Classical Build - Toscano Guitars Intensive

[bernm]

Hi all,

I thought I'd post my progress with a classical build that I'm doing with Toscano Guitars. I'm doing this over a 3-week intensive. Right now I'm near the end of Week 2, but I'll go back to the start and get caught up over coming days.

First of all, I'll say that getting everything set up with Steve was excellent - friendly, professional, good clear communication both on email and by phone. And now that I'm in the course, I can add that he's an excellent teacher too.

Most of the intensive is just me and Steve, or maybe with another student too on some days. There's one group class per week on Monday evenings - a great bunch of guys who are all loving their builds and hanging out.

As someone who has been way-too-slowly dabbling with instrument building for a number of years, I'm also finding that this intensive build is not only leading me to a quality instrument, but the other benefits are things like understanding how it all works, better tool usage and confidence.


Day 1

Tasmanian Blackwood sides

240722 sides.jpeg (351.27 KiB) Viewed 23110 times

bridge patch

240722 bridge patch.jpeg (334.7 KiB) Viewed 23110 times

getting some braces ready

240722 braces.jpeg (291.04 KiB) Viewed 23110 times

Day 2

cleaning up the jointed top

240723 jointed top.jpeg (270.68 KiB) Viewed 23110 times

top and back about to be thickness sanded

240723 top and back.jpeg (326.1 KiB) Viewed 23110 times

prepping for the rosette channel

240723 rosette prep.jpeg (286.53 KiB) Viewed 23110 times

cutting the rosette

240723 rosette cutting.jpeg (305.64 KiB) Viewed 23110 times

scarf joint

240723 scarf joint.jpeg (353.81 KiB) Viewed 23110 times

heel block (maybe a little too much glue!)

240723 heel block.jpeg (341 KiB) Viewed 23110 times

back

240723 back.jpeg (414.77 KiB) Viewed 23110 times

rosette in

240723 rosette in.jpeg (482.73 KiB) Viewed 23110 times

thicknessing the top

240723 thickness top.jpeg (331.21 KiB) Viewed 23110 times

That's all for now - I'll try to get caught up with pics over the weekend and add some other comments and thoughts.

[Dave M]

Good stuff. It is always nice to follow a build. It is rare that there isn't a little something that can't be learnt - particularly with someone as professional as Steve Toscano guiding.

Good pictures too. Enjoy.

[kiwigeo]

Thanks for posting up those pics. Looks like your build is coming along nicely. Should be a pretty smooth build with Steve looking over your shoulder.

PS...great way of shaping that bridge patch.....Im stealing that one!

[bernm]

And here's some of the third day ...

More top thicknessing:

240724 more top thicknessing.jpeg (218.55 KiB) Viewed 22925 times

Routing the truss rod channel:

240724 truss routing.jpeg (298.69 KiB) Viewed 22925 times

Prepping the headstock veneer (definitely wanting to keep using the beautiful timber):

240724 headstock veneer.jpeg (336.88 KiB) Viewed 22925 times

Marking out the top bracing:

240724 marking bracing.jpeg (269.33 KiB) Viewed 22925 times

Rough shaping some of the braces to size. This is one good example of the kind of upskilling that comes from an intensive course like this. Before now, I had a limited way of thinking about this step. Now I'm thinking about when to use different planes (block vs bigger, for example), moving between two shooting boards with different heights, and when to use a plane clamped upside down in a vice).

240724 brace shaping.jpeg (369.14 KiB) Viewed 22925 times

More brace shaping:

240724 more shaping.jpeg (274.54 KiB) Viewed 22925 times

And the final pic for Day 3 ... All go-barred. This is where I wrapped up the day, with the top glued up in the go-bar deck:

240724 all go-barred.jpeg (430.08 KiB) Viewed 22925 times

All coming along nicely!

