August 2012 – Jay Rosenblatt Guitars

Creating a handmade geometric guitar rosette by Jay Rosenblatt

Posted on August 30, 2012 by jayrose22

In previous posts you may have noticed a geometric rosette I make for my instruments.

I thought Id show you how I make these through photos.

All photography © Jay Rosenblatt 2012

Parlor Guitar by Jay Rosenblatt — ebony and maple rosette

Pieces are arranged but not glued in yet

Ebony rectangles pieces are alligned square and glued in

the remaining rectangles are glued and fit

At this step two pieces if fibre ar cut that will create a separatioin line between the ebony and Cocobolo 32 pieces required

Dry test fit of all parts. Minor adjustments to the 45 and 90 degree pieces are done here with a level sanding block and a square

All pieces are laid out in the order they will be installed.

The small fibers and the Cocobolo pieces are glued with epoxy

The painters tape is usede to keep the pieces from moving during epoxy curing

Epoxy mixed with cocobolo dust is used to fill any gaps that may have appeared during the gluing process

The rosette once again is sanded and the circle outlined are drawn

A router base with circle cutter attachment is used to cut the rosette out. This is done with many passes till the paper is reached. Don’t cut through the paper. On the outside of the circle move the cutter clockwiset. On the inside of the circle rotate the cutter counterclockwise.

After first sanding the is what it looks like

Two srtips of fiber binding to match the pieces between the cocobolo and ebony are glued around the inside. This is decorative and also helps to keep the rosette together. The strips are held in place with tape and Exacto blades while drying.

same process is repeated after the glue on the inside dries creating a double line around the rosette

After all is dry the rosette is then sent slowly, with light pressure, through the drum sander to remove excess glue and smoothing

The paper is sanded off the rosette. Final thickness about .070

The finished rosette. This will be inlaid to the guitar top. Additional binding strips will be added at installation.

inch by inch, turn by turn

Posted on August 15, 2012August 22, 2012 by jayrose22

I have been making good progress on my Cocobolo JR larger acoustic.

I got the sides bent which went flawlessly, the wood took beautifully to bending and holds it shape remarkably well out of the form. Cocobolo is so oily though that the wood darkened quite a bit when bent but after another scraping it will come back to its beautiful red/orange color.

I also made the headblock out of a beautiful piece of mahogany and made the tail block as well. Those were installed and I have also completed the installation of the kerfing and raduised the top and back in preperation for the back and soundboard attachment.

Radiusing a guitar_1 — Jay Rosenblatt radiusing a guitar body

Radiusing a guitar_3 — Marking the high spots on the kerfing

Radiusing a guitar_4 — This is the turn-by-turn part of the event. Guitar body spinning on radius dish

Radiusing a guitar_6 — Voila! Radiused and and ready for top and back attachment

The kerfing is so critical to a build. No place sloppy job here. Although inside the instrument and out of sight they should still be installed tight and clean with no glue squeeze out. Again those little details that make a nice guitar.

Installing Ribbon — Installing the ribbon kerfing neat and clean

Installing Ribbon lining — Inch by inch, the Kerfing (cedar ribbon) installed tight and neat

The little things

Posted on August 6, 2012August 20, 2012 by jayrose22

To make a guitar, any guitar, small, large custom or simple requires lots of little steps. Many processes along the way, the little things that in the end add up to a finished instrument.

This week It began by marking up and making a set of braces.

I like to use templates in this process. I have a set of braces completely made for each of the instrument styles I build. In the photos here you will see a completed set in the background and the marked up pieces of spruce in the foreground. The template braces have the proper radius for the instrument being built. It is a simple step of tracing the braces onto my blanks and a complicated step of re-shaping and duplicating that radius by hand. I do the final scalloping after they are glued to the top or back, but having the basic shape gives me some guidance as to where I want to wind up.

Making Braces1 — Marking up braces on block of spruce

spruce braces after band-sawing

Making Braces2 — Marking up braces on block of spruce

spruce braces after band-sawing

Braces and template — Acoustic Guitar braces in the making

After cutting the brace blanks from a piece of stock with my band saw, I draw the outlines of each brace required. Then the braces are thinned by hand with a small finger plane and radiused .

Scraping Cocobolo sides3 — Scraping cocobolo side set prior to bendingI

In another part of the process guitars I profiled some cocobolo sides and thicknessed them. These Cocobolo sides are stiff but seem to get flexible around .079″ inches. Scraping the sides smooth before I bend them saves a lot of work later. Just another one of those little things.