Going to build a new "old" guitar

[Jason]

I get zero credit for that. It came up recently in a blog I read every morning, and I bookmarked it because it looks like a pretty quick and easy jig for making clock gears.

[John J]

Awesome to see Grant. The level of detail is amazing. Can you still get gut strings?

John

[whitespruce]

Can you still get gut strings?

John

Yes, you can. I am behind on posting progress. Will try to catch up a bit over the weekend.

Working on my engraving skills.

g

[whitespruce]

The neck on these old guitars was a rather complicated construction. These had an "ice cream cone" shaped neck heel with the grain 90 degrees relative to the neck shaft and a separate piece of wood. The joint requires a vertical dovetail and a separate wooden "key" to strengthen the joint. I made a test neck in basswood to work out the details.

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There is an obvious mistake in the plans as drawn. Since the end of the fretboard is cantilevered over the soundboard, there needs to be an extension of the neck to support it. The plans do not have this part.

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So, I redid the "key" with the required extension as a part of it. I also notched the extension into the neck heel for additional support.

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Here is the whole thing done in thermally modified maple for this guitar. I have not cut the tenon for attaching the peghead yet.

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Now, on to making the tuners,

g

[Eben]

That’s marvelous G! Reminds me of drafting class in high school, which I dug - keep ‘em coming.

[whitespruce]

OK, a sneak peek at engraving the back plate for the tuners. Very difficult to get a decent photo. Don't laugh, I am learning as I go.

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g

[difalkner]

From what I can see in the photo, Grant, it looks very good!

[michael]

Very cool engraving. It actually looks like you know what your doing. That neck joint is way more complicated than what we do now days, glad someone thought of a better way.
Mike