The guitar on display at the Sunday brunch at L.A.C.E. Raffle tickets are still available. Come on down!
Off camera, lacquer has cured for several weeks. Larry has wet sanded neck and body and buffed both on a stationary wheel to a high gloss. Andy has made a bridge of African ebony. The bridge is positioned with a fixture and its outline scribed in the lacquer of the top with an exacto knife. Once the lacquer beneath the bridge footprint has been carefully removed the bridge is glued to the spruce of the top. Clamping is done with a vacuum clamp.
With no string tension on the neck, the frets have been ground and polished. The frets must be absolutely flat at this point. When the guitar is strung up, the string tension should create proper “relief” in the neck which allows comfortable playing without excessive string height.
Mass and height of the bridge as well as saddle height and string height off the face of the guitar are absolutely critical to best possible sound of each guitar. These factors can vary widely from one guitar to another.
The glue is allowed to dry overnight. Here we see the bridge pin holes being drilled through the top.
Andy is shown cutting the string leads in the bridge with a jig saw blade.
A bone saddle blank has been fitted to the saddle slot and curved to match the fretboard radius. In the setup procedure the saddle is left slightly high until string notches in the nut have been set to their final depth for proper playability.
The bone nut blank is being fitted to the neck. Each one of these is unique and fitted completely by hand. This allows complete latitude for varying the feel of the guitar to the individual player.
Once the shape of the nut has been formed and it is perfectly seated in its channel the first and sixth strings are located and notched for lateral position. Preferences for positioning of these two strings vary widely from one player to another. It’s got to feel just right.
