110 – Birth of a Guitar (Part 3 of 3)

Video - January 17, 2010

The exciting conclusion to Rick’s adventure into the world of lutherie. Rick does an incredible job recovering from his previous, nearly disastrous mistake. He takes us through the final assembly as well as his finishing process, which involves a number of techniques including pore-filling, French polish, and wiping varnish. Congratulations to Rick and a huge thank you for letting me tear up your video footage. I know more than a few folks have been inspired to dive into the wonderful world of instrument-making.

Jump to another part in the series:
Birth of a Guitar Pt. 1
Birth of a Guitar Pt. 2

Music provided by MusicAlley.com:
Jack Jezzro

Discussion

Rick January 17, 2010 4:26 pm

Yeah! It ended happily! I bet Marc had you all fooled!

Thanks for watching, and thanks for all the great comments/emails. It was a blast, and my wife loves it!

Reply
- devon January 18, 2010 12:20 am
  
  Thank you for making this video. As both a woodworker and a guitarist, I throughly enjoyed watching these three videos as they were released. Very impressive craftsmanship. I can only image how stressfully this project must have been…Not everyone has the mental fortitude to tackle something like this-and finish it. I often get frustrated when working on a piece and have to put it aside for months before returning to it. I’m curious if you had to do the same, take a month off, when you realized you needed to have shaped the fretboard before gluing it? Either way.. very impressive work, and thanks recording it and sharing it with us.
  
  Reply
  - Rick January 18, 2010 7:23 am
    
    No, I’m the complete opposite! I actually realized my mistake while laying in bed that night, and at about 10:45, it hit me like a truck. I got about three hours of sleep, and knew if I didn’t find a solution fast it would kill me. The time from realization of mistake to completing the fix was under 24 hours, but it seemed like 24 years!
    
    Reply
- Hal Blondeau January 22, 2010 10:13 am
  
  It looked like fun, but I am glad you were doing and I was watching. Great lessons that we have all learned in woodworking and that is mistakes happen. Only patience, imagination and some talent will help us correct them. I suppose this applies to life as well as woodworking. Nice job! Hal
  
  Reply
Caleb Sarty January 17, 2010 4:44 pm

bravo Rick! That is a fine looking instrument. Job well Done.

6.5 hours to fix the fretboard taper!?! Probably seemed like a week.

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Dan Drabek January 17, 2010 5:04 pm

Congratulations on completing your guitar Rick. It’s a lot of work and a lot of problems to solve and you stuck it out. I don’t know how many woodworkers have ever built a guitar, but I bet the percentage is pretty small.

The G string problem you describe is called a “wolf note”. Most guitars have at least one wolf note, and sometimes several, somewhere on the fingerboard. Even guitars built by experienced luthiers can be plagued by wolf notes. As far as I know, there is no way to fix them, short of sanding the top thinner in some places. But this is a hit or miss proposition, and can only be done before the guitar is finished. Some luthiers string up and play a guitar for a few weeks prior to finishing, just to be able to make this kind of adjustment. But most do not. If the guitar plays well, I wouldn’t lose sleep over it. For a first instrument, I think you did a splendid job.

DD

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- Rick January 17, 2010 6:00 pm
  
  That makes me sad. It is unbelievably noticeable when my wife is practicing, to the point where it is so annoying she dislikes playing it. I don’t blame her, either. It makes my ears cry.
  
  Reply
  - Dan Drabek January 17, 2010 6:29 pm
    
    There is one thing you might try. One Australian luthier adjusts and tunes his tops by sticking lumps of Blue Tack adhesive in different places to dampen vibrations. You might get some and experiment with it. Usually the areas that are most sensitive to adjustment are below and to the sides of the bridge plate (if you can reach in there far enough). I’d string the guitar with only the G string and try positioning a piece of the Blue Tack putty in different places and see if it helps to soften the wolf note.
    
    Good luck with it.
    
