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Rhianna's Guitar For the first guitar build I picked a kit to familiarize myself with the parts of a guitar. I purchased a kit from Grizzly Industrial they are better known for tools, but the President of the company builds guitars and they stock a good assortment of Luthier supplies. In this kit some of the more challenging parts come already assembled. Just following the directions a descent sounding guitar can be assembled in reasonable short time. I seem to have a problem just following directions and am always looking for ways to improve my projects. This can complicate, increase the completion time and drive up the cost. So I upgraded some parts and changed the assemble process to build this kit. After reviewing the parts and instructions I decided that I would inlay rosette instead of the decal provided. In traditional guitar building the rosette would be done before the sound hole is cut giving you a center point to work from. In this kit the box was already complete with the sound hole cut so I made a jig that fit though the sound hole and expanded to create a center point. This allowed me to use a rosette routing jig to create channels for my own rosette. With the help of Rhianna and a friend we came up with the design to put on the peg head. I had to build another jig to get peg head level and a comfortable height complete the inlay on the peg head. Then to my surprise there was more sanding and cleanup to prepare for many coats lacquer. After all the lacquer is applied and the guitar allowed to cure for a week I wet sanded and buffed the finish to get a high gloss. The last piece to glue on is the bridge then I can install all the bolt on parts. I upgraded the nut, saddle, tuners, strap buttons, strings and added a pickguard. With the use of several measuring tools I set up the string action and was able to tune this guitar for the first time. I add a strap, case, tuner and spare strings, and then it was off to Rhianna's. A special thanks to Marilyn (Mom and Rhianna's Grandmother) without her support this guitar would have never been finished. |
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Somewhere around this time I decided this would be a gift for my niece that lives on the Northern California Coast and I picked inlay materials found in the area. From this point on the project became Rhianna's Guitar.
I picked Redwood and Abalone for accents for the inlay work. My rosette is a simple design with 0.20" thick black and white wood purflings, redwood burl, abalone, redwood burl, white and black wood purflings. I also use the redwood burl and abalone on the peg head.
After lots of sanding the box was joined to the neck and the finger board added. I hadn't completed the inlay on the peg head; I was still working on a design using Rhianna's initials. Then more sanding to prepare for sealing the back, sides and neck after more sanding I stained these areas with a medium red mahogany stain.