[bernm]

I arrived on the morning on Day 4 to find nicely glued up top braces:

240725 top braces on.jpeg (53.16 KiB) Viewed 22924 times

I enjoyed using these two little planes for brace shaping:

240725 tiny planes.jpeg (346.27 KiB) Viewed 22924 times

(I like this pic ... looks like a little snail slowly travelling along the top):

240725 snail.jpeg (244.91 KiB) Viewed 22924 times

And more brace shaping progress:

240725 further shaped braces.jpeg (389.01 KiB) Viewed 22924 times

On to side bending. We started with the iron to get the rough shape, and then moved to the blanket to get the sides finalised:

240725 bending iron.jpeg (326.37 KiB) Viewed 22924 times

240725 bent side.jpeg (435.93 KiB) Viewed 22924 times

240725 blanket.jpeg (387.11 KiB) Viewed 22924 times

Beginning of shaping the neck tenon:

240725 neck tenon.jpeg (297.56 KiB) Viewed 22924 times

Getting a start on the neck fit with hardware, etc.:

240725 fitting neck.jpeg (283.73 KiB) Viewed 22924 times

[bernm]

And here's the last day of the first week ...

Starting with nicely bent sides:

240726 bent sides.jpeg (339.68 KiB) Viewed 22898 times

Glueing in the kerfing:

240726 kerfing.jpeg (353.17 KiB) Viewed 22898 times

Neck block mortise:

240726 mortise.jpeg (269.95 KiB) Viewed 22898 times

Start of heel shaping:

240726 heel shape start.jpeg (303.12 KiB) Viewed 22898 times

Planing the kerning flush:

240726 trim kerf.jpeg (379.35 KiB) Viewed 22898 times

Gluing the sides to the top:

240726 gluing sides.jpeg (375.31 KiB) Viewed 22898 times

Gluing in the marriage strip at the go-bar deck:

240726 marriage strip go-bar.jpeg (442.87 KiB) Viewed 22898 times

And the last bit for the day, gluing the headstock veneer:

240726 glue headstock veneer.jpeg (379.13 KiB) Viewed 22898 times

And that's it for Week 1!

[Mark McLean]

I'm impressed. It is looking good, and that much progress usually takes me about 6 months.

[bernm]

I'm impressed. It is looking good, and that much progress usually takes me about 6 months.

Thanks Mark. Usually my progress can be measured in years, not months ... but that's the beauty of an intensive with time set apart, and with a teacher who knows the processes really really well!

[Steve.Toscano]

Thanks for this Bern!! Been great having you around.
10 days down, 5 to go.

Seeyou in the shop in a few hours.

[bernm]

So here's what it looked like as I started Day 6 / Week 2:

240729 body.jpeg (354.77 KiB) Viewed 22602 times

240729 back.jpeg (408.16 KiB) Viewed 22602 times

240729 top.jpeg (243.83 KiB) Viewed 22602 times

Shaping the back braces with a jig for proper radius:

240729 back braces.jpeg (372.81 KiB) Viewed 22602 times

Back braces nicely shaped:

240729 back braces shaped.jpeg (328.25 KiB) Viewed 22602 times

Laser engraving marriage strip:

240729 laser.jpeg (419.47 KiB) Viewed 22602 times

I settled on my initials and the year, but went with a handwritten font pencilled by my daughter:

240729 BM2024.jpeg (71.11 KiB) Viewed 22602 times

Gluing on back braces:

240729 gluing back braces.jpeg (452.62 KiB) Viewed 22602 times

And here they are. I was pretty happy with my shaping of these braces. I felt that I was able to apply some of the trial and error in shaping the top braces, to get these ones a bit more snugly fitting:

240729 back braces on.jpeg (420.02 KiB) Viewed 22602 times

Day 6 done!

[bernm]

Here's Day 7:

Let's start with a pic of the Schaeller tuners I'll be using:

240730 tuners.jpeg (417.26 KiB) Viewed 22596 times

I have to use these magnifiers these days a little more than I wish I needed!