    DD
    
    Reply
    - Rick January 17, 2010 11:22 pm
      
      Dan-
      
      Great idea! I had always assumed it was just oddly resonating throughout the entire body, and not something that might be as local as just the bridge. I literally filled the entire body with bags of lead shot and still had the wolf note, but now that I think about it, we never really tried to dampen the soundboard (sometimes the simplest solutions are the hardest to come by…)
      
      Thanks,
      Rick
    - Dan Drabek January 18, 2010 9:20 am
      
      I’m also assuming you’ve eliminated the possibility that it’s a buzzing sound. Sometimes a loose brace on the top can vibrate at certain frequencies. But the most common problem is that of a string buzzing against a fret. On an open G string, my first thought would be that the nut slot was cut a bit too deeply. But you mentioned that you tried a new nut and that didn’t solve it.
      
      One last thing–does the wolf note go away when you re-tune the G string to a different note? If remains, it would tend to rule out a frequency problem. If it goes away, then it would reinforce it. Before trying the Blue Tack method, I don’t see why you couldn’t test it out it from the outside of the top by simply placing the heel of your hand in various spots on the top. and plucking the note. If you can find the spot that works, then you can add the Blue Tack to that spot on the inside for a permanent cure. If the hand method doesn’t work–it’s back to the drawing board.
      
      Last ditch suggestion would be to take the guitar to a very experienced guitar repairman/maker and let them take a look at it. A good one can sometimes work magic. :->
      
      DD
    - Rick January 18, 2010 1:42 pm
      
      The nut slot for the G string looks to be good. It’s very clear that it’s coming from the bridge. Tuning the string higher or lower does eliminate the frequency. I’ve been in contact with a repair guy who wants to look at it if I can’t solve it. Rats!!
Gary Bell January 17, 2010 5:33 pm

Wow!
Totally totally cool!

My wife is also a classical guitar player. This inspires me to make her guitar too.

Btw.
Was that a tuning program you were using on your laptop? How does it work and where did you get it?

Thanks
again,
Gary

Reply
- Rick January 17, 2010 6:04 pm
  
  It’s not a program, it’s a website. http://www.howtotuneaguitar.org/
  
  Good luck with your build!
  
  Reply
- Rick January 17, 2010 6:05 pm
  
  It looks like the problem has been fixed :P
  
  Reply
Joe Lorensen January 17, 2010 6:06 pm

Outstanding series…..I would love to see this become a more frequent addition to the wood whisper website. I am sure there are plenty of other woodworkers out there that have the ability to put together great vids. Also, a big congrats to Rick, the guitar looks and sounds great.

Reply
WoodyWoodWrecker January 17, 2010 6:20 pm

Great set of videos and a great job on the guitar. I only need to learn two things before trying this for myself. How to work with wood better and how to play the guitar. Other than those two things, I’m all set. Thanks for sharing.

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Curious George January 17, 2010 6:29 pm

Rick, congratulations and thanks for taking us along on your journey. There is something about watching a project from start to finish (including the mundane parts but especially the mistakes) that make it so much more informative than just an article. I hope you film your next project for us to watch. Cheers.

Reply
Bruce January 17, 2010 6:32 pm

Awesome Rick – just awesome. You have far more patience then me. Great Job!

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runningwood January 17, 2010 6:42 pm

Great job Rick, this was very inspiring and you did a great job.

Can you estimate the total hours you devoted to this project ?

Reply
- Rick January 17, 2010 6:55 pm
  
  I didn’t want to keep a running total of hours, because I didn’t want to depress myself as the project went along. However, I shot about 50 hours of video, and probably had the camera running only half the time, so I would estimate at 100 hours.
  
  I was told by a local luthier that the first guitar you make (taking into account time and material) would cost about $5,000 but be worth $50 lol!
  
  Reply
Charles Green January 17, 2010 7:17 pm

Thanks for posting these. I really appreciate someone taking the time to slow your project down and film it. I would hate to show all the mistakes I have to fix along the way.

