Upon arriving to Ned's house, I met his parents, who had stayed the night, for a visit, after their return from Cuba. I had heard Ned speak of his parents before, so it was kind of neat to meet them.
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| The slippers I wear, whilst working in the shop. Comfy! This are also my favourite pair of socks- I have two of them. |
We headed into the shop, and got to work. I began by doing a bit of scraping on the exterior surface of my soundboard, to get it to the almost-complete stage. This included looking at it from different angles, next to a light, to identify any potential discrepancies on the texture of its surface. There were a couple little spots that stood out, but they were eventually rectified via scraping and sanding. The reverse/interior side of the soundboard hadn't been touched, yet, so it was still very rough looking- the glue squeeze-out from the seam was still visible, as were the saw marks from the initial cutting of it.
I put my soundboard aside, as Ned directed me to start working on the braces for the back of the guitar. We put the back of the guitar on the brace placing cradle, and placed the braces on top of the back, arc-side down. The cradle helps you to properly assess where the braces will be, to make the back as structurally sound as possible. There are 4 braces for the back, that run in a manner that is perpendicular to the neck of the guitar. I placed the braces, and used a pencil to mark exactly where their edges stopped, on the centre strip.
Ned briefly discussed different theories on brace placement, and mentioned how the guy who mentored him on his first guitar liked to place the braces so that they weren't exactly parallel to each other- his reasoning behind this was that if the braces are perfectly parallel, sound waves have more of a chance to bounce back and forth, indefinitely, between two braces, which could very slightly, theoretically, alter the sound, via constructive or destructive wave interference. Conversely, the fact that we shape the braces to have a peaked profile, not dissimilar to that of a church window or door, still enables the waves to bounce back and forth off of the braces- but the gradual grade to the brace's peak forces the waves up and out, and back into the greater hollow of the body. Each time we spoke of sound propagation and the physics of sound, the more grateful I was for taking two physics courses in my high school years. I enjoy the sciences, very much so. They are the laws of existence!
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| The first brace channel, paired with an assortment of braces and chisels |
Upon marking the four brace points on my centre strip, I then used a large chisel to very carefully score the Mahogany centre strip within the lines of the brace marking, and then used a much smaller chisel to scrape out the entirety of the wood between the two lines. These channels allow the brace to intersect the centre strip, and be flush against the back of the guitar. I did this process four times, until I had four slots that were roughly 7.3mm wide.
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| All of the braces, placed in their respective channels- again, with my selection of chisels |
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| Clamping setup- angle 1 |
Now, it was time to glue. Before doing this, we set up a clamping system using different wood shims, arranging them so we could use four clamps to effectively clamp all 4 braces, from both sides of the centre. Upon finishing this bit of preparatory work, we set our clamping systems aside, and I proceeded to apply glue to the braces, one at a time. The glue is applied to arced side of each brace, as the clamping process conforms the back of the guitar to the very slight curve of the braces, and of the brace cradle's, whose curves the braces' are modeled after. Upon gluing and placing each of the four braces,
we set our clamping systems back in place,
and tightened the clamps, in their respective positions.
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| Clamping setup - angle 2 |
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| Clamping setup- angle 3 |
While the glue dried, I did a bit more work on the soundboard, touching it up to get its exterior as close to final as I could. A this point, I indulged in a pot of black Passionfruit black tea, which I continued to sip on throughout the morning and afternoon- tea is a most splendid beverage.
Ned had been periodically calling me over to his workbench throughout the day, showing me the progress he was making with a repair that he was working on. He had been re-fretting a Spanish Flamenco guitar that a gentleman had brought in, which was made in Seville. This process involved tearing out all of the old frets, and putting in new ones. It's a long and tedious process, as when you rip out the old frets, a lot of chipping on your fingerboard will naturally occur, due to the resistance caused by the bevels on the fret tang. The fingerboard of this guitar was Ebony, which is a very hard and dense wood- ebony is especially prone to chipping, due to its dense nature. It's so dense, that when placed in water, instead of floating, as most woods do, it sinks! Throughout the day, I observed the steps and techniques taken to fret this guitar, and the preventative measures he took to protect the finish of the guitar, in the process. I knew I would have to fret my guitar, when it was time, so seeing some of the steps involved was good insight. There is lots of filing involved, and it is crucial that all of the frets are the same height. Some frets are going to naturally be a tiny bit higher than others, just due to minor discrepancies in the slot which they are seated- filing is done to bring their heights to the one point. After they are all level, you must crown them- this process is to properly round the frets, once they have been leveled, and involves filing from all sides, to make sure they are properly shaped. The top of each fret will have a slight plateau, for optimum string-to-fret contact. I'll get into more details of this process, once I get there on my own guitar!
