A Start on the Soundboard

Design thoughts on the sound hole
So I've been pondering how to design the sound hole since the start of this project. I wanted something that was unique but also that does not negatively affect the sound quality. I have three ideas, one of which I will share here. Because this is the direction I will most likely go.

I had the idea of using Petoskey stone sound-board inlays right from the start of this build. I decided to look this up on the net to see if anyone had done this sort of thing before. I came up with nothing – so I'm thinking, Great! But wait, is there a reason no one had tried this? with this dampen the sound?, will this be too heavy?, will the material break when it gets too thin?... Lots of questions. About mid-way through the neck build I met a local luthier here in Traverse City that does inlay of Petoskey stones in his guitars, in fact his logo is a Michigan shaped stone with a star on TC. So yes, people have used stones for guitar making but not yet have I seen one on the soundboard. I don't think this Luthier liked the idea that I had thought of using PS on my guitar, but this is a much different application than what he's using. Plus if he can put a patent on using petoskey stones, I'm putting a patent on walnut and maple.

People use shell all the time, and a Petoskey stone is as light or (soft) as Mother of Pearl or ablam (peices of shell). So why not? Here's a preliminary design:

Graphic representation only... this is not done. Petosky stone, with mother of pearl bars and white and black binding.

Graphic representation only... Close up of above.

I did start cutting the stones out on my tile saw... worked great. But I do need the thickness much less.

Sanding it down... I will most likely go back to the tile saw to remove more material.

On to the soundboard: Here I was assembling a make-shift shooting board for planing the edges to join the two halfs of the soundboard.

There was a worm hole that I had to plane off – so i removed a lot of material then tried to get the edges straight and even... easier said than done. Once you think you have it straight, you hold both boards together up to a bright light to see if there are any high or low spots (called candling). I was chasing high spots all over the place. I adjusted my plane to cut just a super tiny amount and I started to see better results. I finally got it but this was a chore.

Gluing up the board – kitchen table style. I made some shims to tap into place to apply some pressure to the boards. The other side was held in place by a peice of masonite, then I added a weight in the middle... in this case it was a scroll saw. I put a trash bag under the glue line.

Just planing

I am still working on the project, but I've become pretty busy with other things too. The main thing I've been doing is planing the back boards on the guitar. It's pretty boring stuff, but I have two hand planes that are doing a pretty good job of removing material.

I also was able to install the work-board into the side of my workbench. I purchased a quick clamping sawhorse thing a ma jig – to support the other side. Works great.

I have also come to realize that I may need more wood for the sides, and unfortunately that means expensive wood and more re-sawing... Uhhggg. The board I have is 7.75". Half of the (2 boards) is 3.625 – The plans call for 4" side boards. I'm still trying to figure out if I want to build a slightly shallow guitar, or bite the bullet and get more wood. Discouraging to say the least. I'll have a more positive post by this weekend.

Headstock Inlay Done

It was pretty tough to get a half-way decent photo of this because the light reflects off the mother of pearl. But there it is, all set in and sanded down. I'm not 100% happy with it, mainly because it should be perfect considering the amount of time I spent on it. But it's still pretty good.


All the pieces set in and glued in with C.A. glue.

Another photo at that stage that shows the whole headstock.

Starting to sand the epoxy filler coat down. The final image is at the top of the post. I realize that my photos still suck as I'm taking them with my camera on my phone. I have a better camera on my new phone than when I started this project but it's still not the best. When I finish this guitar I plan to hire a professional photographer to shoot the guitar – so I will have great photos at the end. Wonder who I could get to take those photos? Wonder if my daughter reads my blog...

Update: I received a shipment of wood on Tuesday! So that means I can start the body... maybe this Saturday. I promise to show more progress soon. My week off really helped get me motivated again.

A Week Off

I took the week off from work and spent some time with my family. Didn't do much on the guitar this last week but plan to get back at it this coming week. Still haven't receive the sound-board or bracing material yet – hopefully by Friday.

Below is what I did do:
Attempted to cut the M.O.P. with a jewlers saw on loan from my buddy Bruce. That worked but was difficult. Then I tried the scroll saw above. That kinda worked but I didn't like my fingers that close to the blade. The vacuum hose worked good but it would suck up large pieces (sometimes the ones I was cutting).

Then I tried the dremel with this attachment... worked perfect!
cut the paper pattern out,
spray mount on the back,
stick it on the M.O.P.

cut it out, see the dust going into the vacuum hose? I placed drywall tape on the head to stop it from sucking up big pieces.


Pieces all rough cut.
starting to put them in after some sanding and filing. This is going good and I will have an update on this soon. I still have the a, t, t, and y to finish up. May redo the C as well.