Reply
brian higgins January 17, 2010 7:20 pm

awesome videos! glad it all worked out for you except for that one note problem, but if thats all that was wrong i think you came out pretty good. i really hope we will be seeing more of you in the future either throug marc or your own site. by the way, what kind of finish did you have on your assembly table? was it a two part epoxy finish?it was pretty glossy.

Reply
- Rick January 17, 2010 10:35 pm
  
  Yes, it’s an epoxy finish. It’s about six months old, and so far, I’m pretty happy with it!
  
  Reply
- Derek L January 18, 2010 1:10 am
  
  Check back to the comments on the first video – he describes the process pretty thoroughly there.
  
  http://www.thewoodwhisperer.co.....itar-pt-1/
  
  Reply
Jim Jones January 17, 2010 7:56 pm

Wow!! I watched all three Parts tonight in one sitting. It was fascinating, educational and entertaining. Great job Rick and great job Marc.

I learned some more woodworking techniques as well I can apply in other ww projects.

Now, if you don’t mind, I need to dash down the hall to see a man about a dog. :0

Reply
Dan January 17, 2010 8:56 pm

Rick – great work, definitely an impressive outcome and something to be proud of. Good luck with the tuning.

Cheers!
Dan

Reply
Aluminum Extrusions January 17, 2010 9:22 pm

Thanks Rick,

Looks like a sweet instrument. I have a few friends who build their own acoustics and electrics, I am always so impressed by them and by the amount of work and precision they put into them. I can say the same for yours. Thanks for sharing

Reply
Derek L January 18, 2010 1:11 am

Awesome Rick. My woodworking mentor would say you’ve now entered the realm of the master craftsman – it’s not that you don’t make mistakes, it’s that their hard to find. :)

Reply
Tom (wizer) January 18, 2010 3:32 am

Hey great result Rick. You really showed skill in rising above the problems that you experienced. The stand you made was just showing off tho! Just kidding, loved it. It’s a bummer about the wolf note, but maybe that will give you an incentive to do another. The next one will take half as long, I’m sure. Keep us informed with any future developments.

Marc, hope we can get some more projects like this on TWW. Really great idea.

Reply
Ger January 18, 2010 6:45 am

Rick,

Fantastic work – I really enjoyed watching the videos and can

Reply
Nate S January 18, 2010 12:56 pm

Very nice! I’ve been building up to starting my own. I built my first cabinet makers workbench this summer in preparation and have been slowly acquiring hand and a few power tools that i know i will need.

As far as the wolf note, I have not done it before but plan to try on my build but from what I’ve heard from others is that the trick most professionals use to reduce the chances prior to build is that they actually “tap” the sound board and thin it out based on the “tone” or “ring” it gives off. they say that if you hear frequencies that don’t harmonize you then thin the inside down in that section until you hear the frequencies converge. It’s tricky and you can easily go past that point but that’s what I’ve heard and thought i would share in hopes that it helps in the future, and the guitar really turned out great!

Reply
Vic January 18, 2010 1:58 pm

Rick, I’m really glad you found that rogue harmonic! I’m sure your wife is, too. Thanks for taking us along on this journey. I hope it inspires more of our TWW brethren (and sistren?) to do the same. There is a lot of talent among the people that frequent Marc’s site. I’d love to see more vids like yours!!

Reply
Marty January 18, 2010 3:41 pm

Great series! Sorry to hear about the wolf note but it sounds like you solved the problem. (Did you?)I was a sound engineering major in college and solving harmonics problems in wood is damn near impossible because wood moves. You can solve one problem but create another. I liked Dan’s idea of the Blue tack, but you may have to settle with minimizing the problem harmonic.

Reply
Dan Drabek January 18, 2010 5:42 pm

Marc,

Who’s playing the slick background guitar music? (Especially the piece at 11:16)

DD

Reply
Gerald January 18, 2010 6:08 pm

Rick,

After seeing the first installment, I couldn’t wait for the next ones. Your video was one of the most interesting that I have experienced. Your skills and workmanship are inspiring. Thanks for your time and effort in producing this series.