We took a lunch break, and then returned to the shop, at which point the glue on my braces had dried. I removed the clamps, and the structures that aided the process. The first step was to use the smallest of the wood scrapers to remove the glue squeeze-out from each side of the brace, where it was now glued to the back. This was a process that involved becoming acquainted with the sound and feel of the contact made by the scraper with the wood- it was necessary to get the scraper's corner as tight against the right angle of the brace and back as possible, to make a flush contact, to scrape the entirety of the glue residue from the wood. It took some time to get the method and technique down, but after a few tries, accompanied by tips and demonstration from Ned, I got the hang of it, and proceeded to remove all of the excess glue. Once that was done, it was time to start shaping the braces.
Each of the four braces, and all of the braces within the guitar, for that matter, would be shaped to have a peak, as I mentioned before, similar to the shape of church doors or stained glass windows.
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| Here, you can see a brace, the protective tape put down on either side, to protect the Indian Rosewood, the small plane being used to shape the braces, and a thin ribbon of Spruce, taken off by the plane. |
consistent, and aesthetically appealing as
possible, as a couple of the back braces will
be visible through the soundhole.
Prestige is key!
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| The final shape of the braces, pre-scalloping (angle 1). |
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| Angle 2 |
It is also worth mentioning that, as I mentioned in previous blog entries, the braces are purely for structural integrity, and different factors are taken into consideration during the shaping, planing, and cutting processes of them. The three types of grain orientation are half of it, and the shaping and placement of the braces is the other half. The closer to straight each of your grain orientations are, and at right angles, relative to each other, the more structurally sound your braces will be. It is hard to properly illustrate this concept without an array of pictures, which I do not currently have, but perhaps I will provide a supplementary entry on this phenomenon.
Towards the end of the day, being Friday, Ned and I split a pint of Estrella Damm, which is a Catalan pilsener, brewed in Barcelona since 1876, by S.A. Damm. This is a crisp and refreshing pale lager, brewed at 5.25% ABV. "Estrella" means "star," in Spanish and Catalan, alike. Ned deemed it appropriate to drink a Spanish beer, since he was working on a Spanish guitar- I wholeheartedly concurred.
Now that my braces were properly shaped, it was time to do the scalloping on the edges of each one. Scalloping is tapering the edges of the braces, once they near the edge of the guitar. I placed a template on top of the braces, that was the exact shape of the back of the guitar. Since I still had a circumferential margin of wood on the back of the guitar, the template allowed me to mark where the cuts would be made on the back of the guitar, when it came time to cut it to its final shape. I marked on each side of the four braces where the edge of the guitar would be, and proceeded to measure 3.5cm in from each one of these, and make an additional line, at this point. Once I did this to all of the braces, I began scalloping. To do this, I placed the tip of the large chisel, beveled side down, on the outer edge of the pencil mark, and began removing strips of wood from the braces. This is also a process which involves feeling what you are doing, in order to get the smoothest and most fluid stroke down pat. I continued to do this to each of the outer edges of the braces, until the thinnest portion measured about 3mm. The scallop, viewed from the side, is essentially an exponential, or even logarithmic curve, that is aesthetically pleasing, and very natural looking. It all boils down to the math and physics, in which the theory of sound propagation is rooted.
Somewhere around this point, Ned and I split another brew, which I provided. This one was Dieu du Ciel's Solstice d'Hiver (French for Winter Solstice), a 9.8% ABV barley wine, brewed in Montreal, QC. Exceptionally smooth for such a strong beer, this beverage was a good supplement to our day's end.
It was very rewarding to see the completed scalloping of the back braces- the shapes therein were very nice to look at, and possessed an inherent beauty and sense of majesty. The shape is created as such, for a reason- Ned explained this all to me. The back of the guitar functions in a manner not dissimilar to that of a common loudspeaker- the center is the core, and thus, the sturdiest, as is the case with a speaker. The speaker has its rigid electromagnetic core, and its thin fibrous membrane, flowering from the centre. This thin membrane vibrates, and breathes, as a diaphragm does, enabling the transfer and propagation of sound waves- this is what the back of a guitar does. The scalloping enables the edge of the guitar to flex a bit more, theoretically, than the core, allowing it to exhale, or expel the sound, through the soundhole. The braces are also fitted into chiseled channels in the lining of the sides of the guitar, which are seated at the seams created by joining the guitar's back and soundboard. In my guitar, this lining will be a solid strip of wood, which lines the interior. Having the braces each seated within this strip, it enables any unforeseen force placed upon the guitar to propagate, and spread throughout the guitar, thus weakening the potential damage of this force, instead of this force being confined to the portion of the guitar which it initially comes into contact with. Think of it as a defense system, of sorts. Instead of one part of the body being detrimentally affected, the mass of the body will distribute the blow, thus reducing potential damage. You get the picture!
The back of my guitar is now finished. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take a final picture, as my phone was too low on battery to permit me to use its camera function. Next week, I will have a picture to share- I will be going back to the shop to continue working on the soundboard, on Monday. The next step of the process will be to finish dressing the interior surface of my Red Cedar soundboard, mark the brace locations, glue the braces down, then shape, sand, and scallop them. While the back of the guitar has only four long braces, the soundboard, I believe, has 15 braces, all varying in length. Ned and I aim to have this process completed within two days' time. I can't wait!
Until next time...
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