Last page of the build of a 17" archtop guitar with Frank Finocchio
in his Easton, PA shop.
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Rough cutting the headstock shape.
I plagerized a modified
Gibson shape but wasn't too happy. The curves on the side of the headstock
cause the strings to come very close to touching at the machines because
of the geometry. It's the same issue with using the standard inverted-triangle
Martin headstock shape. To avoid this, the shape really needs to be more
triangular
in shape,
i.e. wider near the nut and narrower at the top. It doesn't affect the
sound; it just offends my eye. End of whine! :) |
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Leveling the fingerboard extension. |
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Drilling the tuning machine holes and the machine anchor holes. |
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Andy ready to glue the fingerboard. |
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We did binding on the fingerboards which you can see here on Andy'sneck.
More mitering of course! We used thin CA to attach the binding and the
joint seemed pretty fragile while we were working. By the next day it was
solid. |
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My neck with fingerboard extension. At this point I still had to install
a shim over the adjusting rod.
Note the hole in the bottom of the rim where the pickup jack is to be
mounted. The hole is oversized for the jack, but it allows a hex-drive
to be inserted to install the anchor bolt for the neck. |
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Cutting a small slot into the binding to accommodate an ebony block for
the Saco strap for the tailpiece. Once this slot was trimmed... |
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... I could set the piece of ebony to take the load from the strap. |
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Cutting the mortise in the neck block. For the flat top guitars, the
slot was already cut and all we did was trim away the side & top material
to expose the slot. |
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Detail of the jig. Frank just mounted a carving board onto a 3/4" ply
backing, then had us clamp the body in place. The jig is clamped to the
upper body. |
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The bottom support of the jig which convenietly shows the ebony block
in place. |
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Frank sketching the material that needed to be removed from the fingerboard
extension in order to get the neck to seat properly. After it seated properly,
the extension was marked again to indicate material that needed to
be removed to allow clearance between the extension and the top plate. |
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The extension needs to bed solidly on the first 1.5", then a space is
carved to allow the top plate to vibrate freely. This is the area where
the curve of the top starts. |
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Looking a lot happier with the bound neck in place. |
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This clamping caul was used when gluing the neck joint. The fret grooves
were unnecessary as the neck hadn't been fretted yet. |
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The caul was made from this radiused sanding block from Stew-Mac. |
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More sanding.
Bright, low angle light was mandatory to pick out what needed
sanding. Once the lazquer is applied, the tiniest ding in the surface shows
up like an ugly zit on a first date! |
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The frets are in (sorry... needed more pics, but I was being chased by
the clock!) and I'm looking for a level neck. |
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Getting close! It's still lacking the bridge, tail piece and
finger rest. |
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The bridge is done (to the left of the brush). I'm ready for the tailpiece
with its' Sacony strap and an end plug for the strap to attach to. Later
I'll install a 1/4" jack that accommodates both a Sacony strap
and a player's shoulder strap). |
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Strings are on and I'm notching the ebony saddle/bridge. The ebony
tail piece tends to pull the strings together and these small notches
keep
the stings
in
place.
Traditionally the bridge isn't attached to the top plate on an archtop.
Rather it's adjustable. This puts the burden on the player to get it
positioned right or the intonation will be off. |
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Andy tuning up! |
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We be happy campers! It was 10 straight days of 8-10 hours/day. |
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And here they are. Still missing the finger rest and it's mounting block
as well as the ebony cover for the neck adjusting rod. We'll both
be adding pickups later. And the backs need the binding scraped and a
lot more sanding. But they're playable at this point. |