Reply
Taylor January 18, 2010 6:40 pm

Rick,

What a cool ride! Thanks for letting us see that. That guitar is SWEEEEEET!

Marc,

Thanks for posting that on your site. That’s pretty sporty of ya to host the work of other people, as you’ve always done.

Reply
Tony Z January 18, 2010 7:35 pm

Great Videos and nice job on the guitar. I’m online right now looking for parts for mine. Thanks for the inspiration.

Reply
Tim January 18, 2010 7:37 pm

Wow that is incredible, I have been wondering how many hours did it take?

Reply
- Rick January 18, 2010 7:42 pm
  
  I didn’t keep track of it for purposes of not wanting to go insane, but I estimated it to be about 100 hours.
  
  Reply
Claude Stewart January 18, 2010 8:24 pm

This was a fine series of shows. What a great looking guitar.

Reply
‘John Hamilton January 19, 2010 9:03 am

Hey Rick,

Great job on the guitar, and I think it sounds great. I don’t remember seeing a truss rod for straightening the neck…was one provided with the kit? If you had gone with a steel string guitar, would it have changed the process much, with the added stresses to the neck? What about building a solid body electric and letting us watch? Thanks for you contribution!

Thanks, Marc, for sharing this with us!

Reply
- Terry McKnight January 20, 2010 1:25 am
  
  Hi John,
  If you want to see how a custom made solid body guitar is built I can recommend the DVD from Antony at http://www.acdguitars.co.uk/
  
  It is an awesome video showing how he made a guitar from a dead cherry tree in his garden showing all parts of the process through to the finished product!
  
  Best wishes from the UK
  
  Terry
  
  Reply
- Dan Drabek January 20, 2010 2:32 pm
  
  Classical guitars don’t have adjustable truss rods. Some have laminated reinforcement strips, but many are just solid wood. Classical guitars don’t exert as much string tension as steel string guitars. You will usually see more bowed tops than bowed necks.
  
  DD
  
  Reply
Terry McKnight January 19, 2010 9:05 am

Well done Rick. A fabulous project and well worth the wait for the final video. Rogue resonances are difficult to retrospectively cure and maybe due to slight misplacing of a rib or thicknessing. The Guild Of American Luthiers (www.luth.org) may be a good source of trying how to determine a fix for next time.

Best wishes from the UK

Terry

Reply
Jeremy Meeks January 19, 2010 9:24 am

Awesome project Rick! Congrats on finishing it. Being a professional musician, I was absolutely captivated by the process you’ve documented. I love seeing how things are made and though I don’t play guitar, I’m around them constantly and since your videos ahve come out, I have been looking more closely at the construction of each guitar I see.

Again congrats and I can’t wait to see your next one!

Reply
Magnus HÃ¶gfeldt January 19, 2010 2:27 pm

The wolf note issue applies to almost any stringed instrument. It occurs when the strings hit frequency of the “tone of the instrument” (imagine if the instrument was a bottle, and you blew across the tone hole – the note made here is the problem).

To avoid this, you need to tune every part of the instrument to different notes. If all parts of your instruments “likes a G”, then the entire instrument will respond to this note.

I can recommend the book “The luthier’s handbook: a guide to building great tone in acoustic stringed instruments”, covering most aspects of this problem.

Nice instrument you made, and nice comeback with the fretboard :-)

Reply
Charlie Hallman January 20, 2010 10:48 am

It’s nice to see a project like that from start to finish. Great Job!

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Matt Mendel January 20, 2010 12:53 pm

That was a great series, thanks for posting the videos! I am certainly intrigued by the process, I’ve got a brother who plays guitar, hmmm….

