Day 1

I woke up around 6am, packed my lunch, ate a nice breakfast, and headed to the bus terminal.  I took the bus across the McDonald Bridge, from Halifax , into Dartmouth.  It was a cold winter morning.  Ned told me he would pick me up near the bus terminal- this was a bonus, as I was expecting to have to transfer buses, and walk the remainder of the way.  We spoke on the way to his house about what was to be done, that day.  He is easy to talk to, and a wise man; I enjoyed the conversation. 
                Upon entering his workshop, I saw that he had some woods laid out for me to look at- amongst them were African Zebrawood, Indian Rosewood, a variety of Spruce whose name I can’t remember, Red Cedar, White Cedar, and Maple.  After inspecting them, listening to their tones, and comparing pairs of them for aesthetic purposes, I had come to a conclusion.  

                                                       Gallery of wood

                The soundboard is the heart of a guitar- it is the top surface, which faces outward whilst playing.  The wood used for this component of the guitar is a softwood- also called a tonewood, for its tonal characteristics.  Many things are taken into consideration, when choosing a wood- grain density, grain orientation, hardness, and appearance are just a few.  For this part of the guitar’s anatomy, I favoured the Red Cedar, which was a variety that came from British Columbia.  My other choices were the White Cedar, and the Spruce.  I had always been fond of Cedar trees, for their grandeur in nature, and of the wood itself, for its magnificent smell.  Spruce and Cedar vary in tone in many ways- it is often found that Spruce produces a brighter, and more instantaneous sound.  Cedar has more of a sustained delivery, and seems to cater more to mid-range and low-end notes.  Cedar is not better than Spruce, nor is Spruce better than Cedar- it is simply a matter of preference.  The sounds produced with Cedar generally have a half-life that is a bit longer than those produced by Spruce. The sound is also often described as being muddy.  I enjoy a deep, rich, and warm sound, which Cedar brings to the table.

                The sides and back of a guitar are generally made of the same wood, being a hardwood.  For these, I had Indian Rosewood, Canadian Maple, and African Zebrawood to choose from.  Zebrawood’s name is deriven from its contrast in grain- a sightly wood, indeed:

                                                                                    

                                                                 African Zebrawood

  Indian Rosewood is a relatively popular wood, in the guitar world.  While Brazilian Rosewood is more highly sought after, it is now much harder to acquire, and thus, much more expensive.  Indian Rosewood is a perfectly suitable alternative.  Maple is also quite popular, and is often related to Canada, for reasons well-known.  While all three woods were nice, the Indian Rosewood stood above the rest.  Having chosen Red Cedar for my soundboard, the dark hues of Indian Rosewood contrasted quite nicely with the lighter tones found in Cedar.  Not to mention the grain… 

                                                     Indian Rosewood and Red Cedar

                My woods were now chosen.  We had already established what I'd be using for the neck, fretboard and braces, of the guitar (Mahogany, Ebony, and Spruce, respectively), so the back, sides, and soundboard were the only choices I had to make.   And so, my day began.  

                

                First, I did some planing and scraping on the back, to remove the sawmarks and roughness of the wood’s surface.   

                                                Indian Rosewood, before planing/scraping

This, we call dressing.  It brings out the grain, levels out the surface, and brings the wood closer to the desired thickness.  Ned’s style is handcrafted- he strives to use hand tools, rather than power tools, where possible.  This meant using wood scrapers and hand planes, rather than a belt/power sander, or a planing machine.  While this takes much more effort, it is much more rewarding, and empowering, knowing that your hands, strength, and perseverance bring the guitar to where it needs to be, in the end.  This process is a tedious one.  

                                         Indian Rosewood, after much planing and scraping

            Once both panels of the back were dressed, I put them side by side, and traced an early outline of the shape of the guitar- mostly for illustrative purposes.  This step was very rewarding- I now had an idea of the shape of the guitar, and its positioning against the beautiful grain that I had revealed through my work.

                                             Soundboard bracing/guitar shape template

                                                                            Behold...

I continued to to do some planing on the inner edges of the book-matched Red Cedar panels.  This step is done to ensure a snug and flush fit for the glue joining process. The edges must remain at a perfect 90 degree angle, and must be level, throughout.  It should also be known that any planing you do on one edge, you must do on the other, to keep the amount taken off of each panel the same- this is to make sure that your sides are still properly book-matched, and that the grain meets up, at the seam, where it should.  

                                 Shavings from the planing of the soundboard's inner edges

 After much planing and examining, I was ready to join the pieces.  I applied glue to one edge, and pressed them together on a rig that Ned had made.  Once they were together, I applied wooden wedges to one side, to force the two pieces of wood against each other.  A 5 pound weight was applied on the top, to make sure no bowing occurred.  

                                       The soundboard's glue-joining setup

                                           A closeup of the wedging system

 
  While the soundboard’s glue joint dried, I began to plane some Spruce planks that Ned had cut out for me, to be used for braces.  The Spruce is quarter-sawn, meaning that the tree is cut into quartered pieces, vertically, relative to a trees natural orientation- this leaves you with 4 pieces, that are pie-shaped, upon viewing them from the top or bottom.  The reason for quarter-sawn pieces is to have a grain orientation that is most structurally sound.  Grain runs in different dimensions, and to have the most sturdy pieces of wood you can have, you have to cut and plane them, accordingly.  Having the two planes of grain perpendicular to each other makes the wood sturdier, and having the grain parallel to each other relative to the cut of wood, is important, as well.  So I planed the braces down to various thicknesses, according to where they would be used, on the guitar.  Some were for the soundboard, and some were for the back.  The back braces were thicker than the soundboard’s.  I used calipers to measure the thickness of each brace, carefully planing each one down to the proper thickness, down to the tenth of a millimeter.  

                                        A planer, calipers, and a few of the Spruce braces

                                        A large planer, grouped with Indian Rosewood and
                                                       Spruce shavings left in its wake.

This concluded the first day.  I had chosen my woods, dressed one side of the back of the guitar, set my soundboard in place, with a glue joint, and did a preliminary planing of my braces.  It had been a good and productive day- I had done more than I thought I would!

                                                                               Me!