CA002 finished

The cajon that I built in a few days is finished. (photos available soon, my camera is out for the moment).

I conducted some different stringing experiments; after two trials with a set of guitar strings (2 wound, 1 plain) and one trial with a snare drum mat, I will now start building a nicer, slimmer, lighter version with the traditional system of three unwound guitar strings cutting through the two high corners of the 'tabla' (sound board). This cajon, CA003, will be a real, playable and polished instrument.

(CA001 is an unfinished box that I've had standing around for some time - it was too heavy so I started on CA002 instead)

More photos of the cajon CA002

Side project: cajon CA002

For some time now I've wanted to construct a CAJON, a South-American percussion instrument also much used in flamenco and gypsy music. It's a fairly easy instrument, in that it's in fact merely a "box" on which you sit. The space between your legs is the "head". Hitting it near the upward edge gives a sharp, short sound with attack, hitting it nearer the middle of the board gives more of a bass sound, hollower and longer. A few strings are strung inside the box, so that when you hit the head it leaves a short singing of clattering strings (like the snare drum of a modern drum kit).

Many different ways of construction and stringing are available on the internet, but there's no standard so some freedom is acceptable. So I started out three days ago with my own design and today it's all but finished. Here are some photos, a description of how I did it is coming up.

Another project

My colleague from work is building an electric Les Paul model guitar. Today he spent some hours in my workshop. Always fun to share some knowledge and methods together!

Small repair on a Gretsch Electromatic G5120

My friend Bart recently bought a Gretsch Electromatic G5120. There was a problem with the bridge: it didn't fit to the top of the guitar properly and therefore also slid to one side after playing... I adjusted the fit of the bridge by laying sanding paper on the top, and sanded the bridge locally to a more exact fit. The now rougher bottom side of the bridge will also prevent it from sliding so easily on the lacquer of the guitar. And of course a better fit is also a better tonality! A beautiful guitar, now also (temporarily?) featuring in my rock 'n' roll band The Kings Alive .

Progress on BA001 (baritone)

I have started planing the neck, first I levelled the two sides so that they provide a clean surface for later purposes. Tomorrow I will plane the flat, broad sides and start preparations to assemble the headstock.

Progress on BA001 (baritone)

I have been finishing up on the body shape. It's now ready to receive the cavities (for sound & weight + for the electronic parts). I will rout them as soon as I have found a proper router machine...

Meanwhile, browsing through the wood supply, I have found a 'top' (which was actually meant to be a classical guitar back) of a nice peace of European Walnut (juglans regia) and a suitable neck (long enough) of quarter-sawn Honduras Mahogany (swietenia macrophylla).

If I cannot follow up on the progress of the body, at least I can now start constructing the neck and headstock, which is a rather easy and rewarding part of building a guitar.

BA001: finishing the body parts

I have made two identical halves of the body out of MDF board. Now I am filing them to an exact fit. They are joined temporarily by means of two wooden furniture plugs / taps on the "inside" of the body, to hold them in place whilst filing. Later, I will rout out the cavities (sustain, weight) and join them by glueing.

PSA001

I found an old friend in a closet of my former home; it's a PSALTER, a mediaeval instrument typical of the Low Countries. I started it during a 5-week course before I went to study at ILSA. It was never finished, but I still have the parts (some tuning pins, 3 bridges to be placed at different string lengts and 3 sets of 3 unisono strings). It was dirty and dusty, so I decided to sand it and store it somewhere safe for later...

BA001: started work on the body

With the majority of measurements and parts drawn on the plan, and in waiting of the delivery of my tremolo, I started to cut out the rough body shape. As said, the body will be made of masonite / MDF. I made two identical contoured slates of about 3/4 inch thick (22mm). After routing inner chambers, these will be glued together and finished to the actual body shape. The chambers are to reduce weight, but might also improve the sustain and to some extent the overall sound (chambers alter the body's own frequency). All a test phase, as you can never know these things beforehand... The chambers will be quite odd in shape, because they cannot get in the way of the cavities the body will get later, to receive the neck, pickups and electronics... More info and photos of progress soon to come!

Work in progress: the baritone electric

The last few days have been a constant running between the computer to look up valuable information (scarce!) and the drawing board, ever changing details... But the baritone guitar is beginning to take shape (on paper, that is). To give you an idea, I've made a general view of what it will look like, combining the Selmer body shape, a Guild headstock, Gretsch Jet neck, TV Jones pickups and a Bigsby B5 tremolo.

Bartione guitar BA001: update

I have started drawing the plan: the body and neck are coming into being. I have however changed the plan to adapt the Selmer-shape with a Gretsch-style cutaway; it would leave a small, awkward bout to fit the volume control button. So I will stick to the traditional Selmer-cutaway, a shape of which I am pretty satisfied. In a few days time I will add enough detail to the drawing to start working on the actual body. That will be made of 'masonite', a MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard) press-glued wood material as used by the Danelectro company. It provides enough sustain and dark tonality for a twangy baritone, I am told... We'll see, if not satisfactory I can still put the bolt-on neck and hardware on a real wooden body later...

Preparations of the baritone guitar have started

Started work on my electric baritone guitar yesterday; I am currently drawing the build plan by hand and meanwhile determining some of the specifications. It wil be a 6-string full-body electric, with a string length (scale) of 29 inch or 736.6 millimeters. The body shape is of course taken from the Maccaferri-Selmer guitar, but I'm going to change the cutaway somewhat to resemble that of a Gretsch. The headstock will be loosely inspired by Guild.

This baritone will be tuned C-c. The hardware is as yet not determined (tuners, bridge, tremolo) but I have already made preparations to install hand-wound pickups by Steffsen ( www.steffsen.be ). The coming weeks you will be able to follow progress on this very interesting project here; to me it's very interesting because a baritone guitar is very different in stringing, setup, tuning... Hopefully I will encounter some minor problems that will be very educational!

Here are some pictures of my workshop and the drawing table...

Forgotten photos

Found these two pictures of my Selmer on my dad's old camera... Finishing the French polishing.

Videos about constructing this guitar

I have made 3 slide show videos of several pictures taken during the process of building the Selmer SE001 guitar. They give an insight of different steps of construction and are set to some fine music played on a similar guitar. 

Watch them on YouTube following these links or the ones below on this blog page: 

the first video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDKT01jatSA&feature=channel

the second video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9KqvkF_NR8&feature=channel_page

the third video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyietqSU-IM

Some more pictures of the SE001 guitar...