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Lynn Reid January 20, 2010 2:52 pm

Hi

Concerning the rogue G. I noticed when you were tuning that one note “died” quickly. If that was the G then the issue may be the bearing…most likely at the nut. Filing the G groove a bit lower may help with the sound. I have been a piano tuner/rebuilder for 40 years and have ran across such problems many times. Too much bearing produces a lot of attack and a quick decay. Also…in the piano world there are “false beats” which are difficult to deal with…often impossible as they are endemic to things made of wood. The braces you glued under the soundboard would also have to serve as harmonic traps…a slightly misplaced one could cause a lot of things. At this point you would have little recourse other than to live with it.

I really enjoyed watching you build the guitar.

Lynn

Reply
Ray Curtis January 20, 2010 10:04 pm

What an amazing peice of work…. Thanks for sharing. I have always wanted to build a guitar, but never had the courage or time. Watching you do it was almost as good, and probably had better results.

Reply
Bill Akins January 22, 2010 6:19 am

I have been keeping up with your guitar video sereies on Marc’s site. The guitar turned out beautiful and I am very impressed with your work. I hope to see more of your work in the future.

Reply
Russell Kay January 22, 2010 9:05 am

I’m curious about why, if you didn’t want a high-gloss finish, you bothered to fill in the pores of the back and sides. In addition to adding to the gloss, I would think that the process might have some undesirable effects on the sound. I’ve never made a guitar, but I’ve been reading about the process for a couple of decades, and I’ve never before seen anyone refer to pore-filling for a guitar — for furniture, yes, but an instrument, no.

Reply
- thewoodwhisperer January 22, 2010 9:18 am
  
  Don’t mean to answer for Rick here but I have seen numerous mentions of pore-filling on guitars. If you want that truly high gloss surface, just like with furniture, you need to pore-fill. If I remember correctly, Rick said he wanted to experiment with French polish, although his wife doesn’t like high gloss. I imagine that’s why he did it that way. How all this stuff affects harmonics, I have no clue. But do a quick Google search of “pore-filling guitar” and you’ll find a number of resources for products, techniques, and even videos.
  
  Reply
- Rick January 22, 2010 9:29 am
  
  Marc took the words… off of my… fingers? Anyway… he’s correct on all accounts. The absolute best resource I found about finishing guitars was http://www.guitarsint.com/arti.....ontentID/1
  
  Reply
- Dan Drabek January 22, 2010 10:49 am
  
  In fact, virtually all guitars have the pores filled on the back, sides and neck. Even those with flat finishes. A guitar would look raw and unfinished without grain filling.
  
  The top is the important surface for the generation of sound and is generally made of spruce or cedar. Both of those woods have closed grain and require no pore filling. The back and sides are merely reflectors of the sound and are not affected by the finish. (as an experiment, Torres made a guitar with spruce top and paper mache sides and back and it sounded just fine).
  
  DD
  
  Reply
Dave Powers January 25, 2010 10:37 pm

Rick,
Forgive me if I missed it but I was wondering what the fix was for the ghost note? I noticed you mentioned it was resolved but I didn’t see how.
Thanks,
Dave

Reply
Tim Hockenberry January 26, 2010 1:30 pm

Rick,
Thanks for the video. I watched the first 2 installments on one night, and have been waiting for the 3rd to find out how you fixed the problem and to see the finished product. I am on vacation at Lake Tahoe, and am sitting in the room watching your video, just to show how interested I was! Great job. You get about a million husband points for this gift. I got my wife some pajamas from pajamas.com. I don’t think I will let her see this video, because it makes me look pretty lame… Great job again. Tim

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David January 30, 2010 5:16 am

Fantastic series! Congratulations on a lovely guitar.
As a guitar player of about 25 years and a learning woodworker of just a few years, I enjoyed seeing the process from the maker’s viewpoint.
Rick, on January 17 you said the problem was fixed, just out of curiosity what did the trick?
Big thanks to Marc for including this series on one of the absolute best sites on the internet!!

