www.classicalguitars.ca

Handmade
Classical Guitars
by
Fritz Mueller

Construction sequence

Once the top is glued together, I prefit it to the neck. The silver spots on the centerline of the fingerboard are locating pins.

The locating pins are put in matching holes in the assembly jig. There is also a hole in the top for a locating pin, although you will have to zoom pretty far into the picture to see it.

The top and neck attach with wedges. Since this is just a prefitting, the end of the fingerboard is not yet trimmed.

A pair of necks and rims (or sides), ready to go. As is perhaps apparent, I usually build two guitars at a time.

Before the top can be attached permanently to the neck, it needs tone bars. These are all the bars for the backs and tops of two guitars, ready to be glued in place. The cross bars are pre-arched to fit the curvature of the top and back.

A closeup of the layout template for the top bars.

A view of the "go-table", used as a clamping device for attaching the bars on the inside of the top and the back.

The solera, or workboard, has a built-in curvature to fit the radius of the top. A second solera (not shown) is designed for the curvature of the back, which has a tighter radius.

The first bars going on with the use of "go-bars" in the go-table. I first saw this clamping technique in a harpsichord workshop, but there the very long go-bars were pushing against the ceiling.

The fan bars are now on, ready to be carved.

Carving is complete.

A closer look.

The cross-bars go on next.

Now the top, sides, and neck are assembled. A few steps are missing from our photo sequence!

Here's the back - braced, carved, and ready to glue to the sides. This is a 4-piece back, and you can see the 3 joint reinforcements running vertically.

Electronic test gear for finding resonances. From the left: an amplifier with a speaker temporarily resting on top of it; a sine wave generator; and a frequency counter.

This is how the top fundamental resonance looks after vibrating it with a sine wave through the speaker. The crumbled tea leaves migrate to parts of the top that are not moving.

The fundamental resonance of the back, usually about 220 hertz or higher. "A" at the second fret on the 3rd string is a 220 hz.

The second resonance of the back.

And the third resonance of the back. Normally these three are the only back resonances that I record, although there are more at higher frequencies.

More to come . . . !

Introduction ××× Contents ××× Instruments ××× Doubletops ××× Details

Resonances ×× Specifications ×× Orders ×× Available

Warranty ××× FAQ ××× Biography ××× Gallery ××× Links

Site map