The original sketch for the head stock was just that and I never really cared for it. It’s funny how something as simple as this can be so difficult to make into something presentable.

Of course, I could have simply stuck with a straight Martin peghead, or a variation such as those done by Collings, Santa Cruz, and the likes:

The looks of the straight pegheads are appealing to me, especially the slender ones like the Bourgeois. But because this OM has to end up looking like something I made, I opted for a slender, but different design:

Over all, it came out pretty nicely, but the curves may need some tweaking. I’ll take the jig with me to the next buildiing session to see if it’s useable.

Now of course, a nice peg head can’t do without a nice bit of abalone of mother-of-pearl inlay. I cut the capital N earlier to get a bit of a feel for the material, but like with the head stock itself, I feel I could do better.

One option I’m seriously considering is using a banner like I drew in the picture above. That would require doing a bit of pearl engraving, which I’ve been wanting to try since I read this aricle about the subject in the StewMac weekly newsletter some time ago.

The other option is to take contact some of the pearl suppliers who do custom CNC cut pearl. I like this option because it would allow for some really nice lettering/design to be inlaid. Difficult decision.

During the last session, I was routeing the rosette channels. I made a mistake on the second ring; it’s a bit wider, so it needs some more passes with the Dremel router. Unfortunately I didn’t pay attention to the direction, so instead of routeing inwards, I went to the outside of the ring. To make matters worse, I ended up make the channel too wide. We decided to turn the op over and start again on the other side.

So… we start again:

To compensate for the annoying mistake on the top, the glued back with old style-28 zipper strip came out nicely:

Time to get the back to the right thickness: approx. 2.7mm. An easy job on the rotating sander:

And finally: the OM shape drawn onto the back:

Although I’m roughly following Alex Willis’ book Step-by-Step Guitar Making I want my OM to have some Martin-like looks, so I won’t use the bridge and headstock shape used in the book’s plan.

I’m considering an ebony pyramid bridge because I like the vintage look.

While browsing around I came across Charles A. Hoffman’s page showing how he makes them. Being a complete wood working novice I wonder if it is a good idea… if someone like Hoffman says they’re difficult to produce then I’m getting slightly worried. Something to think about.

Yes, it’s been a while (again), but with reason. My wonderful daughter Kate was born on November 10!  So, after a few weeks off I returned to the building sessions.

The top came out nicely jointed. The seam looks perfect and strong.

I continued on the back. It was pretty much the same procedure as I used for the top. The main difference is that the back has a decorative back strip. It’s known as a zig-zag or zipper strip. This kind of seam was used on the glorious old Martin guitars in the thirties as part of their Style-28 and was discontinued in 1947. More info about style 28 can be found here.

The halves were planed on a shooting board, dry fitted, glued and clamped up:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3171/3065918747_dc7c3ceab6.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3217/3066760044_2f1fe77c2e.jpg

Apart from jointing the back, I managed to get started on the rosette (the decoration around the sound hole). The rosette will be made up of three rings. I routed the first channel for the inner most ring and started on the second. More to follow in two weeks time.

It’s been a been few weeks since my last post, mostly because I started a new job on the same day as I started the builders course. So far, I’ve been to two sessions and I’m absolutely thrilled. Topics covered so far:

• some general instructions and health and safety precautions
• using the different hand and electric tools around the shop
• selecting wood
• joining the top

Unfortunately I forgot to bring a proper camera, so I only had an iPhone at my disposal which doesn’t really work in low-light environments. But still, here are a couple of shots:

East Indian rosewood back and sidesThe set has some pretty stripes, which I expect to come out nicely under a finish. But we're a long way away from that.

Joining the top

During the second session I glued the alpine spruce soundboard together. The whole joining procedure took me about an hour and a half, which included creating a shooting board to plane a straight joint and use a technique called candling to check for unevenness or light shining through the planed halves. All this was done much quicker than I expected, so it might just have been beginners’ luck.

Next time I’ll be joining the back halves using the same procedure, but I exect the rosewood to be different to work with than the spruce. I also hope to begin working on the neck by cutting off the headstock and creating a scarf joint to put it all back together.

All in all a lot to look forward to.

A couple of days ago I received the pearly stuff from Luthiers Supply. I ordered some slotted diamonds for a neck, some small 2mm side dots and an ounce of white MOP blanks. Tonight was my first attempt at cutting a capital N from a blank and here’s how I did it:

I used the laser printer to print out the logo which I had designed earlier. With some scissors and an X-acto knife I cut out the letter and glued it to one of the pearl blanks. Using a jewelers saw and a little jig I started to follow the outline of the paper. Note to self: take some pictures during the process as well!

I must say I’m far from disappointed at how it came out. I managed to keep it all in one piece and I got a bit of a feel for the material.

It must take lots of practice to get a nice and fluent cut. The edges on this one are terribly shaky, but for a first time I’m not complaining. Here it is against my black iPhone:

Just a quick update. Apart from reading and doing some more general research, nothing much has been going on.I did come across this new youtube channel with Luthiers Tips du Jour by O’Brien’s Guitars. I’ll keep keeping an eye on that one.

I’m still waiting on the pearl blanks and some carbide bits for inlay work, which I ordered from R.L. Schmitt after reading some favourable reviews.

On October first I’m expected for the first night of the builders course. Pretty exciting!

The last few days I spent some time looking at the different headstock designs of flattops. Because it seems a bad idea to over-complicate things on this first project, I came up with something that looks manageable on paper.

I’m not much of an artist, so bear with me, but the basic idea should be just about clear. I may end up making it a little narrower.

The inlay will be a capital N (as seen in the banner image above) in mother of pearl. I ordered some shell material from Andy de Paule at Luthiers Supplies which should be here in a week or so. Reading about inlay and techniques on inlay.com and in the Larry Robinson’s book The Art of Inlay made me decide the best thing to start with was white mother of pearl, because it’s the least expensive and easiest to cut. In theory…

This is the first post of what I hope will become an overview of the build of my first acoustic guitar.

When I started thinking about building an acoustic, I first thought about buying a kit from one of the well-known manufacturers like Stew-Mac, LMII, Blues Creek or even C.F. Martin themselves. I joined the Kit Builders Forum where I learned a lot from reading what other people are doing. I became more enthusiastic about the whole idea and started to collect some tools.

The biggest problem I’m facing is that space is limited at my place. That, together with the fact that I have no prior woodworking experience whatsoever made me decide to do my first build on a course. I have found a luthier here in the Netherlands who’s offering courses to small groups with the option to build to your personal preferences. I expect to be starting the course in October. These should be bi-weekly sessions in his workshop. I hope to be able to do smaller things at home, while doing to bigger jobs in the shop with guidance.

So far, the plan is to build an OM with walnut back and sides and an Alpine spruce top. The binding will be decided on when I see the actual wood, but I do expect I’ll be using some herringbone purfling on the top because I just love the look.

Whatever happens… it’ll be posted here. Stay tuned.