Cherry Guitar: Final Setup

Dec 17th, 2008 | By Dan (CSFW) | Category: 08.12 Cherry Guitar, Guitars, Music

Work on 12/13/08 and 12/14/08

With the finish polished to it’s final gloss it was finally time to bring the guitar to life by adding the bridge, saddle, nut, tuners and strings… Oh yeah, can’t forget a pretty label.

Immediately after polishing I roughened up the area that was masked off previously for the bridge with some 80 grit sandpaper. Two bridge pins will be used to index the bridge while being glued to the soundboard. The bridge was set in it’s final position and the 1st and 6th bridge pin holes were drilled out. Wood glue was applied liberally to the bridge and the soundboard and put in position. The bridge pins were wrapped with masking tape and reinserted. The bridge as then clamped in place using a long-reach clamp, a shaped caul and some wedges. Any glue squeeze-out was removed from the bridge and the lacquer using a damp paper towel and left to dry.

That night I also trimmed the nut, made by Tusq out of a high-density plastic in lieu of bone, and glued it in place. It’s the same material used on my Taylor. I also fitted the clear Mylar pick guard and installed the Gotoh 503 chrome tuning machines on the headstock.

The next morning I pulled the clamps, drilled out the remaining bridge pin holes and worked on shaping the saddle. The saddle blank is also made by Tusq. It had to be thinned slightly to fit in the slot on the bridge. I was reduced in height slightly and the string compensation profile was filed into the top of the saddle. The books covered this important and delicate process very well including the why and the how.

Now to shape the nut. With the saddle shaped I fitted the 1st and 6th strings loosely and marked their locations on the nut. The middle four strings are evenly distributed between the outer two. The slots for the strings were then cut with small saws and needle files to their rough width and depth. The strings were brought up to tension and the action was gauged at the nut. Each string was pressed down between the 2nd and 3rd frets and the height over the 1st fret was noted. The strings were loosened and the depth of the slot was reduced until that noted height was about 0.1mm. Any lower and the string will buzz when played open. The nut was dressed to height and shaped with files and some dry 1200 grit sandpaper.

All that’s left was install the interior label and play a few songs… to make sure it sounded OK. I decided on “Puff the Magic Dragon” for my girls… It’s definitely a quieter guitar than my Taylor dreadnought and isn’t as “boomy.” It has a pleasant if fairly bright sound that will mellow and get fuller as it ages. It’s a very comfortable size to hold in your lap.

96.00 hours from start to finish of actual construction time. Overall I’m very happy with how it came out. Joan and Steve will see/hear it for the first time at their Christmas on Saturday.

Below is the complete gallery with all 100 images of the build. I’ll post a full gallery of Beauty Shots soon.

2008. 12 Guitar - Beauty Shots