La Patrie Review: Updated

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guitar, guitar building, guitar making, homegrown, lutherie, music, woodworking

Hello again….

Just some more general information updates regarding getting the site back to it’s former glory.

I had a review up of a La Patrie Etude – but the sound samples disappeared when all of the site images were lost. So I’ve updated the page with a new recording. One more thing checked off the list of getting the site back into ship shape! You can find the video below, or also in the reviews section.

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A New Era, a New Look

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art, graphic design, guitar making, lutherie, luthier, music

So I decided to update the header image for the website – hope you all like it! I figured that a new Era called for a slightly different image, and I thought it was time for radically different look.

While in the past I’ve had pretty traditional pictures of Guitars, Paintings, etc., I went for something more modern – but combined with a traditional painting featuring a guitarist. The figure is a portrait of Monsieur Aublet, by French painter Guillaume Voiriot (Circa 1782) which I obtained from the online archives of the Metropolitan Museum of art.

Here it is!

And, for your viewing pleasure, a blast from the past! I attached all of the headers that have been used for the website in the past below.

 

 

J-11 in Sapele: Part II

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art, building, guitar, guitar making, lutherie, luthier, mahogany, making, music, woodworking

I got started this morning by assembling a handplane, which I needed to carve the neck plane. I wanted to test out an idea and see if it worked, so I used some of the scrap Sapele cutoffs from the guitar body blank to make this. In case anyone else is thinking of trying it, don’t waste your time using a flattened cross pin – it’s not worth the hassle, and using this plane was murder (even with a super-sharp O1 Steel blade). I’ll be using that ebony to make one with a proper steel or brass bridge in a bit.

 

Laid out the positioning for the electronics, neck mortise, and neck plane.

 

Afterwards, I went to town on the guitar body with that Sapele plane and finished the neck plane. It’s at 4.2 degrees right now, I’ll make adjustments later to get it where I want once I decide on what to use for a bridge.

 

Then I began hogging out material with a forstner bit for the routes.

 

I also had a nice piece of perfectly quartered Sapele for the neck, so I traced the neck outline and rough cut it.

Tomorrow I’ll be starting on the fretboard and hopefully also finish up the routes so I can order electronics etc.

J-11 in Sapele

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art, building, electric guitar, guitar, guitar making, lutherie, music, woodworking

Hi all –

It’s been a long time since I was last able to actually find the time to work on a guitar…..a very long time. I’ve made a few handplanes but that’s been about it, because I can finish those in an afternoon.

Today I finally got started on a guitar I’ve been wanting to make for quite some time. I dusted off my templates and a big slab of Sapele and got to work.

I started by rough sawing the body outline on the bandsaw. I also have nice clear acrylic templates for the J-11 model that I had laser-cut from the blueprint file. They’re set up for single coils, but this guitar is going to have two humbuckers and a blend-balance knob (like the prototype I built when designing this bad boy).

 

My workshop was in a pretty bad state, having not worked in here for almost two years. Half of my  templates are gone, there’s stuff piled everywhere, and almost all of my tools have been removed from their wall hangars and stored away. I’ll be cleaning and fixing up my shop while working on this J-11.

 

One tool I was happy to find was still there was my drill bit Awl (probably my favorite tool). I did a tutorial on how to make these a while back, though I’m not sure if that section of the website still works (a lot of the pictures on this site have vanished, and I’m working on fixing that as well).

 

The templates have countersunk holes so they can be screwed down to the body. The holes are positioned in the same spot as the pickguard holes, so I use the pickguard screws to hold the templates in place while routing. The ones that aren’t are positioned over the pickup slots so that the holes will be routed away later and there not a visible blemish on the finished product.

 

Next up, used the routed to trim the rough cut body flush with the template. Tomorrow I’ll start hogging material out for the electronics cavities and the neck mortise. I also rounded over the back edges with the router and a roundover bit (no pics), but I’ll leave the front edges until I have the neck plane carved (since this guitar will have an angled set neck like a les paul).

 

I also don’t have any handplanes, since I sold all of my previous ones or gave them away. I had this nice thick O1 steel blade from Hock Tools though (sorry for the dark picture), so I’m gonna make a small smoother tomorrow which I’ll then use to carve the neck plane. I selected a nice block of striped ebony for the plane.

More to come soon! 🙂

 

Making of the Newman Parlor: Part II

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art, crafts, guitar, guitar building, guitar making, lutherie, music, wood working, woodworking

 

Yesterday was soundhole stamp day. Not too long ago, a friend of mine gave me an old mandolin to fix up (which I am still working on). One thing I noticed was that the original soundhole stamp had disappeared. However, knowing the date and manufacturer, I was able to track down and re-make the stamp – I also aged it so that it fit in nicely, and not looks great inside the mandolin.