Headstock Inlay Test

This inlay might get a little drawn out, mainly because I think it's going to take some time to do right. I wanted to do a logo of sorts on the headstock and came up with what you see below.
My uncles on the McCatty side had a saw sharpening business called McCatty Saw (at my Grandfathers house), and I remember the logo was the word McCatty with a swoosh of the y under and the word saw reversed out of the swoosh...

This logo is reminiscent of of that old logo, but with a little guitar flavor – more me.

I'm testing this inlay on a scrap of wood before I attempt at messing up the neck I've worked so hard on...

Carving the letters out with an exacto knife.

Done with cutting the wood, mostly – probably some more when the inlay peices are done.

Then I'm going to attempt to inlay shell material... Mother of pearl can be purchased for around $40 per sheet (plus shipping) for inlay material... I'm cheap, so I found these shells at Joe Ann fabric store for less than $4 and will be using these instead; same thing... just not in a sheet.

I almost bought a sheet of M.O.P. online – even had all forms filled out but just couldn't put the cc number in... Thought the price was just too much and knew there must be better sources. I'll do some test cutting tonight – word of warning: I've read that this stuff has carcanagentic properties... So if anyone trys to cut this stuff wear a mask.

Making the Bridge

Prior to making the bridge I had some more planing to do... I did this early Sunday but got tired – I still have a long ways to go... I should have had Joe cut the boards much thinner (again, hindsight 20/20)

A bridge is a device for supporting the strings and transmitting the vibration of those strings to the soundboard in order to transfer the sound to the surrounding air.

Didn't like the plans for the bridge as mapped out in the book so I strayed a bit in design here... Still about the same amount of wood and the main items are identical. Just the shape will be slightly different.

Made a template first.
Cut out a board blank from a chunk of ebony – notice how dark this wood is?

After measuring...
And sanding to thickness – the board is much lighter. It will darken after about two weeks.

Drawing the template on the blank.

Cutting the shape out.

Shape completed
Sanding the bridge on the sander to shape.

Thinning the ends, and rounding everything.

Sanding done, time to route the slot for the bone saddle. This needs to be done on a slight angle (1/4" over 3") to compensate for the different thicknesses of strings. If you made this straight the guitar would not have proper intonation (meaning a note on the 12th fret that should be the same as the note of the string played unfretted... just 1 octive higher would not match.)

I used a block that was cut .5" over 6" for a guide. I also used a little trick I learned on youtube: If you need a certain size router bit but don't have one, just flip a drill bit over and grind it (the back side) down on an angle. This makes an excellent router bit – just don't make too deep of a pass. This took about 6-10 passes.

I didn't drill the holes because I was tired and didn't want to mess it up. I'm going to drill these holes in a backwords V shape, instead of a straight line. But here is a completed Saddle minus string holes. I will include more angle shots of this once the string holes are done.

Soundboard Wood Ordered

The soundboard is the top of the guitar (the part of the body that has a hole). It is also the most important part of the guitar as far as wood choice, because most of the guitar's tone will come from piece. It is almost always a soft wood.

There are many choices of types of woods to choose from but most common that people use are Sitka Spruce, Engelmann Spruce, or Redwood. I've chose Sitka Spruce for the top of this guitar and will use the boards below. They are a book-matched pair...

This is a AAA grade board. The grading is based on many factors: color, stiffness, uniformity, grain count, sound response, run-out of grain, how close to quarter sawn, drying and so on...

I decided to try to order straight from the source (Alaska), to attempt to get the wood at a good price and also to deal with a company that deals directly with luthiers. I spoke with the owner on the phone and he was very helpful and I'm betting that I'll be very happy with the wood. I will put the company name and a link here if I end up being pleased with the wood. I was able to purchase 3 soundboards and bracewood for what it would cost me to purchase less than two from luthier catalogs – so I'm already pretty happy with that.

Another board I purchased AA Grade Sitka Spruce. Both of these boards are much higher grade wood that that used on my $400-450 (purchase price) charvel guitar.

A Grade Red Cedar the owner said that this was actually a higher grade board but downgraded due to color imperfections... I liked it (purchased this too) and may use it for a classical guitar after this steel stringed guitar build.

I also ordered enough brace-wood to do this guitar and maybe a couple additional guitars. Did I mention that I'm already thinking how I would do some things different on another guitar? Should I blog the second guitar?

I'm hoping the US Postal service moves quick. The place that the wood is coming from is on an island – so it needs to make a short plane-ride to the main-land, then on barge to Oregon, then through the mail... I may need to be patient – but it also means I'm kinda stuck 'til I get the wood.