Building an Acoustic Guitar, part 3
Marc at The Wood Whisperer has posted the final part in the video series Birth of a Guitar, documenting Rick Urschel’s classical guitar project. If you’ve been watching, part 2 ended on a cliffhanger, Rick having mistakenly glued on the fretboard before tapering it. Disaster! This video starts with Ricks laborious fix with Japanese saw, chisel, scraper and sandpaper. Then Rick goes on to shaping the neck with a spokeshave, installing fret wire, and positioning the bridge. The finish starts with pore-filling with pumice, then applying 5 coats of shellac and 5 coats of satin polyurethane. Finally, Rick installs the nut, tuning machines, and uses a fancy vacuum press to glue down the bridge – how cool is that!? You can also see Rick’s homemade walnut guitar stand.
The final result is beautiful, and a testament to Rick’s persistence, patience and determination! This really makes me appreciate how much effort goes into building a handmade guitar. Even after all that effort, there’s some kind of “rogue” harmonic thing going on with the open G string that he was unable to figure out. If you have any ideas, contact him!
Take a look:
