OAC GUITAR ENTRY 4

I am finished faring in the first layer of CF and I have laid down the second "show" layer of light weight CF twill.

The first layer is for 99% of the strength and stiffness needed. The unidirectional CF runs across the woods grain and will ensure that the rim can easily take on the downward force the strings put on to the bridge. The second layer is a light weight twill cloth. It adds a bit more strength to the structure and now there are CF strands running in the direction of the wood's grain - helping to strengthen the bonding of all 86 segments. I call it the Show layer because I can lay big areas down without having to overlap and I hide all the butt joints of the first layer.
Once smoothed out and finished it will look stunning. Also, with CF running in all directions the neck area will be extremely strong and stable.

The picture shows the rim held inside a simple cradle which makes this potentially messy job easier and cleaner. I try to be as neat as possible throughout the entire build - because it counts.

I sleep very well at night knowing that I have made absolutely no compromises in building these guitars. These are my babies and I put everything I got into them.

Claro Flamed Walnut Back

Pretty stuff eh? This beautiful example of Claro Flamed Walnut comes from California. www.woodnut.com
The good folks at Exotic Woods in Burlington, Ontario www.exotic-woods.com, did an awesome job of resawing this blank for me. Now I have to make the call on which is up and which is down.

OAC Guitar Entry 3

The first layer of carbon fiber (CF) has been layed in. I take a lot of care to make sure that I wet the CF out completely. The CF does not change colour or become transparent like fiberglass so you really have to be attentive. I brush epoxy into the fibers with a bristle brush that has been trimmed so the bristles are only about 1/2 inch in length. The brush is stiff and you can gently force the epoxy into the fibers without creating excessive bubbles. I also wet the wood surface of the guitar rim too before I lay in the carbon. I go along three inches at a time. This guitar took 23 3 inch wide pieces of CF exactly. I completed this task last night and this morning I checked things over. I'm always amazed at how stiff and strong CF is. It's really quite amazing!

I cut the pieces a little long and after it has cured I cut the overhang off. This is done with a hack saw blade - cured CF is tuff as hell - like how I imagine dragon scales to be.

I used a metal sanding ball in my drill and ground down all of the ridges and some of the areas where neighboring pieces overlap. I don't want to grind too much because I don't want to lose any of the strength. After I grind the harsh parts down I then get the pneumatic sanding ball out again and scuff the surface with 80 grit. This helps the filling layers of epoxy to bond better.

With West Systems epoxy I can do up to three coats in one day. The wait time between is about 2.5 to 3 hours or until the surface becomes dry yet just slightly sticky. Fill coats are needed to fill in the CF weave and to help level everything out. Once a completely fare surface is achieved I will laminate a layer of lighter CF twill in to give just a bit more strength and to make the surface pretty.

Most of the labour of my guitars is in the sides. The amount of labour I put into the functioning structure of these Dagmars can be compared to the amount of labour a luthier may spend on doing intense inlay art.

Ontario Art Council Guitar

I have been kicking up some serious dust in the secret Dagmar lair. The double cutaway prototype is coming along just dandy and I could not be more pleased with the results so far - it's almost as if I know what I'm doing.

I was able to follow my drafting with extreme accuracy and I'm becoming so in tune with the various angles and segmenting the curve that I can now change the blade angle by eye if the shape starts to wonder a bit off course.

I encounter a minor bit of twist with every guitar. It is something that you have to expect when gluing up 86 precision cut segments by hand. If I'm out by 1000th of an inch that mistake multiplies with every segment. With my previous guitars I have been able to sand the twist out. With this guitar rim I discovered a way to correct the twist by popping the rim in the oven at a low temperature with straight edges clamped to it to achieve trueness. The glue softens just a bit and the rim gives and conforms to the straight edge. I leave the clamps on until she cools and the thud sound of the soft glue disappears.

