Norm's Guitar

Complete!

As of 28 October 2003

We were hit hard by Isabel and I have not had the time to update this web page in a while. I guess I lost two or three weeks of work on the guitar because of the storm .

as of 13 September

Did final sanding and put grain filler on the neck. I tested the two way truss rod and it works fine. You can put a bow or a back bow in the neck with a half to quarter turn of the nut one way or the other, It doesn't take much.

Next step is to fit the neck angle and then start spraying with lacquer!

As of 11September 2003

I finished inlaying the patern and sanded everything down flush

Here are the most recent pictures.

9 September remarks

The neck has been carved and rough sanded. all that remains is to do some final sanding, inspection and pore filling.

Then I will set the neck angle and start applying the finish!

I have the inlay patern ready to cut out.

8 september remarks

:I am working on the neck now. I have cut out the peghead shape and drilled the tuning machine holes. I have carved the heel, and glued on the sloted fingerboard.

I have finished the finial inspection and sanding of the body. I have applied one coat of wood filler and may apply a second coat

I tried to take a photo of the top after the final sanding but my camera is just not good enough. Any way I am excited about how it is going to look. It is hard describe as I have never seen one that looked quite this way. Bearclaw is not exactly what it has it is more like crows feet. But they are everywhere on the top! I am not sure they Will be visible after lacquer but if so it will be unique!

I will provide you a running narative and phots of you guitar as it comes together. Fell free to email me or call me if you have any questions. This photo is one of the first I took of your guitar. the top and back have been thinned and cut out to shape and the rosette inlayed with green abalone
I ordered a buffing machine(arbor) so I can give you a more "professional" gloss finish.
		Here are the sides with the top lining being glued on. The back lining is already glued.
Here is the back and sides in the form. The neck block and tail block have been glued on, and the back and top edges have been radiused. The top is a 25' radius and the back will be a 15' radius.		Here is a not so good picture of the top and back.
		These are the final bracing patterns for the top and the back. The top has a pre-WW 2 bracing pattern with what is called forward x bracing. and a small bridge plate. The top has been thinned to between .110" and .125". the back is thinned to .09" the sides ( not shown) are thinned to .08" (all plus or minus a few nano inches)
Here is the back being glued to the sides! Had to use all my "guitar clamps" for this. Some times I use another method of clamping by wrapping the whole thing with a big rubber rope. Actually an old inner tube cut into a long 2: wide strip. But since the sides and back where both contoured to the 15' radius, very little clamping pressure was needed so I used these clamps. (That is a good thing)
Here is the assembled back and sides set!     You can see that the back lining is Mahogany and the top lining is spruce. All bracing material is red spruce same as the top material.
		I have added 7 small spruce popsicle sticks on the sides to provide support and to prevent the sides from splitting.
This gives you a better idea how I did the side supports.
Here is the completed box with the top binding and purfling going in place. Once it all dries I will scrap it clean and sand.
		Here is a the Tail Block area. It will look a lot cleaner once it is scraped clean and sanded.
Home		Gebeaux Guitars

Making the Neck

The Neck blank is made from a 1"x 3" x 30" piece of Mahogany. First I reduce it's length to 24" and it's thickness to 3/4", then I cut the scarf joint (about 15 degrees) I have used several methods here including a hand saw. Right now I am using a jig and my band saw. It does an OK job. I then have to true up the surfaces of the joint with a small block plane, reduce the thickness of the peghead to 1/2 inch then glue
		These pictures show the jig. It is a sort of table that runs on the track of the bandsaw table while the neck blank stock is clamped at a 15 degree angle.
		Here are a couple shots of he scarf joint being glued. The bundle of C clamps is gluing the joint together
The heel block is either one piece of Mahogany or a stack of three pieces cut from the 1" neck blank stock.
		This is your neck with the one piece heel block being glued down.
Here I have cut out the neck joint and the truss rod channel. I use a two way truss rod that is reached through the sound hole with a long Allan wrench.
		Here I have drilled the holes for the neck joint hardware. You can see the truss rod in it's channel.
Here I am gluing on the 3/32" ebony veneer.
More Photos

Overall Status of Work

1. Planning (done)
2. Making the neck, cutting the scarf joint, gluing the veneer, routing out the peghead shape and truss rod slot (Done)
3. Inlaying the logo(Done)
4. Making the fretboard (done)
5. Gluing the fingerboard, and any fretboard inlay (done)
6. Fretting (Done)
7. Final shaping of the neck(done)
8. Jointing the plates and gluing the center seam (Done)
9. Dimensioning the plates(Done)
10. Inlay the rosette and cutting out the soundhole(Done)
11. Bracing the top(Done)
12. Bracing the back(Done)
13. Profiling the sides(Done)
14. Bending the sides(Done)
15. Gluing the lining and contouring the sides(Done)
16. Making the Headblock and tail block(Done)
17. Chladni testing and plate tuning.(Done)
18. Assembly of the body(Done)
19. Binding the body, (Done)
20. Setting the neck angle
21. Making the bridge
22. Filling the pores of the body and neck (Body has been filled)
23. Finishing with lacquer (done)
24. Polishing(done)
25. Attaching Neck (done)
26. gluing Bridge (done)
27. Set up and final adjustments(done)