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!

Visit to Folkway Music

On Tuesday my pal Dr. Dave Walker and I went up to Guelph with my girls to visit Mark and his staff at Folkway Music. It was a pretty great feeling to pull out the guitars one by one and each time get a positive reaction. With out a doubt Mark was taken aback by my approach to guitar construction and even though he is a loyal lover of fine vintage instruments he shared a sincere and enthusiastic interest in what I have created.

Let's back up a bit...

My player friend David Gillis told me a few months back that I should take my guitars up to Folkway and get Mark to check them out because Mark is a fine fretted instrument expert and a straight shooter who does not hold back on offering an honest and sometimes blunt opinion. David said something to the effect of "I think it will be a good experience for you AND if you pass the Mark Test you know your doing things right. He will tell you exactly what he thinks" I immediately conjured up an image of an older, distinguished looking silver haired gentleman. An old music man type that would be stuck on tradition and who may be difficult to win over with a non traditional design. Ya know...a bow tie wearing guy.

When I opened the door to Folkway and approached the front counter a bunch of young guys were sitting at a bench wrapping up their lunch. I locked eyes with the alpha and said "Hi, I'm Pete Swanson of Dagmar Custom Guitars. I'm here to see Mark." I thought for sure I would be told to wait a second and they would go to the back and out would come the man who I had envisioned. Instead the one who I introduced myself to was Mark. He said "I'm Mark!" Man oh man that took me off guard! He's around my age.

I said "Hey! Nice to meet you! I'll just get the guitars from the car and show you what I've got." I brought the axes in and lifted them out of the cases one by one in the order in which they were built. First was Jennie my second checkerboard patterned symmetrical acoustic archtop made of Honduras Mahogany and Flame Maple. He had a very favorable reaction and looked back at his staff and may have even said "Check this thing out!" My nervous system was buzzing and I began to get tunnel vision. I focused on Mark's expression. I definitely remember Mark looking at the guitar in a very direct way with specific objectives. His eyes could have burnt the wings off of a fly. Thank God he started off with positive comments because each one relaxed me and I could feel my nervousness subside. He broke out his inspection mirror and asked my permission to look inside the guitar. I said "Of course." He did and he was genuinely intrigued and impressed. The words "neat" and "cool" entered my ears and I felt my pride begin to brim.

Next to come out was Mary Lou W, my electric inspired by Charlie Christian, made of Cooked Flame Maple with accents of red veneer, Antique Ivory finished top and finished Ebony appointments. Mark was very complimentary on my Ebony Tailpiece design and asked how I made it, at the same time offering the answer himself "table saw and then router?" "Yes, exactly." I said and then I pointed out the metal behind the logo inlay and tailpiece inlay along with the red tinted Epoxy and demonstrated how light seems to reflect out of them. He told me of a builder friend of his who uses tinfoil embedded in his logo design that creates a 3D nugget looking effect. We were getting along great and then the unexpected...

A wee boy, maybe 6 approached the counter, holding up high a tattered $10.00 bill. My first thought was; great timing kid and why aren’t you in school? Mark looked down toward the boy and in a non threatening kid friendly kind of a way asked "Hey buddy can I help you?". The boy uttered an awkwardly cute and quiet request "Can I..Can I... do you have a Banjo pick?" Mark served the boy like the VIP he was - a Folkway Music customer. I helped too because the Banjo pick tray was more accessible to me. I handed the boy his small thumb pick and Mark gave him his change. The transaction made an impression on me. Mark is a good guy, an approachable professional who respects his customers.

Last out was Eve. My prototype single cutaway acoustic made entirely of 50,000 year old Ancient Kauri wood from New Zealand. I personally love the tone of this guitar and I feel as if I made a breakthrough with how to save weight in my design and followed the trend of using a lower break angle to get a sweeter tone and to have it react more on the pianissimo side of touch - something that was shown to me in Montreal. I shared my experience building Eve with Mark and told him that the guitar was at times hell to build and how she fought me every step of the way. It was a total challenge to figure out how to close up her rim. Behind us at the front of the store Mary Lou W was being plugged in and Mark told me to go and listen. I have not really heard her being played through too many amps so I was more than happy to do so.

I should also mention that Mark is a left handed player which also threw me. He can play a right handed guitar with the strings upside down! Again I was impressed because when he strings up his guitar the bass is at the top - crazy that he can play both ways. Any who...

Mary Lou W was plugged into an awesome sounding tube amp and she went for a stroll with one of Mark's leading men. I can't recall this man's name but he played beautifully and said he really grooved on her fat dark sound and string clarity. He also was impressed with how much roll off there was on the tone knob. Jason Lollar makes great pickups! The sound he was getting from the guitar was EXACTLY what I have always wanted to hear her sound like. There was a bit of single coil hum but man she sounded good and absolutely no feedback. The guitar was right in front of the amp too.

After this mini session I returned her to Mark's counter where he had been left alone with Jennie and Eve. He reassured me that he liked my guitars and thought they were the products of some very creative designing and were well crafted. Then out came what I hoped wouldn't – the critique. He told me my nuts needed work. He said the string height was too high at the nut - the playability and string height on the rest of the fretboard was good along with the fret work and leveling. I felt a ping in the bottom of my gut. Awe man...I gently whimpered in side - Even though this is an easy fix I still felt a bit embarrassed (all over 1000ths of an inch). He maybe saw that I was hurt and said "Hey man if that's the only thing that I can find for you to improve upon your doin' all right." He said for my first batch of guitars, let alone for any guitar, that they were finely crafted and I should be proud. However, this did not stop him from laying into Eve. He said out of the three Eve was his least favourite. He said he didn't like her tone as much as the others and then pointed out that the string break angle was too low for his taste. Again he reassured me that tone is and always will be a subjective thing and there is no right or wrong. He then showed me all of Eve's little glitches that I am already well acquainted with and that have already given me a few sleepless nights - the man sees EVERYTHING. Lastly, he made it clear that he thinks water based varnish lacks a certain lustering magic when compared to a traditional French polish or even a nitro. I listened to his opinion but spraying solvent based stuff will never be an option for me and French polish is perhaps in the future once I have time for yet another learning curve. I feel compelled to say, and perhaps it's an ego thing, that everyone that I have ever shown the guitars to have all been impressed with my water based finishes.

All in all it was a great visit! Mark and I traded company shirts and both agreed it was a pleasure. Mark knows very well what a tough slug it is for us luthiers and wished me the best of luck. Dr. Dave took some old school shots of us with his little disposable (lol) for his blog (I forgot my bloody camera!) and I decided right then and there that I will be visiting Mark again. I want him to show me his set up methods and wire up my upcoming Ontario Art Council Grant Guitar. Undoubtedly Mark is a good guy to know and to consult. With his input and involvement I know that I'll be all the more protected from any would be critics.

Any guitar lover would enjoy a visit to Folkway Music. It's a destination location shop and well worth the trip! Folkway Music also hosts performances by various acts and there is a calender of upcoming events on their website. Hmmmmm....a Dagmar Custom Guitars night would be pretty cool - eh Mark?

www.folkwaymusic.com

Dr. Dave has a very popular blog geared toward guitar music of all genres. He generates 500 hits per day! Obviously worth checking out.
http://blog.davewalkermusic.com/