Steel Guitar Builder

Hello guys,

Here we go!

The second one will be shorter (22.5 scale), 8 strings with a large neck
It will look like this:


I got templates from my drawing I made by a computer assisted router:



The wood is european curly maple for neck and wings, and the top is flamed maple from Stewmac:



Fingerboard will be Pau Ferro (from LMII.

I just discovered the joy of working with a nicely sharpened planer:



I used a router and a random orbit sander to reduce the thickness of the wood:





I'm now working on the joint of the top.

Cheers,

Xavier

I glued the 2 parts of the top:

that maple is absolutely drool-worthy! i just started my first lap steel build and i've already had a major setback, so i'll be watching this to keep my spirits up.

Thanks, Cat,

Here 's the jointed top:


If I don't do a major mistake, I think I'll like the result

Now I have to level it to 5 mm thickness... and my planner seems not to be OK to do the job... Any idea?

Another baby on the way eh? You're doing good Xavier! That wood is absolutely gorgeous!

Wish we could get wood like that in this country... (sob)

Hello guys,

To rout the wood to thickness, I've built a vacuum sanding table:


That's a great tool!! It holds the wood enough to work on it



Then I tried to rout the wing's shape, but had a problem:



So...





I finally finished the shape by hand, with sanding paper, planer, scraper:





I discovered that my wood neck is not so perfect:



I think there's nothing to do... that's wood, after all!

Still have to smooth the joints between neck and wings, but the guitar's going to look like a guitar!

Xavier, you are doing some fine, painstaking work there and overcoming your little problems just fine. That's going to be a great looking guitar with that dramatic wood!

Hi Xavier,

I am pleased to see you are back to building. I really enjoyed your work on the New Yorker. This looks like it will be a beauty when your done. I really love your choice of wood. Are you planning on using a clear finish on this project?

Keep up the good work and keep us posted with pictures of your progress.

Paul

Paul Lafountaine wrote:Hi Xavier,

Are you planning on using a clear finish on this project?

Paul

Yes, Paul, this one will have a clear finish (what would you say if I covered that nice maple top with opaque finish ? I would be banned lifetime from this forum )

This is really a challenge for me, every saw , plane, sandpaper notch has to be perfect, as there is nothing to hide the mistakes.

I'd like to tint the back and neck a light mahogany tint, to enhance the wood. The top... I'll try to sunburst it yellow on center and orange outside. I still dont know about the headstock

The joint between neck and wings is really painfull to adjust (I do it with a scraper ans the planer is not enough

I notched the nut yesterday... pictures coming soon

Cheers,

Xavier