240730 magnifiers.jpeg (367.6 KiB) Viewed 22596 times

Back kerning glued on, and sitting upside down to help with glue runs:

240730 back kerfing.jpeg (439.02 KiB) Viewed 22596 times

Cutting out a blank for the tail wedge:

240730 wedge blank.jpeg (484.83 KiB) Viewed 22596 times

Notching out for the side braces:

240730 side brace notching.jpeg (388.6 KiB) Viewed 22596 times

Glued and clamped side braces:

240730 clamped side braces.jpeg (404.63 KiB) Viewed 22596 times

Cutting the fret slots:

240730 fret slots.jpeg (345.87 KiB) Viewed 22596 times

Slotted finger board:

240730 slotted FB.jpeg (434.5 KiB) Viewed 22596 times

And here's the body so far, now with all braces glued in:

240730 body so far.jpeg (449.19 KiB) Viewed 22596 times

Shaping the back with the radius dish and some weight - "driving the bus":

240730 bus.jpeg (371.52 KiB) Viewed 22596 times

The back temporary clamped on for checking and fitting and marking for notching:

240730 back temp clamped.jpeg (476.99 KiB) Viewed 22596 times

Notch for back brace:

240730 back brace notch.jpeg (275.54 KiB) Viewed 22596 times

A last look at the insides before they are clamped up!

240730 back last look.jpeg (429.42 KiB) Viewed 22596 times

240730 body last look.jpeg (354.39 KiB) Viewed 22596 times

And finally for the day, here are a few pics of the back being clamped on - closing up the box, a big milestone:

240730 back clamped A.jpeg (449.92 KiB) Viewed 22596 times

240730 back clamped B.jpeg (319.07 KiB) Viewed 22596 times

240730 back clamped C.jpeg (453.9 KiB) Viewed 22596 times

[bernm]

Ok, we're now just past the half-way mark. Here's how the guitar looked as Day 8 kicked off:

240731 start Day 8.jpeg (451.55 KiB) Viewed 22538 times

Getting the purling ready:

240731 purfling.jpeg (455.74 KiB) Viewed 22538 times

Flush cut top and back to sides:

240731 flush cut.jpeg (375.94 KiB) Viewed 22538 times

Recess for the wedge cut out:

240731 wedge recess.jpeg (384.66 KiB) Viewed 22538 times

Here's the wedge glued in:

240731 wedge glued.jpeg (346.59 KiB) Viewed 22538 times

Veneers and binding ready to go in:

240731 veneers binding.jpeg (412.48 KiB) Viewed 22538 times

And glued and taped. Looks a bit mummified:

240731 mummified.jpeg (494.76 KiB) Viewed 22538 times

Day 8 done!

[bernm]

Here's the body with the binding glued in and now needing flush trimming. But an important question from this pic - which of these 3 tools is most important?

240801 start Day 9.jpeg (414.88 KiB) Viewed 22538 times

Add a little dash of CA glue:

240801 CA.jpeg (487.78 KiB) Viewed 22538 times

More mummification:

240801 more mummification.jpeg (323.12 KiB) Viewed 22538 times

A close up of this bit of the process:

240801 close up.jpeg (266.12 KiB) Viewed 22538 times

Trimming the purling close with a block plane:

240801 purfling trim.jpeg (348.57 KiB) Viewed 22538 times

(I didn't take pics of this stage, but here I spent hours scraping the sides!)

And another dash of CA in just a few places:

240801 CA again.jpeg (351.13 KiB) Viewed 22538 times

And finally, a look at where things are up to at the end of Day 9:

240801 end Day 9.jpeg (251.24 KiB) Viewed 22538 times

[bernm]

Time flies - here's the last day of the second week ...

Getting some shellac mixed:

240802 shellac.jpeg (376.64 KiB) Viewed 22538 times

Trimming the headstock veneer to the nut line:

240802 veneer to nut.jpeg (342.37 KiB) Viewed 22538 times

Roughing in the heel:

240802 heel roughing.jpeg (424.15 KiB) Viewed 22538 times

And here's the heel, further along:

240802 heel further along.jpeg (337.55 KiB) Viewed 22538 times

And finally, there's a gap of hours in this this day without pics because much time was spent adjusting the neck fit to the body

240802 fitting neck.jpeg (464.6 KiB) Viewed 22538 times

Two weeks done!

