Headstock Binding

It took a while to get the headstock binding right. Last years binding was mitered at the tight curves, which I wasn't really happy with. And previous attempts (on guitars 2, 3, and 4) to bend wood around
the tight radius of my headstock profile were very difficult, I broke a lot of wood before one worked.

So this time I've redesigned the headstock to have more gradual curves so I can go back to a single piece of wood binding bent around the entire headstock. The trick was to thin the binding from .090" to .060" (yes, 1/3), which makes it able to take a tighter bend without the outside fibers breaking from too much stretching.

This approach worked well, and below is the bound headstock. It came out perfect, for the first time ever.

Not much contrast, it is Indian Rosewood against the same for the headstock overlay. I usually like more contrast in the binding, but it needs to match the binding on the rest of the guitar  and that will look good against the Curly Koa of the tone woods.

Headstock...

Made good progress on the headstock tonight.

- Sanded the back veneer smooth
- attached the front headstock plate w/ band logo
- profile routed the headstock
- drilled holes for tuners

Headstock veneer

Last night my new 5 CFM vacuum pump arrived, which meant I was in business to do some good vacuum bag veneering on the back of the headstock.

The veneer is walnut burl.

Below are some pictures of the process. When done, you can see that the veneer is nice and flat and also conforms to the curve at the base of the headstock, much better than could have been done with a clamping caul. Note use of a support caul under the angled headstock to keep it from breaking under pressure.

Rosette time....

I decided to keep moving forward by starting on the rosette of the soundboard today. I had bought a billet of Walnut burl which I intended to slice up to make one piece rosette rings (3/4" wide). However, after slicing it up, I found it was completely unimpressive in it's figuring. So I decided to try the Coolibah Burl that I had on hand (no, I've never heard of that species either). 

However, this wood which was easily 8 times heavier (if not more) than the walnut proved too dense for my bandsaw. Even when over-tensioned, by 1/2" re-saw blade developed so much "suck" that the blade was exiting the side of the billet in the middle of a 1/4" slice.

After much hand wringing, I decided to cut it up into 2"x2" blanks, and cut those to 1/8" thickness and make a segmented rosette circle. This worked well and you can see the results below.

This will be bounded by Mother of Pearl inlay on the inner and outer radius.

Headblock and neck preview

I made the head block this weekend and below you can see a preview of the neck with fretboard and headstock overlay in place.

Making the fretboard

I'm waiting on a better vacuum pump so I can veneer the back of the headstock, so I decided to get going on the fretboard.

It's Indian Rosewood, bound in Indian Rosewood, but still a bit of contrast.

I decided to try something a little different. I've been using Superglue (CA glue) for years to do my binding, but it can still take a while to dry. So I decided to try some "accelerator" that truly makes it instant. After looking around on the web, I found that Bob Smith Industries makes some, and they are in fact located just 2 miles from my house. So I found a local hobby store that carries the product and picked it up on Saturday.

Sure enough, this stuff was awesome. I sprayed the edge of the fingerboard (after masking off the top) and then held the bindings in place while applying "Hot Stuff" CA glue with a pipette. The bonding was instantaneous and I was able to move down the fingerboard holding the binding in place as I went. No clamping, taping, etc.

Below you can see the binding on the end of the FB which is curved. I  pre-bent the binding to *almost* the exact curve, but using the CA glue plus accelerator meant that it didn't need to be perfect or clamped. I just used the accelerator and dropped a little CA on one end, then moved around the curve, within 30 seconds I was done.

Starting the neck

Pretty much stander fare here, neck construction begins.

2014 AHS Band Guitar kickoff

It's that time of year to be starting the next AHS band raffle guitar.

This years guitar features:

- Incredible curly Koa tonewoods
- Sitka Spruce top
- Indian Rosewood fretboard, headstock, bridge, and bindings
- Coolibah burl roseet w/MOP inlay
- Coolibah burl end graft
- Scoop cutaway
- Beveled arm rest