A Pair of Ditsons

[Eben]

Hey, right on, man;

Now that's what I call progress!



E

[Lefty]

Hey Joe!

Those are really looking good. Beautiful work.

Now that you have one of those fancy schmancy guitar holders...how are you going to keep you thighs in shape?

And as far as I am concerned there is no such thing as too many photos.

Lefty

[Joe Sustaire]

Thanks for the compliments Lefty, but your right, if I wind up with flabby thighs---it's E's fault!!!

Joe

[Joe Sustaire]

Back to work on these.
I've got the necks roughed out and am starting to shape them.







As you can see, I'm trying the knock-down furniture hardware that Cumpiano now recommends. It uses a threaded cross-dowel nut set into the tenon. Looks like it ought to work pretty good. Before I had used hanger bolts which seemed a little crude, and I have had one pull out on me since it was just threaded into end grain.






Here I'm sanding a shelf for my fretboard overhang.




And now I've started shaping one of the necks.

Later,
Joe

[Eben]

Thanks for the compliments Lefty, but your right, if I wind up with flabby thighs---it's E's fault!!!

I'm willing to risk it in the name of progress, Tovarich!



Those sure are gonna be pretty axes - And I'm very interested in your version of a fretboard extension, so go slow there, OK?

E

[Joe Sustaire]

Sorry Eben, nothing quite that esoteric. I just used the wrong word, I meant fretboard overhang. Just trying to get a fairly level shelf so the fretboard will lay correctly on the top.

Joe

[Joe Sustaire]

Thought I'd jump right in here with an action shot, shaping the neck with a spokeshave.
I've got both necks shaped now and fitted to the body, action looks good for now, no doubt will have to do some fine tuning later on.




Got the fretboards slotted, and cut a couple of pieces out for the bridges. This is poisonwood, from a bunch of exotic cut-offs I picked up on ebay, I don't have any rosewood on hand, but this seems nice and dense so I'll go with it.




I also got smart and laid out my fret scale on a piece of 1/8" plex and filed little notches at each point. So now I can just lay this on my fretboard and mark the positions with an awl right at each little filed notch. Before I have carefully measured and did all my layout right on each board, having to go thru it all everytime. I'm wising up!


And I layed out a bridge design and made copies of it this time so if I like this shape I don't have to draw it from scratch everytime. See I'm learning.




I knocked together a jig to route the saddle slot using a dremel with router base.






And here I've bandsawed the outside profile and started shaping them on the spindle sander.



The standard pyramid bridge is 1'' wide, and since I have had trouble in the past with bridges coming loose I wanted a little wider footprint but still keep the pyramids. So this is kind of a cross between the standard shape and the pyramid bridge. Now of course my bridges coming loose came from using old glue, and narrow bridges have been used for a long time without problems, so I'm not sure I'm making any sense, but anyway that's what I was thinking.

Then I ran into problems. I wasn't pleased with the way the bridges were shaping up, and then one got away from me on the stationary belt sander and got stuck between the end fence and the belt. Sanded into the back side on one corner. So I tried to recover by rounding off the corners on the pin side. Wasn't pleased. Decided I'd better quit for the day before I did something stupid. Sorry I didn't get any pics.

Next day, I go to bridge school. I found a nice tutorial by Hesh on OLF where he's making a small footprint bridge for one of his small body guitars. Very nice shape, no pryamids. So I try that. Cut some new blanks, route slots, drill pin holes, shape and polish.



And this is how they turn out. Very nice, love the shape. Yesterday I butchered, today it all works, hurray.

So then I go back and see if I can salvage the other bridges, given that I've had a little success, and some distance from the frustration, and hurray, I think they turned out all right also.





So, not a bad lot of bridges if I do say so myself. I'll decide which ones to use on these builds a little further on.

Thanks for tuning in,
Joe

[Chris aka Sniggly]

Hey Joe...I like those bridges. I am a subscriber to the 'less is more' adage. I have a question if you would. Are those bridge pin holes already countersunk? If so what with? I am familiar with just about every brand of countersink and wondered which one might be doing that work in the pic. If they are not countersunk....are you then putting the taper on the holes prior to glueing?

I'm a newbie...so forgive the slober........