Today I fared the inside using a pneumatic sanding ball and prepped for tomorrows first lamination of carbon fiber. I'm aiming to have this rim ready for shaping by Monday. I'll have my sound plate patterns done too and I'll glue up the Flame Walnut set for the back. I bought a piece of mahogany for the top wood and may start carving it before the weekend.

At this point I start to flip flop between all of the pieces that make up the guitar; the rim, the top, the back and the neck. All of these parts need to stabilize in the right humidity and it's wise to let the glue in the sound plate wood to cure fully before the final glue up.

I revisit the rim a bit each day after the carbon fiber is laminated in. It's a tedious process to fare the inside surface. So instead of doing it all in one shot I spread the task out over time - a bit each day keeps my sanity intact.

The picture shows the rim with temporary squares of MDF glued on here and there. These are protrusions needed to hook the dozens of elastics around for the final glue up. The last keystone slid right into place and it made me naturally high :)

The First Stages Done on OAC Axe

Unfortunately my wireless internet service if down so now I'm back to dial up. Wahoo!
Needless to say I can't post any pictures but will once my crappy Bell service is back. Any who....

The neck has been roughed out and glued up, tapered and honed true. I have also glued three veneers on the back of the peghead for beauty and strength.

The artist in me has been in the torturous throes of indecision. I have had all sorts of ideas about how this guitar should look. In my previous post I said I was going to do a checkerboard of Cooked Flame Maple and Flame Claro Walnut - well...not any more.

I received the figured walnut from California and it's gorgeous wood but the figure in it is very light compared to the figure in the Cooked Flame Maple. So, I pulled a piece of regular white flame maple out from under my bench and decided that the two contrasting maples will look the best. The figure matches and the colour contrast is very fetching. I'm excited to show the pics.

I will be cutting the segment tomorrow and then gluing her up. Hopefully the body will be finalized by Monday.

OAC Double Cutaway

This past week I have been designing the Ontario Art Council Grant guitar. I asked my lovely wife Annette to be a part of the process. She's an aesthetician by trade so who else would be better to consult on how this "show stopper" guitar should look?

Annette really likes the checkerboard guitars. So we decided that a subtle contrast checkerboard pattered guitar would be tres cool. I found some gorgeous air dried highly figured Claro Walnut, on line, and pressed the "buy it now" button. The sides of this double cutaway will be checkered with highly figured Cooked Flame Maple and the highly figured Claro Walnut. The back plate will be carved from a killer piece of figured Claro Walnut, quarter sawn and book matched. The whole guitar will shimmer in hues of gold and rich browns.

The top wood has not been finalized but I'm thinking I'd like to try Mahogany. I want to finish the top in a solid antique Ivory, like Mary Lou W, and I need a stable wood that is dense/hard enough to anchor all the parts to. I will be using a fixed metal roller bridge and a bigsby B50 tailpiece. Both of these parts are anchored to the top wood so I need it to be robust enough to hold the various screws and inserts.

I have designed this guitar to be like a semi hollow body. Basically it will be a solid body guitar where the pickups and hardware lie. The TV Jones pickups will have a routed cavity with a flooring of wood - this helps fight feedback and creates better sustain. The design uses a sustain block of mass, as just described, but the back plate will be left to vibrate freely - the sustain block is glued to the top wood but does not come in contact with the back plate at all. This kind of design will produce a nice balance of feedback control, tone with plenty of sustain and a bit of airy archtop sound mixed in.

The rim sides will have a 2 1/2" depth with a 17" lower bout. I may reduce the f hole size a touch too - again for the sake of feedback.

The only unknown right now is how the bigsby will perform. Usually for an archtop one would use a hinged bigsby that anchors to the guitar's sides at the tailblock. I would have to have the hinge custom machined and that simply is not in the budget. My concern is having an arched top with a lowish bridge. I need to calculate what an acceptable string break angle should be. This shouldn't be too hard to figure out.

This axe is going to be pretty Bad Ass. Guarowtee!