Marshwood Acoustic, Chapter 1, The Sides

Traditionally, many acoustic guitars have a feature called an "end-wedge" at the butt-end of the instrument. This also is practical because it is difficult and time consuming to get a very clean butt-joint with the guitar sides. A butt-joint is when two pieces of wood create a perfect seam when joined together end-to-end. An end-wedge good alternative to the butt-joint. Plus it can add an accent to your piece. I have made this one out of a scrap piece of rosewood. Basically, the wedge was made, the shape was traced onto the guitar, the side wood was cut, then the wedge was glued in and sanded flush. This process sounds easy but it took a couple hours. This chapter is about finished. The sides are have the correct radius, the kerfing is in, the braces and end-wedge are also in. Time to work on the back.

Marshwood Acoustic, Chapter 1, The Sides

The sides have been sanded to the appropriate radius. The kerfed linings have now been glued in. These linings support the top and back of the acoustic. The series of pictures shows the basic process. The glue is applied to the kerfing, then clamped into position. After about twenty minutes the clamps are removed and the linings are checked for glue squeeze-out and cleaned. Once the linings were all in I made up some side support braces out of spruce and glue them in. These give extra protection to the sides of the guitar.

Film: Chapter 1, Radius the Sides

Acoustic guitars tops and backs traditionally have a slight radius to them. To achieve this the sides must be sanded in the appropriate sanding dish. The sides of the guitar which will one day support the spruce top need a radius of 30 feet. This is done with the sides in the form (the bulky thing surrounding the sides). In this short film you can see this takes some patience and time. It took about 2 hours for me to finish just the one side of the guitar. The sides that will hold the back of the guitar will have a radius of 15 feet. This drove me crazy, just like this film will drive you crazy.

Marshwood Acoustic, Chapter 1, The Sides

The sides are bent and the heel/neck blocks are in place. The blocks are mahogany and the sides are flame maple.

The Rufus, Back to Work

This week I should be able to make some headway on The Rufus. I plan on finishing the neck shape, radius the fretboard and install the frets. I hope to do some final shaping and sanding to the body in preparation for gluing on the neck.

Marshwood Acoustic, Chapter 1, The Sides

This year I am taking a course at RRCC in acoustic steel string construction. Since this will be the first attempt I have scrounged for materials. I milled the maple sides and back out of wood left behind by students. This will be a Martin-ish OM model guitar. Sitka spruce will be the top, Honduran mahogany for the neck and rosewood for the fretboard. These series of pictures show the bending process for the sides. One way of bending these is on an iron, but I was able to use a bending jig. This gives a more consistent result. I soaked the maple sides for a couple minutes, then put them in the bending jig. This jig has a heat blanket which steams the wood into shape. Once finished out it goes into the guitar form. We'll see how all this goes.

Roy's Guitar, Slideshow

Click on the icon to the right under, Marshwood Guitars on Film


A recently completed slideshow of instrument for the guitarist Roy Ponce of the band, Brainchild. The guitar's recording on this short film are clean with a little reverb. Kept it simple so you can hear the guitar in the raw. Wear headphones if you have them.