Little more work on the Purple Heart Guitar Build . I have been fitting the neck Tenon joint to the guitar body . I am very close at this point . Some minor adjustment and we will have a good fit.

The Picture above shows the finish pencil line marks for the fretboard , the tension rod slot and carbon fibre filler stiffeners.

A Little better picture showing the shape of the headstock . Taken from an Arrow Idea.

Couple of pics showing the fit at the body . This is very time consuming .



Thanks for stopping by , Have a wonderful week and stay cool out there !

I have been shaping the neck for the Purple Heart Guitar . It is made from one piece Mahogany and is stiffened with Carbon Fibre rods . This is a 12th fret fit to the body and will have a 1-3/4" nut width . I have fashioned the heel to the shape I have used on all my mando's and if you notice the Headstock has a "Arrow" shape . Not sure how its gonna work , I think OK , at least it looks different .

You can tell better from the picture below that the head stock actual has an angle where the tuners are and is bowled out in back.

The Picture below really shows the " Arrow" angle that I was shooting for .


I hope you enjoyed your short look through my wood shop . Thanks for stopping by.

Have a great day.

Oscar Schmidtt , Not oscar the grouch !

Found this old Oscar Schmidtt AutoHarp at an antique store recently . It was in bad shape . Paid $35.00 for it and thought it was to much then . The back was falling off , the end pin bar was about pulled out ( where the strings attach on those lil pins ) and the bracing was all lose and warped. I didn't take pics of start , wish I had when I realize how well it turned out .


Picture from tuner end , they all appear orig.

Picture of end bar reglued in place and all the strings back on pins . Talk about a little pain in the butt to string .



4 hrs later , a bit of Hyde glue ( that's what was used originally ) and some preservation polish to clean it and still keep the patina , and there you have it . I didn't try and tune it those strings are old . I just tightened them slightly taut and let it go . Cant be played that way , but will look real nice as House decoration .

Thanks for stopping by .

Binding and Accent On Purple Heart Guitar

I have spent a bit of time working on the Purple Heart Guitar and have now completed the Binding and Accent strips as you will See in the accompanying pictures .

Double strip down the back with approx 1/4" of purple heart showing down the center .

I have used a Black plastic for the Binding and accent strips . I thought it would stand out nicely against the purple heart wood.

Side shot . For anyone who doesn't know , Binding is a PAIN ! LOL


I doubled the strips on the heel section to give a nice heel contrast at 3/4" wide .

It shows nicely in this top pic as well .

Thanks for stopping by and looking at my simple hobby . Have a wonderful day !

Purple Heart Box Glued Up

A few more Pictures of the Purple Heart Build I have been working on . I have the box glued up now and am starting working on the routing for the binding and gluing the binding in place .

Top Glued On

Picture from the back

Front and sound hole with rosette


Gluing the Black Binding in place

Thanks for stopping by !

More on the " Purple Heart Build "

I have spent a bit more time working on the Purple Heart Guitar and wanted to update my progress here a little bit. I had never done a inlay Rosette on a top yet so I decided to try that. I routed the top approx .065 deep and set the rosette inlay in with titebond original mixed with black die to help it blend in . I got a little carried away with the glue and you can see it oooozed out a bit.


Ready to scrape , I used a razor Knife Blade to scrape with and it seemed to work well.


Finished scraping and a quick 220G sand and you have it.


Set my router back up and routed out the sound hole and have edged it with the same black binding material I am using on the guitar. Scraped And Sanded ready to go.


Did a basic layout for the top bracing and pre-cut the x-brace and finger braces and tone braces to set the lengths and scallop the ends and fit.

Picture below is the inside of the sides and back after gluing together . Bracing in place and Neck Block set . You notice the Neck Block is a C shape . I have never tried this yet so I am hoping that it will brace it well for the neck.

Second shot of internal back bracing

The following is a series of Pics showing the Top Bracing after the scallops have been ground for tone and support. Everything is Glued in place now.

And Finally the Top being glued into place with my Jig and spring loaded Clamp bars .

Thanks For Stoping By , Hope You Enjoyed Your Time !

St Louis Show Pictures

Hello All . I recently went to a guitar / luthier gathering in St.Louis Mo. There were a approx 20 people who showed up and brought allot of beautiful work to be looked at and played. One piece I found rather interesting was built by a young man who is a native of St.Louis named Bryan Bear.



Brian wanted to learn how to play the banjo and at the same time wanted to keep his wife and baby happy. So his solution was to build a solid wood topped banjo . Keeping the Banjo sound , but a tad quieter . He is able to practice his pickin and grinning now without the wife being upset .



I was very impressed at his skills as a woodworker and wanted to share them with you in this post.



Please enjoy the pics of the skilled Luthier Bryan Bear .