Timeless Timbers

From southern Mexico to Northern Canada, I am searching far and wide for the perfect wood for guitars. This week I was given the opportunity to have an learning experience in Wausau for MATC, and decided to combine that trip with a visit to Ashland and Timeless Timbers. This company recovers wood out of lakes and rivers, cleans it up and kiln dries the wood. My friend Rich Herbst accompanied me on the trip and helped pick out some great flaming yellow birch. This will make many guitars in the coming years.

The wood is not cheap ($15.00 a board foot) but it is old growth timber, virtually free of any defects or knots. The wood is no longer recovered from Lake Superior, but is found in many Canadian lakes. Some wood even comes from rivers and lakes in the Southern United States. I will plan on resawing the wood on my bandsaw and making some back and side sets for future guitars. It is best that this wood acclimates for awhile to the environment, so my first guitars will be made with the cocobolo from Mexico.

Paracho

Our visit with Katie was the best! We spent a couple days at the Rancho Madrona near Erongaricuaro, Mexico. Then, off to Uruapan - a large city 40 kilometers south. The following morning we caught a taxi to Paracho - The City of Guitars! Wow!

I had read some about Paracho prior to our trip. I knew that some of the best guitars would be found in homes, off the beaten path. I wasn't totally sure I was going to buy a guitar, I was mainly interested in the construction of the guitars and history of the town. Also, I was kind of hoping to find some wood to bring back and build one from some local Mexican wood.

We started out exploring a few places and asked to see the finest guitars that they had. The first one I looked at was impressive - wood bindings, well mitered fittings, a great sound. The price? 2500 pesos, or about $250.00. We stopped in a few more shops, each person pretty much giving a pretty similar story - about being the only true guitar builder on the street, and producing the guitars with their own hands. The highest priced guitars were approximately $1000.00 - some made with exotic wood such as Koa. Entertaining to say the least - lots of guitars, many poorly made, but a few real great examples of craftsmanship.


With Katie interpreting, we found the person who supplied wood for the town craftspeople. Wow! Quartered logs, waiting to be cut into backs and sides for guitars, ebony for fingerboards, woods from pretty much all over the world. I ended up buying some Cocobolo from southern Mexico at a great price - the perfect souvenir for the fledging luthier.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all - more news on the guitar front will entertain you in the new year! A trip to Paracho, Mexico is planned as part of our visit with Katie. I will have pictures to share of the Mexican luthiers at work at their craft.

Guitar Build number two will start in early February! This will be interrupted by a few days of substitute teaching so I can afford to buy the tools I need!

Friday and Saturday - Intonation and setup

Well, I thought this would be another piece o' cake. Nope. But another great learning experience. George stayed pretty busy helping us through shaping the nut (where the string passes through near the tuners) and the saddle (on the bridge). I, being the lefty, created confusion at this stage, as everything was backwards. We used electronic tuning machines and check for perfect tune at bothe the open string and the 12th fret - (the string one octave higher). To be perfect required adjustments and filing. The height of the string also was a factor.

Setting initial intonation with the two "E" strings. This determined the placement of the saddle on the bridge.

All of this took a great deal of time, but the knowledge gained was awesome. On Saturday, we also dressed the frets and polished them. That meant more filing and checking for perfect flatness.

Flattening the frets. This also required smoothing, filing, and a final polish.

We then worked on final finishing, some of us also cut an extra soundhole in the side of our guitar. Kind of neat, and you can hear yourself play. I ended up learning how to deal with frets buzzing, as I was one of the unlucky ones to experience this. It meant another two hours of work.

Final setup and intonation. My upper frets were buzzing on the low "E" string. This meant more work! But worth it!!!!!!

All in all, this has been great! Long days, short nights. Probably the best learning experience I ever had. I hope all have enjoyed keeping up with this - I did it for two reasons - 1. to share with family and friends, and 2. to remember how to do this the next time.

My goal was to have something looking like a guitar. This looks and sounds awesome!!!!

The best to all! Home tomorrow. Monday it is back to thinking guitars as I bought a drum sander over the weekend! Got to drive to Portage to pick it up!

Thursday - The Bridge and Neck

Today we prepared for placing the bridge on the guitar. This meant that the neck would have to be temporarily bolted on to lay out the proper placement. We had some tooling to do and I also started carving the heel of the neck. We also shaped the bridge on the drum and belt sanders.

Positioning the bridge

The bridge was positioned and the two "E" holes were drilled through the body. This allowed a couple bolts to be placed prior to gluing and clamping. Then the bridge was glued and clamped in place.

Clamping the bridge in place

George then showed us how to radius the neck and using an ancient tool called the spokeshave (so named because it was used to make the spokes for wooden wheels) we carved the shape of the neck.

Shaping the heel of the neck

Wednesday - Frets and finish

Today we prepared the neck to accept the fretboard. This required some hand work to allow the truss rod to be installed. We then prepared the fretboard to be glued on by drilling a couple pilot holes and installing steel brads for positioning it in a perfect placement. Then we glued and clamped the fretboard to the neck.

Positioning the neck for gluing

After the neck was glued and clamped we "flattened" the length of the neck perfectly with a hand plane. We then also put a slight radius along the entire width of the neck with a hand plane. Hand tools and patience. Amazing.

After this, we cut and placed the frets in the slots with a hammer and slight pressure in the vise.

Placing the fret wire

I ended up resanding my top as there were several scratches that were bugging me. It looks a lot better, although it is a very soft wood and easily dinged.

Tuesday - The Beginning of the Finish!

George had mentioned yesterday that there comes a time when the guitar becomes your creation. The final sanding and finishing sure make me feel that way. It has been an awesome process - surprisingly hard at times, and surprisingly easy other times. Now we can see the finished result and all the time spent making sure not to make major errors has paid off.

Today we final sanded (to 1000 grit abrasive) the top, and applied a few coats of finish to it. We are using a product called Tru Oil - it is used for gun stocks. Pretty easy to apply, and it looks good. We also worked on the fret board in preparation for gluing on to the neck tomorrow. I needed to do some final fitting on my neck, to make sure that it would bolt on with no problems.

The first coat! Note the masking of the bridge area - it will allow the bridge to be glued directly to the wood.

Some final neck work - tomorrow we carve the shape!

The fret slots were cut on the table saw and pearl inlays were glued in place.