Today, as I was sawing slots into a fretboard, I was reminded of how wood can possess very different properties even within the same species. I’ve know this to be true mostly from the experiences of other luthiers. For myself, however, I have never really encountered this issue until today. Let me try to explain.

My favorite fretboard wood has always been Rosewood. There are many different types of this wood such as Brazilian, Indian and Bolivian and for the most part, they are very similar in how they function as a fretboard. Because it’s available in abundance here in Colorado, I usually go with the Bolivian variety.

For the project I’m working on now, I was fortunate enough to pickup a slab that was quarter sawn. Usually I can only find slab sawn. The nice thing about this piece was how flat it was. And that’s why I bought it.

After gluing it to a quarter sawn African Mahogany neck blank, I began the normally arduous task of cutting the fret slots. Usually I cut three slots, take a break and cut three more. By the end, I can always count on a sore shoulder from sawing. This time, however, my old fret saw sliced into the wood like a hot knife into butter. 20 minutes later, I had twelve slots cut and my shoulder felt great. I don’t know if the fact that the board was quarter sawn had anything to do with how easy it was to saw, but I’m not complaining. I do wonder if this particular piece may be a bit less dense than what I’m use to.

This experience has taught me first hand how wood-even if it’s from the same species-can have very different properties. What effect, if any, this will have on tone remains to be heard. In truth, I don’t expect to hear any difference. If that’s the case, I plan to only use quarter sawn fretboards in the future. Not only did the slots cut easy, but there was no chipping where the slot meets the edge of the board.

It just goes to show that the more you do, the more you learn. So get doing!

Okay, so the day is almost over, but I wanted to make sure I salute all the fathers who juggle work, guitar building and family. I know how much effort it can take!

For me, today was great. My wife got me the cool spokeshave I have always wanted. In the past, I used rasp files and a belt sander to make the contour on my guitar necks. Now I can go about doing this using a more traditional and as some would argue, a better way. Experience has taught me that using a belt sander can be fraught with potential disaster. One wrong move and the neck becomes a nice piece of firewood. Besides, I like to build my guitars by hand as much as possible. I still use power tools from time to time, mainly for heavy sawing, routing and drilling holes, but most of the critical shaping is being done by hand.

Speaking of heavy sawing, I picked up a set of Olson band saw blades this weekend from the good folks at Rockler. The blade that came with my saw works okay, but I needed blades for resawing boards as well as cutting very tight curves. I also made some adjustments to the blade guides, which really improved the quality of cuts. Now I can cut out a neck in minutes as opposed to the hours it used to take with a jigsaw. A jigsaws can do the job, but they require a lot of follow up work to get the shape right. With a band saw, my cuts are smoother and way more precise.

Having the right tools makes a lot of difference in the quality of the electric guitars I build. Maybe I’ll start selling the fruits of my labor here on my site. Either that or I’ll start offering kits. Who knows what the future will hold.

I knew this even before I bought a band saw, but I was hoping the new addition to my workshop/garage would make guitar building a synch. In truth, it helps, however, I still needed to rely on both experience and patience to do what I wanted. I also think I may need to explore making some mods to the saw in order to keep the blade from wandering. It’s not too bad, but I have to really go slow and focus to keep the blade straight.

In the past, it took an hour or two to saw out the rough shape of a neck. Now, it takes maybe 30 minutes. And that will decrease even further if I can balance the blade better. There’s a bunch of info on the web to help me make the simple mods so it will be interesting to see if it works better. Plus I plan to replace the blade with a better quality one from Olson or Timber Wolf. Probably Olson since there half the price of a TW.

When I say drawing board, I’m speaking metaphorically. I don’t actually use a drawing board, so to speak. Instead, I work on a 24″ iMac equipped with the Adobe CS4 Design Premium software collection.

