Adventures in Guitar Finishing
It’s been a little while since my last post, here is some of what I’ve been up to since then.
I’ve been continuing working on this Somogyi MD, installing the binding and purfling on the back.
After removing the tape and trimming flush, I saw that I hadn’t done a good job with one of the miters. This will need to be fixed. I messed up the easier one too! The miter on the left side of the centerstrip is challenging because it get’s cut “on the fly”. Meaning I leave it overly long, glue and tape the purfling and binding in place almost up to the end, cut the miter to final fit, and continue gluing all the way to the end. The purfling piece to the right of the centerstrip gets inserted from the end. I must have pushed it in too far, or didn’t do a good enough job fitting it in the first place.
To fix it I need to remove the offending piece of purfling and miter in a new one.
With the purfling removed to an adequate depth, and the miter on the centerstrip cleaned up, I’m ready to fit another piece of purfling.
Fresh purfling mitered and glued in.
This Somogyi from 1980 came into the shop to get re-voiced and some other minor work. After Ervin completed the re voicing process, I made a new nut and did a setup.
The bridge for my guitar, ready to be carved.
I wanted a sense of rotational movement in the lines of the bridge, to mirror that of the rosette.
During the second to last week of December, COVID. In a way it was good timing. Things were quieter around the shop, so I didn’t have to isolate in my room, as I did the first time I had COVID here.
My sister visited me from New Zealand over New Years. I had some time off and we did a bit of sightseeing around the Bay Area.
Spotted at UC Berkeley.
Got to see Marcus Miller.
Ervin has many talents.
The hallway of the Somogyi shop. Even now after almost a year here, I notice new things on the wall.
Some of Ervin’s humour.
I’ve been working on my finish. The neck was pore filled and then oiled. It feels suuuuper smooth.
In December I started building up shellac on the body.
I left it for a few weeks over New Years, then I sanded and buffed the finish.
It was looking really good! I was just about to glue the bridge on when I noticed something…
In one corner of the top finish, some micro crazing has appeared. I think I built up the finish too thick and fast in this area. I was double coating it in the hope of preventing a buff through on the edge. Lesson learned. Now it’s time to learn how to fix it. This is my first time finishing with shellac. While it’s great when things go smoothly, I’m here to grow my skills, and pushing myself to try new things is the only way to achieve this. Part of that process is experiencing setbacks, finding out where the limits are, and learning how to recover.