Reply
- Rick January 30, 2010 3:58 pm
  
  David-
  
  I think you’re referring to my reply to Gary Bell… that reply was submitted accidentally as a reply to my post above it before I realized the posts have ‘edit’ buttons. The wolf-note is still there, ringing like a bell :(
  
  Sorry to confuse!
  
  Reply
Paulg February 22, 2010 2:21 pm

Really enjoyed this series. Kept me coming back to see the updates.

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Justin October 29, 2010 7:19 am

Really enjoyed the videos. You are very talented! Keep up the good work!

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Marcel January 9, 2011 12:22 pm

I found the video series very interesting and informative. I think you did an admirable job recovering from your mistake with the fretboard. That’s the true test of any woodworker because mistakes are going to happen.

I gave it some thought and concluded that the increased resonance most likely resulted from “eyeballing” the radius on the back. I don’t remember you saying it but I believe you did the same thing on the top.

Those radiuses were probably one of the more crucial elements determining the tone and resonance of the guitar. Depending on how the top and bottom radiuses are oriented to each other your guitar likely ended up with an excessive amount of what you could call “rogue” sound waves bouncing against each other inside the guitar canceling, or attenuating, some frequences and multiplying others.

Just about all acoustic guitars will end up with at least one note that resonates to some degree. The least possible is what you’re shooting for of course. Once an instrument is completed unfortunately you’re pretty much stuck with it if you end up with a severe resonance problem. But there are ways of minimizing them as others have indicated. Softening (or avoiding if it’s that bad) the G notes while playing will probably give you the most immediate remedy.

I’m quite certain your video, complete with the problems you encountered, will be a big help in the future to anyone thinking about attempting an acoustic guitar of their own. I definitely got a great deal out of it. Many thanks to you and Marc for making them available to us.

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Cowboy59 January 23, 2011 4:32 am

Rick,

Thank you so much. My 14 year old son and I watch videos on the TWW often. We were fascinated by your effort and patience, as well as your humbleness. You did an excellent job and we hope to tackle a guitar once we have better honed our word working skills.

Thank you for the inspiration and we hope if you build a second one you will video the effort as well and share it with all of us again.

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Dennis Campbell February 6, 2011 6:59 pm

Absolutly awesome. I enjoyed every bit of the 3 videos.
I have a partly finished one and have materials for at least 4 more. I’m inspired to get’er done!

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Ben March 5, 2011 11:34 am

Fantastic work Rick, a big thank you for sharing it with everyone!

I’m currently working on my second steel string acoustic and I can totally empathise with the character building effects of making mistakes and living in that growth space between making it and rectifying it :-)

One thing that has been re-enforced for me through woodworking and especially guitar building is that there is a million ways to skin a cat (apologies to cat lovers :-) For example your method of inserting the back braces into the linings and then attaching the backplate later was totally new to me and I marveled at how it would never have occurred to me to do it that way but we can both get to a happy end result – wonderful!

I’m not sure if you had this book as a resource during your building:

http://www.cumpiano.com/Home/Book/textbook.html

It was published in 1980 and as far as I know has never been updated yet 30 years later it remains the absolute go-to book for aspiring guitar builders, I recommend it to any body consider taking on this extremely rewarding project.

Best to all and thanks again!

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Steven Leonti May 16, 2011 8:38 am

Kudos to Rick & Marc for an excellent video series! I have been contemplating building an Electric Guitar for some time now. I would order a “kit” rather than having to start from scratch. I know that it’s the wimpy way out but after watching the videos, I don’t think that I would want to try building an acoustic guitar. I don’t play any instrument, so this would be a project dedicated as gift for a good friend.

Rick: You should be very proud of what you accomplished, especially considering that it was your first guitar build. Keep up the great work & I hope we get to see more of your projects.

Steve

Reply
Kristoffer September 24, 2011 7:50 pm

Wow!!! Talk about inspiring. Not only the craftsmanship, but the patience. I wont say that it looked like fun, but it had to be an extremely rewarding project.

Reply

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110 – Birth of a Guitar (Part 3 of 3)

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