Bullet Tree Bridge Re-glue

Posted on April 21, 2010 by Chris Oliver
Gluing the bridge... again.
I have never had as much trouble gluing a wood. The bullet tree bridge has lifted twice now. Here it is being glued down again with hot hide glue. For the short amount of time it was strung up and in tune, it had a very bright high and mid with huge volume. Can’t wait to get this bridge to stay put and let it settle in a bit.
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X-brace Gluing and Ebonizing a Bridge

Posted on April 18, 2010 by Chris Oliver
The ’48 Martin gets its x bracing reglued. Also, a new bridge plate to replace the replacement rosewood bridge plate. This maple bridge plate is a bit thicker than original to help keep the top from blowing apart. The last luthier that worked on this guitar sanded the top until it is nearly too thin to use.

Also, the mahogany project guitar gets its bullet tree bridge ebonized. The bullet tree was also recovered from the Belize River with the mahogany and sapodilla. You can see the sapodilla fretboard is turning out sweet with a coat of oil on it. More photos when it is fully complete.. soon.

Gluing the xbrace and bridge plate. River recovered mahogany project ebonizing the bridge

River recovered mahogany project ebonized bridge

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1950 Epiphone Archtop Repair

Posted on April 17, 2010 by Chris Oliver
A Philadelphia built, 1950 Epiphone archtop gets a new trapeze tailpiece, tuner buttons, cleaned and setup. An original tailpiece would have been great but I was unable to locate one. A diamond decorated trapeze from an old Gibson 335 does the trick nicely and the new ivoroid buttons upgrade goes perfectly with the new setup. This neck had a huge amount of back bow with no help from the truss rod. After strung up, the back bow subsided and it was playable. This neck will be monitored closely for the next couple months. If the back bow turns into a noticeable bow, the one-way truss rod will have to be adjusted to keep the relief to a minimum.
Back bow in the neck with no string tension.
Grinding the proper post hole. Buttons press fit and glued in place.
Seating the bridge. Setup and ready to play.
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Fabricating a Bone Nut

Posted on April 16, 2010 by Chris Oliver
The mahogany guitar gets its nut cut and shaped. This processed cow bone gets sawed down into strips and one large enough gets shaped and fitted to the nut slot. The nut will get final shaping and slotting after the guitar is strung up and left under tension for a week. Until then, it will set in the nut slot and have only slight slots filed. This allows the tension of the strings to pull the neck and body into its equilibrium.
Processed Cow Bone Cutting the Cow Bone
Bone Pieces as Nut Blanks Bone Nut fitted to the Nut Slot
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Popular Woodworking and our Mahogany

Posted on April 12, 2010 by Chris Oliver

Wow! Popular Woodworking Senior Editor Glen Huey uses our Honduras Mahogany to create a beautiful Queen Ann Lowboy. It made the cover of the June 2010 issue. Here are a few links to checkout:

http://blogs.popularwoodworking.com/editorsblog/Get+A+Look+Inside+The+June+Issue.aspx
http://www.popularwoodworking.com/jun10 Popular Woodworking June 2010 cover

The mahogany guitar being built here is from the very next slice of log #3. So you could say that the mahogany guitar and the lowboy built by Glen are sisters!

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