[bernm]

Ok, on to the home stretch! Here we are at Week 3 / Day 11 ...

Starting off the day by finishing the neck fit:

240805 more neck fit.jpeg (284.49 KiB) Viewed 22536 times

Putting in some little pins for locating the fingerboard:

240805 FB pin.jpeg (246.93 KiB) Viewed 22536 times

Rough drawing of the fingerboard end shape:

240805 FB end.jpeg (406.3 KiB) Viewed 22536 times

After a visit to the bandsaw and spindle sander, here it is shaped:

240805 FB shaped.jpeg (343 KiB) Viewed 22536 times

Marking out the end of the truss rod channel on the top, which was also routed:

240805 marking truss.jpeg (321.24 KiB) Viewed 22536 times

Fingerboard glued on:

240805 FB glue.jpeg (417.79 KiB) Viewed 22536 times

And after a dinner break, I spent much of the evening session sanding!

240805 sanding.jpeg (360.8 KiB) Viewed 22536 times

Using Shellite every so often to clean up all the timber dust as I sand:

240805 Shellite.jpeg (316.17 KiB) Viewed 22536 times

And here's how I left the guitar last night. After sanding, I applied 10 rough coats of shellac as a sealer (prep for the next days grain filling):

240805 sealer coats.jpeg (391.65 KiB) Viewed 22536 times

[bernm]

Ok, I'm finally caught up. Here's the action from today (Day 12):

Starting the day by sanding back the sealer coat:

240806 more sanding.jpeg (486.7 KiB) Viewed 22532 times

And then a bunch of coats of grain filler, which needed level sanding in between. I won't bore you more more sanding pics of this step:

240806 grain filling.jpeg (373.32 KiB) Viewed 22532 times

Here's the headstock shaped using template and router:

240806 headstock shaped.jpeg (317.06 KiB) Viewed 22532 times

The body post grain-filling:

240806 post grain fill.jpeg (484.86 KiB) Viewed 22532 times

Headstock jig used for slots and tuner holes:

240806 headstock jig.jpeg (430.09 KiB) Viewed 22532 times

Hogging out some timber with a largish drill bit before receiving the router treatment:

240806 timber hogging.jpeg (507.05 KiB) Viewed 22532 times

There's still some finessing to do, but here's the headstock mostly shaped:

240806 headstock.jpeg (348.32 KiB) Viewed 22532 times

Next was rough cutting the neck close to the fingerboard using the bandsaw:

240806 neck rough shaped.jpeg (365.63 KiB) Viewed 22532 times

From there it was refining the fingerboard / neck area with a spokeshave:

240806 spokeshave.jpeg (357.34 KiB) Viewed 22532 times

Getting some neck depth marked using the spindle sander, on both ends of neck, but not quite to final depth:

240806 neck depth.jpeg (329.58 KiB) Viewed 22532 times

And then more rough shaping using facets and the spokeshave:

240806 facets.jpeg (307.41 KiB) Viewed 22532 times

And my final bit of neck work for the day, using a farrier's rasp:

240806 farrier.jpeg (477.03 KiB) Viewed 22532 times

I finished the day with a last bit of sanding and finally ... the first bit of french polishing the body. I didn't take pics, and I only have one video, so here's a bit of a screen grab:

[Dave M]

This really was full on! It is going to be a great looking guitar - and hopefully great sounding.

[bernm]

So what did I get up to today?

Here's how it looked when I started the day:

240807 Start Day 13.jpeg (550.79 KiB) Viewed 22397 times

Getting ready for a little french polishing:

240807 wadding.jpeg (367.73 KiB) Viewed 22397 times

After a little french polish:

240807 FP.jpeg (545.15 KiB) Viewed 22397 times

A bit more neck shaping. Getting more of the curve in now with more facets:

240807 neck shaping.jpeg (310.23 KiB) Viewed 22397 times

The heel is coming along:

240807 heel coming along.jpeg (422.63 KiB) Viewed 22397 times

Working on the headstock to neck transition:

240807 headstock neck trans.jpeg (299.86 KiB) Viewed 22397 times

Here's the neck at this point:

