This past summer (August 2009), I took a course at Sir Sanford Fleming College in Haliburton on musical instrument construction.  It was very cool.  There were sixteen of us in the class - about half of us were making guitars and the other half (including my wife Wendy) were making violins.  It's an interesting process.  It takes quite a while to get prepared and to get started and you spend a lot of time building jigs and tools that you need to complete the project.

 

Jul.27/09 - Got the tone wood selected.

 

 

 

Jul.27/09 - Time to actually start doing something.

 

 

 

Jul.28/09 - The instructor, Phil Davis (luthier), and his assistant, Bethany Houghton, and I were debating various strategies of building the outside mould.

 

 

 

Jul.28/09 - Cutting spacer blocks for my mould.

 

 

 

Jul.28/09 - Constructing the mould

 

 

 

Jul.28/09 - Smoothing the mould

 

 

 

Jul.28/09 - Putting the mould together

 

 

 

Jul.28/09 - Sanding the edges

 

 

 

Jul.29/09 - Phil gives a mini-seminar on thicknessing the tonewood

 

 

 

Jul.29/09 - Thicknessing the soundboard

 

 

 

Jul.29/09 - Making sawdust

 

 

 

Jul.29/09 - Bending the ribs (sides)

 

 

 

Jul.30/09 - Got the ribs done

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jul.30/09 - Got the end blocks and ribs glued together

 

 

 

Jul.31/09 - More work on the soundboard

 

 

 

Aug.9/09 - Making the solera

 

 

 

Aug.20/09 - Routering the truss rod channel

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aug.20/09 - Testing the fit

 

 

 

Aug.20/09 - Truss rod installed in the neck

 

 

 

Aug.22/09 - Peghead veneer glued in place

 

 

 

Aug.22/09 - Ready for shaping

 

 

 

Aug.23/09 - Peghead shaped and sanded

 

 

 

Aug.23/09 - Basic construction of the neck complete

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aug.24/09 - Starting to create the rosette

 

 

 

Aug.25/09 - Routering out the soundboard for the rosette

 

 

 

Aug.25/09 - Rosette and purfling inlayed

 

 

 

Aug.26/09 - Rosette inlayed and sanded

 

 

 

Aug.26/09 - Soundboard rough cut

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aug.29/09 - Soundboard X-brace glued up

 

 

 

Aug.30/09 - Soundboard braces cut

 

 

 

Aug.31/09 - Soundboard braces cut and shaped

 

 

 

Sep.2/09 - Soundhole reinforcement

 

 

 

 

Sep.2/09 - Soundhole cut out

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sep.3/09 - Glueing on the sound board bracing

 

 

 

 

Sep.3/09 - Sound board complete

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sep.4/09 - Glueing on the linings

 

 

 

Sep.10/09 - Mating the sound board and the ribs

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sep.15/09 - Glueing on the horizontal back bracing

 

 

 

Sep.16/09 - Glueing on the vertical seam reinforcement

 

 

 

Sep.16/09 - Glueing on the linings for the back

 

 

 

Sep.19/09 - Back complete

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sep.19/09 - Ready to mate the back with the body

 

 

 

Sep.23/09 - Body glued and clamped

 

 

 

Sep.23/09 - Letting the glue dry

 

 

 

Sep.23/09 - Unclamping the body

 

 

 

Sep.23/09 - Body work complete

 

 

 

 

 

Sep.23/09 - Starting to look like a guitar

 

 

 

 

 

Oct.6/09 - Routering the rebates for the purfling and edge binding

 

 

 

Oct.7/09 - Purfling started

 

 

 

 

 

Oct.8/09 - Letting the purfling set

 

 

 

Oct.18/09 - Edge binding finished

 

 

 

Oct.18/09 - Body basically complete

 

 

 

 

 

Nov.8/09 - Cutting the fretboard slots

 

 

 

Nov.26/09 - Radiusing the fretboard