Manuel Bonilla Beya guitars
Forum Replies Created
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I do have not the real “Erlewine Neck jig” but a wooden one I cheaply made after the Dan’s ones on the Stewmac books and videos. Quite basic, it was meant to be a first trial to test everything… but it’s been the “pony” for all my fret work since I made it and I never found the moment to do the better version. Guess you know what I mean, and I had plenty long hair on my head back then those days
The thing is that, since I watched Doug using the “Proper workstation “ I knew I badly needed it and that It would be great in conjunction with the neck jig. For lots of reasons, but mainly for my growing age related pains. And living in Spain importing anything from USA is completely prohibitive: sending and parcels taxes can easily grow the bill to double the original price (and that’s the reason I couldn’t keep my GAL suscription :(. ).
So… here comes my next iteration on directly Loothgroup-inspired/deeply thankfull/stolen holding jigs + neck jigs ideas. I’ve been working on the idea for about two months now on and I’m beginning to feel it right now.
I’ve built and tested a handfull of holding and rotating jigs and different vises to make a modular set of specialized holding jigs attachable to a rotary base/vise.
The “rotary vise” is a modification of the stewmac vise jaws to fit and interact with a simple wood and metal jig between them.
Among the different jigs I’m trying for different needs is an instrument holder capable of accommodate all sort of instruments both to the rotary vise alone for all kind of jobs or all together with the neck jig for fret work.
By now, I’ve made yet a handfull of trials and errors both on the “rotary base” and onto the “holding modules “, but the “neck jig” itself is the old “mock up” I made lo ago after suffering all sorts of injuries in order to accommodate it to the “guitar holder”. And as soon as I test it on different scenarios I can easily think of to know the pros and cons, I’ll change what need to be changed to make it work better in a new version.
The last versions, after testing at the bench on the day to day appearing scenarios, seem to just work great and as soon as I have the time to do it I will share it onto the TOOLS & JIGS section of the forum.
And here you have the proof it can handle even the instruments you DO NOT WANT to hold on your bench (watch on the 3er picture: the ¨Proper¨ tool for the proper job?😋
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By now I have only one picture using both the holder (one of the previous versions) attached to the neck jig
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Hi Alex.
I’ve been asked to put some nitro or poly finish on an oiled (lindseed) maple fingerboard. Maybe Doug could tell us if shellac would be a good choice for a base coat without needing to remove the oils. At least that’s what I think I could do: cleaning first with some degreasing solvent and then building a base layer with shellac before applying nitro.
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I’m by no means an expert on engraving but I’ve done (as “not-so-bad”as I could) it a few times on pearl (not on guitars but for martial arts wooden swords) and I’ve found it easy to loose thinnest lines and details when leveling and preparing for polishing, so I do it on the final stages of work.
On the other hand, I know nothing about CNC and I guess the rules and results could not be the same.
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I’ve never done, and I’ve regretted it some many times…
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Thanks for the info Jacob.
I’ve used oils on some maple fingerboards yet and I like it, but it’s not for everyone’s taste, now I’d like to try with shellac for glossy finish for those who think that’s the way their instruments should look like.
Now I’m watching again the Doug Proper’s videos on shellacs recipes and applications and think I’ll make some test with added sandarac and mastik.
Have a nice day
Manuel
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Some partners here recommended me the “k&k pure classic” as flamenco players who need amplification tend to use…
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I’ve asked my small group of Spanish guitarmakers. Should them tell me about someone or somewhere I’ll let you know.
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You have Renier Blanco on the loothmap (I don’t now him yet) and maybe he could tell you about some one over there…
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Hello Jean-Marie,
I’ve done some “stringing and basic cares, action and intonation for players” and people loved them. And you need not much tools for it (I did ask the people to bring their own electronic tuners, Allen keys and screwdrivers if possible).
Good luck on your new phase💪🤗
Manuel
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It would be nice to have someone one who is more used to engravings to help us here (that’s something I don’t do often enough to really get any expertise on) but on bent surfaces as a fingerboard I would do all the engraving after inlaying and leveling so I wouldn’t need to do things twice (as it happened indeed on my early works) but that could be just a matter of lack of experience and the proper engravers have their ways of doing it before without suffering any losses.
You can find nice videos of artisans cutting and engraving shells for fingerboards, but they are just flat pieces, and for sure some of the lines will disappear when inlaying on any radiused one. And of course the recess should be at least equal to the inlay piece thickness so you needn’t to sand away any shell, but what will happen as you get closer to the sides?
On the other hand, I’ve heard of people diving thin shells down to the bottom of the cavity well below the surface and then filling up with transparent resin (so they can use really thin sheets) Guess it works well but don’t know how it looks after all.
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A quick list from my friend luthier Frasco (from Sevilla, a great crazy funny luthier and connoisseur mostly working on repairs but with a great foundation on traditional guitar making and organology).
I don’t know them yet, but I hope we’ll be knowing each other soon as we’re starting some guitar maker meetings in Spain, something we really need and will do following your great examples.
Hope your friend could find something interesting and enjoy Barcelona.
Yours
Manuel
https://www.madineurope.eu/en/professional/jaume-bosser-artal/
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Nuts heights would be a hard path. I didn’t do it on the workshops. Is one of the things people who doesn’t know enough tend to do an ruin often.