240807 neck.jpeg (252.7 KiB) Viewed 22397 times

I still need to clean it up a little, but the transition is coming along:

240807 rear headstock.jpeg (396.3 KiB) Viewed 22397 times

Preparing the bridge blank - shooting board and plane first step:

240807 bridge prep.jpeg (270 KiB) Viewed 22397 times

Bridge blank in jig for drilling holes:

240807 drilling bridge.jpeg (293.01 KiB) Viewed 22397 times

And, we wrapped up the day by attaching the neck!:

240807 neck attached.jpeg (350.87 KiB) Viewed 22397 times

That's it for the day, another big one. Two days to go ...

[kiwigeo]

Looking good.

The finishing schedule interests me. 10 spit coats before going in the aquacoat? Might try this myself. Ive been using Aquacoat on my last few builds but results haven't been that outstanding

[bernm]

Looking good.

The finishing schedule interests me. 10 spit coats before going in the aquacoat? Might try this myself. Ive been using Aquacoat on my last few builds but results haven't been that outstanding

Those sealer coats were for preventing any discolourisation from the Aquacoat on the blackwood. After leveling that back a little and then filling with Aquacoat, it’s on to what I assume would be a usual french polishing schedule.

[kiwigeo]

Those sealer coats were for preventing any discolourisation from the Aquacoat on the blackwood. After leveling that back a little and then filling with Aquacoat, it’s on to what I assume would be a usual french polishing schedule.

I'm used to 2-3 spit coats prior to pore filling...that's with Indian Rosewood.

[bernm]

Ok, today was the second last day. I didn't take as many pics today because I really had my head down trying to finish some bits off.

Here's the guitar at the start of the day with a neck attached:

240808 start Day 14.jpeg (339.23 KiB) Viewed 22210 times

Getting ready to level the fretboard:

240808 prep levelling.jpeg (56.52 KiB) Viewed 22210 times

And the levelling in action:

240808 FB levelling.jpeg (53.28 KiB) Viewed 22210 times

Slight filing of the fret slots:

240808 slot file.jpeg (308.71 KiB) Viewed 22210 times

Getting ready to cut fret wire:

240808 prep fret wire.jpeg (379.48 KiB) Viewed 22210 times

Frets going in:

240808 frets going in.jpeg (363.47 KiB) Viewed 22210 times

A fretted guitar:

240808 fretted guitar.jpeg (87.45 KiB) Viewed 22210 times

And then on to fretwork for a while. I didn't take any pics of the fret ends bevelling:

240808 fretwork.jpeg (363.29 KiB) Viewed 22210 times

I spent way too much time today working this step (due to some mistakes on my end), but here's a heel cap in progress:

240808 heel cap progress.jpeg (341.32 KiB) Viewed 22210 times

Further sanding and refining of the neck:

240808 sanding neck.jpeg (355.14 KiB) Viewed 22210 times

And we wrapped up the day with the bridge and heel cap glued on:

240808 end Day 14.jpeg (395.55 KiB) Viewed 22210 times

I missed taking pics of installing the frets and the bridge being made! One more day to go. The plan is to get it all finished and set up, with just a little shellac on. I'll be finishing the french polishing at home over coming months (which was always the plan).

[kiwigeo]

LOL...heel caps are a pain in the arse. I hate 'em

[bernm]

LOL...heel caps are a pain in the arse. I hate 'em

I actually had to shape the heel cap a little differently to disguise a 'mistake', which made it just that bit more difficult. ... And then ... after all that hard work of shaping the cap, I accidentally then thicknessed it too much - still no idea how that happened, with me double-checking the numbers and everything - so that meant a further 'tweak' to the heel cap! ... I'm loving the build, and I'm learning from all of this for future builds (so in a sense there can be a wisdom in making mistakes!), but I'll be glad to see the end of working on the heel cap tomorrow when I shape it flush with the heel ...

Bern

[Dave M]

You mention over thinning the heel cap - I make mine so they sit just below the surface of the back so they don't have to be an exact thickness.