It’s been a while since I added any new designs besides the Caractacus, but that doesn’t mean I’ve slacked off. In fact, I’ve been busy working on custom, one-off designs for people who want a truly unique guitar to build. This is the part of the business I really enjoy; taking some one’s dream guitar and working it into a usable plan. Normally I charge $6 for plans anyone can download. But, for the custom designs, I charge $50 each since they’ll only go to the person who orders one. The cool thing about this approach is you can take any guitar shape or concept that’s bouncing around in your head and make it a reality with my help. Those are the ideas that are truly unique and original. Even if they might be based loosely on and existing design. Be forewarned, however, I will NEVER draw an exact copy of anything. To do so would go against my principles.

One such design I’m working on now is the Hooligan. Here’s a preview:

As you can see, it’s based on a Les Paul Jr., but with a slightly altered body shape. The plan is still in the early stages, so the finished design will probably look a bit different. Let me know what you think.

When it comes to building guitars, electric or acoustic, most luthiers strive to express their creativity when undertaking a new project. But, at what point does creative expression interfere with function? Or is this even a problem? I say it can be if you’re not careful.

For example, you can make a neck out of flamed Maple, however, this particular species of wood is softer than the hard Maple that is usually preferred. A luthier can always stiffen such a neck by adding carbon fiber rods, but one has to wonder if this approach will penalize the potential for good tone.

Another example might be the technique of laminating exotic woods to make a unique guitar body. Sure the results can look spectacular, but what effect does this method have on tone? Even the most experienced luthiers will confess that they often don’t know what their artistic efforts will sound like until the guitar is finished. I have several guitars that look great, but just don’t have the tone I like.

Achieving good tone is only part of the problem when balancing form and function. Another one is playability. I’ve built some really cool looking body shapes that are a pain to play. These guitars end up spending most of the time hanging on a wall instead of being played. Also, while I love to cover a fretboard with intricate inlay or marquetry, the results can be confusing to play.

In the end, I think there are three types of custom made guitars; ones that are absolutely beautiful to look at, but not necessarily easy to play; others that are bland to look at, but great to play; and finally, the ones that are a perfect balance of artistic achievement and playability. In my opinion, that last type of guitar is the one all luthiers should strive to build. However, it takes a lot of experience to accomplish this. Once you’ve built a dud or two, you’ll understand what it take to succeed.

…I’d get so excited about a band saw! Oh well, I guess it’s better some of the other things I could be wasting my time on. Here’s a photo of my new saw with the plywood base I made for it.

For my next guitar project, I plan to create a page on my site that will show how the build went down. That way, you can bookmark the page and access the information easier than scrolling through blog entries. However, I won’t do this until the guitar is finished. For that reason, the page–or pages–won’t be ready for a couple of months. In the mean time, I’ll continue to blog about ideas and opinions as I see fit. In fact, I’ll start tonight by discussing my new band saw.

Yesterday, I finished assembling my new band saw, which I purchased from Harbor Freight and Tool. It’s the model 32208, 14″ saw. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by how nice this machine runs. I made some test cuts and could tell right away this tool will make life easier as well as improve the quality of my work. Now I can concentrate on the art of building my guitars instead of fixing the problems that can happen when you use a jigsaw.

When I was doing the research on which band saw to buy, I quickly narrowed my choices down to the Grizzly Ultimate and the Harbor Freight model I ended up buying. In truth, I think the Grizzly saw was the nicest given the fact that it has roller bearings instead of blocks like the Harbor Freight saw has. However, for the type of work I plan to use it for, blocks will do just fine. Another nice feature found on the Grizzly saw is the fence it comes with. The Harbor Freight saw doesn’t come with one, but I can add one later if I need to. Again, the type of work I plan to do initially won’t require a fence. That’ll change when I start resawing boards.

The main reason I chose the Harbor Freight saw was both price and the fact that they have a store by my house. Buying from HF saved me more than $120!

One item I couldn’t live without was a roller base for the saw. Rather than buy a kit to make a base, I made one with some plywood and casters. Tomorrow, I post some photos of the saw and its base. Stay tuned!