a partial neck reset, to get it close, so I can verify the intonation is correct. Then I will know if I have to remove the bridge or not.
How far do I want to go with this thing?? Keep It Simple Stupid!! Which is usually followed by "It sounded like a good idea in my head!".
So the plan of attack is:
1. Set neck relief flat. Check frets for high/low spots with straight edge and fret rocker. Level & recrown if needed.
2. Get the saddle out of the bridge, there isn't much sticking out, it looks like it's jammed in the corners, it may get destroyed.
3. Make new saddle, assuming I will be taking 1/16" off the top of the bridge. Leave a little high.
4. Use Dremel to remove some of the material under the heel (less to sand).
5. Sand a .06" wedge from the neck heel.
6. Restring, set neck relief, and check action.
7. Check nut action.
8. Recheck frets for high/low spots. Level and recrown if needed.
9. Pull sand neck heel to get action close. Be sure heel profile matches body and the center of the neck projects to the center of the bridge.
10. Make a new maple bridge plate & epoxy it to the existing one (plugging the bottom of the pin holes). Clamp while epoxy sets.
11. Add epoxy to the loose holes and fill gaps in existing bridge plate.
12. Sand the top of bridge thinner (orbital sander).
13. Sand the bridge wings thinner (by hand with custom sanding block).
14. Round over the front side of the bridge.
15. Drill & ream pin holes. Clamp backing plate to new bridge plate to keep from blowing it out when drilling.
16. Ramp bridge (cut angled slots from the pin holes to near the saddle slot, to increase string break angle).
17. Pull sand neck heel to get final action. Be sure heel profile matches body and the center of the neck projects to the center of the bridge.
That just gets it playable, then I need to figure out what to do to scrape and sand the neck and body, then finish. Of course, I can do some of that while I'm working on the bridge and neck.
