Neck and other pieces

Top-Bottom: Macassar Ebony fretboard, macassar ebony bridge blank, macassar ebony headplate, extra macassar ebony bridge blank for tuning knobs, madagascar rosewood bridge plate.
Left-Right on the side: figured maple end wedge, plain maple headplate veneer.

The top three macassar ebony pieces all have similar color/figure, which is good. The bridge plate has very interesting color/figure... I didn't expect that.

I measured the neck and heel block for fit. The neck is 1-2 mils oversides and currently won't fit in the healblock. I will sand down the neck part when fitting it later. For now, the heel block is good to go for gluing to the sides after I put a slight radius on it.

Sides in mold

We were out of town this weekend, but before we left I managed to clamp the sides in the mold. I clamped each one in separately since they need to be trimmed before they will both fit at the same time.


I'd like to trim the sides and glue up the head/tail blocks but given that the humidity level is still 60%, I probably should wait. There are plenty of other things to do.

Finally, it's HERE!

Yes that's right, after 23 days it finally arrived. I'm not terribly happy about that (LMI said it is typically 10 days), but there is no need to "fret" about it. The top looks real nice, the bearclaw texture is hard to see in this picture. I'm still getting used to the back, not sure what I think about it. The sapwood center is not quite on center, but I've seen a lot worse. And there is a lot of bow in it no doubt from humidity... hopefully that will either go away or can be fixed.


The rest of the stuff looks great. I especially like the macassar ebony fingerboard.


I'll work on putting the sides in the mold tonight. I probably should order the kerfing soon too. This shows the other side of the back. The sapwood appears to be better mirrored. Neither picture does the top justice... the bearclaw texture is very nice.

My Martin is done... for now.

Last night I lowered the nut a bit more, stopping at 16, 18, 18, 18, 20, 22 high to low (in mils). I know that it could be lower, but for now I'm happy with that because it doesn't buzz at all. I then used the 0000 steel wool and applied the fretboard oil. It plays great, no buzz. The action is a tad high (80-100 mils) but I don't want to mess with that now... the action should come down this winter. I may make another saddle the the intent of keeping this one for the winter and a new lower one for the summer... or vice versa, I'm not sure yet.

Prior to the final polishing and oiling of the fretboard, I did use a fret "rocker" over the whole board and determined that the 6th and 8th frets were a bit high so I lowered them. This then made the 7th and 9th a bit high... so I lowered them. I could see where this was goinging, so I didn't press it too much. I got them to a place where one or two frets rocked ever so slightly and quit, as I didn't want to be chasing high frets all night.

So for now, I'm saying my Martin is done. I need to do some more workshop prep and start on the mold for my build this fall.

Setup

The strings are on and I am about done with the setup. The relief is 0.012, 1st fret clearance is 20-24 mils... although I think I want to tweak the trebels down a bit. Action is 80-110... I think I'll leave it that way for now as I expect the action to go down this winter. The saddle that came with it is micarta, although I have a bone blank that I may work up later. I still need to polish the fretboard with 0000 steel wool and then apply fingerboard oil. But other than that it's basically done and so far, it plays great!

Workbench

I finally put the trim on my workbench so I can snap a picture and post it. It seems to be the right dimensions (2.5' x 4.5' x 38" high) and has about a 3-4" overhang for clamping. The top is 3/4" melamine over 3/4" plywood, and it is bolted down using inserts so I can remove the top if I want. The base has wheels that flip out on the bottom so I can roll it around. My 3 kids sleep right above my workshop, so if I have to use any loud powertools I can roll it into another part of the basement and shut the door. I've done this a few times and it works pretty well. I'm not sure what I want to do with the bottom shelf... I'm sure necessity will dictate that in time.

I've spent the past few nights setting up my guitar, as you can see from all the "stuff" on it. The only problem is getting a chair that is the right height... maybe I'll take an old bar stool and saw the legs off.

A package...

No, that isn't a kit from LMI... but it is my first order from them. I am "fixing" my Martin DCME, so I needed to buy some fretting supplies... things I will need when I build my kit anyway.

As you can see, a fret crowning file, a set of 8 Ibanez nut files, 16" radiusing block, extra saddle blank, fretboard oil and an OM plan for me to get started on a mold.

Back to my Martin... it has taken me a long time (7 years), but I have finally figured out that the first fret is high... really high. By my measurements it is between 6-8 mils higher than it should be. All these years I couldn't figure out why it played so hard in open position, I thought it was me or my lack of ability. I generally capo'd (2) when ever I could. Now that I understand how to dress the frets, it makes sense that "factory" guitars have high first frets.

So the plan is to level the frets with a mill file (done), crown the frets with the frety crowning file (done), then sand the frets and touch up the fretboard if necessary. Once the fret work is done, the nut will need to be lowered, action re-set and saddle lowered (or possibly a new one) to give better/lower action than before.