This got me thinking on the stamps for this build; I decided to age them and use the same process. However, I wanted something really interesting on the stamps, since they will stay with the instrument for its whole life. The metropolitan museum of art has been posting high resolution images of all of their art on their website – so I decided, why not search through and see if I can’t find something really interesting from the 19th century to put on the stamp?

I settled on thee or four images, then narrowed it down to two. Then started work in photoshop on creating the stamp.

These were then printed out, and the paper aged to give the final look.

That’s all for the moment. More updates soon.

Video Series by Jillard Guitars: Offcuts

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art, guitar building, guitar making, lutherie, luthier, music, woodworking

It has been a while! Unfortunately life has been keeping me from doing much guitar-related work…however, I saw a very cool video by Jillard Guitars and wanted to share it here for people to see.

This is Episode 1 and 2 of “Offcuts” – I especially like the fanned fret jig in episode 2…Jay Jillard does some amazing work, and I would definitely recommend you check this out!

Drill Bit Awl

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art, crafts, guitar, lutherie, luthier, maker, making, music, woodworking

I saw one of these a while ago – so I cannot lay claim to this idea. I can’t remember where I saw it, but it was a blog or website somewhere – and since seeing it, I’ve always wanted to make one. They are beautiful, and the HSS drill bit makes for a very durable Awl which keeps its point for a long time.

This one has a nice Gabon Ebony handle!

That’s all for the moment.
~Anthony Murkar

Making a Guitar Rosette

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anthony murkar, art, crafts, guitar, lutherie, luthier, making, music, rosette, woodworking

So it has been a very long time! I think it is time for a much needed update. Lately I have been making guitar rosettes for some parlor guitars that I am building (trying to build, anyways).

I started by laying out my rosette design in photoshop. Then I drew up a simple template for a rosette cutting jig and printed it off.

Cut out a piece of 1/4″ black Acrylic on the bandsaw.

Next I drilled for the holes; this is a base that will be mounted on my router, so the holes are for the mounting screws.

I also took out a 1.5″ piece of aluminum rod (1/4″ diameter) and rounded the edges. Then I buffed it smooth on the buffing wheel.

Here is the completed router base assembly.

And voila – by drilling a hole in a baseboard, I can rotate the router around the pin (which is inserted in the baseboard hole). Using a 1/2″ router bit gives a perfect rosette channel.

Next up – time to make the rosette itself. I put a plastic cutting board through the planer to clean it up and flatten it, then cut out a square. I drilled a hole in the square (1/4″) in the middle, then used my router jig to cut a 3-4mm deep channel. This is the rosette mold. I also drilled some holes through the channel. This is to help remove the assembled rosette.

You can now use this mold to make any design of rosette you desire. You can add tiles, purflings of different colors, etc. I went for a BB/WW/BB/WW/BB/etc. motif. I soak b/w 1mm purfling in warm (not hot; you do not want the purfling layers to delaminate) water for 30 seconds to make it pliable, then layer them in the mold.

With the layering complete, it is time to glue up the rosette. I usually use thin CA glue; I used medium viscosity here because it was all I had on hand.

Spread the glue in with a piece of vulcanized fiber.

Once the glue has dried, I use a chisel to carefully remove the rosette from the mold. If you use lots of glue, sometimes the rosette is not easy to get out. You can push the flat end of a drill bit through the holes in the back of the mold to help force the rosette out of the channel if you are having trouble getting it out with a small chisel.

Once removed, you need to clean up the rosette edges by scraping any excess glue off. Then the rosette is finished.

It is important to test-fit the rosette before installation. Often some adjustment is needed to get it to fit the channel. The rosette should fit the channel; if it doesn’t, you’ll run into problems when you try to put it in with glue.

I used a piece of clear plexiglass with clamps to force the rosette down into the channel while gluing.

Use a scraper to flush the rosette with the soundboard.

And that’s it! This is a garbage soundboard (because of the separation that occurred at the top), but at least you can see how beautiful the rosette turned out.

Ziricote Guitar: Finished At Last

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anthony murkar, art, carving, crafts, fender, gibson, lutherie, luthier, music, violin, wood working, woodworking

Finally found the time to finish up this guitar! I had it sitting on my workbench for well over a year…when I bought the wood for this guitar, I decided not to touch to for a long time because I knew I didn’t have the skill yet to make the guitar turn out as well as I wanted. So I worked on other things and let it sit. Now, I’ve finally finished it – haven’t heard it yet, can’t wait to plug it in. It will be a couple of days before I get the chance to hear it for the first time.

Kauer Guitars Acadian: Kickstarter Campaign

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art, guitar, lutherie, luthier, making, music, violin, woodworking

Check it out! Kickstarter campaign for the new Kauer Guitars acadian – offering T-Shirts, signed albums, and a bunch of other cool stuff for your support! Soon this guitar will go into full production, with a little help from some friends 🙂 There is actually a lot of cool stuff there – not to mention pictures of amazing guitars. CLICK HERE TO CHECK IT OUT!